Jane 28, 1877 ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTIOUIiTDRE AND COTTAaB GARDENER. 



483 



at EUwanger & Barry's of Kocheeter, N.Y. We eliall be glad 

 to know whether it still remains satisfactory with them, and 

 whether of the bandxeds that have been planted in the east 

 dnring the past twenty years anyone else has a good specimen. 

 [We sympathise with oar American friends ; few Conifers 

 thrive more satisfactorily in England than the Wellingtonia 

 (Sequoia) of which there are thousands of splendid specimens. 

 It is remarkable that it refuses to flourish in the Eastern 

 States of America, aud the information that it does not do so 

 will surprise many in England.! 



SiiMrixa Out Insect PLAonES. — Mr. Hurray desires 



to stamp out the wireworm, crane liy, cockchafer, and other 

 of the more notorious plagues by a direct nystem of catching 

 and killing promoted by Act of Parliament. Let us not be in 

 haste to take an unfavourable view of any such proposal, for 

 the loss inflicted on the country by these and kindred pests 

 must be reckoned by millions annually. Every man pays his 

 share, although the farmers and gardeners are the first and 

 heaviest sufferers. The discussion of the subject at the Society 

 of Arts on the 5th inst. did not result in any strikingly prac- 

 tical conclusions, but we are bound to expect some benefit 

 from so well ordered a debate on so important a subject. There 

 is one thing to be done — wo must educate public opinion. We 

 must begin with the young, and in place of cramming them 

 with book knowledge, encourage them in the observation of 

 nature. For example, every ignorant boy is now, and for some 

 time past has been, hungering after birds' nests ; but well- 

 taught boys do not touch birds' nests. To repress bird-catch- 

 ing altogether, and so spoil the fowlers' art, will soon be recog- 

 nised as necessary; and when birds are properly protected the 

 wireworm and crane fly will be stamped out by the songsters 

 of the grove ; and as for the cockchafer and the other larger 

 enemies of our peace, the ignoble hawks and the smaller owls 

 will take care of them, for all our smaller predaoeous birds 

 have a great fancy for beetles ; and as for their fat grubs that 

 haunt the Wheat field and the Potato crop, ask the rooks if 

 they are not as nice as whitebait, and wanting neither cold 

 punch nor cliquot to wash them down. — [Pictorial World.) 



The Eucalyptus. — M. Planchon has published some 



items of interest relating to the Eucalyptus, now extensively 

 planted in California and in eome of the Southern States of 

 America ; he says, " While the Eucalyptus amygdalina attains 

 a height of 145 to 152 metres (473 to 496 feet), the dome of 

 the InvaUdes in Paris is only 105 metres high, the Cathedral at 

 Strasburg 142 mitres, and the Pyramid of Cheops, 140 metres. 

 The Eucalyptus globulus, although not attaining to the height 

 of E. amygdalina, is still taller than the celebrated California 

 tree, the Sequoia gigantea. It is cultivated on a large scale at 

 the Cape of Good Hope, the southern coatts of Spain and 

 France, the Island of Corsica, and especially in Algeria. In 

 Paris it is customary of late to place young specimens of the 

 tree in public squares as a moveable summer decoration ; and 

 so much is its peculiar form and blue colour admired, that the 

 inhabitants are quite sorry when, as winter approaches, the 

 plant has to be returned to the greenhouse. In Valencia (Spain) 

 the vulgar name for it is the Fever Tree. A few years ago a 

 Spanish gardener visiting Paris was shown the tree as a novelty. 

 He remarked that it was already a popular specific against 

 fevers amongst the peasants of Valencia, and that it had even 

 been found necessary to plant a guard at the Fever Tree to 

 prevent its leaves from being stripped." 



ROSES AND THEIK CULTURE. 



Eo9E3 here (Cirencester) are about a fortnight behind the 

 usual time, and hardly any standards are out yet (18th of June). 

 The Maruchal Niels make a grand display against walls, but 

 are not quite up to the standard of some years. I have cut 

 two or three fine blooms with stems as large as one's little 

 finger, but there are not as many as usual of that size. The 

 frost in the early part of May was a great check. Ought the 

 Marfchal to be protected ? I am never afraid of the severest 

 winter: it is the spring that is trying. I have a tree on a south 

 aspect which is beginning to get rather bare at the bottom ; 

 next year I intend to cover the lower part with fir branches to 

 preserve the foliage, and will let you know the result. Young 

 trees I certainly think ought to be protected with something 

 the first year alter removal. If the season is favourable all 

 will go well in any case, but in others they will most likely 

 not live. 



