180 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t March 7, 1847. 



gathered when not a vestige of flower was diaoernible in the 

 old-fashioned, dark, dismal box-frame, although both were 

 placed near each other, and were subjected to the same and 

 equal management. The plan of arranging the ground vinery 

 for this purpose was extremely simple. In the month of Octo- 

 ber last, when all the fruit had been cut from the Vines, a bed 

 of the same area as the vinery was marked out, round which 

 common bricks were laid two deep ; the bed thus formed was 

 filled with coal ashes, and the Violets, which had previously been 

 potted in S'isized pots, were plunged in it. The plants were 

 thus exposed to intense light — an agent most essential, as all 

 gardeners are aware, to the well-being of this plant. The ar- 

 rangement for giving air is likewise so perfect in these struc- 

 tures that the Violets can ke exposed wholly in propitious 

 weather, and should it be mild with moisture falling the lids 

 or sides can be raised nearly horizontally, thus exposing the 

 plants to air, whilst affording protection from wet. During the 

 inclement weather we had this winter the vinery was covered 

 with litter, and thatched hurdles placed together over the whole 

 in the shape of a span roof. This protection bade defiance to 

 cold 9° below zero. 



During the past season I have seen some magnificent crops 

 of Grapes under the.se ground vineries. The bunches were of 

 a good size, the berries well swelled and above the average 

 size, with the colouring as perfect as in any that have been cut 

 from more spacious houses, and the flavour was exquisite. 



I find many growers, elated with the success of these vineries, 

 intend applying them to the growing of stone fruits, such as 

 Peaches and Nectarines, the trees being planted out and treated 

 precisely the same as the Vines. The slates will be laid down 

 and perforated at regular distances, so as to admit pegs for the 

 purpose of pegging down and laying out the branches. The 

 roots being free to act on the outside, as in the case of Vines, 

 no watering is necessary, as when these fruits are grown in 

 pots npon the orchard-house principle ; and the moisture eva- 

 porated from the slates, with which the wood and foUage are 

 in contact, prevents red spider, thrips, and other insects from 

 multiplying. 



I find the best method of cultivating fruits under Wells's 

 ground vineries is as follows :— At one end of the vinery a hole, 

 2 feet square, and of about the same depth, is dug out and filled 

 with a compost of good loam, rotten dung, and a little road sand ; 

 these should be well incorporated together, previously throwing 

 in about one and a half peck of bones, merely bruised, to afford 

 drainage to the mass, also to feed the Vines during hot weather, 

 or when the heat is so great as to rob the plant of its natural 

 moisture. The bones will likewise absorb the fluids passing 

 down to them more readily by being bruised. All being thus 

 prepared, the Vine is turned out about the middle of March, 

 providing the weather is open and mild, the cane being intro- 

 duced and pegged down. Air should be admitted at ten o'clock, 

 A.M., by raising slightly the lights; this, with the additional 

 air from the bottom of the frames, will serve to check the Vines 

 from making too quick and premature a growth before the sea- 

 son is sufficiently advanced to assist the formation of the young 

 parts. The cases should be closed again .about '2 p.m., if possible 

 securing a little atmospheric warmth, and the Vines should at 

 this period be slightly syringed ; the moisture will aid the expan- 

 sion of the bark and' the bursting of the young buds and leaves. 

 This treatment should be continued until the flowers are ex- 

 panded, when syringing must be entirely suspended and air 

 admitted upon every opportunity. As soon as the flowers are 

 set I find moisture applied in the form of vapour highly benefi- 

 cial ; this can be obtained by pouring tepid water upon the slates. 

 Atmospheric warmth is secured throughout the day, and causes 

 the moisture to evaporate, thus charging the internal air with 

 an agent highly beneficial. As soon as the Grapes have at- 

 tained the size of Sweet Peas the bunches should be thinned, 

 taking out all ill-shaped and deformed berries, also all those 

 which are in immediate contact with others, taking care not to 

 remove all the interior berries, or the bunches will be loose 

 and Ul-shapen. At this period the structure should be kept 

 close and as much warmth secured as possible, as the critical 

 time of stoning will have arrived, and a check would prove 

 highly injurious. As soon as colouring commences as much 

 air should be admitted as is consistent with safety from chilling, 

 and the vinery should be closed snfiiciently early to secure, as 

 before stated, as much natural warmth as possible. If this 

 course be pursued I feel confident every success will attend the 

 operator, and will well repay him for the pains he may bestow ; 

 the weight and quality of the fruit will equal if not exceed 

 that which is grown in extensive Vine-houses. 



