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JOURNAL OP HORTIOULTORB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jane 7, 1877. 



and provident one, as the grassy slopes studded densely with 

 frnit trees testify." 



Writing to na on the ikfluence of scion on stock, 



" W. C. E." says, " Last year a graft of Golden Labnrnnm 

 was put on a common Labnrnnm. The graft died, but this 

 year nine or ten shoots have come lemon-coloured. In another 

 case the leaves of the stock are spotted with yellow." 



We have received from Messrs. Dickson & Co., Water- 

 loo Place, Edinburgh, some flowers of douele Cinerakias 

 named Queen of Violets, Pink Perfection, Pilrig Beauty, and 

 The Prince. The flowers are perfectly double and very fine, 

 the two first-named being the most effective varieties which 

 have come under our notice. 



A GENTLEMAN, " S. B.," who IS oue of the best cul- 

 tivators of Tulips, and who is entitled to speak with authority, 

 writes as follows on malformed Tulips, which were referred 

 to last week on page 411. " The case " (of four blooms being 

 produced by one stalk), "is clearly a case of overgrowth. 

 The bulbs have been grown in compost of too etimulating a 

 nature, and have probably been left in the ground too long, 

 which enables the new bulb to feed as long as any of the fibres 

 retain their vitality. A less stimulating growth and early 

 taking-up of the bulbs are the remedies for this. I should 

 recommend your correspondent to take-up his bulbs within a 

 week after they have done blooming. In this opinion the Kev. 

 F. D. Horner and Mr. Bentley quite coincide." 



" The Fern World " is the title of a forthcoming work 



by Mr. Francis George Heath, author of the " Fern Paradise." 

 Mr. Heath's new book, which is in the press and will be 

 published shortly by Messrs. Sampson, Low, Mareton & Co , 

 in addition to numerous chapters on the structure, classifi- 

 cation, distribution, uses, and "lore" of Ferns, on general 

 Fern culture, " Fern hunting," Fern collecting, &e., will con- 

 tain descriptions of rambles through the combes and glens 

 of North Devon. Half of the work is devoted to the de- 

 scription, distribution, and culture of British Ferns, and the text 

 throughout will be illustrated by coloured lithographs of Fern 

 groups specially printed from nature, full-page engravings of 

 scenery, &a. 



Singular Birds' Nests. — We recently noticed in the 



gardens of S. Ealli, Esq., Cleveland House, Clapham Park, a 

 sight worthy of the pencil of Mr. Harrison Weir. During the 

 present year a robin built his nest in a specimen of Erica de- 

 pressa which was growing in the greenhouse, and there reared 

 its young, which left the nest the day before the plant was 

 taken to the Crystal Palace Show. The parent birds then 

 found access to the stove and built another nest on the surface 

 of the pot of a flowering specimen of Nepenthes Hookeriana. 

 In this nest eggs were laid, but just before they were hatched the 

 bird was found dead in the nest. The nest and eggs remain ; 

 and the Nepenthes, which has several pitchers, certainly loses 

 none of its attractiveness by the novel addition of the robin's 

 nest and eggs. Mr. Moorman has reported an instance of 

 what he terms the " ingenuity of a tomtit :" — " During the 

 latter part of the year 1875 a pot about 10 inches in diameter 

 was inverted in the orchard at Coombe Bank, where it re- 

 mained throughout the winter. On removing the pot in the 

 spring it was found to cover an ingeniously contrived nest. 

 The whole of the interior of the pot was beautifully padded 

 with moss, in the centre of which was a nest full of young 

 birds, the old birds entering through the hole in the top, or 

 what is really the bottom of the pot. The young birds flew 

 away, and during the past winter the pot was removed. 

 On Mr. Christy's return home after an absence of several 

 months he missed the pot, and being a great protector of small 

 birds he requested that the pot should be returned to the same 

 place. This was done early in May, and on the 28th of the 

 same month the tomtit had completed its nest in the same 

 manner as before, and had laid five eggs." 



We recently noticed a fine plant of Ceanothus den- 



TATUS flowering on the south wall of Sudbury House, Ham- 

 mersmith, the residence of J. T. Peacock, Esq. This is an 

 excellent evergreen flowering plant for a south wall, its blue 

 flowers being produced in great profusion, and are admirably 

 adapted for cutting for vase decoration. This Ceanothus strikes 

 readily from cuttings of the young shoots inserted in sand 

 and treated the same manner as Verbena cuttings. In some 

 petitions in the northern counties the Ceanothus requires the 

 protection of a mat during the winter. C. dentatus has smaller 

 foliage and more deeply coloured flowers than C. azureus, and 

 it also flowers earlier than that species. Mr. Peacock's unri- 



valled collection of Cactuses is in splendid condition ; and hia 

 gardener, Mr. Croucher, is establishing a choice selection of 

 Orchids, many valuable sorts of which are now flowering. Mr. 