With regard to manure for Eoses, I generally use well- 

 decayed stable manure, but Mr. Cranston says his manure is 



the best. Why cannot your correspondent, the Rev. J. B. M. 

 Camm, keep pigs? they ought to pay for their own keep, and 

 he would obtain his manure for nothing. Perhaps there is a 

 little difficulty about straw, but I should think that might be 

 easily arranged. I regard guano water as a stimulant ; if a 

 man has a glass of champagne now and then he requires a 

 little beef as well. — Amateur, Cirencester. 



[Notes on the degeneration of Roses will appear next week] . 



SPBINKLING WATER IN HOTHOUSES. 



I AM quite aware that I have most of the gardening com- 

 munity against me when I say it is ustlefs as a restorative to 

 drooping plants to sprinkle the inside surfaces of hothouses 

 on hot dry days while the sun's rays are unobstructed and the 

 ventilators are wide open. I never denied that it " cools the 

 air," and I think all the benefits " J. S." enumerates (see 

 page 457) are from this cooling of the air after the houses have 

 been allowed to get too hot ; but prevention is better than 

 cure, and it is advisable when practicable not to allow the air 

 to become so heated as to require cooling. That it is not always 

 practicable owing to changeable weather, or to the weather 

 turning out different to our anticipations I grant, and I have 

 sprinkled for the express purpose of cooling the air, but that 

 is not what people usually sprinkle for. I have also in times 

 past sprinkled with the idea of reviving drooping plants, but 

 unless the said plants were shaded or had the air around them 

 pretty much confined, or the water affected their roots, they 

 never looked much better for it ; and if they did look a trifle 

 better for a short time it was all owing to the cooling of the 

 air preventing their moisture beirj;; sucked out of them quite 

 so fast for a few minutes, and I venture to think that a lump 

 of ice placed in the house would have had a precisely similar 

 effect. The benefit, if any, was from a lowering of the tem- 

 perature, and not from the imaginary saturation of the atmo- 

 sphere. 



It is possible for surfaces to be saturated and yet for the 

 atmosphere to be comparatively dry, or why should well- 

 established Cauliflowers and other tender very succulent plants 

 droop so much in sunshine after a good rain ? I have noticed 

 them droop more at such times than they often do after a 

 month's dry weather. If you were to put a hand-light over 

 one of the plants of course it would revive instantly, as evapo- 

 ration would be checked. I am not speaking of plants which 

 have ceased to grow for the want of moisture for a time and 

 then become suddenly re-invigorated by a shower, but such as 

 have received every possible attention and have never known 

 a check ; neither do I allude to bright sunshine after a spell 

 of dull weather; but say. it may be bright to-day, the plants 

 do not flag, and they are not dry at the roots. During the night 

 or early to-morrow morning wo may have two or three hours' 

 refreshing rain, and yet as toon as the sun comes out the 

 plants may droop badly and remain drooping till the evening. 

 This phenomenon may be often witnessed, and if it is not the 

 effect of a dry atmosphere I do not know what it is. Of course 

 other plants besides the Cauliflower and such-like suffer, the 

 foliage of fruit trees, and even that of some of the larger-leaved 

 forest trees become flabby. A similar effect on indoor plants 

 at the same time is produced in proportion to the amount of 

 air admitted, and no amount of damping-down will entirely 

 prevent it without shading or closing, because the air of the 

 whole country about you is sucking away Uke a red-hot brick 

 at the moisture in your little structure. 



" J. S." says " that the difference between sprinkling an open 

 and a closed house is only one of degree." Granted; but if 

 the outer atmosphere is dry, in the latter ease you are moisten- 

 ing the atmosphere contained in your little house, and in the 

 former you are attempting to moisten that of the district, and 

 perhaps the country in which you reside. " J. S." also says 

 damping the leaves in an open house would lo " turning them 

 into evaporating surfaces as well, and chilling would be the 

 result." The leaves are evaporating surfaces at all times in 

 proportion to the quantity of light and dryness of the atmo- 

 sphere reaching them. Damping them with a close house 

 would check evaporation, and damping them with an open 

 house would of course have a chilling effect. I also maintain 

 that damping-down the house while the ventilators are wide 

 open, the bright sun's rays unobstructed, and the outer atmo- 

 sphere parched, has also a chilling effect, although in a less 



Concerning the use of the hygrometer I have not quite so 

 high an opinion of it as " J. S." has. 1 do not think it is 



