April 13, 1867. ] 



JOURNAIi OP HOBTICDLTUEB AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



275 



. tropics rains and clouds accompany a vertical sun, and then 

 everything starts into growth as if by enchantment. By the 

 time the new shoots have made their terminal buds the rains 

 are falling in other lands, and the sun, no longer vertical, sends 

 his slanting rays from above the distant clouds to warm and 

 dry the air, and finish the growth the rains commenced. 



Mr. W. Thomson thinks my question to Mr. Wills about the 

 styptic a very ridiculous one. The original suggestion to use 

 it to the bottoms of Pelargonium cuttings, appeared to me and 

 to others to be equally ridiculous. One unfortunate corre- 

 spondent has lost the whole of her cuttings in her attempt to 

 imitate Mr. Wills, and yet one would suppose the fingers of a 

 lady were well adapted for so delicate an operation. Gentlemen 

 .seeing their gardeners exhibiting their scientific acquirements 

 in the manner suggested by Mr. Wills, would prefer throwing 

 both styptic and Pelargoniums to the limbo of broken pots, for 

 its use in a garden should be an exception and not a rule. 



I beUeve that every one who asks a question is pleased to 

 receive a plain and candid answer. Therefore, I confess that 

 Grapes grown in the open air in the countries I referred to, 

 cannot compete with the best Grapes grown in hothouses in 

 this coimtry, either in size of bunch or berry, but in flavour 

 they often surpass them, and if the crop were limited to a few 

 bunches and these had the care and attention given to the pro- 

 duce of an English hothouse, they would lose nothing by the 

 competition. With equal readiness I admit, that in southern 

 Kussia the thermometer does at times go up among the nineties. 

 It does the same in this country. In the month of .June, 1845, 

 thermometers at the back of north walls in the Isle of Wight 

 marked 02°. I have had the whole of the skin scorched from 

 my insteps by the power of the sun in a country as far north 

 as Scotland. Such flashes of heat prove nothing, and would 

 be positively injurious in Europe if continued for any length 

 of time. 



I have lived on the Continent for years. I have visited 

 French gentlemen in their country homes and know something 

 of their establishments. I am, therefore, able to endorse nearly 

 all Mr. Thomson has said about French hothouse Grapes. 

 They are often inferior to the vineyard Grapes of the south. 

 Horticulture is not encouraged in France as it is in England. 



Thus far I have been able to agree with Mr. Thomson, but I 

 deny his assertion, that the vineyards of the Rhine are subject to 

 a higher temperature than he has recommended for hothouses. 

 If it were true it would affect the temperature of the three 

 summer months. The mean summer temperature of Strasburg 

 and Heidelberg is 65', only 1° more than that of Berlin, and 

 barely 5° more than the mean summer temperature of DubUn. 



" What may be termed a temperate climate is that most 

 suitable for its cultivation." Such is Mr. Thomson's state- 

 ment in the first page of his treatise on the Vine. Is a tem- 

 perature of from 70° to 95° a temperate chmate ? Is a moist 

 heat of 100°, which Mr. Thomson now declares to be ad- 

 vantageous to the Vine, to be found in the temperate zone ? 

 Do plants within the tropics enjoy such a clialeur d'enfcr, as 

 this within a few weeks from the commencement of their new 

 growth ? 



I will put this question of temperature in another form. I 

 have a span-roof house, 100 feet by 16 feet. If I were to 

 divide this house into four compartments for the separate cul- 

 tivation of plants requiring different temperatiu'es, the com- 

 partment having the lowest temperature to be planted with 

 Vines ; the next to be filled with Oranges, Lemons, Citrons, 

 and Olives ; the third with Date Palms, Sugar Canes, and Pine 

 Apples ; and the last with Cocoa-nuts, spices, and Cacao trees 

 — if Mr. Thomson's temperature of 70° to 95° be proper and 

 necessary for my Vines in the first compartment, will he give 

 me an ascending thermic scale of cultivation for my other 

 compartments? Hamburghs do not grow in Fernando Po, 

 nor Muscats in the Caracas. — H. S. 



RIVINA L.EVIS CULTURE. 



This native of the West Indies was cultivated by Philip 

 Miller more than a century since, yet is not so well known as 

 it deserves, for of fruit-bearing plants adapted for decorating 

 the dinner table I would give the preference to it. The plant 

 produces a great number of elegant drooping racemes, 4 inches 

 in length, of beautiful scarlet berries throughout the autumn, 

 winter, and spring months — indeed, its value cannot be over- 

 rated. A shilling packet of seed (which we had true from 

 .Messrs. Barr & Sugden), sown in April, wUl produce plants 

 which will fruit well from the following autumn. 



