582 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ November 21, 1867. 



that the above is no impossibility, as the following fact will 

 prove. 



We had to renew part of a vinery, and for convenience cut 

 the branches from the old Vines, carried them to a general 

 deposit, and soon afterwards they were partly covered with fruit- 

 tree prunings. This was in January, 1867, and in July last 

 the Vine branches had made shoots 6 inches long, and not very 

 weak.— C. McLahe;!, LiUton Hall, Norfolk. 



[We have afforded every opportunity for a free discussion of 

 this subject, and we feel the time has now arrived when it 

 should cease. Much valuable information, and many facts 

 have been elicited during the continuance of it; but our own 

 opinion is that the results of the systems practised by Mr. 

 Thomson, and others of the first-class gardeners of this country, 

 are such as to warrant a continuance of them, where the object 

 is to obtain Grapes of the highest excellence. Nothing proves 

 this more incoutrovertibly than the fact that the Muscat of 

 Alexandria grown in its native district on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, never approaches to the size and quality it ac- 

 quires in vineries under the care of our lirst-class gardeners. 

 That Black Hamburgbs and other varieties may be grown pro- 

 fitably and good without high temperatures, as is stated by 

 " H. S.," there is no doubt, and we purpose publishing next 

 week a communication just received from Mr. D. Thomson on 

 ■that subject. — Eds.] 



ZIZYPHUS LOTUS. 



CoNSiDEEixG the interest which attaches to this plant, as 

 being, in the opinion of the best judges, the genuine Homeric 

 Lotus, it has certainly surprised me never to have seen it in 

 any nurseryman's catalogue, nor ever to hear its name men- 

 tioned, more especially as Loudon states that it ripens its fruit 

 in a greenhouse temperature. 



Burchardt had tasted it in Africa, and compares it to ginger- 

 bread. The Emperor Julian, while praising his favourite fruit, 

 the Pig, says that it is the only one to which Homer applies 

 the epithet " sweet," but he seems to have forgotten that the 

 epithet " honied " is applied to the Lotus. 



Were it not for the generahy current opinion in favour of the 

 Zizyphus being the true Lotus, I confess that I should rather 

 have inclined to the Date, which is more generally used as an 

 ordinary food, and which the Arabs of the present day value as 

 highly as did the Lotophagi of old. Not having a Homer to 

 refer to, I cannot remember whether he even mentions Dates 

 by their own proper name. — G. S. 



STOCKS AND OTHER HARDY FLOWERS. 



In your notice of the Stocks which I forwarded to the Floral 

 Committee held November 5th, you have termed them " Bromp- 

 ton Stocks." They are not Brompton, however, but real 

 Intermediate Stocks, and among the most useful plants which 

 any one can grow, both for bedding and pot-culture. We have 

 at this dale two rows each of the purple and white which are 

 perfectly dazzhng ; they have been so for the last three months, 

 and will continue so till the new year with ordinary weather. 

 There is a scarlet grown in East Lothian of the very same 

 strain, and I regret I did not forward specimens of it also. 

 The purple and white are the productions of Mr. Campbell, 

 gardener, Traprain, who has selected and saved, saved and 

 selected, imtil he has produced in these Stocks the finest bed- 

 ding purple and white plants in existence ; indeed we have no 

 white bedding plants that at all approach the Stock, and Purple 

 King Verbena is poor beside the purple Stock, and the scarlet 

 is equally effective. 



It is a wonder that Intermediate Stocks %vith their won- 

 derful blooming powers have not been more generally grown 

 forsummer and autumn flower gardening long ago, and for 

 spring gardens they are perfectly unique. By sowing a little 

 later, and lifting and wintering in pots in cold frames, they 

 make such a display in April, May, and June as nothing else 

 can approach for effect. Unless in severe winters, they stand 

 unprotected in the open borders here. Here is another in- 

 stance of the fact that the gay ribbon, panel, or scroll border, or 

 beautiful bed, need not be the monopoly of the rich, with their 

 stoves and pits. By the aid of these" Stocks I would under- 

 talre to plant a border with purple, scarlet, white, yellow, &c., 

 which would tax all the hothouses in the country to match or 

 surpass, and this without any further aid in the way of glass 

 than can be derived from a few common garden hand-glasses. 



These hardy Stocks not only stand all weathers better than our 

 more tender plants, but last much longer in bloom. 



