February 3, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF H0RTICULTUP.3 AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



83 



Nepenthes Rafflesiana. — This is one of the most noble 

 basket plants I have ever seen, and when well grown I think 

 it cannot bo surpassed. I grow mine in very fibrous peat, 

 sphagnum moss, and charcoal, and when growing well I keep 

 the plant dwarf by taking the crown out. I hope to see it more 

 generally grown. 



Nepenthes Hookeri. — The pitchers of this splendid kind do 

 not attain so large a size as those of N. Rafflesiana, but the 

 plant is equally beautiful, and very free flowering. I give 

 both kinds just the same treatment. To grow them success- 

 fully they require a brisk damp atmospheric temperature. 

 Their appearance is so striking when wed managed that they 

 add very much to the beauty of a stove, and very soon make 

 noble specimens. 



Stanhopea alba c.erulea. — This is one of the most lovely 

 basket plants I know. During the past Bnmtner I have had 

 one with several lovely spikes of bloom. It is very striking 

 and very peculiar, the bloom coming out of the bottom of the 

 basket. Suspended from a rafter you hive something to look 

 at and admire, a beautiful blossom oombined with an aro- 

 matic perfume, which you will perceive immediately you are 

 near it. I grow it in baskets about 18 inches square. I 

 make the baskets of larch stakes, about 1 inch in diameter. 

 For compost I use coarse fibrous peat, sphagnum moss, and 

 charcoal ; in this it will grow most luxuriantly. 



Thuxbeeoia Harkisii. — With me this doss exceedingly well. 

 It blooms in February in racemes of lovely blua and white 

 flowers, and has a most pleasing effect. I also grow it np the 

 supports of my stove. Coming into bloom, as it does, when 

 flowers are scarce, it is all the more valuable. For compost 

 use good, rough, fibrous peat, silver sand, and a small quantity 

 of fibrous loam. 



Panicuji varieoatusi as an ornamental-foliaged plant is 

 very lovely. It is of very free growth, soon making a speci- 

 men. I am growing it in two or three different ways, but in a 

 basket, drooping, as it is, it is splendid. 



Eranthemuu sanguinolentum. Giitnostaohyuii Pearcti, 

 and G. Versohaffelti. — These three gems are pretty, and 

 very soon moke splendid specimens. They require to be 

 ahaded from the sun. I grow mine in good, rough, fibrous peat, 

 and silver sand, and when I put them in the basket I in- 

 sert spaghnum between the bars of the basket and a piece of 

 the plant here and there. The plants very soon meet, and 

 when cultivated well present to the eyo a lovely picture, form- 

 ing complete bouquets. — F. P. L. 



DOYENNE DU COMICE PEAR. 

 I am thankful to anyone who records his experience in fruit 

 growing, however comfortless. I had hardly finished planting 

 fifteen Doyenne du Cornice Pear trees, worked on the Pear 

 stock, when in came the Journal for December 23rd, and I 

 read from the pen of " C. J. M.," " If anyone has recently pro- 

 cured this tree on the Pear stock, I recommend him to throw 

 it away at once." I hoped, ere this, to have heard a dif- 

 ferent account of this excellent Pear on the Pear stock from 

 some one els9, but all are silent. I hope that Mr. Rivers and 

 others who have grown it on the Pear stock will be able to 

 show that " C. J. M.'s" experience is the exception and not 

 the rule.— C. C. E. 



tion staged for each of these prizes, and that is not what is 

 wanted I am sure. If things be managed properly we may 

 have a first-rate Gladiolus show ; but they can be mismanaged, 

 as we too well know. — D., Deal. 



THE PRIZE ESSAY ON FLORAL CRITICISM. 



THE GLADIOLUS SHOW OF AUGUST 17th. 

 As Mr. Egerton Hubbard has explained his wishes with 

 regard to the prizes offered for cottage and window gardening, 

 is it too much to ask Col. Scott in the same way to let us know 

 what he intends by the very vague title '-Floral Criticism," 

 and, moreover, who are to be the judges of the essays? (this 

 was suggested by the editors of the Gardeners Chronicle). It 

 would be useless to enter on the matter unless something more 

 definite be known on these points, and what is worth doing is 

 worth doing well. I would suggest that the papers be sent in 

 with assumed names, and the true name of the writer in p.n 

 envelope to be opened after the prize i3 awarded. 



