266 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULIUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



I April 12, 1877. 



then potted them singly in C-inch pots, and plunged them in 

 leaves heated with pipes from underneath. A few days ago I 

 shifted the plants all into their fruiting-eized pots (10 and 

 12-inch pots). I have potted many young Pines, but I never 

 handled any better rooted — every ball being literally crammed 

 with white, strong, healthy yonug roots. The soil was mode- 

 rately moist when they were potted rootless, and not one of 

 them received a drop of water at the root all the time they 

 were in their sucker pots. When the suckers are potted early 

 and not shifted into their fruiting pots until now, the roots 

 are generally in a very tangled state, and they do not grow so 

 well as those which are not given time to become matted round 

 the pots. — Pkactiiioneb. 



TRITELEIA UNIFLOKA. 



To all lovers of spring flowers, or to those who have to pro- 

 vide a miscellaneous display of flowers for rooms or for a con- 

 servatory, this is a plant well worthy of extensive cultivation. 

 It is a hardy Liliaceous bulb, introduced from North America 

 in 1830. Its habit is dwarf. The flowers are white with a 

 tinge of pale blue, and are produced on stalks from C inches 

 to a foot in length. 



If several bulbs are grown together in a pot a very desirable 

 efieot is produced. The only objection against the use of this 

 plant in rooms is that when the leaves are bruised they have 

 a faint smell of onions. 



The cultivation is very simple. The three primary points 

 to be attended to are affording plenty of water to the plant 

 when growing, a thorough resting period, and abundance of 

 air. About the middle of August is the best time to pot the 

 bulbs, placing about twelve in a 5-inch pot, using a compost 

 of loam three parts, and leaf soil, with a little silver sand, 

 covering the bulbs with about an inch of soil. The drainage 

 must also be efficient. When potted place them on a bed of 

 ashes outdoors, keeping the soil moist till the plants make 

 their appearance, when they must be watered more liberally. 

 They need slight protection during the winter — about the same 

 as is usually afforded to Cauliflower plants in frames. A few 

 degrees of frost will do no harm, for I have often had the 

 Triteleia pots frozen hard for a week or more, which has not 

 affected the foliage or interfered with the flowering of the 

 plants ; keeping them close, or ueing fire heat, is not so good 

 for them as more hardy treatment. 



About the middle of February they commence showing 

 flowers, which last well in a cool light greenhouse until April. 

 After their beauty is past the plants should be placed outdoors 

 in the sun and kept watered to perfect their growth ; and 

 when the foliage turns yellow the pots may be laid on their 

 Bides and kept dry till August, when they should be looked 

 over and some of the surface soil scraped off and about half an 

 inch of fresh compost put on as a top-dressing, and be treated the 

 same as above stated, with this exception, that they will require 

 a few doses of liquid manure. It may be asked, Why not 

 shake out and repot every year ? but after eight years' experi- 

 ence of the cultivation of this plant I have found that a larger 

 quantity of bloom can be had the second year after potting than 

 the first, and the quality as good; but if left in the pots till 

 the third year the bulbs will have increased so much and the 

 soil be BO exhausted that they will scarcely bloom at all. That 

 is the reason I find every alternate year the best for repotting, 

 selecting, of course, the best bulbs, and potting the smaller 

 bulbs by themselves if wanted. 



As a proof of the utility of Triteleias for cutting to mix with 

 other flowers, I may state that each o-inch pot prcdnoed up- 

 wards of fifty blooms the second seafon after potting : the 

 grass-Uke foliage is also very graceful, hanging down and com- 

 pletely hiding the pot. For these reasons I recommend the 

 culture of this pretty and useful old plant to the readers of 

 this Journal. — A. Habdinq. 



APPLE CULTURE. 

 I HAVE read " W. G.'s " interesting remarks on this subject. 

 I have no Apples on the Paradise stock, otherwise I should 

 have been pleased to communicate results, but there are a few 

 points on which I have something to say. 

 ;; He writes : " I have a large portion of my orchard occupied 

 with sorts I do not require and never ordered. How this evil 

 is to be avoided by purchasers I do not know, as it is often 

 years before the mistake is discovered." I expect this will bo 

 fonud to be a general subject of complaint, and that few people 



have planted Apples extensively without finding some wrongly 

 named, particularly when they come from two or three places. 

