484 



JOURNAL OF HORTICUIiTUKE AND COTTAGE GAKBENER. 



[ December 26, 18G7. 



noted for large plantations of Liquorice and Skirworts.'— Fairy Foot- 

 steps." — [The best answer we can tjive is the following extract from old 

 Gerardc's " Herbal :" — "Called in Bnanish Cherinia, in Italian Sisaro, in 

 French Cheruy. in Eufrlish Skirret and Skirwort. And this is that Siser 

 or Skirret which Tiberius the Eiuperour commanded to he conueied vnto 

 him from Geldiiba, a castle about the riuer of Khene, as Pliny reportetb."] 



Roses (Dr. Dixon). — Of the two Rosea you name we should select 

 William Griffith. 



Zonal Pelargonidm "Aurantia striata," — "P." wishes to know 

 TVhere this variety, mentioned at page 4iJ8, can be obtained. 



Fruit Room (Halcjjon). — A very good fruit room would be a lean-to 

 house from 16 to 20 feet in length, ly feet in width, 10 or 12 feet high at 

 back, and 6 feet in front. The sloping roof should be double, or straw- 

 stufled between tho ceiling and slates, and have two ventilators ou it, 

 capped to let out vapour but prevent dump finding its way in. The front 

 wall, especially, should l>o hollow, and there should bo ventilators above 

 the floor level, secured by slides to keep cold out. Trellised shelves 

 should be placed on each side of the pathway in the centre. Yovir 

 cheapest way to heat a greenhouse 25 feet long would be by flue. The 

 price of erecting it would depend entirely on tho style, and on the roof 

 being moveable or fixed. You cannot do better than look over our adver- 

 tising columns. 



Heat fro:^ a Kitchen Fire {J. T.). — We think that as your boiler 

 answers so effectually, a very little attention to it in the morning would 

 enable you to dispense altogether with the heat from your kitchen boiler 

 during the day. Wo presume your kitchen boiler has an open top ; and 

 if so, the pipes from it must be near the top and near the bottom, and 

 neither nbove the top nor below the bottom of tho boiler. Your want of 

 heat in the return pipe to the boiler is owing to the longer pipe and the 

 great boily of water beneath it, with which it is connected. Your plan 

 No. 1 is that most generally adopted, and would answer well but for these 

 circumstances. If the levels were right your kitchen boiler might have 

 saved another boiler altogether. It thus happens at times that two are 

 not better than one. We should certainly try the second mode and con- 

 nect both the flow and return from the kitchen boiler to the flow from 

 the main boiler; but even then, when the main boiler is not working, we 

 should expect httle heat in the return. 



Hardiness of the Aucuba {A., Clapham). — The Aueuba under glass 

 will endure any amount of cold you can give it. The plaut is quite hardy. 

 It will retain its berries in a house from which frost is no more than ex- 

 cluded for a long time. The seedlings produce berries in two or three 

 years, according to the treatment. They havo berries when very young, 

 when grown in pots, and not over-potted. 



