Aagast i3, 1867. 1 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTDKB AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



157 



As it sometimea happens that eight or ten plants have died 

 together, and then a few healthy ones are to be met with, I 

 hare been led to tliink that the constitntional vigour of the 

 variety must be wearing ont, and the mere fact that older 

 varieties are less prone to this disorder is no proof against this 

 snrmisc. as all might not have been possessed of the same 

 constitutional strength to start with. I fear that we must 

 look to new varieties of Calceolarias to take the place of those 

 going off. It would, however, be well if those who havo suf- 

 fered in this way in past years would record their experience, 

 the more so if their plants are recovering. I have escaped 

 almost without losing a plant until this season, when my Cal- 

 ceolarias present a sad spectacle, and I am looking out for a 

 substitute. The dwarf Calceolaria, Cloth of Gold, does not 

 promise much as it is so uneven in its growth and so uncertain 

 in other respects. The yellow variety which with mo has been 

 least affected, is that called Viscosissima, but I am not certain 

 that it is exempt. 



" I may add, that last autumn, by way of endeavouring to 

 throw fresh vigour into the Calceolaria, I obtained a number of 

 enttings from a distance of upwards of one hundred miles, 

 and from a soil of an opposite character, thinking the change 

 might be beneficial. In this I have been disappointed, for if 

 the plants struck from cuttings from a distance are not really 

 worse than those propagated from home cuttings, they are 

 quite as bad. Both were subjected to the same winter-treat- 

 ment, the cuttings being put into a cold-pit in rows about 

 3 inches by '2 inches apart, and about the beginning of April 

 one half the rows were taken up and replanted in a sheltered 

 spot on a bed of leaf mould and other light soil, and the others 

 remained till the middle of May, when both were planted out 

 with as good balls as could be obtained. For each the pro- 

 tection during winter was very slight, and pots have not been 

 used for many years. 



" The failure of Calceolarias would seem to call for inquii? 

 in several directions. First, has any one after a severe attack 

 one year found his plants of the same kind healthy the next ? 

 Secondly, has any one found a second variety to escape where 

 one had failed before ? and thirdly, what varieties seem to 

 escape altogether. With me Calceolaria amplexicaulis has not 

 been attacked as yet, but its flowering so late precludes it from 

 occupying the place of dwarfer kinds.— J. B."] 



I WO0LD recommend your correspondent " M. F." to try Cal- 

 ceolaria piunata. I was very short of the shrubby class of 

 Calceolarias a few years ago ; and C. pinnata resembled the 

 shrubby sorts so much, that one did not know the difference 

 without going close to the plants. How they will do with your 

 correspondent is another question, for I never saw them succeed 

 so well as they do in Wales, and I think the secret lies more in 

 the moist atmosphere th.in the soil. 



Calceolaria pinnata is easily raised from seed ; and if sown 

 in good time and potted iu small pots, so as to form good 

 stout plants by bedding-ont time, I do not think " M. F." will 

 be disappointed with them. 



I am glad to state that the shrubby Calceolarias this year are 

 aa lino here as usual, a single plant measuring '2 feet in cir- 

 cumference ; hut whether they are or would be proof against 

 the disease they are very subject to in dry places, I cannot 

 af£rm. 



They are here very shy of starting when first bedded out, 

 ii the weather is at all dry, and become infested with the 

 green fly. My plan is to give them a dusting of sulphur while 

 they are damp with the dew, and afterwards a good syringing 

 with water three or four times a-week, which never fails to 

 restore the plant. — T. Elcojie, lihiiij Ganlext, Corwcn, Norik 

 H'aks. 



In- answer to " M. F.,'' we grow Aurea floribunda. Prince of 

 Orange, and Victor Emmanuel by the hundred, and we have 

 not lost one plant in the hundred. Our soil is a sandy loam 

 with a red sandstone rock bottom. I put about half a barrow- 

 load of very rotten stable-manure to about every square yard 

 of ground. The plants are better this year than I have ever 

 seen them before, owing, I believe, to the extra manure which 

 I gave them. 



I put in the cuttings about the first week in October, and I 

 keep them in the cutting-pots until February. I then pot 

 them and keep them growing until bedding-out lime. If the 



weather bo dry after planting I water them well for about the 

 first fortnight. — A Cheshibe Gabdeneb. 



BRLYR TCRsns MANETTI STOCKS. 



