July 2S, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUKB AND COTTAGE GABDBNKB. 



63 



It is 8 feet liigli, and is in nn llinoh pot. — Ricuatid Simpson, 

 at 0. W. Ncmnamit, Esq., iVyncoU Allerton, Lioerpool. 



VIOI.A CORNUTA. 



I Au sorry to Lear snch comfilaints reppeoting this bfantifiil 

 flower. Some cultivators tuy it like? a wet season, otlmrs tbat 

 it will not do iu a dry one. A tliird set assert that it likos an 

 open position, and others that it does best in tlio sbado. I am 

 folly aware that there is in ihe soils and climato of each 

 oonnty a great diflurence that the Viola oornuta bus to contend 

 against, having bad it under ray charge in a midUnd county, 

 in the south, and now in tbo north. During these tlneo seasons 

 I have never heard any complaints of it, but, on the contrary, 

 have heard the ladies praise it very much. It has bloomed 

 very well the whole time I have known it, and nothing could 

 give greater satisfrtction. 



I would advise Mr. Bryan and all others to try it once more 

 before they utteily condemn it. As an edging, I think it sur- 

 passes any Lobelia. We have for some purposes intermixed it 

 with Lobelia speciosa, and it is quite lovely either so associated 

 or in a bed by itself. 



I always dig manure into my beds in the spring, then in 

 April I divide the Viola into very small pieces, and plant them 

 where I wish them to remain for an edging, giving water at the 

 game time. It then takes its chance. 



It has looked beautiful since May, and still continues to be 

 one of the gems of our flower garden, notwithstanding the very 

 hot, dry summer we have bod. — J. B., Gardener at EccIeahiU 

 Hail, Leeds. 



Me. J. Bryan, of Andley End Gardens, snggeats that some 

 of your correspondents should give the results of their cultiva- 

 tion of this flower. Mine are as follow : — A packet of tbo seed 

 of Mauve Queen was had in the autumn of 18G6, and produced 

 an abundance of plants. These were planted out under a 

 north wall in rather a poor soil, and the result was a perfect 

 failure. At the suggestion of a writer in your Journal I made 

 in the autumn of last year a good bed, exposed to the sun ; 

 placing the plants in at a good distance from each other. In 

 the spring of this year they soon filled the bed, and from the 

 early part of April to nearly the end of June it was one of the 

 most lovely-looking beds I have ever seen. All who saw it 

 were full of its praise. The extraordinary dry and hot weather 

 we then (end of June), had, destroyed all its beauty. It is 

 possible if I had well watered (he bed the plants might have 

 continued in flower; but I rather think that this plant should 

 not be depended upon for a continuance of flowering all the 

 season, but that it is invaluable for two or three months. — An 

 Amatshr, South Wales. 



THE HABIT OF GROWTH IN MELON PLANTS. 



The one great defect which is inherited in common by 

 almost all the choicest varieties of Melons, is the possession of 

 too rampant a habit of growth, requiring a certain expenditure 

 of vigour, even when planted in the poorest soil, before they 

 will exhibit tbo least tendency to carry fruit iu a suflicient 

 qnontity to be termed a crop. That but too littlo attention has 

 been given to this point is quite evident ; in fact, I am iu- 

 (dined to think but little notice, it any, is taken of it, for in the 

 descriptive catalogues of both old and new kinds, which are 

 issued to the public in such numbers, the only qualities con- 

 sidered to be worthy of commendation, are freeness of crop- 

 ping, with size and flavour of frait, and, therefore, I infer that 

 no great demand has ever been made for varieties possessing 

 fin addition to ( he above fine qualities) a close and compact 

 habit of growth. 



A Sc&rlet-fleshed variety called " Pine Apple," which I have 

 DOW grown for four seasons, and which I believe was sent out 

 abont five or six years ago, is the closest approach to perfection 

 in this respect that I have met with. In its habit of growth it 

 is very compact, having handsome foliage of a deep green, 

 which is supported by short stout leafstalks ; it is a most pro- 

 lific cropper, producing and setting its fruit with the greatest 

 freedom on its first laterals, and as the fruit commences swell- 

 ing it exhibits but little tendency to make any further growth, 

 and this character it maintains on the trellis as well as when 

 growing on the soil. I may add, I have never noticed tbo 

 slightest symptoms of canker in this most excellent variety; 

 the fruit, also, ie of fine flavour, ranging in weight from 2 lbs. 



to 'libs., and I am inclined to think it is a popular kind with 

 n^aiket gardeners, as I lately observed several fnnts of it at 

 Covent Garden Market, and in many fruiterort' shops in dif- 

 ferent parts of London. — Edwakd Li;ci;uuii.sr, ligcrton Iloute 

 (Jardt'iis, Kent. 



