June 21, 1877. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND OOTXAQB GARDENER. 



457 



(Digitalis gloxinioides) in variety. They are fine for borders or 

 open spaces in ahrabbories, thriving well in Rhododendron beds 

 and in woodlands, being partial to light vegetable soil, and 

 will grow in partial shade. 



French Honeysuckle. — The red and white forma are seldom 

 seen. They are very pretty, and liJie a warm sunny sitaation 

 and light soil, deep but free from stagnant water. The flowers 

 are both attractive and fragrant. 



Rocket. — Sweet, early summer flowering, in lilac and white 

 varieties. Very usefal for borders, preferring rich light soil. 



Mule Pink (Dianthus hybridus) is simply superb, its lively 

 rosy crimson flowers being very beautifuj. It is known as 

 Brown's Male Pink. 



Sweet Scabious. — These are having a return to favour. No 

 flowers are finer for cutting, and the dwarf varieties are superb. 

 They should be grown by everyone. They like a light soil and 

 warm eunny situation. 



Stocks (Jaly flower, or Stock GiUiflower). — Everybody knows 

 Brompton Stocks, yet it is remarkable that so few grow them. 

 A mass of them in early summer is very beautiful, but the 

 Giant Cape is more continuous-flowering and larger in all its 

 parts, being had in white, purple, and scarlet colours, and is 

 nevertheless a Brompton. Qaeen Stocks have " gone out ;" 

 their fine branching habit, profuse flowering, and large double 

 flowers ought to have been sufficient to retain them. 



Scarlet Lychnis (Lychnis Chalcedonica) has fine orange- 

 Bcarlet heads of bloom, borne by bold-looking plants, having a 

 striking effect in bordera and shrubberies. There is a white 

 variety. 



Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus vars.). — A mass of Snap- 

 dragons is very beautiful in early and mid-summer. The 

 plants continue a long time in flower, are indeed very showy, 

 and ought to be extensively cultivated. The colours of the 

 flowers are very varied, some being extremely delicate and 

 others very rich. 



Honesty, purple and white; very gay during the late spring 

 or early summer months. Tlie seed vessels are semi-transpa- 

 rent, and when dried are useful for winter bouquets. 



Stceet William. — This is one of the few old-fashioned plants 

 that come to us in improved guise. The Auricula-eyed variety 

 is a decided advance. Those, with the double varieties, must 

 supersede the old forms. 



Wallflotrer is another of the old-fashioned plants always 

 prized for its fragrance, and one much improved alike in the 

 single and double varieties. 



The easy mode of raising and growing these plants ought 

 to win for them extended culture. The seed should be 

 sown about this time (early June) in light moderately rich 

 soil in rows rather thinly ; the rows need only be S or 1 inches 

 apart. The seeds varying in size will need to be covered with 

 fine soil according to their size, it sufficing if covered about 

 the diameter of the seeds or a little more, watering as required 

 so as to bring the seedlings up quickly. When large enough 

 to handle they should be pricked-oS 3 inches apart in rows 

 6 inches asnnder, and in these they may stand until autumn 

 or spring, when they should be planted out. I would suggest 

 that, a good bed having been secured for the garden, any spare 

 plants be planted in shrubberies and in any open spaces by the 

 Bides of woodland walks ; in fact, where there is space for a 

 weed dig it up and plant a flower. — G. Abbey. 



SPRINKLING WATER IN HOTHOUSES. 

 YonR correspondent, Mr. Taylor, states (page 379) that the 

 effects of sprinkling the inside surfaces of hothouses on dry 

 days, with the ventilators wide open, is " to lower the tempera- 

 tare, and almost certainly to make the atmosphere drier by 

 evaporation." May I tell him that if he will test the matter 

 by the aid of a hygrometer (a dry and wet bulb thermometer) 

 be will find he is entirely mistaken as regards evaporation ? 

 The direct effect of sprinkling the floors, &c., is to saturate the 

 atmosphere of the house and make the dry and wet bulbs 

 approximate. And why is this? Because evaporation and 

 radiation from the wet bulb is reduced, and its temperature 

 rises, while in the dry bulb it falls. What takes place on the 

 bulb of the thermometer takes place also on the leaves of the 

 plants — 'the strain npon them is reduced. Hence it follows 

 that sprinkling the floors on bright days is beneficial, for it 

 cools the air, reduces evaporation, lessens the necessity of 

 admitting great draughts of dry air (which is very undesirable, 

 particularly after dull weather), and thereby prevente scorch- 

 ing or flagging, to an injurious extent at least. This was 



pointed out to me long ago by one of the best known Grape- 

 growers and authors on Vine culture of the present day, and 

 I have since found it to be quite correct in practice, though I 

 do not find sprinkling with the above object necessary, except 

 when the foliage is tender and dull weather is suddenly fol- 

 lowed by hot and bright sunshine. 



