October 16, 1873. I 



JOtJENAL OF HOBTICULTTJBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



291 



as the lights face the north, shading the glass is very seMom 

 necessary. If very bright at the time of putting in, a little is 

 Bometimes given for the first week. In winter, after they are 

 frosted, they are covered until it thaws again, whether it is 

 twenty-four hours or twenty-four days. At plantiug-out time 

 they are in fine order, and are planted deeply in deep-dug 

 ground. Deep and careful planting is of the first importance. 

 The soot at the bottom fulfils two objects, both good ones — 

 keeping worms down, and imparting to the plants luxuriant 

 health clothed iu deep dark green foliage. Healthy hardy 

 plants at the outset, which set disease at defiance, are what all 

 should aim at. They take a great deal more killing than weak 

 ones, with hardly enough life in them to fatten the lean green 

 fly which they cannot resist. Undoubtedly, healthy cuttings 

 to begin with, and no pampering or coddling afterwards, are 

 essential conditions to success. If these ai'e secured, and to 

 them are added sound culture afterwards, and still disease 

 ensues, the manager is sincerely to be pitied in his unthankful, 

 hopeless, miserable task. 



There may bo those who have no glass covering at all, and 

 yet desire to have Calceolarias. They need not despair, as 

 hardy short-jointed cuttings dibbled in a north border now, 

 and left to take care of themselves, will give a useful propor- 

 tion of nice plants ready for lifting on or before the 1st of 

 next May. Some of the best plants I have seen these last 

 three years were raised with absohitely no protection whatever. 

 The cuttings were of exposed outside growth, and hardy when 

 put in. In this state they are about as hardy as youug Cab- 

 bage plants, and possible loss in one or the other is provided 

 against by prudent people iu planting more than is really 

 required. — J. Wbioht. 



SEA-KALE SEEDLINGS. 

 I HAVE no hesitation in saying that, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, there is no necessity whatever for growing Sea-kale 

 two years before forcing ; it is labour lost. Plants grown from 

 chopped roots make a lot of spray which has to be regularly 

 thinned-oat, and during the growing season the crowns left 

 have to be watched, and the seed-stems removed when they 

 appear, which further induces the plants to make lateral 

 growths, which have again to be thinned-out in their turn, and 

 in the end, though perhaps two or three good crowns will be 

 secured to each plant, they will be no better than seedlings of 

 one year's growth. I say this after having adhered to the 

 seedling plan, and no other, for nine years. We never have a 

 successional quarter of Sea-kale ; we cannot afford the room, 

 but force a whole quarter of seedling plants every year. With- 

 out extraordinary culture we have had plants from seed more 

 than 5 feet across by October. At this date, September 1.5th, 

 we have them above 4 feet, generally, with robust crowns, and 

 roots like Carrots — seed plants which will throw heads, when 

 they come to be forced, that ought to satisfy anyone. Before 

 long, gardeners will be planning their crops for another year ; 

 I should therefore advise them to go in for the seedling plan 

 without fear — for very many yet stick to the dibbling process 

 — and they wUl save both time and space. Our Sea-kale 

 quarter is not always trenched, but just as often only dug ; 

 generally following Potatoes or Celery. To guard against 

 failure of a crop, which is the only risk by seed, it is worth 

 while to red-lead the seeds, and to sow thickly. The first wUl 

 effectually stop all depredations from vennin, and thick sow- 

 ing will insure a crop. It is soon enough to sow by the end 

 of llarch or beginning of April. On one occasion, and the 

 only one on which we had to sow twice, the seed was put in 

 about the 10th of .Jane; and with a little coaxing we had 

 plants fit for forcing by the end of the season. Some of the 

 best seed we ever used was gathered from wild plants on the 

 coast of Wales. The seeds were small, but the plants turned 

 out as usual.— J. S. (in The Gardener). 



IN MEMOEIAM. 

 I TBrsT that it is no feeling of fraternal partiality that loads 

 me to think that a notice of a dear and valued brother who 

 has just entered into his rest ought to find a place in the 

 colnmns of our .Journal. Of this I am sure, that even if I be 

 unduly partial, there is that kindness of feeling amongst its 

 readers and contributors (not paralleled, I believe, by any other 

 paper, and owing in no small degree to the geniality of our 

 Editors), that I hhall be at once pardoned for the mistake if it 

 be one ; but i^^o bo a thorough and genuine florist of the old 



school, to have a kindly feeling towards the brotherhood of 

 gardeners, do not entitle one to a niche in our columns, I do 

 not know what does. 