I am glad to see by the amended schedule that amateurs fare 

 better than they did in the former one ; but now how fare 

 nurserymen ? Might I suggest that some of the additional 

 money raised by Messrs. Kelsey and others be used to add 

 second and third prizes to the President's and Mr. Wilson's 

 prizes ? If not, there will be, I venture to say, but one eollec- 



PINE APPLE CULTURE. 



I hoped that other cultivators of the Pine Apple would havo 

 followed Mr. Simpson's example (page 3), and given the readers 

 of the Journal the benefit of their experience and opinion upon 

 that to which I called attention fpage 497, vol. xvii.) — namely, 

 a more expeditions system of Pine Apple culture ; but as they 

 have not done so I have to thank Mr. Simpson for his remarks, 

 and am glad to find that his system so nearly approaches that 

 of which I am an advocate. I consider such a system a great 

 change for the better, and if other experienced growers follow 

 it up I shall not despair of some day seeing siill further im- 

 provements in this branch of fruit culture. 



Although I wrote about largo plants, Mr. Simpson has not 

 really misinterpreted me by assuming me to mean old plants 

 also, for with a reasonable attention to the routine of Pine cul- 

 tivation it is not necessary that a large plant should be an 

 old one, yet under the old system of Pine culture to which I 

 alluded most of the plants v.ere old, because they were not 

 fruited until the third or fourth year; and upon the policy of 

 growing these large plants Mr. Simpson has quite met my 

 views by saying that the largest plants of one year's growth 

 invariably produce the largest fruit ; and that they do not pro- 

 portionally increase in vigour afterwards is also according to 

 my experience. 



While Mr. Simpson admits that with some varieties the 

 twelvemonth system may bo practiEed«svith success, yet with 

 Queens he does not think the time can be safely reducedto less 

 than eighteen months to ensure fruit of an average weight of 

 4 lbs. I agree with him, but in order to carry out the quick- 

 fruiting plan wo must be prepared to sacrifice so much in the 

 weight of the fruit. Suppose, then, we placa the average a little 

 lower, say 3 lbs., which is not a bad-sized fruit for a Queen, I 

 think that would be large enough to satisfy most small growers, 

 particularly if such fruit could be obtained in less time with its 

 proper flavour. 



In my allusion to the amount of rough treatment that a Pine 

 Apple plant will bear I had ia view the upsetting of the opinion 

 long entertained by many people, that no system of cultivation 

 would succeed that was not supported by considerable expen- 

 diture in glass erections and heating apparatus, and whioh none 

 but the most wealthy could afford. With these conveniences 

 I cinnot find fault, as they are necessary where large collections 

 of Pines are grown, and where the structures form part of an 

 arrangement of glass houses upon a definite plan ; but if Pine 

 Apple culture is to make progress so that it can be pursued in 

 gardens of more moderate pretensions, it is quite necessary to 

 study economy in this direction, as well as the quick production 

 of fruit. 



When I described my twelvemonth plan I endeavoured to 

 show those who might require to grow Pines on a small scale that 

 they could do so successfully without expensive contrivances ; 

 and if I were required to fruit a limited number per yoar, say 

 thirty plants, I should be satisfied with a small fruiting house 

 in the modern style, and prefer growing my plants to the fruit- 

 ing state in largo, deep garden frames, in a hotbed of leaves, 

 and with linings of stable manure for top heat.— Thomas 

 Record. 



LAXTON'S CROSS-BRED PEAS. 



Will you allow me to state, in reply to numerous inquiries 

 I have received, that I know nothing of Hundredfold or 

 Cook's Favourite Pea which is being catalogued and sold as 

 " Laxton's." The distributors allege that it originates from a 

 cross of my Prolifio Longpod with Ne Plu3 Ultra ; if this is the 

 case, more than ordinarily expeditious means have been resorted 

 to to get a stock of it, as Prolific Longpod did not become the 

 property of the vendors until I8G5, and it is reasonable to 

 presume that cross-fertilisation would not be attempted until 

 after the variety had been seen in the pod and tried. And if 

 a cross was effected in 18G6, it would give a single Pea to start 

 with for growth in 1867 ! for I have ascertained by very many 

 experiments that a single Pea only in a pod resulting from a 

 cross can be relied upon to produce one fixed variety, and that 

 the produce would require several years' selection to obtain a 

 true stock, and several seasons' growth to get a bulk for sale. 



