29i 



JODBNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



[ October 17, 1867. 



Mr. Rivers sent examples of the stocks used for dwarfing the growth 

 of the Apple tree. They were : — 



" No. 1. — The French Doucin, on which Apples grow very well, but 

 it does not keep up (/.'., swell) with a vigorous-growing sort. No. 2. — 

 The Broad-leaved Parailiye, an English stock, raised here (Sawbridge- 

 woi-th) from seed. This sort roots freely at the surface, swells with the 

 graft, and makes healthy productive trees. No. 3. — The Nonesuch 

 Paradise, an English stock, raised here from (it is supposed), the None- 

 snch Apple. Like No. 2, it roots freely at the surface, swells with the 

 graft, and forms healthy productive trees. It retains its leaves, and 

 grows freely till late in autumn. It strikes freely from cuttings, and 

 is found to be a distinct and valuable stock." 



Floral Committee. — The scarcity of plants exhibited this day 

 reminds ns of the close of the floral year. Until the Chrysanthemnnis 

 display their beauty — if, indeed, they will do so this late season — a 

 gay gathering of flowers and plants cannot be expected. There were, 

 however, some interesting subjects. Mr. Anderson, gardener to T. 

 Dawson, Esq., Meadow Bank, near Glasgow, sent a small collection of 

 cut Orchids, veiy beautiful. Among them were Cattleya labiata Pes- 

 catoria? ; Oncidium crucntum. O. reilexum, 0. cucullatum, and O. mi- 

 orochilum. l\Ir. Bowie, Chilliugham Castle, sent a seedling Lobelia 

 called Little Gem, a pbant of very compact free-flowering habit, with 

 white and pale blue flowers. A first-class certificate was awarded it as 

 a useful bedding plant. Mr. J. Watson, St. .\lbans, exhibited two 

 baskets of small ]>lants of his Pelargoniums Miss Watson and Mrs. 

 Dix, which were struck ten weeks ago. They were sent to show the 

 good constitution of the plant. He also sent a seedling Bronze Zonal 

 variety called Bronze Jewel. From Mr. J. Stevens, Ealing, came 

 Tricolor Pelargoniums Mrs. Stevens and Ealing Rival ; the latter, a 

 bright and distinct sort, received a first-class certificate. 



Mr. W. Bull contributed Encephalartos lanuginosa, a distinct and 

 handsome species, for which a first-class certificate was awarded ; 

 Saxifraga Fortunei, a hardy Saxifrage ; Aucuba japonica mas vera 

 marmorata. a variety with beautifully variegated leaves, which also 

 received a first-class certificate ; Adiantum sp., to be sent again ; Po- 

 Ijstichum augulare cristatum — first-class certificate ; Lastrea FiUx- 

 mas crispa gi-acilis — first-class certificate ; Athyrium Filix-fcemina 

 pnlcherrimum — first-class certificate ; Athyrium Filix-focmina fissi- 

 dente excurrens Lyelli, and Polystichum angnlare liueare — first-class 

 certificate. This, as well as all the other varieties which received cer- 

 tificates, was distinct and good. Mr. Bull also took a first-class certi- 

 ficate for Aucuba japonica fa'mina grandis, with bright, broad, green, 

 glossy foliage, and very handsome. 



Mr. J. Aldred, Kilbnrn, sent four seedling Tricolor Pelargoniums, 

 all of them promising vai-ieties — Mimosa was much admired ; but being 

 seedlings, no award could be made. Spitfire, Beauty of ICilburn, and 

 Vietoi-y were the other varieties. Mr. Walch, Hillingdon, sent three 

 seedling Tricolor Pelargoniums, all of gi-eat promise. Mr. Bye, gar- 

 dener to R. Arkwrigbt, Esf^., sent cut specimens of a showy herbaceous 

 Calceolaria, yellow ground with deep crimson spot. Plants of this 

 seedling must he seen to ascertain its habit and merits. Mr. McDonald 

 exhibited fruits of Passiflora ctrulea Nenmanni, smaller than the 

 old Passiflora fruit. A collection of Orchids came from the gardens 

 of the Society, consisting chiefly of Odontoglossum gi-ande. One 

 plant was so particularly well grown and covered with its gorgeous 

 jiowers, that a special certificate was awarded it. 



Mr. Bull exhibited several plants, among them Trichinium Manglesii, 

 a curious flowering plant, very pretty in its way. Coloured drawings 

 of Pelargonium leaves, Liliu'n anratum, and a gi'oup of plants, to- 

 gether with several specimens of Apples, were placed before the Com- 

 mittee for their inspection. These drawings, the production of Miss 

 Fothergill, of Old Shirley, Southampton, are of great merit. We 

 especially admired the gr-oup of Bronze Zonal Pelargonium leaves, 

 grown by Mr. Wills, for the truthfulness of their execution. Miss 

 FotborgiU has been a careful student of Nature, and promises to 

 evince much talent. We hope her first attempts may be carefully 

 followed up and attended with success. There is a wide' field open for 

 artists in flower-drawing at the present day. 



soil which cannot be objected to on the score of lightness, — 

 Edward Luckhursx, Egerton House Gardens, Egerton, Kent. 



CALCEOLAKLV CULTURE. 

