286 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICOLTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ October 16, 1873. 



creamy white, and bearing bright red berries. This is simply 

 superb for a small bed by itself, and very desirable for margins 

 to those of larger growth. It moves well, having good balls, 

 and requires peat soil. 



Erica hcrhacca carnea. — Grows but a few inches high, is a 

 mass of bright, deep flesh-coloured bloom in December on- 

 wards, and is fine for margins or small beds. It requires sandy 

 peaty soil. 



Andromeda jioribunda. — Deep green leaves, with white bell- 

 shaped flowers, and sweet. The plant naturally forms globular 

 heads, and is one of the finest of low-growing shrubs. It hfts 

 well, having an excellent ball for the purpose. Requires sandy 

 peat soil. 



Vinca degantissima. — Creamy or yellowish variegated-leaved 

 Periwinkle, and very fine, either as a margin to beds of other 

 kinds of shrubs, or in a bed margined with blue Hepatica or 

 Scilla sibirica. 



Hypericum calycinum. — This has pale green, or rather 

 yellowish green, foliage, but in some cases is subject to lose 

 its leaves in winter, otherwise it is very desirable ; and yet I 

 can hardly recommend it, owing to its Uability to loss of 

 leaves. I have, however, seen it very fine in fohage during 

 winter, and when this is the case it may advantageously be 

 employed. It moves well. 



Now, those are all I can from experience advise of shrubs 

 for town gardens. Rhododendron daphnoides, myrtifolium, 

 ovatum, and WUsoni have neat foliage, are of low growth, and 

 may with safety be employed, they moving with excellent 

 balls, and give quite a cheering appearance during the winter 

 months, besides flowers in early summer. — G. Abbey. 



THE MANETTI STOCK. 



Let me warn any of my fellow rosarians not to be over-kind 

 to Roses worked on the Manetti stock. I have lost since last 

 autumn nearly two hundred plants of the best varieties, and I 

 firmly believe that it is from having made my soil too rich. 

 Mr. Keynes in his catalogue says, " It is difficult to give the 

 Rose too rich a soil." I think he should add in another 

 edition, " if worked on the Briar." The trees that have died 

 here were nearly all supplied from his nursery, together with 

 a large number of standards. The Manettis were small weak 

 plants, but the standards were very fine. I had six Eriars 

 and six Manettis of each variety ; they were planted in exactly 

 the same soU — an exceedingly rich compost of the top spit of 

 old pastures, ditch-soouriugs, and horse manure. The standards 

 for the most part did well, but, with the exception of Clotilda 

 Eolland, there is scarcely a healthy dwarf left. 1 took up a 

 lot of them and sent them to Salisbury, and asked if they 

 could account for it. A great deal of the soil was attached to 

 the roots, and so they could see how they had been treated. 

 The foreman in the absence of Mr. Keynes wrote back, "Your 

 soil is too good; take up all your dwarfs and plant standards 

 there instead." This I am going to do, and I advise all Rose- 

 growers who find their Manettis gradually dying down to lift 

 them and put them in Ughter and poorer soil. 



This, however, only shows what a wonderful stock the 

 Manetti is for Roses. It does not require one-quarter the 

 dressing that the Briar does. It is far more elegant in ap- 

 pearance, and it Uves four times as long. Mr. Radclyffe told 

 me that I might grow Manetti Roses in brick dust, and I be- 

 lieve him. My natural soil here is worse than brick dust, and 

 I am going to try a few hundreds of Manettis in it after first 

 deeply trenching and di'essing it. There is another great re- 

 commendation also in the Manetti, and that is the great ease 

 with which you can increase the stocks. When you have only 

 to plant cuttings, and when struck bud them, or, if you do not 

 want to be bothered to do this, or have not the space to spai-e, 

 can give an order to any good nurseryman for as many as you 

 require, you have not the sUghtest difficulty in working as 

 many as you please. But with the Briar it is altogether 

 vice-versa, as a man said of his second wife, when he put an 

 epitaph on his first wife's tomb, " She died in love, and peace, 

 and goodwill towards all mankind." 



