Jane 23, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Da] 



Mouth 



Day 



of 



Week. 



JUNE 23—29, 1870. 



SCS 2 SCNDi" AETEB TRIKTTT. 

 M 



Tu ] Coronation Day. 



W | Royal Horticultural Society's Rose Show, 

 [Fruit, Flora], and General Meeting. 



Rain in 



last 

 43 yeai 8 



45 3 | 19 8 



46 3 19 8 

 46 3 18 8 

 46 3 I 18 8 



Clock Day 

 before ' oi 

 Sun. i Teiu. 



From observations taken near London daring the last fortv-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 73.4 J , and its night 

 temperature 48.6". The greatest heat was 9J , on the 27th, 1820; and the lowett cold 34', on the 28th, 1844, and 30th, 1863. The greatest 

 fall of rain was 0.80 inoh. 



UNDESERVEDLY NEGLECTED PLANTS. 



OMETIMES I feel sorry when I think how 

 easy it would be for anyone to make out a 

 long list of old and very beautiful plants that 

 have been cast aside for years, and almost 

 forgotten — set aside to make room for the 

 many new plants constantly coming into 

 cultivation. Many of these old favourites 

 are only to be seen as old worn-out specimens, 

 apparently preserved merely on account of 

 early associations. 

 Now, since I have had a great demand for a variety of 

 decorative plants. I have grown some of those neglected 

 ones — those which were favourites of mine " long, long 

 ago," and I find that they quite equal in beauty and effect, 

 and are admired quite as much as. or even more than, 

 many of the new plants now so much grown for general 

 decoration. 



I will name but three plants out of the list before me, 

 not only because they are the most neglected of any, but 

 because if the same care is bestowed upon these as upon 

 many new plants they will be sure to please, and prove 

 that they must have been cast aside more from the force of 

 fashion than any want of merit. 



The first plant is Bct.chellia capensis, a hardwooded 

 evergreen shrub from the Cape of Good Hope. Its hand- 

 some habit and free-blooming qualities render it a very 

 elegant plant for the stove or intermediate house. Its 

 producing an abundance of scarlet flowers so early in the 

 year as March, makes it all the more desirable. It may 

 be grown into specimens 6 feet high, and -i or 4 feet in 

 diameter : it is then one of the best and noblest of stove 

 plants. A compost of a rather heavy rich turfy loam and 

 peat, in equal quantities, with one-fourth of decomposed 

 dry cow manure and plenty of silver sand, will produce a 

 vigorous growth with dark green foliage and bright-coloured 

 flowers. 



The second plant I select is Lagbbstjuemia indica, 

 introduced from the East Indies upwards of a hundred 

 years ago. It used to be grown as an evergreen stove 

 plant, but I can flower it better by treating it more as a 

 deciduous plant, or very like the culture given to a Fuchsia. 

 It produces its flesh-coloured flowers in panicles at the 

 extremities of the current year's growth. It must have 

 liberal treatment in order to form vigorous shoots and fine 

 large flowers ; it likes bottom heat when growing, and a 

 rich turfy sandy loam to root in. Large specimens may 

 be grown, but I recommend small or medium-sized plants 

 as being most attractive and convenient ; but, as before 

 stated, the treatment must be liberal to produce good 

 flowering shoots. After flowering, the plants may be 

 gradually ripened-ofl", and kept in a temperature not below 

 55° in winter ; the growing heat may range from 70° to 

 80°, but if when flowering the plant is kept in a cooler and 

 drier atmosphere it will last in bloom for some weeks. 

 This plant and the Burchellia are propagated from cuttings 

 of the half-ripened wood in a gentle bottom heat. The 

 Lagerstrcemia requires pruning very similar to a Fuchsia. 

 Ko. 482-Vol. xvni., New Sebieb. 



The last of my three selected plants is Eranthrmum 

 pdxchellum, also from the East Indies. This plant may 

 not be so much neglected as the other two, but it ought to 

 be more grown. It possesses more than ordinary beauty, 

 and is, 1 think, the most serviceable of the three plants 

 named ; it may be grown to bloom all the winter, and the 

 flower is blue, a colour very valuable at that time of the 

 year. Although large plants are very showy, they cannot 

 equal in beauty small well-flowered plants in (i or 'i-inch 

 pots. It will root vigorously in a compost of one-half rich 

 turfy loam, the remainder consisting of sandy peat and 

 very old dried cow manure in equal proportions. Plants 

 to flower at Christmas should be propagated early in 

 spring, and grown in a stove temperature until they have 

 perfected their flower buds ; afterwards, a cooler tempe- 

 rature and less water will be the necessary treatment 

 until the plants are wanted to flower, when they may be 

 returned to the stove and kept near the glass. Old plants, 

 if cut down after flowering, shaken out, repotted at the 

 same time, and their growth encouraged, will flower at 

 two or three dilferent times in the year. 



I think an effectual way to revive the interest once 

 taken in our old plants is to select the best and most 

 suitable, and grow small plants in groups of one dozen 

 or more of each species or variety, so as to present an 

 attractive mass of colour so much thought of at the present 

 day, and I feel sure they would gain many admirers. — 

 Thomas Record, Lillesden. 



SOFT SOAP AS A REMEDY FOR APHIS. 



It is not creditable to gardeners as a body that they 

 should have been so slow in availing themselves of so 

 cheap a remedy, but have left it to the farmers, or rather 

 Hop-growers, to fully prove the useful properties of soft 

 soap. It has been used, it is true, in gardens for a very 

 long time, but not so much for the purposes to which the 

 Hop-grower applies it as in some minor matters ; yet the 

 gardener suffers as much as the Hop-grower from the evil 

 for which soft soap is found to be so an effectual remedy, 

 and, more remarkable still, its value as an insect- destroyer 

 was published in one of the earliest volumes of the first 

 gardening periodical issued from the press. It is upwards 

 of forty years since some one recommended a lather made 

 from soft soap as a remedy for red spider on Melons, and 

 it was not till years afterwards that we ever heard of its 

 being applied as a destroyer of another insect equally hurt- 

 ful to vegetation. Tobacco in some form was supposed to 

 be the onlv antidote to green fly and other enemies of its 

 class, though now and then decoctions of Laurel leaves, 

 Potato tops, and other poisonous leaves were used with 

 good results, but their efficacy was never assumed to be 

 equal to that of Tobacco, and they were only employed as 

 substitutes for it. 



Many a sigh was heaved at the expense of Tobacco, and 



many a' wish expressed that, like glass, it could be had 



duty free. At length the Hop-growers took the matter 



up ; they had suffered severely from aphis, without daring 



| to help themselves, for although the revenue officers pre- 



No, 1134.- Vol. XLin., Olb Semes. 



