A URUSt IS, 1867. J 



JOURNAL OF HOUTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



113 



too, Peaches and Nectarines are deficient in flavour, and the 

 Apricot and Green Ga^e are rarely fruitful. 



Many rare native plants are found in this district, and I 

 mention this for the purpose of warninf; botanists not to accept 

 as truth the statements published that some of those plants 

 are to bo found only in very restricted localities. For instance, 

 I was told that Asplenium lanceolatum was only to bo ol)tained 

 at the foot of Tolcnrn, whereas I saw it growing in the fissures 

 between blocks of greenstone supporting the sides of a lane 

 near Giilval. The Cornish Heath, too. Erica viiRfins, said only 

 to be found near the Land's End, I am informed is abundant in 

 other localities. — G. 



VINES AND VINE BORDERS— NATURAL 

 TEMPERATURES. 



I HAVE delayed answering the letter of " G. H.," which appeared 

 under the above heading (May 23rd), because I wished to obtain 

 from Mr. Wills and Mr. Thomson the information I asked them 

 for, and also because I wanted to receive the photographs of 

 my Vines from the photographer before giving the true account 

 of my first year's experience in forcing the Vine, which Mr. 

 ■Wills desired I would do. It would, however, be much more 

 satisfactory to me to know that Mr. Wills intends to carry out 

 his expensive system of border-making. If he means what he 

 ■writes, will he accept a challenge to a three-years race on our 

 respective Vine hobbies ? 



I have been anxious to see how Mr. Thomson would make 

 his statement about a temperate climate being most suitable 

 to the Vine, agree with the tropical heats he recommends to the 

 amateur Vine-grower. I cannot accept the fact of his treatise 

 having reached the sixth edition as sufficient proof of the 

 soundness of the information it contains. I want something 

 more than this ; and when I, as one of those for whom Mr. 

 Thomson professes to have written hia treatise, ask him to 

 prove the necessity for the temperatures he recommends, I 

 think he is bound to reply. 



I have read with much attention the letters upon the Gar- 

 stou Vineyard and Mr. Meredith's large bunches of Grapes, 

 which Mr. Wills says reminded him of the Grapes of Eschcol. 

 It is, I think, reasonable to believe that the soil and climate of 

 the valley of Eshcol were peculiarly favourable to the growth of 

 the Vine. The soil of the hill country of Jad:i'a is generally in- 

 ferior to the loamy soils lying upon our own chalk hills. Tlie soil 

 of Eshcol is an ordinary loam lying upon limestone, the upper 

 surface of which is of a loose marly or shingly nature. Situated 

 between Hebron and Bethlehem the valley has an elevation of 

 about 2, sun feet above the sea. Van de Velde, writing from near 

 Hebron, says, '• The cold is so great that I sit as close as I 

 can to the fire to warm mj' stiffened fingers and fit them for 

 writing. Just fancy our encountering so severe a climate here 

 at the end of March." Jlarch is the first spring month, and 

 the Vines would be starting into growth. In .\pril the later 

 rains fall in abundance, and continue till the end of May. In 

 Jane the heat of the day is considenible, but the nights are 

 cold, and the dews so copious tliat the trees drip as with rain. 

 July and August, the second and third months after the rains, 

 are warm and dry, but the temperature is that of southern 

 Europe, and not of the tropics. The vintage is in September, 

 and about the end of the month the former rains make their 

 appearance. The fact that the Vine in the valley of Eshcol 

 begins its growth in March and ripens its fruit in September 

 is sufficient proof that the climate is not such as Mr. Thomson 

 recommends to amateurs. And it I fail to find his tempera- 

 tures in the hill country of Judica, which may fairly be con- 

 sidered as the home of the Vine, shall I meet with better 

 success in Madeira 7 Do the Canaries produce rich clusters, 

 mingled with the glittering green and gold of the Orange trees, 

 and the broad waving leaves of the Bananas, growing upon 

 the low, sultry ground of the coast, or upon the breezy slopes 

 of Oratava ? 



" G. II." says I have made some important omissions in 

 what I have written about natural temperatures ; but he does 

 not tell me what these omissions are. Ho merely tells me 

 that mean temperatures in the shade are only calculated to 

 mislead in making comparisons between one year and another, 

 and, therefore, we must follow the same rule in making a 

 comparison between the French climate at the 45th degree of 

 north latitude and the temperature we should maintain in our 

 vineries. I am well aware that mean annual temperatures 

 ore of little value to gardeners ; but these can have no surer 



guides than the mean temperatnres of the seasons, the distri- 

 bution of the annual rainfall, the latitude and longitude, and 

 the elevation above the sea level. 