I may remark that the weather for the last six weeks has 

 been very favourable for flowers here, and many things are still 

 in beautiful bloom. Conspicuous among the long-flowerers, 

 besides the Stocks, are Gazanias, Pelargoniums, Tagetes, very 

 fine, and, until the Gth, when a slight frost cut it down, Iresine 

 was most effective. Yellow Pansies and Tritoma grandis are 

 just coming into bloom, while Tritoma uvaria glaucescens is 

 hardly over. What splendid plants for shrubbery borders 

 Tritoma grjindis and Gynerium argenteum would be if asso- 

 ciated together ! Cannas, Wigandias, ludianrubber Plants, 

 Solanums, &c., were housed last week quite fresh. Cannas 

 are hardier than most of our summer bedding plants, and so 

 are Solanums and Wigandias. — David Thojison, Arclier field. 



FOWLERS INSECTICIDE. 



As the Messrs. Fowler are unknown to me I am not careful 

 to answer the charge brought against them by Mr. Ilivers, of 

 having invented a childish name for their preparation, though 

 the term childish does not appear very appropriate. The 

 efficacy of the preparation is more important than its name, 

 though the latter may be a little pedantic ; nor is it more of a 

 nostrum than Gishurst Compound, which my friend recom- 

 mends in the same paper. Of course we should all like to 

 know how to prepare our own remedies ; but if some person 

 has found one much better than we have discovered, is it not 

 wise to make it known and use it, though it be a nostrum ? 



Believing the " Insecticide " the most efficacious insect-killer 

 (and I have used largely all those mentioned by Mr. Kivers), 

 I shall employ it till I find out a better, whether its name be 

 altered or retained. I dipped my plants as the quickest mode 

 of application, and attended with the least loss of the material 

 employed, and also because the destruction of the insects, if 

 effected, could not be attributed to friction. Of course the 

 same end would be attained by using the syringe, but much of 

 the liquid would have been wasted. 



If methylated spirit only kills scale, the constitution of which 

 has been weakened by weekly doses of quassia water, and re- 

 quires to be applied by a brush to each individual insect, it 

 appears to me a very inferior remedy to one which kills at once 

 lusty well-fed scales, such as any want of care bad allowed to 

 flourish. If to keep Orange trees clear from scale it be ne- 

 cessary to syringe them every week with quassia, and after- 

 wards to examine them, brush in hand, also every week, I think 

 a good many will, if even they are commonly cultivated, ex- 

 hibit evidence of want of care and attention. Mine have been 

 washed, leaf by leaf, with a sponge dipped in Gishurst Com- 

 pound, four or five times during the summer, besides being 

 syringed almost daily, and if they had wanted much more of 

 such attention I think they would have found their way to the 

 rubbish heap in as little time. 



Having found what appeared to be a first-rate remedy for 

 this troublesome pest, which appears to do no injury to the 

 most delicate foliage, I thought it right to call attention to it. 

 If it is tried, and others will give their experience, we shall 

 soon know all about it. As far as I have tried it, a single drop 

 kills every insect it touches, and injures no plant. Ants are 

 destroyed at once. It is said to kill mealy bug ; fortunately 

 I have never had any to kill, so cannot say if it does so or not. 

 Fowler's Insecticide is, of course, not my nostrum ; but I 

 am inclined to adopt it from what I have seen of its effects, and 

 if it proves all I think it to be at present, shall not mind the 

 name it has received. " A Hose by any other name will smell 

 as sweetly." — J. B. Peakson, Chiluell. 



I AM sorry to see in your Journal of the 7th iust. Mr. J. E. 

 Pearson's recommendation of Fowler's really valuable Insecti- 

 cide so strangely treated by " T. E." He loses sight of the 

 fact that in iilr. Pearson's trials the Insecticide, without any 

 injury to the youngest leaves, killed scale that tbe spirit did 

 not kill. My experience convinces me that even for the special 

 purposes he recommends, not one of " T. E.'s " remedies is 

 equal to Fowler's Gardeners' Insecticide. — H. S. 



I HAVE read with a little surprise " T. E.'s " letter on the 

 above subject. Jlethylated spirit may, as " T. E." asserts, 

 destroy scale when in a weak state ; but I have not till now 

 heard of anything that will entirely destroy this — indeed, any 

 other insect, without injury to the plant, as Messrs. Fowler's 