 I CANNOT help thinking that the plants to which " Robin 

 Rove " refers at page 274 as being grown in a two-ligUt frame, 

 mnst have been sadly deficient of soil about the roots during 

 their removal; and as to the dry weather affecting them, 

 surely your correspondent must have been very badly off for 

 water, or else have failed to apply it in a proper manner. I 

 venture to assert, if plants treated in the manner I advocate, 

 and possessing the balls of earth and roots which they ought to 

 do, are carefully planted and well watered once or" twice ac- 

 cording to the state of the weather, they wil'.on being examined 

 a week afterwards, be found to have plenty of fresh-made roots. 

 Certainly, if the weather is -very dry and hot, the plants will 

 droop slightly, but not in a manner 'to affect their well doing. 

 "EoBiN KovE" need not fear to use leaf mould, if it has suffi- 

 cient age, and if he refers to my first remarks he will see that 

 ■when the plants are fairly at work in the spring they are in a 



NUNEHAJI PARK, 



THE SEAT OF THE KEY. W. VERNON HARCOUKT. 



On the 26th of September I was awakened at daybreak by 

 the old church chimes of Woodstock, and before many people 

 were up I had turned out from a Great Western Railway carriage 

 at the Culham station, and was on my way to Nuneham Park. 

 The sun was shining brightly, and the lark at " heaven's gate " 

 was carolling its sweetest, causing me to make sundry halts to 

 listen ; sometimes, also, I stopped to observe the goodly timber 

 trees richly furnishing the undulating park, or an occasional 

 happy family of deer and cattle browsing or reposing together, 

 chewing the cud of intense quiet and enjoyment. Poor dumb 

 creatures ! with those great honest eyes and that steady gaze, 

 one might, by a slight stretch of fancy, endow you with thought. 

 An excellent carriage road between two and three miles from 

 the station led me to the stable-yard, with the mansion in- 

 clining to the left. The house of Mr. Stewart, the gardener, 

 being to the right, thither I directed my steps. Entering the 

 garden through a door in the Ivy-covered wall, a very good 

 cottage in the modern Elizabethan style, and covered with the 

 blue Wistaria, Clematis, &c., presented itself, and speedily its 

 worthy occupier, with a hearty shake of the hand, introduced 

 me through its portal. Soon issuing again from the back of 

 the residence we passed the frame-ground, concealed by a wall 

 covered with Ivy to the right, and on the left the tall boundary 

 or west wall of the garden, also at this part similarly covered, 

 and came to the north wall, against the south face of which 

 is situated the Pelargonium-house. This was, for the time, 

 employed in forwarding successions of a great number of flow- 

 ering plants for decorating the rooms of the mansion during the 

 autumn and winter months. From it admittance is afforded 

 by a glass doorway into the Orange-house, which is filled with 

 hardwooded plants during the winter ; but at the time of my 

 visit it contained a multitude of fine-foliaged and other plants, 

 conspicuous amongst which, trained up and over the arched 

 ironwork which supports the heavily constructed timber rafters, 

 were Passiflora edulis and Lapageria rosea in fine blossom. 

 Mandevilla suaveolens, deliciously fragrant and most beautiful, 

 covered the back wall. The stove succeeds next. It is crammed 

 with plants such as Cyanopbyllum magnificum, Clerodendron 

 Thomsona; Balfourii, and Crotons, witha number of fine-foliaged 

 plants grown to a particular medium size to suit vases for 

 dinner-table decoration. Petrified gravel is disposed as rock- 

 work, and serves admirably to trail many a trailing plant on. 



Before I proceed further I must mention that Mr. Stewart 

 Lad to make shift and crowd his plauts anywhere, as, in lieu 

 of flues, these houses and the vineries were about to be fitted with 

 pipes. Two of Harriot's tubular boilers were to be employed, 

 one boiler only to be worked at a time, the other being kept in 

 reserve in case of accident. One boiler will have to do duty 

 for the four houses above mentioned and for four vineries, 

 tln'ough the agency of 1800 feet of four-inch pipes — three flows, 

 three returns, and two bacli mains, thus doing away with seven 

 fires and two boilers as at present constituted. -4.n excellent 

 kind of screw valve was pointed out to me, nearly on the same 

 principle as Beck's, but much smaller ; it was to bo fixed in 

 the flow-pipe of each house. The valve is on such a principle 

 that it cannot go wrong, and the heat of each house can be 

 easily regulated by it to a nicety and to a certainty. I could 

 not learn whose patent or invention it was. I should have 

 said nine instead of eight houses ; for here, at right angles with 

 the stove and first vinery, is a span-roofed Heath-house, which 

 the boiler is also to heat by a flow and return three-inch pipe 

 all round. 



Entering this house, among other things there I found a 

 box of young seedling Pelargoniums just in their first leaves — 

 some of them showing unmistakeablo variegation already, 

 others quite green, and others, again, quite white. The last 

 are of no account, for they become poor, weakly, sickly plants, 

 never worth keeping. I can speak from experience, for I have 

 dabbled in this way myself, and not with Pelargoniums only ; 

 but I invariably destroy unless satisfied the seedling is of a 

 proper strain, and better than anything yet sent out. I think 

 I have now obtained a seedling Pelargonium by crossing Scarlet 

 Perfection and Christine, and of its kind the best. Mr. Stew- 

 art's seedlings are the result of crossing Madame Vaucher 

 with Pink Stella, and Italia Unita and Mrs. Pollock with 



