278 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ April 11, 1&70. 



when dry, so that the work may be done at any time that is 

 most convenient. All who have seen it at work here have 

 been quite charmed with its performance, and all the work- 

 men, who are generally very slow to take up with new things, 

 especially those which tend to the economy of labour, are quite 

 delighted with it, and will use no other. — Archambaud. 



TABLE DECORATIONS. 



Last season, the stands we used for the decoration of the 

 dinner-table here were in constant use for something like eight 

 months, and to keep these trim and nice is not only a heavy 

 tax on one's time, but also on one's resources ; however, 

 having given entire satisfaction, I consider I was amply repaid 

 for my trouble. As the provision for table decoration is be- 

 coming more and more a task allotted to the gardener in an 

 establishment, I venture to detail what I have done. 



I will first observe that Ferns and Mosses are among the 

 most useful things for the decoration of the table, and even 

 such a common thing as the Male Fern (Lastrea Filix-mas), 

 which may be found in the hedgerows in almost every parish, 

 is of great value for forming a fringe to the dish of a stand or 

 centre piece. Equally valuable is the native Welsh Polypody 

 (Polypodium vulgare cambricum), which makes a nice change 

 with the Male Fern, the handsome fimbriated edging to the 

 fronds adding to its worth. It is by no means so common as 

 the Male Fern. That charming greenhouse Moss, Selaginella 

 denticulata, is another useful thing for the purpose. I use 

 plants taken out of small pots to fill the base of a stand, and 

 fill np between the balls with silver sand, using about four 

 plants for the purpose ; and with the sand I mingle some 

 powdered charcoal to neutralise the effect of any offensive 

 smell that will sometimes arise after the plants have been 

 placed in the sand several days. After a sprinkling has been 

 given to settle the sand about the roots of the Moss, the 

 branches should be pegged down neatly with small hair-pins. 

 If watered about once a-wetk, the Selaginella will grow very 

 nicely, and keep beautifully green for two or three months 

 together. Scarlet Pelargoniums and other flowers can be stuck 

 in the sand by their stalks to give a finish to it. That popular 

 form of the Maiden-hair Fern, Adiantum cuneatum — perhaps 

 one of the most lovely of the Ferns, notwithstanding that it is 

 common, and always a great favourite with the ladies — is also 

 of great value, and makes a beautiful fringe for the top dish of 

 a design, it being so light and graceful. Some five or six years 

 ago Mr. Charles Turner, of Slough, was a competitor at one of 

 the Crystal Palace exhibitions with a vase of Roses, and by 

 way of giving a finish to his vase he used fronds of the Maiden- 

 hair Ftrn among his Roses, which was a great improvement 

 on the formality of a bunch of tLis favourite flower, but the 

 vase was disqualified by the judges in consequence. Now, it 

 is the custom for the schedule of prizes to state Ferns can be 

 used, and no disqualification follows as a consequence ; and 

 the same thing also holds good at South Kensington as well as 

 at Brighton. 



There are certain plants that are very useful for twisting 

 round the upright stem of a stand used for the decoration of 

 the dinner-table ; and branches of these should be stuck in 

 the sand, and then be neatly and elegantly twisted round the 

 stem ; and a few ties should be placed np the stem at intervals 

 to keep it in its place — fine thread or wire can be used. The 

 Japanese Honeysuckle, Lonicera aureo-reticulata, is one of the 

 best for the purpose ; so is Dioscorea batatas. The common 

 Ivies I find to be too heavy. Tradescantia zebrina is a nice 

 thing to hang over the top dish, especially if some cuttings are 

 placed in a 32-sized pot in some light sandy soil, and allowed 

 to hang over the sides of the pots till rooted, and then shaken 

 from the soil and laid round the dish, with a little silver sand 

 about the roots. The heads of the plants should hang over 

 the sides, and they will grow freely, and last for six months if 

 required. Of pendulous growth, and variegated foliage, the 

 effect is charming and effective. The silvery-leaved Centaureas 

 candidissima and argentea vera make a nice change, and the 

 leaves can be used to make a layer inside the Ferns in the 

 bottom dish. Besides the scarlet flowering Pelargoniums, the 

 white flowering ones, like Madame Yaucher, as well as the 

 sweet-scented kinds for the perfume the leaves jield, are also 

 very desirable. The flowers of the scarlet and yellow Nastur- 

 tiums last a long time in the wet sand. Verbenas make a nice 

 change in their season, and especially Roses ; the flowers of 

 these should be cut young in the morning when the dew is on 

 them. 



