232 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Marcn 14, 187: 



and tliey will soou stiike, and you will have a succession of 

 j-ouug plants. 



CnolON AXGUSTIFOLIUM, OB THE FOUNTAIN PlANT, aS it is 



called ill India — is one of our most graceful plants for table 

 decoration. It should be grown in rich loam, peat, and sand, 

 and requires plenty of water, but must have good drainage. 

 Crotons, like Ananassas, must be kept close to the glass and in 

 the full light of the sun ; they also like a good moist heat, and 

 can be very easily propagated by cuttings struck in a little 

 silver sand. 



Erexia spinosa. — Young plants of this look very handsome 

 on the dinner table or in the drawing-room. They should be 

 grown in loam, peat, and sand, and should have plenty of 

 water all the year round. The cuttings strike quickly if kept 

 close till rooted. — (The Gardener.) 



MOUSE TEAP. 



The cheapest, simplest, and most easily made trap for gar- 

 den mice is set in the following manner. 



Get a stick like a mole-trap stick (stout, and about 4 feet 

 long), and a peg 10 inches long ; bore a hole through a Broad 

 Bean, put a piece of fine twine through the Bean, tie one 

 end to the small end of the mole-trap stick, and the other to 

 the larger end of the jieg, drive the latter overhead in the 

 ground with the Bean lying on the surface. Thrust the mole- 

 trap stick in the ground slanting, so as to bring about 12 or 

 15 inches of string quite tight, take a flat roofing tile and rear 

 it against the string so that it may fall with its centre about 

 over the Bean. 



It is not necessary that the mole-trap stick should spring 

 all you have to do is to have 12 inches of tight string to rear 

 the tile against. I have made use of straight pieces of wood 

 for the purpose. It saves trouble in resetting if you wind half 

 a yard of the string round the mole-trap stick, because the 

 mouse bites off a portion each time. You can at each resetting 

 wind off an inch or two to supply the place of what has 

 been nibbled off. 



To fix the string to the peg which holds it m the ground, 

 make a running noose, pass the string, after the noose is made, 

 twice round the thick end of the peg, about half an inch down, 

 and draw the noose tight ; this will hold without a notch. The 

 mice are caught only in the night. The ground on which the 

 tile is to fall should be flattened down so that the tile may fit 

 flosely down on it when it falls. The traps should be set every 

 8 yards, or less, by tlie rows of Peas as soou as they are sown. 

 I have caught scores of mice in this way. — Bkoad Bean. 



KEEPING GEAPES IN BOTTLES OF WATEE. 



One of the vineries under my charge, and in which the Grapes 

 were ripe at the early part of July last year, is planted entirely 

 ■with Black Hamburgh and Black Alicante. The latter is 

 allowed to hang some two months longer than the former, 

 and I find that in consequence of beuig so treated it improves 

 vei-y much in flavour. I cannot say that I approve of growing 

 these two sorts together, as the Black Alicante requires a higher 

 temperature than I like to submit the Black Hamburgh to ; 

 but I nevertheless continue to practise it, as it enables me to 

 send Grapes to table for a longer time than I otherwise could. 



On the 10th of last October there were some forty bunches 

 of Alicante still hanging, and I wished to get them cleared-off 

 in order to prune and rest the Vines. I obtained a sufficient 

 number of soda-water bottles, filled them up with water, and 

 put some pieces of charcoal into each. These I tied up to the 

 wires of a late vinerj- containing a crop of Lady Downe's 

 Grape, and having cut-off the bunches of Alicante, conveyed 

 them thither, and inserted the stalk of each of the bunches 

 into its respective bottle. Several of these bunches still re- 



main. Their berries are for the most part plump, thimgli 

 some are beginning to shrivel. They are, however, deficient 

 in flavour, being sweet enough but watery. I have not found 

 the berries crack, nor was I before the early part of February 

 obliged to cut-out any on account of their imperfection. The 

 bottles were allowed to swing clear of the wires, and the weight 

 of the bunches drew the bottles to such an angle as to let the 

 bunches hang freely down. 



