8 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ January 1, 1867. 



seldom seen in perfection, although one deserving of exten- 

 sive cultivation. It is, I think, very much improved by being 

 grafted on the Blixck Hamburgh. The best fruit of it which 



1 have seen was from Vines grafted on that sort, the border 

 being composed mostly of the natural soil of the garden. 



In the third house were planted Black Hambui-gh, and, I 

 think, Eoyal Muscadine on their own roots. This house used 

 to do better than the other two ; but I always thought the 

 Vines would have succeeded still better if the roots had not 

 gone down so deep, and further experience has confirmed me 

 on that point. 



With regard to the next Vines that came under my notice, 

 the borders were what would be called shallow — that is, from 



2 feet 3 inches to 3 feet deep, and they were made at first 

 about half the width they were ultimately intended to be. 

 The soil was taken out to the required depth for about (i feet 

 wide on both sides of the front wall, so that there was a prepared 

 border on each side of the wall, one outside and one inside. 

 The soU was composed of the top spit of an old pasture, with- 

 out the addition of manure of any sort. The Vines were 

 planted on a ridge raised about 9 inches above the floor line, 

 a single rod was taken up from each plant, and nearly in every 

 case the Vines reached the top of the house the first season, 

 making strong short-jointed wood, and well ripened, without 

 the assistance of artificial heat, even in the case of the Muscats. 

 In the following season they were cut back, the rods being left 

 from 8 to 10 feet in length ; and being carefully started in the 

 spring they broke regularly, showing in most instances three 

 bunches at each joint. Of course the greater part of these 

 were removed at once, leaving in the end only from three to 

 six bunches on each Vine, so that they ripened these well, and 

 again made strong growths. They were supplied during the 

 growing season with liquid manure, but not in large quantities, 

 about three or four times in the course of the season. Next 

 year the Vines carried a good average crop of from six to twelve 

 bunches each. I did not see any of them weighed, but I judged 

 some of the Black Hamburgh bunches weighed upwards of 



3 lbs. each ; they were beautifully coloured and of excellent 

 flavour. 



I will now notice the state of the roots in these vineries. In 

 lorking the borders over in order to add some farmyard manure, 

 the roots were found to have spread in a horizontal direction 

 to the outside of the prepared border, quite close to the sur- 

 face. If I had had the sole management of the borders, and if 

 the materials could have been obtained, I would have pro- 

 ceeded in this way : I would have thrown equal quantities of 

 fresh hoise-droppings and cowdung into a heap together ; they 

 would soon have heated, and if the cowdung was wet, as it 

 sometimes is, it would have dried in the course of fermentation. 

 After the heat was gone — (the heap ought not to be allowed to 

 heat violently ; if it do so it should be spread out on the floor 

 of the shed. I presume, of course, that it is in a place where 

 the rains will not reach it) — to every two barrowloads I would 

 have added one of turfy loam, and surface-dressed the "Vines 

 with the mixture instead of digging amongst the roots. The 

 repeated waterings would have washed the nourishment down ; 

 and the manure being kept on the surface, the roots would 

 be near it too, and there they would be better able to feed 

 the Vines than if they were down at the bottom of five-feet 

 borders, and that is where they will go, especially if bones 

 or other manure be added to the loam when the borders are 

 made. 



Since then I have had the charge of forming the borders for 

 two vineries, and I was prevailed upon to add some manure to 

 the loam when the borders were made ; a small quantity of 

 lime was also added, and the Vines imder the same treatment 

 have not done so well as in the case when only the turfy loam 

 was used. The borders were rather more than 3 feet deep, 

 and scarcely any roots are to be found near the surface. I 

 have therefore come to the conclusion that turfy loam without 

 the addition of any manure the first season is the best material 

 of which to form a Vine border. There is plenty of nourish- 

 ment to be found amongst the decaying roots of the grass the 

 first season, and manure can always be added either in the 

 liquid form or by means of surface-dressings. 



In the preceding observations I have simply recorded the 

 results of my own experience. When I say that borders made 

 without the addition of bones or other manures are the best 

 I do not intend to assert that borders formed in the other way 

 will not answer. I have no doubt they will, otherwise practical 

 gardeners would not be found to advocate them ; but I hope 

 onr amateur friends will not be disheartened because they 



cannot go to the expense of having flagstones and other ex- 

 pensive materials buried at the bottom of the border, because I 

 am fully convinced that they are not necessary. — J. Douglas. 



psidiu:m raddh. 



