April .3, 1877. I 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



•231 



the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden, at the last meeting helJ 

 on January 20th, by the Russian Society of Gardening. The 

 special aim of the communication being to advocate the intro- 

 duction into European gardens of representatives of the flora 

 of Turkestan, Prof. Kegel described the numerous, original, 

 and most beimtiftil syjecips belonging to the Compositaj, 

 Caryophj-llee, Umbellifcra', Papilionaceae, Malvacca\ and Cam- 

 panulaoea), which grow in Turkestan, and which could rank 

 among the best ornaments of our gardens by their variety and 

 beautiful forms and colours. Most of these species are already 

 cultivated with complete success in the St. Peter.sburg Botani- 

 cal Garden, and they might be thus introduced in the gardens 

 of Russia and Western Europe. Conchiding his communica- 

 tion. Prof. Regel pointed out the remarkable circumstance that 

 in Turkestan, even in hilly tracts, the Ericaceto are totally 

 wanting, whilst they are so common in the highlands of the 

 Alps, of the Caucasus, and even of the Altai. — (Nature). 



■ • In a lecture lately delivered by Mr. E. Warrington, 



late assistant professor at the Royal Agricultural College. 

 Cirencester, on the management of light land, he directed 

 prominent attention to the loss of nitrates from uncropped 

 light (porous) soil by heavy rains. From experiments made 

 he found that 5 inches of rain falling with little intermission 

 on a saturated soil would suffice to wash all the nitrates out 

 of the first 9 inches. This would be less important if only the 

 nitrates applied to the land as manure were washed away ; but 

 " unfortunately all the forms of nitrogen occurring in soil or 

 nsed as manures were gradually oxydieed in the soil into 

 nitrates, and a porous uncropped soil loses by drainage much 

 of its accumulated store of nitrogen." It has been found b^ 

 experiment at Eothamstead that about Hi inches of rain have 

 fallen since Michaelmas, and of this 12] inches have passed 

 through the soil into the drains, and this drain water contained 

 nitrates equal to 100 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre. When 

 the land is cropped the loss of nitrates is arrested, and they 

 are converted into plant-tissue : and the practical conclusion 

 — and it is very important — is to apply such a potent and valu- 

 able fertiliser as nitrate of soda to the soil only when the crops 

 are able to make immediate use of it. Gardeners may well 

 make a note of this sound teaching. 



NOTES FROM MY GABDEN IN 1876.— No. 4. 



GLAJIIOLUS. 



Although I had intended to have noticed other florists' 

 flowers before this in my brief notes, the fact that several short 

 papers have recently appeared in the Journal concerning it, 

 and the time for planting, to which some of these remarks 

 refer, being at hand, have induced me to give my experience 

 of it now, as it will enable me to refer to those papers and 

 supply answers where needed. I have for some few years past 

 adopted the plan of peeling off the skin before planting in 

 order to enable me to examine the condition of the bulbs, and 

 I would advise all growers to do the satue. The other day I 

 did so with two bulbs of .Jupiter I received direct from France. 

 They apparently were sound, but on taking off the outer skin 

 I found a decaying piece right in the centre of the bulb. As 

 the bulb had two eyes I divided it and then cut away all the 

 decayed parts, and have planted it. Experience tells me that 

 these will now start and grow. Had I planted without exami- 

 nation this decayed part would have spread and the bulb 

 would have perished. But all precautions seem powerless to 

 prevent the perishing of the bulbs from what I must call dis- 

 ease of a very virulent nature. I mentioned the year before 

 that my impression was that the cause of the greater virulence 

 of the disease with us as compared with the Continent might 

 be attributed to the greater moisture of our autumns, and that 

 if probably the beds were covered-in from the wet weather it 

 might be checked. Alas ! this did not answer, and I had quite 

 as violent an attack of it last autumn as ever I had, except in 

 one memorable year at Deal, when I lost nearly my entire 

 collection. Indeed they are very puzzling. We used to be 

 told (and Mons. Souchet was most particular in urging this) 

 that they should never be planted in the same piece of ground 

 until the third year, but the magnificent spikes exhibited by 

 Mr. GaDoway at the Crystal Palace were taken from bulbs that 

 had been grown on the same piece of ground for four years in 

 Buccession, and Mr. Galloway tells me that although he has 

 some diseased bulbs they are very few; while, despite the 

 assertion that to allow a bulb to bloom is to ensure its decay, 

 nothing could exceed the size and vigour of the bulbs which 

 he lifts from this piece of ground — an evidence, too, against 



the theory that dry autumns have to do with freedom from 

 disease, as the rainfall at Helensburgh is very nearly double 

 of that in this locality. Unfortunately no show was held in 

 London last autumn except that at the Crystal Palace, which 

 was far into September when all our flowers were past, so that 

 I had no opportunity of testing the quality of my bloom as 

 compared with that of other growers, but I was enabled to 

 exhibit once at Dover. My spikes were many of them very 

 fine. I had the new varieties of Mons. Souchet, or rather his 

 successor, and think that the following will prove to be the 

 best of those sent out in the autumn of 1875 — 



CiDiiillr. — Very large lilac flowers, darker in the centre, with 

 red splashes and large violet spots. 



