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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jane 9, 1870. 



the cold nights, heavy rains, and fogs, will prevent the wood 

 ripening, but give the top-dressing of compost before described, 

 and about a month or bo after the leaves are off paint the 

 trees — steins, buds, and all — with a composition of equal parts 

 of soft soap, flowers of sulphur, slaked lime, soot, and powdered 

 clay, adding water to make the whole of a sufficient consistency 

 to adhere to the trees. This must not be syringed off ; it is 

 better than Gishurst compound, which if not Byringed off, or if 

 used too strong, causes the buds to fall. 



I think I have now noted down all that has to be done to 

 secure a crop of fruit on trees in pots, which I suppose to be 

 in rows in the front of the house, and I need not say much 

 respecting the Vines on the back wall, except that they are to 

 be kept there, and not allowed to trespass on the roof under 

 any pretence whatever, as they will be treated in the ordinary 

 way. I have found Grapes grown on a back wall very superior 

 to those under the roof, and it is reasonable that they should 

 be so, for they grow in full light, and out of all draughts ; where- 

 as those under the roof are always hanging in a shady and 

 draughty atmosphere. The air of the whole house is also 

 more healthy, being full of sunlight, and the back wall and 

 ground absorbing the heat in the day, keep the house warmer 

 at night ; the roots of the Vines also being inside are kept 

 warmer, but must be watered the same as all other trees in 

 the house. 



My remarks mostly apply to the lean-to house, because I 

 believe this to be the most suitable for the amateur, there is 

 less danger from frost, and the back wall is better for growing 

 Grapes. If I were asked to recommend a house I should say, 

 Have a lean-to 8 feet wide, 4 feet high in front, and 9 feet high 

 at the back. This will give room for two rows of trees in pots 

 in front, a path, and a border about i foot wide against the 

 back wall, let the glass go down to the ground, and let all the 

 front open ; this can be done with a rod and handle at one 

 end, so that the lights will open all at once. Have the top 

 ventilators in the highest part of the roof, and on no account 

 have any openings on the north or north-east Bides, as it is 

 impossible to use them in the spring when the wind is in 

 either of those quarters, but when top ventilation is often wanted 

 on bright sunny days. Have no paving or flooring except 

 the earth. Have all walls and woodwork as white as possible, 

 and to have a little stove or something of that sort would be 

 no harm, but do not use it unless the thermometer (kept in- 

 side) fall below 20° Fahr. in winter, or 30° when the trees are 

 in bloom, which will rarely happen. 



I will just add that being bo well satisfied with my own 

 success, I have this year added another 23 feet to my house, 

 and I have put all the Vines on the back wall, so that I have 

 now on the back wall eight Vines — viz., three Black Ham- 

 burghs, three Royal Muscadines, one Trentham Black, and cne 

 Tottenham Park Muscat. By the way, how is it that I never 

 hear anything of this Grape ? and I have never seen it in any 

 catalogue except Smith's, of Worcester. It always ripens well 

 with me, and is of excellent Muscat flavour ; no doubt it would 

 set and bear better with a little more heat, but I strongly re- 

 commend it to those who have not a Muscat house.* Besides 

 these eight Vines, I have a Golden Champion coming on ; in the 

 front I have Peaches, Nectarines, Figs, Apricots, Plums, and 

 Cherries — in all, thirty-two trees in pots, most of which are now 

 overloaded with fruit ; some of the Plums in 11-inch pots have 

 twenty or thirty dozen each, also sixteen more maiden trees. I 

 have likewise a row of Strawberries in pots close to the front 

 lights, and numerous bedding plants, and no end of Lettuce 

 and Mustard and Cress, so that there is not a bare place except 

 the path. 



In conclusion I will just say that when in my orchard house 

 I am always doing something, and I would remind my brother 

 amateurs that it is of no use to walk about in their orchard 

 house with one's hands in one's pockets and pipe in mouth. 

 — Amateur. 



Gooseberry Magpie Moth. — We are informed by a corre- 

 spondent that the caterpillars of this moth (Abraxas grossu- 

 lariata), have appeared for the first time at Carnoustie, N.B. He 

 adds, " It seems to prefer the Gooseberry leaves, but is eating 

 those of all the berry bushe?. My own are now nearly all as 

 bare of leaves as they were at midwinter, and what is worse, 

 they have eaten the buds out to the heart of the branches, so I 

 believe my bashes are of no more use. The caterpillar hangs 

 itself by a thread when the bush is shaken. I have tried 



hellebore, both infused in hot water and sprinkled in powder, 

 without the least effect." 