" Anythino about Boses?" is an inquiry with many on open- 

 ing your Journal. There is likely to be a good deal, if the 

 Briar irr^iu Manetti question is to be fully gone into. It is 

 just one of those where prudent people remark, that " There is 

 much to bo said on both sides." Last winter is the strongest 

 argument I havo heard on the Manetti side. If such seasons 

 are to be expected it is of very little use budding Boscs on 

 high standards. It would be difficult to reckon up the number 

 of Briar stocks that must have perished. On the other hand, 

 as far as my experience has gone, the Manetti is more difficult 

 and uncomfortable to bud thau the Briar, and the stocks are 

 not ready until later in the season. It is also a snare and 

 delusion to the uninitiated. I have more than once found a 

 huge bush of Manetti being tenderly cherished as one of the 

 last new Koses. and heard the innocent owner wonder why his 

 Kose was so different that year from what it was when he bought 

 it ; or else console himself for want of flowers with the strength 

 of the branches ! Where people are not prepared for this, the 

 Ilose is often smothered by the too vigorous parent. I cannot 

 but think that, after the experience of last winter, it wUl be 

 well to pay more attention to growing Roses on their own roots, 

 and that with Teas in the open air this will become almost 

 indispensable. — A. C. 



Aa I have lately (August 20th), visited my friend Mr. Bad- 

 clyffe at Rose Hill, Okeford Fitzpaine, I may be perhaps per- 

 mitted to bear my testimony to the truthfulness of his state- 

 ments with regard to the value of Manetti as a stock, its 

 excellence, and its endurance. I have already this season 

 spoken of his Roses in their summer aspect. I have now seen 

 them in their autumn gear, and never before saw more tho- 

 roughly realised the title of Hybrid Perpetual, for many of his 

 trees were one sheet of bloom, and young and vigorous shoots 

 were pushing away with young bloom-buds formed on them 

 and ready to expand their beauties shortly. As I have already 

 explained, this is done not without much care and trouble — 

 manure applied copiously, and water still more so. This in a 

 dry season is, I am persuaded, the sheet-anchor of Rose-grow- 

 ing, both roots and foliage to be well soaked ; and if they have 

 been supplied with manure well, the ornngo fungus will, I 

 beheve, be very soon beaten out of the field by the process. 

 As to white mildew, I saw that effectually stopped by the appli- 

 cation of blue vitriol, two ounces to the bucket of water. 

 The plants were watered with this, and the mildew clean 

 burned out. The leaves were browned by the process, but the 

 further progress of the disease was stayed. It was a great 

 pleasure, although dashed with the thought how differently my 

 own looked, to go round the plants and see the beautifiJ 

 healthy foliage and the vigorous shoots which they were making, 

 and this on ground no way remarkable as Rose ground. 



It has been questioned whether the Manetti is a permanent 

 stock. Jlr. Radclyffe has some Roses (notably six of Acidalie), 

 budded fourteen years, and now making as vigorous growth as 

 if in the very flower of youth. Surely this is a proof that on 

 some soils, at any rate, Manetti does not die out readily. 



Mr. Cant, I see, urges Rose-growers not to be carried away 

 by Mr. Badclyffe's enthusiasm about Manetti. Well, I think 

 my friend would grant Mr. Cant all he asks — viz., that on Bose 

 ground such as his the Briar will do wonders ; but, then, how 

 few have such ground ! I know it well, as I do the Hertford- 

 shire loam, Mr. Turner's, of Slough, Mr. Tiley's, of Bath, and 

 some others ; but, then, we sigh in vain for such land, and 

 therefore for ninety out of a hundred I believe Manetti well 

 done to be the stock. For myself, I candidly say, after seeing 

 my friend, 1 have never given it a fair trial ; but I intend to 

 do so this next season, and try to beat out the orange fungus, 

 which has hitherto beaten me. 



I should say that Jlr. Kadcljffe exhibited last week at Bland- 

 ford 118 trusses of Roses, taking the hrat prize, and, I hear, ex- 

 hibiting an uncommonly fine lot of flowers. He has mentioned 

 lately the fact of his removing Roses in August. I saw the 

 228 which he had planted. The foliage had of course all 

 dropped, but the wood was plump and healthy-looking, and I 

 had no doubt that very soon the buds would begin to work. 

 I saw also— let Mr. Fhtton please take note of this — a Mar^chal 

 Niel with ten good buds on it. I have one plant myself with 