Such stands as these are never complete without light-green 

 foliage of some sort or other, such as the different kinds of 

 ornamental grasses in their season, and the tops of some of 

 the meadow grasses in the autumn. In the same way sprigs 

 of Asparagus from the kitchen garden are very useful ; so is 

 the foliage of Tamarix gallica, a hardy deciduous shrub ; also 

 Humea elegans, and suchlike. Variegated plants work in well ; 

 the Iresine, with its handsome mottled red leaves, keeps well 

 in the sand; so do Coleuses and variegated Pelargoniums; of 

 the - latter, such as Mrs. Pollock, and the white Ivy-leaved kind 

 L'Elegante. Then there are blooms of Gladioli, Asters, Chry- 

 santhemums, and many others, with stiff stalks to support 

 them. In a general way, many of the flowers will last only 

 oDe day, and I change the whole of them three or four times 

 a-week, but make a rule of looking the stands over every other 

 morning. The sand should not be so saturated that the flower 

 stems will not stand erect in it, or they are apt to fall out whtn 

 the stands are removed from the table. — William Plesteb, 

 Elsenham Hall Gardens. — (The Gardener.) 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



Mr. Cn.iRLES McDonald, gardener to Colonel Tighe, of 

 Woodstock Park, Co. Kilkenny, has been appointed to the 

 Pbcenix Paik, Dublin, and ho has been succeeded by Mr. 

 Murdoch Matheson, late gardener to the Marquis of Exeter at 

 Burghley. This is a fitting rise in the career of one who Las 

 distinguished himself in every step he has made in his pro- 

 fession. Trained in the gardens at Haddo House, he so con- 

 ducted himself as to attract the attention of the great Earl 

 of Aberdeen, who presented him on his leaving with a donation 

 of books, with the following inscription : — " Presented to Chas. 

 McDonald, for diligence in self-improvement, from the Earl of 

 Aberdeen." Thence he went to Dalkeith, under Mr. McLitosh ; 

 and then to Trentham, under Mr. Fleming. We next find 

 him at Dunrobin, exercising his skill in landscape gardening, 

 under the late Duchess of Sutherland, so successfully as to 

 elicit from one of our greatest artists the expression, that the 

 grounds laid out by Mr. McDonald around the dairy at Dun- 

 robin, were " the most promising piece of landscape practice he 

 had seen." It adds much to the high estimation in which CoL 

 and Lady Louisa Tighe are already held, to know that both of 

 them have sacrificed so much of their own interest in benefit- 

 ing their valued servant, as to use their utmost influence to 

 procure him the appointment he has now received. 



PORTABLE FRAME FOR STRIKING CUTTINGS, 



&c. 



We have just perfected a little frame which will be of great 



advantage to amateurs who have no glass structure, and to 



parties who have only a small conservatory. It is the Wal- 



tonian case worked out to a successful issue. In the Waltonian 



case there was an ugly chimney in the centre, and there was 

 always a difficulty in keeping the source of heat burning. We 

 have completely done away with the chimney, and the lamp 

 burns freely. The heat in the case can be raised to almost 

 aDy point, and can be kept down to almost any point. The 

 case can be worked with gas or oil. We have had it working 

 at our shop for a fortnight, during which we have raised seeds, 

 and now have a batch of cuttings striking. — Barb & Suoden. 

 [We have seen it in operation, and recommend it to be called 