If " G. H." will read my letter again he will see that I did 

 not ask Mr. Thomson the question, "That if he begins with 

 100° in the sun for Vines, how he will go on if he is to advise 

 temperatures for semi-tropical and tropical plants?" Mr. 

 Thomson does not place his thermometer between the foliage 

 of his Vines and the glass ; and when a vinery is closed in the 

 afternoon it is no longer receiving the direct rays of the sun ; 

 even the slanting rays still thrown upon the glass are, to a 

 certain extent, prevented by the sash-bars from falling on the 

 Vines. The moist heat of 100°, which Mr. Thomson likes to 

 enclose in his vinery, is certainly solar heat, the same as that 

 registered by a thermometer on the north side of a tree in my 

 garden ; but they are shade heats also. Mr. Thomson should 

 be allowed to defend his book himself. It has hitherto been 

 received 'oy gardeners, amateurs, writers, and reviewers as a 

 good practical treatise on the Vine. I received it as a conscien- 

 tious and fairly-written account of his own experience. I have 

 proved his temperatures to be fancy temperatures, unnecessary 

 and unsafe to the amateur, and not supported by reference to 

 the temperatures of any Vine-growing country in the world. 

 I .am also prepared to prove, by reference to Nature's treatment 

 of the Vine, that Mr. Thomson is as wrong in other matters as 

 he is in temperatures. 



" G. H." has made a poor attempt at the thermic scale of 

 cultivation for the plants I mentioned. The Date Palm will 

 grow north of the Jlediterranean. It does not require a heat 

 of not less than 100° in the shade by day, and the temperatures 

 of localities in Algeria give as good an idea of the climate of 

 that country as the temperature I gave of the Isle of Wight 

 does of the climate of England. 



There is, however, one part of the temperate zone where, 

 during the summer months, a constant tropical heat may he 

 found. The valley of the Jordan, in the vicinity of the Dead 

 Sea, has a temperature of 70° to 100° ; and here the Date Palm 

 ripens its fruit from ten to twenty days earlier than it does in 

 northern Africa. The plains of Moab and Jericho, on the east 

 and west of the Jordan, have never been celebrated for their 

 vinej-ards ; but high up in the neighbouring hills, at an eleva- 

 tion of 3,800 feet, Eshcol still produces its Grapes in bunches 

 of 10 and 12 lbs. weight. 



I have but little to say about my own Vines. The photograph 

 of the roof of one of my houses and the two small bunches I 

 have sent to the Editors of the Journal will be more satisfactory 

 than anything I could write. I may, however, mention that 

 my houses have been freely opened to my neighbours, and 

 many gentlemen and gardeners have seen my Grapes in all 

 stages of their growth. The Vines were started in December, 

 and were breaking well on the 22nd of January. On the loth of 

 April the wood began to get brown at the base, and on the 

 22nd of May I cut my first ripe Grapes. Some of the bunches 

 had berries 3^ inches in circumference. Tlie smallest number 

 of bunches on any one Vine was twelve, the largest number 

 twenty-nine. The rods are 8 feet in lengthy and cover in the 

 three houses 1.700 square feet of glass, and the total number 

 of bunches borne by my ninety-five Vines was 1986. — H. S. 



CALCEOLARIA FAILURE. 

 The failure of one of the best varieties of the shrubby class 

 of yellows this season in so many places where it had stood 

 before, leaves an impression that this plant can be no longer 

 depended upon for giving that display of its particular colonr 

 in which it has hitherto been unrivalled. Its failure in a great 

 many places has been so general for some years that it has 

 been given up, and something else substituted for it. Now, as it 

 would appear that the a<lverse season of 1807 is likely to drive 

 it from the remaining places it has hitherto adorned, can any 

 of your readers suggest a substitute ? Many years ago I tried 

 Neja gracilis, but it is late in flowering, and Gazania rigens is 

 too shy a flowercr to follow the Calceolaria ; and this season's 

 experience leads me to think that the small-flowered French 

 Marigold (Tagetes pumila), requires a warmer summer to do 

 well, as it has flowered very sparingly as yet. We have not 

 yet a good variety of yellow Tropicolum to depend upon ; per- 

 haps after all Tagetes pumila. or as it is sometimes called 

 T. signata, may be turned to the best account, as it flowers 

 most abundantly. It would, however, be doing good service 

 tj the floral woild if those who have been able to secoxe 



