222 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTIOULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ March 24, 1870. 



The ground being formed into 4-feet spaces or beds, with 

 2-feet spaces between, which are what I advise where the soil 

 is light and dry, each bed will afford space for three rows of 

 plants — namely, the outside rows 9 inches from each side of 

 the bed, and then a centre row ; the rows will therefore be 

 15 inches apart, and the plants may be 1 foot from each other 

 in tho rows. The wide space between the beds may Beem a 

 waste of ground, but I have not found it so, for on light soils 

 frequent watering is required, and this cannot be done without 

 space between the beds. More plants could of course be had 

 in a much smaller space, but I consider one good Lettuce worth 

 half a dozen small ones as to bulk, whilst for crispness, juici- 

 ness, and flavour there is no comparison of the two. In good 

 ground it will suffice if the lines be 15 inches apart, and the 

 plants 1 foot asunder in the rows, every fifth line being left out 

 to afford facility for watering in dry weather. 



Before taking up for planting a good watering should be 

 given to the seed bed overnight if the weather be dry (and in 

 Lettuce cultivation it wiil not do to wait for favourable plant- 

 ing weather), so that the plants will lift well, with abundance 

 of fibres and soil adhering, and not with a rat-tail-like root ; 

 and every plant should be carefully lifted with a trowel, laid in 

 a basket, and be covered from the sun. Plant with a trowel, 

 and water at once, covering with mats on sticks arched over, 

 if the weather be dry and hot, removing the covering at night. 

 This covering should be continued until the plants recover the 

 transplanting, and water must be given every ovening. If the 

 weather be cloudy and showery, of course the shading and 

 watering will not be required. After the plants are again 

 established copious waterings will be needed in dry weather, 

 and the ground 6hould be frequently stirred with a hoe, but 

 not deeply, and not nearer the plants than the distance to which 

 the leaves extend. When the plants are growing freely, and 

 water is required, it is advantageous to afford liquid manure ; 

 1 lb. of guano and 1 peck of soot to thirty gallons of water 

 form an excellent liquid manure, which is also a good pre- 

 ventive of the aphis, which of late years has preyed so much 

 on the roots of Lettuces. 



Cabbage Lettuces, from the leaves turning-in, do not require 

 blanching, but the Cos varieties, especially the Black-seeded 

 Bath, require tying to have them well blanched. Tying greatly 

 improves their appearance, flavour, and criEpness. The plants 

 should be tied up when grown to a good size, or from ten days 

 to a fortnight before they are required for use. The tying 

 should be done twice or thrice a-week, when the plants are 

 perfectly dry ; the leaves must be drawn or gathered regularly 

 together, and not too tightly, room being left for further 

 growth ; and with strips of matting put round a little above the 

 thickest part, the leaves are held secure. The White Paris 

 Cos and Ivery's Nonsuch, though kinds which do not require 

 tying, are, nevertheless, better tied up, if only three or four 

 days, or from that to a week, before cutting. The heads have a 

 much better appearance, being held more compact, and are 

 more convenient for package and carriage, being less liable to 

 get bruised. 



Sometimes Lettuces are required for cutting young — that is, 

 when 2 or 3 inches high. Where such are in request, sowings 

 of the early sorts as Wheeler's Tom Thumb, Hardy Green, 

 Victoria, or, indeed, any of the green-leaved kinds, shonld be 

 made rather thickly every week or ten days, in rows 3 inches 

 apart. In summer the sowings should be made out of doors 

 from April to September, but at other time3 they should be in 

 heat, and shallow boxes are very suitable for sowing in. A 

 temperature of from 50° to 55°, and light rich soil are the most 

 desirable conditions to secure. — G. Abbey. 



IVY-LEAVED PELARGONIUM L'ELEGANTE. 



Pok general utility, ease of culture, and varied beauty of 

 form and colour, the Zonal Pelargoniums are unrivalled, and 

 their usefulness 13 not confined to the production of a mere 

 summer display, as many varieties are most attractive when 

 grown in pots for house decoration, some of them flowering as 

 freely in winter as in the brighter months of the year, while 

 others produce an equally beautiful effect by their foliage, and 

 require very little care to render them most useful and effective 

 conservatory plants throughout the year. 



Amongst other Pelargoniums, the silver-margined Ivy-leaved 

 variety L'Elegante is one of the most useful ; if planted in the 

 flower garden as an edging or front row its appearance is dull 

 and heavy, but if grown as a specimen pot plant, and trained 

 to a suitable trellis, it becomes a chaste and attractive object. 



