194 



JOUKN.VL OF UOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



[ September 12, 1887. 



goniums, in commerce or not, two varieties, three plants of 

 each, 25s. and 15.s. Class 10, The best six Gold and Bronze 

 Pelargoniums, put in commerce within the last twelve months, 

 25s. and lot.-. Entries for these classes will he received by Mr. 

 Moore any time on Monday, the 16th. 



DWAKF APPLES ON THE DOUCIN STOCK. 



Having received inquiries respecting the Apples shown by 

 me before the Koval Horticultural Society on the 3rd inst., I 

 have much pleasure in making pxiblic the mode of culture 

 adopted here, and the results. 



The Doucin stock is akin to the Paradise, but on this soil 

 roots and grows more freely, the roots often pushing in pro- 

 fusion just above the level of the soil, and striking downwards 

 into the earth. The second year after the graft is put in the 

 plants are often a yard high, forming perfect pyramids covered 

 with their snowy crimson-tinted blossoms in spring, and laden 

 with fruit in autumn. Twenty to thirty fine fruit on each tree 

 is no uncommon result. They are beautiful objects both in 

 the flowering and fruiting season ; admirably suited for small 

 ■gardens, as they take up little room ; are highly ornamental, 

 and veiy productive. Some of the fruit exhibited were gathered 

 'from trees transplanted last March. I graft in spring, let the 

 trees take their natural growth the first summer and autumn, 

 shape them by pruning and pinching the next summer and 

 autumn, when they are transplanted, and fruit abundantly the 

 following year : so that trees grafted in 1865 were formed in 

 1866, and fruited in 1867. As the trees increase in age and 

 size the fruit of course increases in quantity. — William Paul, 

 Patil's Nurseries, Waltham Cross. 



anything but behind, and though much is still wanted in her 

 farming, there are patriotic noblemen and gentlemen who might 

 well give au example to many on this side of the water. We 

 trust that brighter, happier, and more prosperous days are in 

 near realisation for her warm-hearted sons and daughters, when 

 the simple fact shall be better understood that properly 

 remunerated work is the cheapest mode of having labour 

 performed. With hardly or little more than a shilling a-day, 

 we did see nice plants and gardens belonging to such wage- 

 earners. What may we not expect when, even on the principre 

 of supply and demand, these wages shall be nearly doubled, and 

 with increased enjoyment to the workers, there shall also be 

 augmented profits to the employers ?J 



DUBLIN WINDOW GAP.DENING. 



A CLE-\T3r. correspondent of The Journal of Hor.TicuLTtinE 

 (Mr. Fish), when over here some two or three years since, and 

 vrriting from Dublin to that paper, remarked, that in passing 

 even through the best parts of our metropolis he was disap- ' 

 pointed by the absence of those praclicnl indications of the love i 

 of plants and flowers so characteristic of Englishmen and ' 

 English towns. If we remember rightly, he said that, with i 

 one exception onl3-, did he observe any attempt at window- 

 gardening, and this exception consisted merely of a jardiniere, 

 gay with dwarf scarlet Geraniums on a window-sill in Clare 

 Street. To a gi-eat extent we must plead guilty to this charge ; 

 feut it must be remembered that Mr. Fish's visit was at that 

 time when the inhabitants of our squares and best streets are 

 at their country or sea-side quarters, and their town residences 

 deserted. If he had visited us at an earlier period of the yesr 

 he would have seen in the same neighbourhood several nice 

 specimens of spring window gardening. A taste for plants and 

 flowers is by no means wanting even among the humbler classes 

 of our people ; it may be latent, but, nevertheless, it is there, 

 and only requires a little encouragement to develope it. Even 

 in the by-ways and dingy alleys of the town examples of this 

 taste frequently meet the eye, and we have often stopped to 

 admire the humble plants, and the supplemental shifts had 

 recourse to to grow them. 