ClirisiopJh' Colomb. — Very fine flower, rosy carmine flamed 

 with red, and lilac spots. 



Ilii-Ia. — Orange scarlet with white lines ; centre striped 

 carmine. 



Lcandrc.—Yeiy large flowers, lilac slightly tinted with car- 

 mine ; large white spots. 

 Pliirnix. — Cherry rose, white centre and white lines. 

 Of the older varieties I flowered well Adolphe Brongniart, 

 Antigone, Ariadne, Beatrix, Delicatissima, De Mirbel, Eugone 

 Scribe, Genevra, Grand Lilas, Hercules, Horace Vernet, Jupiter, 

 Legouvu, Lo Phare, Le Vesuve, L'Unique Violet, Madame 

 Furtado, Marie Stuart, Meyerbeer, Michel Ange, Murillo, 

 Norma, Ondiue, Orpbi'e, Pactole, Primatrice, Princess Marie 

 de Cambridge, Psyche, Schiller, and Talisman ; and I am in- 

 clined to think amongst these will be found the beet of the 

 French varipties. I had also Lody Bridport and Pictum of 

 Mr. KelwajV, the former one of the best he has sent out. 



I am this year about to adopt Mr. Galloway's advice and 

 plant deep — i.e., (i inches. Heretofore I have planted about 

 3 or 4 inches deep, hut he says he has found the advantage of 

 deep planting, and if it will in any way check the inroads of 

 the disease I shall be glad indeed. With regard to Mr. Kelway's 

 statement that there is no disease, and that the losses arise 

 from exhaustion of the bulbs by flowering and by bad manage- 

 ment, I would say that it seems to me as absurd to say the 

 first as it would be to go through the wards of a hospital and 

 say to the surgeons, " These people are not dying of disease, 

 it's only from the failure of strength and vitality ;" while to 

 say that they are no more snbjnct to a disease than the Hya- 

 cinth is equally fallacious. Hyacinths die, not because they have 

 a disease, but simply because people do not take sufficient care 

 of them. When that is done they will continue vigorous and 

 bloom well for years, but no care will enable you to count on 

 the Gladiolus. Does Mr. Kelway mean to say that his bulbs 

 which he sends out will resist (£ suppose I must not say dis- 

 ease) exhaustion better than the French varieties ? for if so I 

 have evidence to the contrary. A very distinguished amateur 

 in the north of England wrote to me that the per-centage of 

 loss in the bulbs he obtained from Langport was greater than 

 that in the French varieties ; and even with regard to so hardy 

 a variety as Lady Bridport I lost six out of twelve bulbs of it 

 last year, and in one or two instances they never bloomed at all. 

 I do not know what are the varieties your other correspondent 

 Mr. Gain (who places his bulbs on sand) grows. A great deal 

 depends on that. The less highly bred varieties are not so 

 liable to disease, but I cannot recommend in any case the 

 treatment he practises of placing them on sand and allowing 

 them to root there before planting ; nor can I understand Mr. 

 Gain's experience that if left too long on a dry shelf they 

 moulder into dust. I two years ago left by mistake a bulb of 

 Madame Furtado on a shelf ; to my surprise not only when I 

 went to the shelf in the autumn had it not mouldered away, 

 but it had actually formed a small bulb, and that bulb when 

 planted the following year grew and flowered. When they are 

 diseased they shrivel up and become as hard as a stone, but 

 I have never fotmd them go into powder. 



If I still adhere to my view that the Gladiolus is subject to 

 disease it is from no desire to discountenance its cultivation, 

 but simply to express what I believe to be the fact ; and I can 

 endorse my friend Mr. Banks's statement, that " if anyone 

 wants to know what disappointment means let him grow the 

 Gladiolus." I shall this year try Mr. Galloway's plan, and 

 hope I may be able to speak favourably of results if spared 

 this time next year. — D., Deal. 



ELECTION OF APPLES. 

 Like Oliver Twist I cry " More." I think the result will be 

 of interest to most of your readers, and therefore ask your sab- 