 I think it arises from the perishable nature of labels, and some- 

 times from the want of sufficient care on the grafter's part, 

 and a mistake once made is liable to be extended. 



A nurseryman told me the other day that he ran short o£ 

 one kind of Apple and sent to another nursery for it, and a 

 wrong kind was sent. He went on grafting and budding away 

 for two or three years and sending trees all over the country 

 before he found out the mistake. He is more careful now, and 

 BO he ought to be. 



Perhaps a nurseryman ought not to graft from a tree until 

 he has fruited it. Purchasers would be able to avoid the evil 

 of getting wrong eorta to a great extent if they paid a visit to 

 the nursery in summer when the trees were growing. Some of 

 them would have fruit on and could be easily identified, ami 

 an experienced man would be able to identify others from the 

 leaves and mode of growth, and they might be marked at 

 once for removal in the following autumn. 



I will pass on to the latter part of " W. G.'s " remarks : " Could 

 not something be done to encourage planting fruit trees ?" Yes, 

 a great deal may be done. The Editors are doing something 

 now by getting up an Apple election. I have sent a list and 

 am promised two others, one from the vale of Gloucester and 

 the other from Worcestershire, and I believe more are required 

 from other parts of the country. It is a great encouragement 

 to the fruit-grower when he plants sorts which thrive and do 

 well, and much disappointment has arisen at various times 

 from sorts being planted which are too delicate for the situ- 

 ation. Some kinds, like Lord Suffield, may soon be brought 

 into bearing, and pyramids or bushes of that sort ought to be 

 planted in every cottager's garden, but the uncertainty oJ 

 tenure is after all the great drawback to fruit cultivation in 

 this country. What is wanted is an alteration in the law. It 

 is not much encouragement to plant trees like Blenheim Orange 

 and wait several years, and then to leave the place and be 

 obliged to let the trees remain for other people to reap the 

 benefit. A short Act of Parliament ought to be introduced 

 for the purpose of promoting the growth of fruit trees, and 

 one of its provisions ought to be to the effect that " on or after 

 the Ist of January, 1878, any person or persons planting a 

 fruit tree in a garden rented by him of another shall, on the 

 expiration or other determination of such tenancy, be allowed 

 to remove the same. A second clause might be added to the 

 effect that the tenant should, with regard to trees nailed or 

 trained to any dwelling-house or walls, first of all offer them 

 to his landlord at a valuation to be made in the usual manner, 

 and in the event of the said landlord declining the offer then 

 the tenant should be allowed to remove them. I do not see 

 that an Act of this kind would be an injustice to anyone; it 

 would only apply to gardens, and they are, of course, intended 

 partly for the growth of fruit already. 



Something of this kind will be sure to come into force at no 

 distant period, and I wUl suppose that it has been obtained 

 during the present sitting of Parliament, and that some well- 

 disposed person or persons have taken a leaf out of the plan 

 that is sometimes followed in France with regard to rural 

 affairs, and posted a few notices in the villages something like 

 the following ; — " Notice. — Whereas by an Act of Parliament 

 passed in the fortieth year of Her Majesty's reign, entituled 

 ' An Act for the better encouragement of the Growth of Fruit 

 Trees,' every person who after this date plants a fruit tree in 

 his garden will be allowed to remove the same at the end of 

 his tenancy. We beg to call the attention of persons desirous 

 of planting fruit trees to this fact, and to say that the Apples 

 which thrive well and are most likely to succeed in your dis- 

 trict are Keswick Codlin, Hawthornden, Lord Suffield, Stirling 

 Castle, Rymer, i&c." 



The effect of a notice like this would be astonishing ; there 

 would be such a demand for Apple trees that nurserymen 

 would hardly be able to keep up the supply, and there would 

 be an impetus given to fruit-growing that has not occurred 

 before in this generation. — Amateur, GircncestcT. 



It is very singular that my experience is exactly the reverse 

 of " W. G.'s." Blenheim Pippin he has fourteen years old, 

 from which he has had one large specimen. I have had it as 

 a standard during eight years, and have had several fair crops. 

 As a pyramid I have had only a very few Apples on it. Of 

 Winter Pearmain, again, " W. G." obtains only a very few. I 

 have a standard eight years planted which bears capital crops. 

 He says Cox's Orange Pippin makes a good pyramid and is a 