 Peacock's garden is in excellent order throughout. 



After an almost unexampled term of cold weather, 



which has rendered the present one of the most backward 

 seasons on record, a sudden change has occurred. Sunday 

 last was a brilliant day in London, and the day following was 

 quite sultry, the thermometer in the full sun registering 120". 

 Since then the heat has abated somewhat, the sun having 

 been more or less obscured by clouds. Bedding-out is in 

 "full swing" in the parks, and will not be completed before 

 July. Warm showers are much needed to assist the free 

 growth of the plants, or half the season will be over before 

 the beds are attractive. 



We have received three letters from correspondents 



stating that they have gone through the prize list of the 

 Crystal Palace Auricula Show, and found seven names of 

 prizewinners in the Auricula classes, and four more in the 

 Polyanthus class. They are as follows : — Auriculas — Rev. F. D. 

 Homer, Kirkby Malzeard, Kipon, Yorkshire; Mr. Douglas, 

 Loxford Hall, Ilford, Essex; Mr. Charles Turner, Slough, 

 Berks ; Mr. B. Simonite, Sheffield, Yorkshire ; Mr. Jones, 

 Carrow House, Norwich, Norfolk; Rev. Margetts, Lydington, 

 Uppingham, Rutland ; and Mr. Cooper, Timperley, Cheshire. 

 Polyanthuses — Mr. G. Smith, Edmonton ; Mr. E. Dean, Ealing ; 

 Mr. Catley, Bath; and Mr. Hooper, Bath. It is not necessary 

 to publish more on the subject. 



We hear that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales 



has given up Chiswick House, the lease having expired, and 

 that Mr. John Wills of South Kensington has been appointed 

 to supply the floral decorations at Marlborough House. 



Klissoura in Bulgaria has long been celebrated for 



the manufacture of attar of Roses. During the recent war- 

 fare the stills, called kezans, were all destroyed, but the con- 

 sequent distress of the natives has been relieved by Lady 

 Strangford by supplying them with 110 new kezans. 



Artificial flowers, called barometers, are being now 



exhibited in a number of Parisian opticians' shops. They are 

 coloured with a material composed of chloride of cobalt. When 

 exposed to sun and dry air the leaves become deep blue ; when 

 the air is saturated with moisture they become pinky. All 

 (he intermediate shades are easily observed. 



As afiording an idea of horticultural industry in 



America we are informed that $10,000,000 are invested in land. 

 greenhouses, and stock connected with the wholesale florists' 

 business in the vicinity of New York, where there are 45 acres 

 of hothouses. At Union Hill, New Jersey, there are about 

 20 acres under glass for the cultivation of flowers for the New 

 Y'ork market. 



A PLEA FOR THE OKCHAED HOUSE— INSECTS. 



Under the above heading Mr. Hodgson has contributed one 

 of the most pleasant and sensible articles that I have read for 

 many a day. Y'our correspondent uses a sledge-hammer kind 

 of argument in favour of orchard houses, and I am convinced 

 that it will require something very powerful to prove that 

 these structures, when rightly managed, are not of great value 

 in producing a supply of fruit in inclement seasons. Hitherto 

 this season we have heard little besides wailings on the con- 

 dition of the Peach crop ; but here we have one who is justly 

 jubilant over having 1600 Peaches and Nectarines in one 

 house, and that house heated by what ? — " three lamp stoves 

 only used on cold nights when the blossom might otherwise be 

 injured by the frost." Mr. Hodgson, I presume, is an amateur, 

 for few horny-handed gardeners can write so forcibly yet 

 elegantly as he has written on page 305, and few, I imagine, 

 can narrate better practice in fruit-culture. Were I given to 

 envy I should commence with envying both Mr. Hodgson's 

 attainments and his fruit; but I hope I am not, and I am 

 sure I shall be well satisfied if I can now and again be refreshed 

 after my daily labour by the perusal of an article similar to 

 the one referred to. 



For same time past I have been silent on gardening matters. 

 I have been quietly working and watching, and had half 

 resolved to give my pen a longer rest, but, to use a gardener's 

 phrase, I am fairly " fetched out of my shell " by your accom- 

 plished correspondent. I have a lurking conviction that I am 

 the "scornful gardener" who named the cribbed and strmted 

 specimens, which so often forced theii uselessness upon me, 