NEW BOOK. 

 Paston'S BoTANiOAi, DicnoNAr.Y, comprising the Names, IlUtorg, 



and Culture of all Plants known in Britain, i£c. Revised and 



Corrected bij Samdel IIehbman, Secretary for nearly Forty 



Years to tlie late Sir Joseph PaxUm. London : Bradbury, 



Evans, Si, Co. 



Tun first edition of this volume was published in I&IO, and 

 having for its parents such men as I'axton, Lindley, and its 

 present editor, the contents are most trustworthy. What the 

 volume does contain is unexceptionable. But altliough editors 

 may be deeply skilled, they are not, therefore, necessarily good 

 judges of what constitutes a useful book. That now before us 

 proves this, and the fact that twenty-eight years have elapsed 

 without a really new edition shows that the public coincide 

 with us in opinion. 



A Botanical Dictionary to be useful should enable one 

 to identify a plant, and a Gardening Dictionary should direct 

 him how to cultivate it. Now, that before us does neither. 

 If you know a plant it tells you the colour of the flower, the 

 month of its blooming, height, native place, and date of in- 

 troduction ; but there are no details of culture, and if you do 

 not know the name of the plant there is not the slightest help 

 to your ascertaining it. It is really a catalogue of plants, as 

 Don's, Sweet's, and Loudon's were. 



An example will enable our readers to judge for themselvef, 

 and it shall be the genus named in honour of Paxton. 



Paxtonia, LiiuUeij. In compliment to tbo late Sir Joseph Paxton, 

 F.L.S., H.S., who was for many years director of the gardens of Hid 

 Grace the Dake of Devonshire, at Chatsworth. and conductor of the 

 " j\Iagaziuo of Botany," and other works on botany and gardening 

 Lina. '20, Or. 1, Nat. Or. Orchi(Lice^. This pretty species may be 

 Bnccessfully grown in a mixtnre of very tarfy loam, leaf mould, and 

 sand, with the treatment given to Bletia. 



rosea Pink 7, S. Ter. J Philippmae 1837. 



Intense Heat. — it one o'clock on Tuesday, Jnly 21st, in 

 the sun the temperature was 130', in shade 97". The Bougain- 

 villea spectabilis has been very beautiful here this season, with 

 from fonr to five hundred blooms upon it. — Wiluam Mavo, 

 Gardener to Mrs. Fitzgerald, ShaUtonc House, Bnckinijham. 



WORK FOR THE WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Aeoht the end of July and beginning of .August most of the 

 sweet and pot Herbs are tit to gather for drying. Artichokes, 

 the young plant? put out iu the spring ought now to be coming 

 into use to succeed tho m&in bed. As soon, therefore, as you 

 have gathered all that are wanted for Artichoke bottoms, cat 

 down the old plants altogether, and if the suckers are too thick 

 you had better cut some of them down altogether or pull them 

 away. Broccoli, after the genial showers we have had now is 

 a favourable time for planting. As soon as the surface is dried 

 stir it well between the rows, otherwise it will cake together so 

 hard that the plants cannot grow well. Canots, to have a 

 supply of young Carrots from Christmas till the forced ones 

 come in, it is necessary about this time to sow a bed of Early 

 Horn on a sauth border, or some other warm place. This bed 

 should be formed of very light soil and be raised a little above 

 the general surface, and as soon as the seedlings are up let 

 them be assisted as much as possible by stirring the soil, water» 

 ing if necessary, weeding, i-j. Cabbaiies, the quarters where 

 early spring Cabbages were grown should now be cleared and 

 dunged, to bo sown with Winter Spinach by-and-by. The early 

 Strawberries being over, the old bods are trenched to be ready 

 for the first planting-out of the early Cabbages, and as the 

 Peas, Beans, and other crops are cleared oS, the sooner the 

 ground is dug or trenched over the better. Black Spanish 

 Jiadishes, a bed of these should be sown alongside the Carrot 

 beds. Tbo soil and treatment need not differ much. They 

 are useful late iu the autumn when the oUier kinds are not 

 to be had. 



FRUIT OAKDEN. 



See that the Cherries, Ourrants, and Gooseberries that you 