Its rambling nature adds to its usefulness, for in addition to 

 the ease with which it may be formed into a pretty pot plant, 

 it also answers admirably for covering the pillars or the back 

 wall of a conservatory. It is seen in one of its most attractive 

 forms when trained as a cone or pyramid. 



Selecting for this purpose a vigorous plant in an 8-inch pot, 

 the formation of a skeleton cone or trellis bearing a suitable 

 proportion to the size of the pot, and of materials in which 

 lightness, strength, and durability are best combined, becomes 

 an important consideration. Hazel rods are frequently used, 

 but these, while answering very well, are not to be depended 

 on, for a longer period than one season, and therefore for 

 L'Elegante and plants of a similar character materials of a 

 more lasting nature are requisite. A trellis combining all tho 

 above qualities is formed by taking for the centre rod a piece 

 of cylindrical iron rod one-fourth of an inch in diameter, and 

 2 feet 8 inches long, pointed at one end, and with two holes 

 punched through it, one above the other, close to the other end. 

 The pointed end is inserted C inches deep in the soil at the 

 centre of the pot. Three pieces of the same kind of iron rod, 

 each 20 inches long, are next required, and a small hole is 

 drilled through both ends ; these are to form the base of the 

 cone, which is done by crossing them over each other on the 

 top of the pot, to which they are firmly secured by pieces of 

 fine wire passed round them on each side close to the rim, and 

 fastened to another wire under the rim. Care is required to 

 have the six ends of the rods at equal distances all round the 

 pot. Then from three ends a fine galvanised wire is carried 

 through tho holes in the top of the centre rod, strained tightly, 

 and fastened to the opposite ends of the base rods, and the 

 trellis is complete. Fine galvanised wire is peculiarly suitable 

 for this purpose, its neutral colour rendering it almost in- 

 visible amongst the foliage. 



The only want in L'EItgante to render it a perfect gem in 

 pots is flowers of a lively pink colour, in place of its white ones ; 

 beautiful as it now is, it would then become a plant of suoh 

 rare loveliness that no collection, however choice, would be 

 thought complete without it. Of course I mean something 

 better than the paltry flowers of Manglesii — compact little 

 trusses of well-shaped, medium-sized flowers, with the flower 

 stalks just long enough to bear the trusses clear of the foliage, 

 the elegance of which would then be very much enhanced. — 

 Euwabd Luckhcesi, Egcrton House Gardens, Kent. 



THE CHRYSANTHEMUM AS A DECORATIVE 

 PLANT. 



When I was at the Chrysanthemum Exhibition at Liverpool, 

 in November last — and it was such an exhibition of Chrysan- 

 themums as perhaps can only be seen in Liverpool now-a- 

 days — I could not help thinking, as I looked on the great, flat, 

 symmetrical plants staged as specimens, that there was some- 

 thing very unnatural about the mode in which they were 

 trained. On three sides of the immense Hall were seen tier 

 above tier of these plants, looking like lines of floricultnral 

 pies, and entirely destitute of natural grace or elegance. 

 That fine old Chrysanthemum-grower, the late Mr. Samuel 

 Broome, of the Temple Gardens, was there in the capacity 

 of judge, and even he was obliged to admit that the plants 

 were much too formal in appearance. What a task it must 

 have been to have brought one of these great plants to this 

 shape ; what twisting and torturing processes must have been 

 gone through with the poor plant, what incessant lyings, 

 and all for the purpose of producing a most unnatural floral 

 deformity. For conservatory or greenhouse decoration they 

 would be next to useless when trained in such a shape, for 

 how could they be grouped with other plants so as to secure an 

 effective floral spectacle? I think there is no Chrysanthemum 

 exhibition half so enjoyable as the show of this fine flower 

 Messrs. Salter & Son annually make at Hammersmith, in the 

 autumn months. There no uncouth, nnplant-like examples 

 offend the taste ; but plants grown in the form the Chrysan- 

 themum naturally assumes are seen ranged in banks, giving a 

 mass of colour of various hues, pleasantly and even artistically 

 blended, with the valuable addition of the finest flowers that can 

 well be produced. Grown in this way the very best varieties 

 can be employed for the purpose; but when trained according 

 to the process now in vogue at Chrysanthemum exhibitions, 

 only certain of the free-blooming, flat-petaled, or reflexed- 

 flowering varieties can be so used. 



At the meeting of the Boyal Horticultural Society, held in 

 November last, prizes were offered for six Chrysanthemums in 



