224 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTIAGE GABDENEB. 



[ AprU 1, 1869. 



selves present a mass of bloom of no mean cliaraoter, after the 

 Bhododendrons are over ; but the open plots were few com- 

 pared with the part covered, and as the timber trees were not 

 more numerous than useful in the way of giviug shade, the 

 Ehododendrona may fairly be considered the principal objects 

 ■whose growth is encouraged. Although, as regards the Bho- 

 dodendrons, there is no lack of quantity,' the requirements of 

 the present age call for variety, so extensive plantations of 

 the newer kinds have been made ; and I noticed some large 

 spots of half an acre or more, at a place where the former crops 

 had been removed, and the land trenched ready for more 

 choice varieties, which will prolong the blooming season as 

 ■well as afford other colours. The principal thing, however, 

 that strikes a stranger, is the immense number of large old 

 plants which for miles present themselves, reminding the 

 looker-on that a well-directed outlay at the time when these 

 plants were scarce and costly has left an enduring mark on the 

 place ; and Cobham Hall is not likely to lose any of its fame in 

 the hands of its present noble proprietor, for all is being done 

 that can be done to maintain the character of plantations 

 already existing, while new ones of chosen kinds are being 

 extensively made, and the area devoted to them enlarged on all 

 available sides. — A Suesckibek. 



EFFECTS OF LINSEED OIL ON VINES. 

 In No. 404, page 486, of last year's volume, you reply to a 

 correspondent recommendinglinseed oil for moaly bug on Vines. 

 In consequence of that, I applied linseed oil to the whole of the 

 Vines here, which are about five years old, and just in good 

 bearing. Having the houses painted at the same time, I thus 

 thought to have made a thorough clearance of the pest. There 

 is no doubt the oil has made a clearance of the mealy bug, but, 

 I am sorry to say, of the Vines also. I have had fire heat in 

 one house for two months, and there is not a sign of a bud push- 

 ing — in fact, I have examined them, and find the buds are all 

 dead. I do not think the Vines will break, except at the bottom 

 of the rods where the oil has not touched the buds. Some are 

 breaking there, and some are not. Advise me which ■svould be 

 the better to do — to cut back the old Vines, or plant young ones 

 this spring. — P. 



[It appears you have oiled the whole of the stems, and 

 covered the eyes with the oil. No injury results from oiling the 

 parts of the stem infested with the mealy bug, as we have 

 repeatedly applied it to fruit trees infested with scale and 

 American bug, and with success as regards the destruction of 

 the insects, the trees not being in any case injured. Surely the 

 oil was not " raw," or it was probably mixed with some other 

 liquid, as spirits of turpentine. The appearance of the Vines 

 in the late house sustains our opinion that it is the eyes or buds 

 that are destroyed, as the wood seems green and fresh, which 

 would not be the case had the oil destroyed it. We should 

 allow the old Vines to remain, encouraging a young rod from 

 each, such being in most cases produced from dormant eyes on 

 the stems of young Vines as well as those of considerable age.] 



EAST LOTHIAN STOCKS. 



Allow me to suggest to your numerous readers a caution 

 in depending upon these much-talked-of flowers. I took the 

 most effectual means to secure the best seed from the highly- 

 respectable parties who first praised them in your valuable 

 Journal. The result is that from three packets of different 

 coloured varieties I have about nine very inferior plants — the 

 remaining flowers being single. As in this neighbourhood I 

 have the honour of being celebrated for superior Stocks, I do 

 not think the fault Ues in my mode of cultivation. — G. B., 

 JON., Llanelly. 



WARNING. 

 I KNOW you are in no way responsible for the advertisers in 

 your columns, but I cannot refrain from writing to you about 

 the bad fortune I have had with them — fortunately only in a 

 very small way. I have answered but few since the time I 

 began subscribing to your Journal about a year ago, and in 

 doing so I have been foolish enough to send the stamps before- 

 hand, thinking it the shortest way, but 1 am now convinced a 

 ■very bad way. I sent the stamps for some golden plovers some 

 months ago, but never heard a word. I had to write a very 

 sharp letter last spring before I could get cuttings I had paid 

 iot a fortnight before ; and now I have sent stamps for some 



Verbena cuttings, advertised by a London nurseryman, an3 

 though it is nearly three weeks ago, and 1 have written again, 

 I have not heard about or received them. In future if even 

 an advertiser " requests payment from an unknown correspon- 

 dent," I shall take my chance of being attended to without 

 sending the money, as it appears I have to stand the same 

 chance, or a worse one, when I do. If you think I am the 

 only one who is foolish enough to pay beforehand, you can 

 take no notice of this. If you think there are others who do 

 the same, you can give a rap in your answers to correspon- 

 dents.— J. F. B., York. 



