184 



'JOOENAL OF HOBTICDIiTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Febrnary 11, 1869. 



Chervil. — Curled-leaved Parsnip for autamn sowincj. The leaves 

 ^e used for garnishing, and the roots for cookinj^ like Parsnips. 



Capsiohm. — Small Ked and Yellow Chilies ; Long Bed and Yellow 

 TjUpsicnm. 

 " Egg-plant. — White, Blacli, Pnrple, Scarlet, and Spotted. 



Gourds. — LnrRe Orange and Mammoth, hoth very large. 



IcE-PL.\NT. — (MesembryantUemum crystallinum). for garnishing. 



Kohl Rari. — I never could see the value of this, but the White 

 Transparent and Purple Transparent are best for table. 



Curled Mallow. — Fine for garnishing, and an excellent substitute 

 for Vine leaves. 



Orach. — New Giant (Lee's) and Yellow, good substitute for Spinach, 

 and by some preferred to it. 



Rampio:^. — The leaves are sometimes used as salad, occasionally 

 boiled as Spinach, but it is chiefly grown for its roots, which are used 

 like Radishes. 



R.APHANUs CADDATUS. — Edible-poddcd Radish — requires to be sown 

 in heat. 



Herbs. — Sweet Basil, Borage, Sweet Marjoram, Summer Savon-, 

 and Tobacco for fumigation. 

 , — G. Abbey. 



PROPAGATING AND WINTERING VERBENAS. 



It may be interesting to some ot your readers to know our 

 method of propagating and keeping through the winter these 

 very useful bedding plants, in place of the old-fashioned way 

 of keej iiig in a store-pau a hundred or so, which by the spring 

 are decrepit and generally covered with mildew. 



About the middle of July we have boxes 1 foot in depth, fill 

 them three-parts full of light soil ; then, covering the surface 

 with eilver sand, we put in the cuttings, choosing only clean 

 healthy wood. We cover the tops of the boxes with glass, 

 damp the cullinga slightly over as they require it, place them 

 under a uoith wall, and when rooted pot the plants off, three in 

 a 6-inch pot. in some rich loam mixed with a little manure and 

 a sprinkling of bone dust. 



When rooted we give the plants as much air as possible, and 

 keep them through the winter near the glass in a cool house 

 or pit, with a temperature of 40°. Under this treatment we 

 have abundance of good healthy cuttings in the spring. — 

 E. WiLio^, Propagator, Chatswortit, 



CAMELLIAS OUT OF DOORS. 



Noticing in your report of the proceedings of the Eoyal 

 Horticultural Society on the 19' h of January some remarks 

 on the Camellia, it struck me that it would be interesting to 

 your readers to know that Camellias are cultivated here in 

 large numbers, and produce better blooms in the open air than 

 ,>,pider glass. At Mainland, the seat of M. Gibout, Esq., Ca- 

 . mellias may be seen 12 or 14 feet high and quite as much 

 through, literally covered with thousands ot flowers and buds 

 in all stages of development. Alba plena, Imbricata rubra, 

 Mathotiana rubra and alba, Saccoi vera, Donkelaarii, Jenny 

 Lind, Laudrethi, Reine des Fleurs, Marie Morren, Caryophyl- 

 loides, Henri I'avre, Lady Hume's Blush, &c., are all first-rate 

 i,£.yarieties, and are cultivated in the island in the open air. 

 ,., Nothing can surpass, not to say equal, the appearance of 

 jlM. Gibout's grounds in winter and early in spring. Whilst 

 .. most gardens are devoid of flowers, his Camellias are gorgeous 

 '..masses of bloom varying from the purest white to the deepest 

 jv'crimsou. Why the Camellia is not more generally cultivated 

 ,88 an ornamental shrub in the south of England, is to me a 

 j, mystery. All that is done here to insure succees is to plant 

 • in peat or leaf mould, with the addition of well-rotted cow 

 idvmg, about two barrowsful to each plant : and in four or five 

 ... years the plants are capable of producing six or seven dozen 

 blooms. Irrespective of their flowers, the plants are most 

 ornamental from the deep lustrous green of their foliage and 

 the symmetiieal outline ihey generally assume, if not choked 

 up by other tlivubs. I notice they grow more luxuriantly if 

 shaded by lofty trees ; in fact, I have about a dozen plants 

 under a north wall which never see the sun, and which are 

 pictures of health and luxuriance ; though only three years 

 planted and only five from the graft, they are literally covered 

 with buds. One plant of Liudrethi and one of Saccoi vera have 

 each upwards of a hundred buds, which will not open in this situa- 

 tion till March. These plants have never been protected from 

 frost, and have received no other attention than an occasional 

 watering in long-continued drought. 