The seed readily vegetates in a Cucumber-frame ; and when 

 the plants are about an inch high they should be potted singly 

 in thumb pots. When well established they should be shifted 

 into 32-sized pots, in which they will fruit abundantly. In 

 the following spring, if larger plants are required, they may 

 be shifted into 24-sized pots, in which they will produce an 

 immense number of fruit, which is exceedingly useful for gar- 

 nishing Grapes and other fruits, and also for mixing amongst 

 cut flowers for vases, &c. A few sprigs mixed amougst white 

 Camellias, white Primulas, and other flowers for bouquets, 

 give a most enchanting appearance. 



The soil which the plants require is peat, with a little loam 

 and sand, well blended together, and they may be grown either 

 as standards, pyramids, or bushes. A warm greenhouse or 

 stove suits them best from October till March, and in the sum- 

 mer months they will grow well in a cold pit or in the open 

 ah". — John Perkixs, Tlwrnham Gardens, Suffolk. 



ORIGIX OF TRICOLOR PELARGONIUMS. 



I HAVK read the letter of your correspondent Mr. Pearson 

 with some interest, as having, liko him, been considerably 

 amused by the contents of some of the letters which have 

 from time to time appeared on this su'oject. I also hope, and 

 I am inclined to think, that on a second thought Mr. Pearson 

 wUl hardly feel inclined to set me down as a humbug, if, as 

 far as Golden Tricolor Pelargoniums are concerned, I plead 

 guilty to the charge of "having foreseen the probability of our 

 dark-zoned varieties becoming tricolor, and crossed for the ex- 

 press purpose of producing them ;" and, what is more, I cer- 

 tainly made no secret of my views on the subject, and should 

 you be kind enough to give this letter a place in your columns, 

 it will in all probability meet the eye of more than one who 

 may recollect having heard me express those opinions, pre- 

 vious to the introduction of Mrs. Pollock, or any other Golden 

 Tricolor Pelargonium. 



What suggested the idea to me was simply as foUows : — I 

 had observed that by crossing the silver-margined varieties, 

 which were not numerous at that time, with the green- 

 leaved zoned sorts, the result was a per-centage of seedlings 

 with silver margins, and some of them with the addition of a 

 well-defined or pink zone, very pretty when the foliage was in 

 a young state, hut nearly disappearing as the leaves advanced 

 in age. 



Reasoning from analogy, nothing I think could be more 

 natural than to arrive at this conclusion — viz., that as the union 

 of a zoned with a silver-margined variety was ascertained to 

 produce progeny having pink or red zones, and also silver mar- 

 gins, so the union of a zoned variety with a yellow-margined 

 variety might reasonably be expected to produce progeny 

 having yellow margins, and with zones of more intensity of 

 colour. Knowing, as I did, that the mingling of brown and 

 yellow would produce a red, on the same principle as blue and 

 yellow will produce green, the anticipations of those results 

 led to various experiments being tried, and their realisations 

 are now sufficiently well known ; and I believe that it is gene- 

 rally admitted that the introduction of this class of Pelar- 

 goniums is a consummation worthy of being wished for. 



Some of my friends, I believe, give me credit for being in- 

 strumental in their production, others qualify the matter by 

 saying that I did so " quite accidentally," and others say that 

 I had nothing whatever to do with it, but that they produced 

 themselves spontaneously and simultaneously. 



If any one will take the trouble to earefuUy examine a leaf 

 of a heavily-zoned Pelargonium he will find that the change 

 which takes place when that leaf is induced to become varie- 

 gated is not quite so wonderful as it may at first sight appear 

 to be. The upper surface of the leaf shows, we will suppose, 

 a well-defined zone, or horseshoe, but the imder side shows no 

 indication of a zone whatever ; and ii a leaf be cut into two 

 pieces, the assistance of a magnifying glass will show that the 

 brown colouring matter which constitutes the zone does not 

 extend to the entire thickness of the leaf, but appears some- 

 what in the form of a coat of dark brown paint resting upon 

 the green tissue of the leaf, and kept as it were in its place by 

 the translucent epidermis which covers the upper surface. 

 Now, when a variety of Pelargonium to which the dark zone 

 is natural can be induced to become variegated or yellow- 

 margined, the natural position or locality of the zone is over 

 the very part where the undulating or irregular junction of the 

 yellow margin and the green disc or centre of the leaf takes 

 place : consequently whatever portion of the yellow margin 