The Briar is a most difiicult subject to handle. In the first 

 place the farmers do not like then- hedges pulled about. Many 

 of the largest cultivators of the land forbid any Briar-man to 

 come on their farms. The work, too, of extracting them is 

 the very roughest that can be imagined. " Please, sir," said 

 my Briar-man to me, " will you give an old coat and a pair of 

 overalls to get them Briars in, for mine last year were all torn 

 to rags?" "Why, man, my things would not last you a 



week. Go and buy some fustians, and I wiU give you my 

 clothes when you have done." Then, again, there is the great 

 demand for Briars, which causes them to be very scarce, and it 

 is hardly any use going over the same farms two years in 

 succession. Then, too, in this part, and I dare say in many 

 others, the farmers who allow you to go over their farms 

 expect a quid 2>ro quo, so altogether it is expensive work. And 

 yet except for Teas the Manetti will produce as fine, and in 

 many soils much finer Roses than the Briar. If anyone doubts 

 this who is used to growing the Briar only in a grand, strong, 

 stiff loam, I would refer him to Mr. Cranston, of Hereford. Let 

 him visit his nurseries, or look at his stands at one of our 

 great Rose shows, and he will see what the Manetti can do. 

 We in the west could do nothing without the Manetti, and 

 every day we Uve we bless the man who introduced it — the man 

 who has done more than anyone in England to improve the 

 Rose, and promote its culture — the man whom Mr. Reynolds 

 Hole so fitly terms, " Field Marshal Thomas Rivers." — John 

 B. M. Camh, Monkton Wyld. 



A FEW SORTS OP TOMATOES.— No. 1. 



Knowing that of late years this valuable fruit or vegetable 

 has rapidly increased in favour and popularity, I thought it 

 would be well to grow a few of the many sorts that have from 

 time to time been introduced as candidates for a share of 

 public patronage, and try to prove their worth when compared 

 to that old and well-tried variety the Common Red, or Large 

 Red as it is sometimes called ; and at the same time I was 

 fully prepared, both from the descriptions given of these new 

 varieties, and from the behef that those who introduce them 

 were fully aware of the high merits of the Common Red 

 Tomato, and the estimation in which it is held by cultivators 

 in this country, to find that there was considerable advance 

 made in these new introductions. The result, however, has not 

 in several cases come up to my expectations, as the descriptions 

 below will testify. Before proceeding to describe each indi- 

 vidual variety, I will just state the conditions under which 

 they were grown. My intention was to treat them as nearly as 

 possible all alike ; I therefore gave them all a southern aspect 

 against a wall 10 feet high. I prepared stations for the plants 

 by digging out places 2 feet wide and 18 inches deep. I took 

 oft the first spit of earth and formed a ridge with it round the 

 hole ; these holes were then filled up with well-rotted manure 

 of whatever sort came to hand, and dug-in with the earth at 

 the bottom, and mixed well with it. This was done in March, 

 and before the plants were put in, the soil had time to become 

 sweet and pulverised. Seeds of the different sorts were sown in 

 a gentle heat the second week in March, and the second week 

 in May the plants were put out in their respective places. At 

 this time the different holes required a little filling-up ; there- 

 fore a portion of the soil previously laid outside was mised-up 

 with half-rotten manure and put on. This operation was 

 repeated, as long as the soil lasted, several different times 

 during the growth of the plants ; and plentiful supplies of 

 water, and sometimes liquid manure added to it, were given to 

 them twice a-week. The plants were all allowed to grow to 

 the height of i feet, were confined to one stem to that height, 

 at which they were stopped, and pinched-in to that height 

 during the summer ; consequently there were from tour to ten 

 bunches or clusters of fruit on each plant, according to its 

 habit of producing them. As the fruit grew each cluster re- 

 ceived a thinning, till all the plants had one and a final 

 thinning. As the shoots came forth they were pinohed-off, 

 leaving a few leaves at the base of each shoot. The fruit 

 swelled amazingly according to its respective size and habit, 

 and on the 10th of September the first dish of fruit was picked. 

 The following is my description and opinion of the different 

 sorts. 



Orangefield. — Moderate in growth, very prolific. Fruit 

 large and fleshy. Skin thin and deeply ribbed. Ripens to a 

 good colour, and on the wall it is ready to pick nearly a week 

 before any other sort. When grown in the open ground trained 

 to stakes, for which this sort is particularly suitable, its fruit 

 is fit to gather at the same time as the Common Red Tomato. 

 On the whole, I consider this sort weU worth growing, and I 

 believe it is excellent for pot culture and forcing. 



Snis's Mammoth. — Growth vigorous. Foliage distinct from 

 any of the red class of Tomatoes, being broader aud coarser, 

 much hghter in colour, and having rather a drooping habit. 

 It is a moderate bearer, with fruit of middle size, slightly 

 ribbed but fleshy, with a thin skin, and more pulpy in pro- 