I am son'y to say I cannot give so favourable a report of 

 the Muscat of Alexandria and White Tokay. These were ripe 

 in August, 1871 ; and the first week in January, 1872,1 treated 

 several bunches of each variety in precisely the same way as I 

 did the bunches of Alicante. But the berries of the Muscat of 

 Alexiiiidi in s.jciii began to turn brown, so that Ihave had to keep 

 contiiiiully c lilting them out, and now the remainder are not 

 fit for t.ilile. \\ lute Tokay keeps better, but a few of the berries 

 turned brown, though not to the same extent as in the case of 

 the Muscats, ^\^lite Tokay retains its flavour very well, and 

 tile bunches are still fit for table. I have kept the Alicante 

 the same way for two seasons, and ^\ith the same results. 

 The three varieties named are all I ever tried to keep in water. 

 — Chaeles Eobekts, The Gardens, Stoiiey Field,- Neucastle, 

 Staffordshire. 



CULTUEE OF THE LUCULIA GEATISSIMA. 



Weke I purposely to look through a large collection of 

 greenhouse plants I do not think I should find a more worthy 

 subject upon which to make a few remarks than the Luculia. 

 Beautiful as are most of our greenhouse plants, both deciduous 

 and evergreen, the Luculia, when found growing and flowering 

 well, is the queen of them all. It bears red or pink Hj'drangea- 

 like flowers, almost perfect in shape, and very fragrant, in 

 trusses of from 6 to 10 inches in diameter, accompanied by a, 

 long hghtish green leaf of graceful and vigorous appearance. 

 It flowers in the autumn and winter months, and is therefore 

 doubly valuable ; indeed I know of no greeuliouse plant which 

 can at that time of year approach it in beauty and duration. 

 It \yiU not, however, admit of everj' sort of treatment, and 

 tliis may in some degree account for its being so seldom met 

 with in a very flourishing condition. The greatest difficulty 

 appears to lie in rearing the plant until it has attained a 

 decent size ; but if once estabUshed it will with ordiuary cai'e- 

 do well. 



Cuttings may be made in the usual way, but the preparation 

 for them must be somewhat different. I have rooted thenj 

 very successfully in a fine mixture of the best silver sand and 

 peat, the surface being covered with a layer of the same sort 

 of sand. Prepare the pot with plenty of good drainage, and 

 allow a good bottom heat in a propagating frame or under 

 a hand-glass. Take care the cuttings do not flag from tlie 

 effect of the sun, or in consequence of becoming too dry, but 

 at the same time do not let them be too wet. Pot them off as 

 soon as rooted, and keep them in the same structure till esta- 

 blished ; then take them to more airy quarters. A good time 

 to propagate is from March to June. Such shoots as are 

 getting moderately firm, and those of medium growth, are 

 better for this purpose than the most robust. 



I find it is not a good plan to coddle the Luculia in a heated 

 structure, but rather after it is well established treat it more 

 as a greenhouse plant. Neither is it wise to confine this ex- 

 ceedinglj- beautiful plant to pot-culture, but instead of so doing 

 plant it out in a greenhouse or conservatory, so that it may 

 have room for developing its growth and flowers. 



When I came to Hatfield in 1870 I found a plant of the 

 Luculia in the conservatory border. It was then and is now 

 doing very well. It is about fl feet high and 6 feet through, 

 and has flowered magnificently for two winters. The soil 

 in which it is growing is a mixture of fibry loam and peat, 

 silver sand, and some charcoal, not more than a foot in depth, 

 but nevertheless with abundant drainage. As soon as this 

 plant has done flowering I keep it rather diy for a month, then, 

 prune the shoots back to moderately firm wood, and allow the 

 plant to put forth its shoots as Nature prompts it. When 

 this happens I begin to water, and as its gi-owth increases in 

 vigour so do I increase the quantity of water. AH through 

 last summer 1 continued to have it watered regularly and 

 plentifully once a-week until towards September, when it sets 

 its bloom, and then I changed to manure water, which acted 

 upon it most beneficially until it ceased to flower. After this 

 water was gradually withheld. 



I shade the plant from the strongest sun, and syringe the 