I WISH your correspondent who signed himself " EiDDii, 

 Pctcrhorouijh " (December 20, 1805), would state whether the 

 above fruit is superior in quality to V. Cattleyanum, and whether 

 it is equally hardy. Of the latter there are two varieties, the 

 fruit of one being spherical, of the other somewhat Pear- 

 shaped. The nurseryman of whom I bought my plant assured 

 me that it required a stove, and it certainly came out of one, 

 but it soon accommodated itself to a slightly-warmed orchard- 

 house, and fruited abundantly. On two occasions it stood a 

 temperature of 30° uninjured. The fruit seemed to me de- 

 cidedly inferior to the larger tropical Guavas, so I gave up 

 growing it. — G. S. 



HOT AIR FROM A KITCHEN RANGE. 



" EusTicrs," in the Number for December 18th, inquires 

 how he can utilise a fire situated in the kitchen, of which the 

 wall containing the fireplace forms the side of an out-buUding. 

 This he can easily accomplish by passing an ordinary piece of 

 gas-pipe, bent at two right angles, through the fire, so as to let 

 one end project into the room towards the hearth, the other 

 into the out-building. The heated air in the intermediate 

 part rises into the out-building, and the air rushing in from 

 the room to supply its place passes in its turn through the 

 heated tube and is delivered warm into the out-building. This 

 simple plan can also be advantageously used to increase the 

 heat of ordinary stoves, whether in the greenhouse or hall. — 

 J. M. F., Streatham. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING. 



The December Meeting of this Society was held at Burlington 

 House on the 3rd inst.. the President, Sir John Lubbock, F.K.S., in 

 the chaii'. Amongst the donations to the Society's Ubrary received 

 since the last meeting were the Memoirs of the Linnean Society of 

 Normandy, the " Hymeuopterous Memoirs " of M. Sichel, &c. Six 

 nes members were balloted for and elected. 



Mr. W. F. Evans, F.L.S., sent for exhibition a number of insects, 

 chiefly Beetles (especially the beautiful Pyronota festiva. belonging to- 

 the family Melolonthida!), which had been found amongst wool im- 

 ported from New Zealand. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited living specimens of Gracdlaria scalarieUa, 

 bred from lai-vre found at Cannes in the South of France, mining the 

 leaves of Echium vulgare, communicated by M. Milliere ; also some 

 ilat pouch-like galls, obtained from IMeutone, near Nice, formed on 

 the leaves of Pistacia lentiscus, apparently by Aphides, hut which 

 were inhabited by a Phycideous larva. 



Mr. lanson exhibited" a box of insects collected by Mr. W. Home in 

 the vicinity of Rio Janeiro. 



Mr. Daer exhibited a chrysalis of the common TortoiseshtU Bntter- 

 ily, from each shoulder of which depended a slender filament nearly 

 as long as the chrysalis itself. 



The Secretai-y communicated a notice on the employment, in tropical 

 countries, of mahogany timber of Westei-n Australia, that Hnd of 

 wood not being subject, from its peculiar qualities, to the attacks of 

 White Ants, which are so destructivo to aU other woodwork in hot 

 climates. 



Dr. Sharp exhibited Stenns major, a species of Staphylinid® new to 

 the British lists, taken at Southend. 



Professor Westwood communicated a biogi-aphical notice of the late 

 Mr. S. Stone, whose collections of insects, nests of "Wasps, &c., a& 

 well as his antiquarian collection, had been presented to the museums 

 at Oxford. He also exhibited a number of specimens of the Gipsy 

 Moth, Liparis dispar, reared by Mr. Briggs, of St. John's College, 

 Oxford, showing the variations which had resulted from feeding some 

 of the individuals exclusively on T>'hito Thorn and others on Elm. 

 The females of the latter set were invariably crippled, and the whole 

 of them sterile. This exhibition gave rise to considerable discussion. 

 Professor "Wcstwood also communicated a letter fronj Edward Holds- 

 worth, Esq., of Shanghai, containing a description of the caterpillar 

 of the beautiful Moth Bombyx Selene. 



The discussion, commenced at the preceding meeting, on Natural 

 Selection and Mimetic Analogies, was resumed, and continned at 

 gi-eftt length, being participated in by Dr. Sharp, Messrs. Bates. Belt, 

 Stainton, Weir, '\\'allace, McLachlan, Professor Westwood. and the 

 President ; during which the immunity of the Heliconian Butterflies 

 in South America from the attacks of birds (suggested by Mr. Bates 

 as a cause of the mimicry which he assumed to have been adopted by 