We are always glad to note the extension of this taste ; for 

 Tve believe the more it spreads all classes will be the better of it, 

 both materially and morally. We are led to m.ake these obser- 

 vations by incidentally observing in passing through Leinster 

 Street a very pleasing example of window gardening. In a 

 house of business in the street just named, with few and simple 

 materials, the owner has managed to give the front of the build- 

 ing quite a gala appearance. On the sills of the windows of the 

 drawing-room and second floors are wooden boxes filled with 

 dwarf Nasturtiums. At the end of each box is a plant of the 

 pretty yellow Tropa^olum canariense, and this is taught to steal 

 up cords or wires, define the architectural lines of the windows, 

 and fringe them with living beauty, in the shape of delicate 

 green foliage and golden flowers. The effect is pleasing and 

 pretty : and if the recurrence of such were frequent, the streets 

 would look for weeks as though our city were keeping high 

 festival. We could not help admiring the pleasing conceit, and 

 turning away with the impression, that the habits and de.alings 

 of the proprietors are not the less business-like and satisfactory 

 for this pleasing employment of the leisure hour. — {Irisli 

 Farmers' Gazette.) 



[We are very much pleased to learn that Dublin is improv- 

 ing in window gardening. In gardening in general Ireland is [ 



GPtOWING MELONS WITHOUT ARTIFICIAL 

 HEAT. 



I NOTICE in your Journal of the 6th inst., that there was laid 

 before the Fruit Committee of the Eoyal Horticultural Society, 

 a Melon that had been grown without bottom heat, and that it 

 was handsome-looking, but of poor flavour. 



Now, for a good many years (because in a small garden the 

 wheeling-in of manure is dirty and littery, and troublesome), I 

 have grown my second ercp of Melons without any bottom heat, 

 and I find the fruit is quite equal in flavour to that of the 

 earlier Melons that are more petted and coddled, and the plants, 

 if there be a difference, more productive. 



My plan, a very simple one, is as follows : — In the last week 

 of April, or first week of May, I throw roughly into each frame 

 the needful amount of mould, good stiff loam, with a little well- 

 rotted manure mixed with it. I shut up closely through the 

 day ; and at night, directly the sun is off the frame, I shut up 

 as carefully as if the plants were already there. Thus I go on 

 for ten or twelve days, only I am careful to turn up the soil 

 afresh every morning, so as to expose a new surface daily to 

 the sun. I then put out the plants, and pleasant it is to see 

 how they thrive and speed. Indeed, anj- one who would take 

 the trouble to ascertain with his hand how great an amount of 

 heat is thus stored up, would well understand their satisfaction 

 with the quarters they have got into. 



" One word " if you please, for your agreeable correspondent, 

 Mr. Radclyfle, whose letters to you I always read with pleasure, 

 not only for the instruction they give, but for the earnestness 

 and readiness with which he imparts it. I had not the most 

 distant thought of doubting his perfect truthfulness ; and on 

 looking again over my late hasty communication in your pages, 

 I am at a loss to see what expression therein could by possi- 

 bility have suggested the feeling. 



He may well be pleased with what he has accomplished — 288 

 Roses transplanted early in August, with scarcely any loss. 

 But then the time, the pains, the trouble ! After all it is, I 

 suppose, only an illustration of our friend Sancho's opinion, 

 who affirms that all success is due to the " studying hard, and 

 having favour and good luck." — Beta. 



DOLLY PENTPEATHS EPITAPH. 



I CAN answer your correspondent's question respecting Dolly 

 Pentreath's epitaph. Prince Napoleon, being a great linguist, 

 went to Cornwall in 1860 to ascertain the Cornish dialect, and 

 from thence proceeded to Iceland to learn Icelandic and Norse. 

 Not being able to find the grave, he gave the rector money to 

 have a memorial erected and placed in the wall, having been 

 told that she was the last person who could speak genuine 

 Cornish. 



She was married and had children, and died at the age of 102. 

 That accounts for the text on the stone. Possibly Dolly was 

 conspicuously a dutiful daughter. She died in 1778. 



" Old DoUy Peiilreath, one hunilred ageil and two, 

 Decenseil anil buried in Paul parish tun ; 

 Not in the clmrch with people ffreat and high, 

 liut in the chui-ehyard doth old Dolly lie." 



She wis born and died at Moz-hajle, now corrupted into 

 Mousehole. — F. Davies, Fershorc. 



POISONING CATS. 

 Xou rightly inform your correspondent, " Heni.ey," that no 

 law prevents his putting poisoned meat among his Cabbages, 

 but if he should use arsenic or any other painful poison, he 