My brother, James Reynolds Dombeain, from our earliest 

 days was associated with me in our love of gardening, and in 

 practically carrying out our tastes, and up to the very last that 

 same love continued. Our tastes, too, took the same line in 

 gardening. Like myself, ho cared more for florists' flowers 

 than for any other flowers, and, Uke myself, the Auricula took 

 the chief place in his affections. Engaged in oflicial duties iu 

 the Control department of the War Oflice, he had lived in our 

 own homo up to about ten years ago, and thus was enabled to 

 find a relaxation from the duties of official life in the cultiva- 

 tion of his favourites. With the Auricula he also cultivated 

 Carnations, Picotees, Pinks, and Ranunculuses, and of late 

 years the Gladiolus. Of all these he was a successful exhibitor, 

 although he cultivated them not for that purpose, but from 

 his sheer love of flowers. No one was more easily satisfied 

 with even a moderate share of success than he was ; no one 

 ever saw him ruffled because others had beaten him in the 

 conflict ; no one was ever more ready to acknowledge the supe- 

 riority of those who had gone ahead of him. About the time 

 I mention, owing to one of those changes which most public 

 services are subject to, he was ordered ahmnd, and for five 

 years was quartered at Gibraltar. The iiej,i, of the climate, 

 working on a constitution already having a tendency that way, 

 laid permanently the foundation of a disease of the liver, which 

 ultimately proved fatal. On his return from thence he again 

 renewed his cultures, and Auriculas again held the foremost 

 place ; and almost the very last letter I had from him told me 

 of his success in exhibiting a stand of Gladioli only one short 

 month before his death. He was one of the Honorary Secre- 

 taries of the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland for many 

 years, and endeared himself to all who came iu contact with 

 him through the courtesy and thoroughly gentlemanly manner 

 he always treated everyone, no matter what his station. 



It would ill become me to obtrude on strangers the moro 

 sacred things connected with home life, but it is to me a great 

 happiness that in looking back over the many years of inter- 

 course we have had together, not once has a cloud come between 

 us ; and I mourn the loss of a loving brother — not lost indeed, 

 but, I verily believe, gone before. Somewhat younger than 

 myself, it speaks to me svith no uncertain sound ; and I fear 

 to be reminded by it that, like the flowers we love, our period 

 of life must soon be over, to live, if we are truly wise, where 

 death never comes. — D., Di'itl. 



DESTBOYING WASPS. 



I HAVE just seen iu The .Jouknal of Hobticulture, No. G53, 

 page 249, how to destroy wasps. The hints that Mr. Pocock 

 has been pleased to give will. I am sure, be taken advantage 

 of. I remember the time when some of the noblemen and 

 gentlemen in Scotland give the power to their head gardeners 

 to reward the under gardeners to kill such pests, but this, I 

 think, has to a very great extent been given up. The Earl of 

 Traquaii- for many years gave a Uberal reward to the children 

 iu the neighbourhood for the destruction of wasps. In 1S45, 

 on the 2Gth of April, there were delivered 75G dozen; on the 

 3rd May, 114 dozen ; on the 10th May, 5'.)i dozen ; and on 

 the 17th May, G43 J dozen ; making in all the incredible 

 number of 18,87G wasps in the course of four weeks, and iu 

 one parish. — Wm. Laubie, DiippUn Castle Gardens. 



I ESDORSE Mr. Pocock's remarks about wasps. Apart from 

 the suffering which unfortunately this vicious insect has the 

 power to inflict, a power too often most wantonly executed, it 

 is most destructive to our fruit, and so convinced am I of this 

 fact, that I wage a war of extermination agaiust its tribe. I 

 offer the reward of 'id. (three pence) for every wasp killed 

 before the 1st of May, and give from Grf. to l.'. Gd. for every 

 nest according to size. Mr. Pocock's recipe will stupify the 

 flies, but not kill them or the larvaj, and I shall be glad if any 

 of your readers will inform me how to preserve the nests, and 

 yet destroy the insects and grubs in the cells. — Subsobibek. 



HoTEiA jAroNiCA. — Your correspondent Mr. G. Taylor, on 

 page 267, speaks of using the spikes of Hsteia japonica in 

 conjunction with Gladiolus flowers for dinner-table decoration. 

 These, no doubt, would be a charming combination, but to me 

 the difficulty lies in getting this Hoteia to bloom at the end of 