CoEREA CARDiNALis CULTURE (DulcileUa). — Kocp it near the glass in 

 an airy position, in a greenhouse where fire heat is only employed to 

 keep out frost. The watering should be very moderate dui'ing the 

 winter ; give no more water than enough to keep the soil moist, and only 

 when the soil becomes dry; at tho same time the soil should not be 

 allowed to become so dry as to cause the foliage to flag. If tho soil is 

 very wet, and remains for a long time without requiring water, the plant 

 should be turned out of its pot, the drainage examined, and, if defective, 

 jrectified. Early in March the plant may be potted, turning it out of its 

 pot, removing the drainage and any old soil that will come away easily 

 from tho roots, picking it out cirefully with a pointed piece of wood. The 

 plant should then be placed in a pot large enough to hold the roots with- 

 out cramping them. Drain well with ci'ocks, and over these place about 

 an inch of the rougher parts of the compost. This may consist of two- 

 thirds sandy peat and one-third turfy loam, well mixed with one-sixth 

 silver sand. The compost should be broken and made tulerably fine with 

 a spade, but not sifted, and in potting the collar of the plant should be 

 kept high in the centre of the pot, the compost being made firm about th 9 

 roots. The soil must lie Itppt moist, but avoid heavy waterings until the 

 roots are working freely in the fresh soil, sprinkling the pliint overhead 

 through a fine rosed syringe twice daily, afiording slight shade from 

 ■bright sun for a fortnight after potting, and keeping rather close for that 

 time. When the plant has become re-established, and is gi'owing freely, 

 admit plenty of air and give copious supplies of water, but never until 

 required; then afford enough to run through the soil and show itself at 

 the drainage. In June the plant, if it has grown well and filled the pot 

 with roots, may be shifted into a pot a size larger, using the same com- 

 post as before, and be placed in a cold frame, setting the pot on coal 

 ashes. The plant will rlo much better here than in a gi'eeuhouse, the 

 lights being (b-awn off after a few days and kept off, except during very 

 wet periods and in windy weather, when the lights should be tilted so as 

 to admit air. Gentle showers will do the plant good. Towards tho end 

 of September it may be removed to the greenhouse, and have a light 

 and airy position. In summer it will require abundance of water, and in 

 winter it should not be allowed to suffer from the want of it, especially 

 when flowering. 



Box Edging Planting ( TKn!i07t).— The best time to renew or replant 

 Eos edging is in March and April, but it may bo done now during mild 

 weather, and yet it should not be much cut at this season. »s the frost is 

 almost sure to brown, if not destroy it, if the winter should prove severe. 

 We are now planting hundreds of yards per day, and to guard against 

 injury from frost we arc only trimming off the more straggliug parts. 

 The more particular parts of the grounds, such as parterre work, we shall 

 defer until spring, when the weather is more mild, as the Box is then 

 more neatly planted, and it is in less danger from frost. 



Clearing Walks of Weeds (Idem).— The best plan to clear weeds 

 Irom walks is to dissolve 4 lbs. of arsenic in twelve gallons of water, and 

 iioil the liquid, keeping it well stirred, and adding 8 lbs. of crushed soda 

 ■when it boils. Keep tho sohition boiling five minutes, then add thirty 

 gallons of water, and stir well. Apply this to the walks io diy weather 

 from March to May with a rose watering pot, the above quantity being 

 sufficient for lOO square yards. It should be applied hot. A board should 

 ,be placed against grass or Box edgings, one edge resting on the gravel; 

 and the board thus set on its edge should incline towards the walk, so as 

 lo throw any water falling on the board on to tho walk. The liquid 

 should not be allowed to reach Box edgings or grass, and ought to be 

 applied in dry weather only. 



Peach Tree Propagation (H. N. 0.).— Peaches are sometimes propa- 

 gated by grafting, but the most general mode of propagation is budding, 

 that being performed in July, or when the stocks are in condition to ran 

 — that is, when the Inner bark readily separates from the albumtim, and 



the buds rise freely from the shoot. Care should be taken that wood 

 buds only are used, as when fruit buds are employed failure is certain. 

 The best stocks are of tho Mussel Plum, but the White Pear Plum is 

 sometimes employed, and upon it the buds take more freely than most 

 other stocks, but the Peach trees are often seen outgrowing the stock. 

 Your inquiry is about grafting, therefore we will confine our remarks to 

 that. For grafting we would recommend the Almond stock; after one or 

 two years' gi'owth from the time the seed t^erminates, it may be grafted 

 in March. Care should be taken to select for scions shoots having firm, 

 well-ripened, short-jointed wood, taking them off with 1 inch of the two- 

 year-old wood at the lower end. They should bo cut in spring before 

 they commence growth, and should be kept with their ends in moist sand 

 until the sap of the stock begins to ascend, which will be when their wood 

 buds begin to grow. The scion should be trimmed as for whip grafting, 

 which is what we recommend. Leave about half au inch of the two-year- 

 old wood at the lower extremity of the scion, and take care that the inner 

 barks of stock and scion do not overlap each other at the lower end, or 

 the result may be a projection liable to gum. Tho scion should he tied 

 on in the usual way and clayed. The taking of the grafts maybe aSBieted 

 by earthing up as high as the top ot the clay. 



Variegation ildcm). — There is not, that we are aware, any secret mode 

 ofproducing variegation, nor are we aware thatany one has yet converted 

 the dark leaves of the Perilla into white, and we do not believe that the 

 gardener in your neighbourhood can do so any more than that he can make 

 a black man white. Those in possession of secrets are always glad to part 

 from them for one or other of the consideratious you name. Secrets 

 rarely long remain secrets where they in reality "exist. They longest 

 exist in the ixiagination. 



Pruning Plum and Apple Trees Newly Planted (Idem). — The 

 small shoots 6 or 7 inches long, we presume, are upon the principal 

 shoots, and should be cut back to within half an inch of their base ; but 

 if they are shoots required for training they ought not to be shortened. 

