70 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ Jnlr 28, 1663. 



Mr. Perkins, nurseryman, Northampton, sent a seedling 

 Strawben-y named Earl Spencer, which possesses great 

 merit. It is of good size, conical shape, and regular form. 

 The coloui- is pale scarlet, like British Queen ; the flesh is 

 solid, and has a fine pine flavour. The Committee recom- 

 mended this variety as being of great excellence, and well 

 worthy of cultivation. Messrs. Carstaii-s & Sons, of Edin- 

 burgh, also sent a seedling Strawben-y ; but it was not 

 considered superior to Keens' Seedling, to which it bears a 

 close resemblance. The dish of Keens' sent along with the 

 Seedling was not, however, considered as very creditable to 

 the cultivation of that variety in the neighbourhood of 

 Edinburgh. 



A fine collection of CiuTants was sent from the garden at 

 Chiswick, and Mr. Ten-y exhibited a fine dish of Tomatoes. 



ECHINOCACTUS RHODOPHTHALMUS 



(Red-eyed Echinocactds). 



Nat ord., Cactaceae. Linn., Icosandria Monogynia. 

 A GEEENHOUSE succulcnt plant of sub-columnar form, 

 6 inches or more high, longitudinally divided into eight or 

 nine deep fuiTOWs, with obtuse ridges formed by transverse 

 lines into lobes or tubercles, each tubercle bearing a cluster 

 of about nine strong, straight, spreading spines, about an 

 inch in length, the central one longest and standing foi-ward. 

 The flowers — fiom the top of the plant — are hu-ge, hand- 

 some, the petals linear-spatulate, rose-coloured, a dark red 

 stain at the base forming a radiating circle around the 

 staminal column. From Mexico : San Luis Potosi. Intro- 

 duced about 1847, by F. Staines, Esq. Flowers in summer. 



Mi: Smith, Curator of Kew Gardens, says that Cactese 

 are almost indifferent as to the kind of soil they are grown 

 in, provided it is not retentive of moistiu-e, and that the 

 present very pretty species will thrive in a mixture of light 

 loam and leaf mould, containing a small quantity of Mine- 

 rubbish nodules, the latter being for the purpose of keeping 

 the mould from becoming close and compact, a condition not 

 suitable to the soft and tender roots of the plant. If cul- 

 tivated in a pot, it must be well di-ained ; the pot being 

 nearly half filled with broken potsherds, and the upper layer 

 so placed as to cover the interstices, in order to prevent the 

 mould from mixing with the drainage. During winter, 



Mexican Cacteae do not require much artificial heat : several 

 species ai-e, indeed, known to bear with impunity a few 

 degrees of frost. Where they can be cultivated by them- 

 selves, we recommend that the plants and atmosphere of 

 the house should be kept in a di-y state during winter, 

 artificial heat being given only during a long continuance 

 of damp cold weather or in severe Irost ; but at no time 

 during winter need the temperatm-e of the house exceed 

 50° at night. In sunny days in spring the house should 

 be kept clo.se, in order that the plants may receive the 

 full benefit of the heat of the sun's rays. As the siunmer 

 heat increases air shovJd be admitted, and occasionally the 

 plants should be freely watered, and in hot weather daily 

 syringed overhead. — (Botanical Mayazine, t. 44SG.) 



FORCING STRAWBERRIES. 



Having been tolerably successful in the forcing of Straw- 

 berries, and ascribing a good deal of that success to the 

 treatment they receive previous to forcing, I send you the 

 mode adopted — the more readily, perhaps, because it differs 

 so materially ii'om the advice given a week or two since by 

 your able and practical correspondent Mr. Fish. The plan 

 is an old one, perhaps, and is adopted elsewhere possibly, 

 but I have not met ^vith it in my travels. It is this : 

 Those plants that fruit in April I allow to bear runners, say 

 six to each pot. When done fruiting they are placed in a 

 cold pit to harden-off; they are aftenvards planted out in a 

 well-prepared border, care being taken not to injiu-e the 

 runners at any time when moving them. By adopting this 

 mode the plants are ready to go into fruiting-pots by the 

 1st of July, three weeks earlier, I presume, than by the plan 

 recommended by Mr. Fish, which I am siu-e that gentleman 

 will think is an object gained. 



The forcing jjai-t is quite a different affaii- ; but if you 

 think proper I wiU send you some account of a plan that 

 secures a crop of large fr-uit and excellent flavour. I may 

 mention that the plants are not allowed to remain layered 

 in 60's more than three weeks, or a month at most, previous 

 to their final shift into 32's. — J. Gross, Gardener to D. R. 

 Scratton, Esq., Priory, P.'ittleu-ell, Essex. 



ON THE WINTER EFFECTS OP COLOURED 

 WOODS IN LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



I DO not know that it has ever occurred to others, how 

 much may be done towards rendering a garden cheerful in 

 winter, liy employing shrubs with coloiu-ed woods in the 

 an-angement of the jjlanting. Dow-ning certainly makes no 

 allusion to it in his "Landscape Gardening," I have often 

 thought of it, and have intended to try something of the 

 kind on my groimds so as to form some idea of the practical 

 eiiect, but have always forgotten it when the proper plant- 

 ing time came about. It occmred to me again recently 

 tlirough happening to see a Golden-barked Willow and a 

 small nursery of Silver Maple trees side by side. The red 

 and gold together, against the backgi-ound of snow, that 

 hiid on the side hill on which the trees were growing, had 

 quite a pretty effect, though of com-se you will say better 

 matches of colour could be made than this a<;cident afforded. 



How would a mass look having, say, for the outside a 

 thick set of the Bed Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea), then » 

 circle of the green shoots of the Ash-leaved Negundo, then 

 the red scarlet of the SUver Maple, and the Gold WOlow 

 behind, aU kept twiggy and dense by pruning ? 



Perhaps some of yoiu- taste-loving readers will communi- 

 cate their views and experience. No doubt many would be 

 interested — certainly the wr-iter of this. — C, New York. 



[The idea is novel and has merit in it. The White- 

 bemed Dogwood (Cornus alba), has the brightest-coloured 

 wood, and is probably the one our correspondent refers to. 

 Cornus sanguinea has dull brown wood. — Ed. American 

 Gardeners' Monthly.^ 



Grapes at Garston Vinetard. — There is such a house 

 of Black Grapes at the Gai-ston Vineyard as is seldom seen, 

 and, I may venture to say, not to be surpassed if equalled in 

 England. I am referring to the house from which Mr. 