I have been led to write these few remarks from reading that 

 Dr. Lindley settled that the Camellia was hardy, but would 

 not flower unless it received heat. Now, I would like to know 



where mine under a north wall receive their heat from, for I 

 have not had a false flower on thera, though a large propor- 

 tion of the blooms is annually spoiled by rain or frost. Shonld 

 a list of the varieties grown here in the open air be deemed 

 instructive, I shall gladly furnish you with one, but I think all 

 are equally hardy. — Turf Bank, Jersey. 



STOPPING VINES. 



Ix establishing a house ot Vines, ij-feet fruiting canes 

 planted, and cut down to 4 feet, at 4 feet apart, would you 

 grow the termiual buds (the rods) to their intended extent in 

 one season (the coming one), or stop at — say G feet of new 

 growth, thus obtaining Ij feet of wood to ripen and fruit next 

 season, and grow the terminal buds (rods) again another 

 6 feet and stop, ripen again, &c., in the following season, and 

 so on, until the extent of rods were completed? My object in 

 6-feet-growth stoppings is to concentrate the yearly vigour of 

 the Vines in the rods, and obtain good stems and bottom bnds, 

 and to expend the surplus sap in a bunch of fruit on each 4.feet 

 Vine this year, and from two to four bunches on each 10-feet Vine 

 next year, and so on progressively as the rods extend 6 feet 

 each season, are stopped, and ripen each yearly growth, until 

 finally stopped at some 25 feet. All laterals I would stop at 

 tour leaves near the base up to G feet of rod, at three leaves for 

 the next 6 feet, and two leaves afterwards, for spurs, at 9 inches 

 to 1 toot asunder, and rub off all intermediate bnds or lateral 

 shoots. The object is pyramidal flat training, and bottom 

 wood and buds, the rods being grown perpendicularly teet up 

 front glass before reaching the roof training point, and which 

 G feet I propose to fruit as in hop poles or pot Vines. — Eeadek. 



[Your proposed plan of stopping the main stems of the 

 Vines when they have ma.1e a C feet growth, and then allowing 

 a fresh leader to go on, and stopping laterals, is excellent for 

 concentrating strength nearer the base of the Vine, and is of 

 importance in all cases where such matured strength is to be 

 concentrated in reduced space ; but it is of less importance in 

 the ease of young Vines, where plenty of room can be given 

 to them, and the free growth of the leader does not prevent 

 laterals coming from the nodes at which the lower buds are 

 situated. The stopping makes the matter surer, and provided 

 merely the terminal bud is nipped out, little check is given, 

 and an impetus is afforded to the production of plenty of 

 laterals on the lower part of the stem.] 



RABBITS GNAWING TREES. 

 I SEE many of your readers have been troubled with rabbits 

 barking their trees, and, I am sorry to say, I have suffered from 

 the same cause. Various measures have been recommended 

 to remedy the evil, some of them both troublesome and expen- 

 sive. The plan I have adopted is simple and effectual, and 

 consists in painting the stems within their reach with Stock- 

 holm tar. Those treated thus last winter have never been 

 touched since. — J. B. J. 



VEITCHS IJIPEOVED EARLY ASHLEAF 

 KIDNEY POTATO. 



As this is the season for selecting seed Potatoes, I should 

 like to make a few remarks respecting this very good and early 

 variety. 



In the first place, I started a few in the Cucumber house, and 

 afterwards planted them on February 10th in pits with bottom 

 heat, and I dug up the first dish of tubers on March 20th, they 

 being very good, though produced in so short a time. On AprU 

 14th I planted in the open ground, they were soon up and earthed, 

 and I dug the crop up on July 8th ; the tubers were thoroughly 

 ripe, large, and had a beautiful clear skin. I sent a sample to 

 the Editors for inspection, and their remarks may be seen in 

 the Journal of July IGth, page 48. 



Thinking I could obtain a second crop, I again planted on 

 July 10th, after scorching the seed Potatoes in the sun for 

 the two days. They were some time coming up, owing to the 

 dryness of the weather, so I gave the rows a little water. The 

 Potatoes came up, were earthed up, and grew until October 

 18th, when the sharp frost pnt an end to their growth. I dug 

 up the crop on October 20th, and the tubers were a very fair 

 sample of middle size, but ot course not ripe. I also sent a 

 sample of these to the Editors, whose remarks may be seen 