 All tho leading shoots, i.e. those with which the wall is to be covered 

 in part, should not be shortened, but be trained in at their full length 

 except the central shoot, which ought to be cut back to within 12 inches 

 of the place whence it took its rise. 



Inarching Black Hamdurgh on Royal Muscadine Vine {Idem). — 

 The safest time to do it is when both have commenced growth, so that 

 the danger of bleeding will be Icgs. It may be done as soon as both have 

 leaves. A smooth part of the stem of the stock, and as near the bottom of 

 the rafter as possible, ought to be chosen, and a thin sUco of wood, about 

 1\ inch long, removed. You need not take it off deeper than the 

 breadth of the shoot ov cane of the Vine to be inarched upon it, from 

 which a similar slice of wood should be taken with a sharp knife, and 

 below the uppermost shoot. If the parts of both fit exactly, both the 

 edges touching each other, all well ; but if not, you must make their 

 barks both meet on one side, and lie closely together. You must then 

 make in the stock a slanting cut downwards, and another slanting cut 

 upwards in the Vine to be inarched, about half through tho latter, and 

 three quarters of an inch in length, and introduce this into the slanting 

 cut in the stock; both the cuts being of an equal length, the bark 

 corresponding on one if not on both sides of tho cut in the stock. Bind 

 the stock then together neatly with a strip of bast matting; cover with 

 a little clay or grafting wax, so as to exclude air; and over this place a thin 

 bandage of moss tied on with matting. You will prep.arc the Black 

 Hamburgh for inarching by pruningit now to the required length, leaving 

 two good eyes above where you intend inarching. The Black Hamburgh 

 should be treated in every respect as if it were for growth, being well 

 watered, iS;c. In six weeks after the operation the ligature and grafting 

 clay or wax may be removed, and you will doubtless have attained the 

 desired object. The union should bo slightly bandaged, tind when the 

 Black Hamburgh grows freely you may cut the cane immediately below 

 the junction, or tie a piece of string very tightly around the cane of the 

 Black Hamburgh, just below the uuion, and let it grow a month or 

 six weeks longer, then cut it away. The best of the shoots on the Black 

 Hamburgh, if more than one be left above tho point of inarching, 

 should be trained up tho rafter and have every encouragement, the others, 

 if any. being cut away. If you can find a young shoot on the stem well 

 disposed for the operation, you may work upon it, otherwise the Black 

 Hamburgh will take on the central rod of the Royal Muscadine. Yon 

 may allow the Royal Muscadine to carry a full crop, and when gathered 

 cut the Vine away to the union of the Black Hamburgh with it. The 

 Hamburgh will bear Grapes in the following year, so that you will not 

 lose a single year. What influence the stock may have upon the Ham- 

 burgh, we cannot tuU. 



Transplanting Pampas Grass (i?. 0. S. L.).— We have removed large 

 plants early in April, taking up each with a good ball, preparing a good- 

 sized hole, and planting with some good rich compost. The plants 

 should be well watered after planting, and during dry weather throughout 

 the summer. Thus treated they have generally done well, but some have 

 suffered from the removal for some time ; still there have not been any 

 failures. The Pampas Grass succeeds best in moist gronnd, but we 

 cannot say that it is improved by planting neir water. We had some-, 

 however, on gravelly ground through which water passed in the under- 

 lying strata, and they were very fine. 



Dale's Conqueror Cucumbeh (Mowcroj't).— Yon can obtain the seed of 

 this Cucumber through almost any seedsman. 



Pelargonium Cuttings {Idem). — Y'ou can commence striking cuttings 

 as early in spring as you can procure them of sufficient length ; March or 

 the beginning of April is a good time. The best time to strike cuttings 

 for bedding purposes is iu August and the beginning of September. 

 Cuttings struck then are in every way better than those put iu daring 

 the spring. 



Labels for a Pinetum {Mitchell Henry). — As these are required to be 

 stuck in the ground, and large, wo recommend them to be of wood, cut 

 in the shape of the letter T ; the end to be thrust into the ground chan-ed, 

 the whole painted white, and the name painted black on the face of the 

 upper part. 



Chrysanthemum Cuttings (I?iQ»(rfr).— Chrysanthemum cuttings do 

 exceedingly well put in dm-ing January if they have the benefit of a mild 

 bottom heat; but if you cannot give them heat we would advise you to 

 take ofl'the dwarfest of the young shoots with a portion of root to each. 

 and pot them in singly small pots. They succeed admirably if kept 

 in a house from which Irost is excluded, or they will do in a cald frame. 