Anyone may make a hygrometer in a few minutes'by tying 

 a piece of soft muslin round the bulb of a common thermometer, 

 and keeping it constantly moist by means of a piece of cotton 

 wick and a phial of water. If this is hung up beside a dry 

 thermometer the difference betwden the two will indicate the 

 dryness of the air and the evaporation that is going on. The 

 greatest disparity I ever recorded between the dry and wet 

 bulbs outdoors in the shade was 14" on a dry April day, while 

 in the vineries, freely ventilated and sprinkled, less than half 

 that figure was registered. 



Mr. Taylor says, " Sprinkle as much as you like as sooa as 

 the house is closed." Ha may rest assured that the difference 

 between sprinkling an open and a closed house is only one of 

 degree, so long as he does not damp the foliage in the former 

 case, as he would then be turning the leaves into evaporative 

 purfaces as well, and chilling would then be the result, similar 

 to what one experiences when he dips his finger in ether and 

 then exposes it to the dry air. — J. S. 



OLD ROSES. 



I WILL endeavour to come up to the scratch as requested by 

 the " Pakson's Gardener," although I think I have always 

 done so in my letters to the .Journal, and that the last charge 

 that can be brought against me is that I do not speak m 

 mind. 



The " Parson's Gardener " asks me to tell him the reason 

 why Roses like Paul Perras and Juno, which do so splendidly 

 in pots, should be despised in the open garden. I suppose 

 that the coachman to whom the " Parson's Gardener " alludes 

 would scarcely put his large cart horses, excellent in every way 

 though they may be, into the barouche in which he drives his 

 young ladies out. He reserves Boxer for the plough and 

 other suitable employment. So, many Roses which are ex- 

 cellent for garden decoration or pots are quite out of place in 

 the exhibition box. I know that the two Roses named are 

 splendid Roses for pots, but I can safely say that during the 

 years I have exhibited Roses I have never seen either ex- 

 hibited even in a nurseryman's seventy-two. And why? 

 Because so many other Roses of the same colour, and of the 

 same excellent qualities as to growth and habit, so far excel 

 them in form that it is useless to place them in the stand 

 unless when very hard driven for the last two or three Roses. 

 The nurserymen almost in despair may out one of these, but, 

 as I said before, I never knew one do so. 



Your correspondent looks upon the Rose from such a very 

 different aspect to what I do that we can never agree. I look 

 upon it solely as the finest exhibition flower that we have. He 

 regards it as, I suppose, the finest flower for garden decoration. 

 I do not want numbers of blooms on my trees ; three or four 

 at the outside is all I want my plants to bear. He, on the 

 other hand, wishes for hundreds, aye, thousands of blooms, 

 that he can cut and come again and again and still find 

 numbers of blooms of some sort. Both these views as to the 

 value of the Rose are excellent, and I do not in the least 

 dissent from your correspondent's view if he will let me hold 

 mine. 



Oar Journal circulates among all kinds of Rose-growers, 

 and in all probability the great majority of your readers will 

 agree with him and not with me, so by all means let him go 

 on and recommend garden Roses, Roses such as he says will 

 give thousands of blooms for hospitals and festivals, and if I 

 can possibly find room I will buy some next autumn and try 

 them once more. Bat what I contend i-s — and I do not think 

 the " Parson's Gardener " will dissent from this, but he may, 

 or at least his coachman will — that Paul Perras, Jano, Ch£n6- 

 dolc, &t., are not exhibition flower?, and that persons who 

 buy them hoping to combine free blooming with exhibition 

 properties will find that they have made a great mistake. — 

 John B. M. Camm. 



THE SETTING OF GRAPES. 

 Seeing some controversy as to the varieties of Grapes setting 

 I have forwarded by train a pmall box, carriage paid, contain- 

 ing a bunch of Mrs. Fince's Muscat Grape, if yoa coneiider it 