[We have had other similar complaints, and one against a 

 firm we know to be respectable. Such delays often occur in 

 consequence of the demand exceeding the supply, and when it 

 does so, in these penny-postage days, we think vendors should 

 write to intending purchasers who have confided in them. 

 —Eds.] 



NEW BOOK. 



Echoes in Plant and Flower Life. By Leo H. Geisdon, &e. 

 London : ¥. Pitman. 



This little volume is enti-ely frothy; the bubbles of the 

 froth are bright, but they are only bubbles. The entire book 

 is devoted to telling that in regions wide apart there are 

 plants having parts similar in form. These Mr. Grindon calls 

 " Echoes." Why !— the flat nose of a black man on the coast 

 of Africa, according to such a commentary, is the " Echo " of 

 a white man's flat nose on the coast of Kent. 



Mr. Grindon is an enthusiast, poetical and reverential — that 

 is, he speaks lovingly of God and His creations. But what 

 need of this contrast when speaking of flowers ? — what justifi- 

 cation for saying they afford " miracles as grand in their kind 

 and in their influence upon our souls, when watched in a reve- 

 rent spirit, as the miracles long ago wrought in a corner of 

 Asia ?" If this be not a sneer it much resembles one ; and to 

 compare the phenomena of plant life with the miracles recorded 

 in the New Testament is simply absurd. 



There is one, and but one, useful passage in the book, and 

 it is the following mode of copying leaves and their veins : — 



" The Itest and cheapest plan is not the onginal " photogenic," but 

 that which has been named the " chromotype " process. To practise 

 this, sheets of white paper are first washed on one side with a solntion 

 of sulphate of copper, and when diy, with a solution of bichromate of 

 potash. This gives the surface a pale yellow tint, to preserve which, 

 and the sensitiveness, the prepared paper mnst be kept in the dark, 

 say between the pages of a large book. When it is desired to ohtaiii 

 the image of a leaf with its veins, lay the leaf upon a piece of the pre- 

 pared paper, keeping the prepared side uppermost, and place npon it a 

 piece of plate-glass, so that the leaf may be perfectly flattened against 

 the paper. The better to ensure perfect flattening, it is well that the 

 leaf intended to he copied should he heavily pressed for half a day or 

 so, in the way that would be done were it intended for the herharinm. 

 Next expose the paper, with the leaf and glass upon it, to the sunshine, 

 and in an hour or two the yellow tint will disappear, except where the 

 leaf iutei'venes between the snn and the paper. This portion will of 

 course remain yellow ; and now, on the paper being dipped into a 

 dishful of solution of nitrate of silver, the outbne of the leaf and every 

 vein and veinlet improvises itself in vivid and pennanent scarlet ! So 

 magical and instantaneous is the appearance of the scarlet, that it can 

 he compared only to the sudden illumination of a dark parlour by 

 kindliuR a taper and lighting the gas. After being dipped in the 

 nitrate of silver, the pictures should he dried by being placed between 

 sheets of blotting paper and well pressed ; and to ensure their retain- 

 ing their beauty, they should be preserved in some darkened receptacle. 

 The best leaves to select for the chromotype pictures are those of very 

 thin and dry texture, and level surface, such as the Beech. Leathery, 

 juicy, and do^vny leaves are altogether unsuitable.' 



THE "WALNUT TREE. 



Foe many generations the Walnut has been a favourite tree 

 with the schoolboy, who makes " a shy " at it with a stick on 

 going to and returning from his place of daily penance. He 

 looks with particular interest on this tree, as being one whose 

 produce he is entitled to partake of in a sort of clandestine 

 way, and rich is the treat when the fruit attains maturity. 

 The oft-repeated injunction not to meddle with it, for fear of 

 staining his hands, is then disregarded, and the hands have to 

 complete that removal of the shell which tbe foot was unable 

 to effect, as the tempting prize could not be left behind. 

 Older people than schoolboys also cast a longing eye upon the 

 produce of this tree, and now and then an onslaught is made 

 upon it, and some one " gets into trouble." 