I have this winter seen a very happy adaptation of the 

 ground vinery. One of the 14-feet vineries was selected, a site 

 facing south was arranged, a pit dug 3 feet deep, and the sides 

 bricked with 4 J -inch work 2 feet above the ground level; upon 

 the brickwork was laid a wooden plate, and to this the vinery 

 was fixed, being screwed down at the four corners of each 

 division. The pit was then filled with cocoa-nut fibre, and 

 such plants as Fuchsias, Pelargoniums, and bulbs were placed 

 in it. These grew with great luxuriance, and, as in other 

 cases where they were well covered with litter and the thatched 

 hurdles, resisted the intense frosts we experienced in January. 

 The same vinery-pit is at this moment filled with fermenting 

 material, and Khubarb, Sea-kale, and salading are being cut, 

 while there are Cucumbers chmbing along the roof and looking 

 as luxuriant as upon ridges in summer. Dutch bulbs are also 

 being brought out weekly for the drawing-room. This plan 

 is merely an enlarged idea of what was before exemplified, and 

 serves to prove how valuable ground vineries are to the horti- 

 culturist. 



HARDINESS OF TRITELEIA UNIFLORA. 



Will you tell me whether Triteleia nuiflora wiU stand the 

 winter in the open ground ? Having it now in bloom in pots 

 — and it is a lovely flower — I feel anxious to know whether it 

 is hardy. Should it be so, it will be an acquisition to our 

 spring bulbs, and ought to be largely grown. In my opinion it 

 is most beautiful. — M. H., Acklam Hall, Middleshorovgh-on- 

 Tees. 



[We believe it to be hardy ; and should have no hesitation 

 in leaving it in the border throughout the winter, with no 

 other covering than an inch or two of cocoa-nut fibre refuse or 

 coal ashes. Some years since a gentleman wrote to us thus : — 

 " There is one plant I would particularly call your attention to 

 — the Triteleia uniflora. It is a bulb, and described as half- 

 hardy, and blooming in June. With me (on the Mendip HUls), 

 it thrives in a border under a west wall, without the slightest 

 protection, and blossoms from the third week in March to the 

 end of May. I think no flower is more delicately beautiful, 

 and I wonder that it is not as common as the Narcissus."] 



ENTOMOLOCxICAL SOCIETY. 



The second meeting iu February was held on the IHtli inst. at Bur- 

 lington House, the President, Sir .Jolin Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., &c., 

 in the chair. Amongst the donatious to the Ubrary received since the 

 preceding meeting were the pubUcations of the Imperial Society of 

 Moscow, the Entomological and other Societies of France, Stettin. 

 Dublin, and Christiana. 



Mr. Frederick Moore exliibited a number of specimens of a niinnt« 

 wood-boring Beetle, Tomicus monographus, a species not hitherto de- 

 tected in England, which had proved very injui-ious to the oaken 

 staves of casks of malt liquors in India, causing in some instances the 

 loss of the liquor to the extent of .50 per cent. The injury had been 

 first noticed in Bormah, and the casks when tirst landed from the 

 ships did not appear to be at all injured. As many as 1.340.000 per- 

 forations had been observed in the staves of a single cask. It wa» 

 suggested that either the steaming process to which the staves ara 

 subjected to bring them into shape, or the taste given to them by the 

 liquor, had rendered them palatable to the insects, which appear to b« 

 nearly allied to the Bamboo-borer. 



Mr. Newman exhibited the lock of a garden gate completely filled 

 with the mud nests of a wild Bee, Osmia bicornis ; some portions of 

 the stem of Sallow, Salis caprea, burrowed into by the larva* of th* 

 Hornet Moth, Sesia borabyciformis ; also some large Ants, Fonnioa 

 herculanea or pubescens, said to have been taken at Kinloch Kannoch, 

 in Perthshire, each having made a cell for itself in rotten Oak ; and 

 a specimen of Lithosia ancella from Worthiug. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited two boies filled with Hymenopteroua insects 

 of great interest, collected at Champion Bay on the north-west coast 

 of New Holland by Mr. De Boulay, including a number of new species 

 of FormicidBB, Slutillidie, Thynnidjp, and Apida\ 



Mr. Stftinton exhibited two species of Microlepidoptera, Zelleria 

 oleastreUa and Margarodes unionulis, reared from the OHves at Men- 

 tone. 



Professor Westwood mentioned that a specimen of Vanessa urtic« 

 had been captured on the 7th inst. at Oxford by Dr. IvoUeston, which 

 proved to be a male, and on dissection its abdomen was found to b« 

 filled with oleaginous fluid. 



Mr. R. A. Wallace read an elaborate memoir on the Pierideotts 

 Butterflies of the Malayan Archipelago, in the introduction to which 

 he entered into numerous details as to the geographical range, affinities, 

 and mimetic analogies of the diUerent groups : which led to an ex- 

 tended diBcuasion. in which Mr. Pascoe especially maintained th« 

 distinction between the Faunas of the eastern portion of the Arcfai- 