' It is only another name for Muscat of Alexandria. — Eds. 



THE MYOSOTIS DISSITIFLORA. 



1 ' A thing of beauty is a joy for ever ; " but the joy cannot 

 have birth until the beauty is seen, and one of our duties as 

 cultivators is to increase the number, and widen the area of all 

 kinds of beautiful plants and their arrangements. This is just 

 how I have endeavoured to be faithful to this thing of rare and 

 marvellous beauty, the Myosotis dissitiflora. From one tiny 

 plant it has been multiplied into thousands ; from a mere 

 broken fleck of blue it has opened out into bold patches and 

 long lines, and laid them softly, tenderly, lovingly down upon 

 the earth, to the delight of all eyes. No other description can 

 be so true to actual fact as a comparison of the Forget-me-not 

 in full flower to the heavens at their bluest and their best. 

 This Myosotis is not only different from all others, but better 

 than any other. Were this not true I would not have troubled 

 you nor your readers about it. 



I can assure your readers that this Myosotis is not another 

 of the same as sylvatica, for instance. Now I am not about to 

 disparage M. sylvatica. It is a beautiful flower, generally a 

 month, six weeks, or even two months later than M. dissiti- 

 flora. It is a first-rate kind to succeed it, to those who care 

 to have a second. It grows freely, self-sows its seeds, like a 

 weed, and once you get it there is no danger of losing it. But 

 a child or a man half blind could distinguish between M. syl- 

 vatica and dissitiflora. The plants can be picked out from 

 among each other in almost any stage, from the cotyledon 

 period upwards. The habit of M. dissitiflora is wholly different. 

 It differs from sylvatica in the length and strength ot its flower- 

 ing stem, its graceful bending habit, the form of the raceme of 

 flowers recurving much further towards the Btalk at the end. 

 The racemes are also much longer. The pedicels or cup stalks 

 are longer; the beautiful cup, with its yellow eye, and white 

 pencilled eyebrows, is also larger than in sylvatica, and the 

 flowers are set much further from each other, and of a different 

 hue of colour. Hence the name assigned to it by Mr. Baker is 

 most appropriate. The entire habit is much looser than syl- 

 vatica, and as a rule the plants when well grown will have as 

 many again or more flowering stems. The leaves are wider from 

 the first, and it is not unusual to find them at least double the 

 size of M. sylvatica ; in fact, the two are so distinct, that no 

 grower need confound them. And they are not only different — 

 that I should consider| a small matter — but dissitiflora is im- 

 mensely superior. I have grown both in thousands, and this 

 enables me to write with authority. 



This Forget-me-not is a good grower in most places, and 

 under fair treatment, but while the major portion of the stock 

 will grow to your entire satisfaction, a certain, mostly a small 

 portion of it, will not grow at all. The flowers change into a 

 deep purple, the leaves become small, the flower stems weak 

 and short — in one word, the plants look " miffy," and nothing 

 can make them grow. For some years I was sanguine that 

 this one blemish could be removed, this only evil remedied. 

 I endeavoured to stamp it oat by the immediate destruction of 

 every stunted plant. I have not been wholly successful ; how- 

 ever, the per-centage of these short blushing beauties is reduced, 

 but they still manifest themselves, and I fear always will. The 

 first blossom of M. dissiiiflora in cold weather is mostly deeply 

 suffused with pink, but this vanishes with the fine weather, and 

 is dyed into blue. Short, stunted flower stems are mostly con- 

 comitants of purple flowers. These also vanish and run into 

 full lengths as the air becomes warmer and more genial. Not 

 that dissitiflora is at all tender, far from it. The biting March 

 wind brings the blushes into its cheeks, and when the wind falls, 

 or the biting air ceases to beat coldly against them, the natural 

 complexion returns. This change of colour from mere streBS of 

 weather is a harmless and very different matter from the change 

 that results from weakness or disease. The latter, however, is 

 not a very formidable affair. The plant must be taken for better 

 or for worse. There is but little of the latter quality about it, 

 and what there is should be provided against by keeping a good 

 reserve of plants ; then, as soon as any plant shows the stunted 

 habit, out with it, and in with a freBh stroDg one. In this 

 way masses may be preserved complete, and lines kept full and 

 unbroken. 



I do not profess to be sufficient botanist to say in what 

 dissitiflora differs, or whether it differs at all from M. alpes- 

 tris and M. montana ; but this I can say, that whether it is 

 identical with these two or distinct from tlem, dissitiflora 



