October 2, 1873. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



251 



Cleopatra. I assure yon I have not ; but in a small place like 

 ours there is a strong community of interest running through 

 all our belongings, so that if one member suffer all the members 

 suffer with it, and if one rejoice aU the other members rejoice 

 with it.— N. H. P. 



GAEDEN L.U3ELS. 



Many contrivances have been used for labeUing trees and 

 plants in gardens and pleasure grounds, varying it their design 

 and usefulness. One of the first objects to be attained in a 

 label is durability, and the other is distinctness. Both of 

 these requirements are to be found in those of which we have 

 received specimens from Messrs. Bell it Thorpe, of Stratford- 

 on-Avon. They are of various sizes, and either round or oval 

 in form, some being adapted for hanging on a tree, and others 

 for sticking in the ground ; but all are made of metal which is 

 galvanised, and of a substance securing great durability, while 

 the names of the plants are cast so sharply in relief that one 

 cannot imagine that they will ever be effaced. We consider 

 these very valuable as labels, and the cost is marvellously 

 cheap. 



NOTES ON LILIES.— No. 3. 



LILIUU TIGRINUXI SPLENDEXS. 



This Lily, ■which well deserves its name, -was first shown 

 before the Floral Committee at South Kensington in July, 1872, 



the growth much greater. We have grown the two varieties 

 and the old tigrinum sinensis in pots side by side, under ex- 

 actly similar treatment. The order of blooming is, first L. ti- 

 grinum sinensis ; about ffi fortnight later L. tigrinum Fortunei ; 

 then, about a fortnight later, L. tigrinum splendens. The 

 plant of tigrinum splendens photographed threw three stems 

 from the one bulb. The height with the pot was 8 feet 10 inches. 

 One stem had twenty-six blooms and was 22 inches across. 

 The other two had respectively twenty-two and eighteen blooms, 

 making in all sixty-six blooms. At the back of a north con- 

 servatory it was indeed " splendens." — George F. Wilson. 



[All our engravings of the Lilies are copied from photographs 

 taken by Mr. Ward, photographer, Wey bridge.] 



CAPE GERANIUMS. 



I AM always pleased to give any information in my power to 

 others, and so have the less hesitation in asking for it. 



If any of the readers of " our Journal" are acriuainted with 

 the culture of Cape Geraniums I should be very glad of direc- 

 tions how best to grow these curious plants. I have a fine lot of 

 plants of Geranium echinatum which appear in perfect health, 

 but just as I expected them to come into flower they lost every 

 leaf, and look now like a lot of Cacti. I wrote to a good gar- 

 dener, who also grows a lot of these pretty plants, and he says 

 he is just in the same predicament, and his are as bare of 

 leaves as mine. What makes me the more vexed, I had last 

 year a beautiful hybrid of this class, and it has also lost its 

 leaves without producing a bloom this season. 



Many of the Cape Geraniums are so curious, and some so 

 beautiful, that I am anxious to grow and also to breed from 

 them, and any information would be very acceptable. 



Is there anyone who makes their culture a speciality, or any 

 place where a good collection can be seen ? — J. K. Peaeson, 

 Chilwell. 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 

 In various places contiguous to Graveseud, I am sorry to 

 report that the crop has suffered within the last few weeks, 

 though the farmers and market-gardeners are now digging-up 

 some sound and healthy tubers, and even in the infected fields 

 a good moiety has escaped harm. The change came over 

 the crop with that suddenness which has often been remarked. 

 During August the Potatoes could hardly have looked more 

 promising, and I was congratulating a grower on the prospect 

 of a heavy yield, and he remarked that he had seldom seen 

 the crop so free from insect blight. There is a general belief, 

 I find, that the disease, be it what it may, is in some way 

 brought to the plant through atmospheric conditions, and is 

 not to bo attributable to anything in the state of the soil and 

 the mode of cultivation. Men will, with certainly a show of 

 reason, point to the haulm, and show you parts of it affected 

 and others untouched on the same plant ; even of opposite 

 leaves, one will be healthy and the other blighted, and they 

 ask, " If the disease came up and the plant was radically 

 sickly, would it not entirely wither ? " And you may pidl-up 

 plants terribly diseased above ground, and not find an uusouad 

 tuber below, though such cases are exceptional. From a 

 limited observation in this district, I fancy the accession of 

 disease here occurred during some hours of cold rain and 

 easterly wind ; yet as I cannot demonstrate this, my theory 

 must only be taken for what it is worth. Nor can I say that 

 the condition of the land as to drainago made any difference, 

 though in one extensive field sloping down from a chalk ridge 

 to some marsh land, I noticed a belt of Potatoes in the lower 

 portion of the field was affected, while on the higher ground 

 only here and there a straggler looked sickly. 



The practice recently so strongly urged on growers of at 

 once cutting off' the haulm close to the ground is not carried 

 out here, and on inquiry I was told that they had tried it in 

 some rows, but that it " was no good." Happening just at a 

 busy time, some gardeners may not be able to spare the labour 

 requisite for the work being done effectively at once. As to 

 its non-utility, I beg to differ from these individuals, as the 

 disease is thus somewhat checked in the instance of the par- 

 ticular plants affected, and wo may expect to dig-up a smaller 

 when we received n first-class certificate. Lilium tigrinum proportion of diseased tubers ; also it is probable that some 

 Fortanei had been several times exhibited in the belief that subtle influence is borne from field to field. I noticed like- 

 it was tigrinum splendens. The difference between the two [ wise, that in a field partly cropped with Potatoes and partly 

 varieties is most marked. In splendens the flowers are much with Kidney Beans, the latter had evidently suffered materi- 

 larger, the spots much larger and closer, the colour richer, and ally from their proximity to the former, as shown by their 



