JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jannarj 2, 1868. 



summer purposes perhaps it may be better ; but I have often 

 thaagbt it harboured slugs aud other insect enemies more than 

 biickwoik does ; besides, the latter is neater. Generally speak- 

 ing, an ordinary light is a sufficient protection, excepting in 

 very sharp weather when there is no snow, then some addi- 

 ional covering may be put on ; but snow is a very good pro- 

 tection, and it is seldom advisable to disturb it when once the 

 pit is covered-up with this natural mantle. For some days 

 after it has disappeared, and mild weather has set in, it is not 

 advisable to let in the external air in too great quantities. 

 Thifl, however, will be best understood by the condition of the 

 plants, or rather cuttings, inside. It they appear fresh and 

 only covered with moisture they will sustain no injury, and 

 may be gradually inured to the air ; but if some are decaying, 

 and mildew is attacking them seriously, let such be removed 

 and drier air admitted, which, in fact, will be the case when 

 the work of removal is being done. 



It must be remembered that the object of relieving the 

 heated structures of plants that will winter elsewhere is one of 

 the reasons for recommending the plants named to be con- 

 signed to the cold pit, which, indeed, is better for many of 

 them ; and as it is supposed that all are put into the ground at 

 once, and not into pots or boxes, only the hardiest plants are 

 enumerated. The little trouble they give must be apparent. 

 I need hardly remark that Verbenas, Petunias, and Cupheas 

 would be better kept elsewhere, as well as Lobelias raised from 

 seed in the ordinary way. All these, and even bedding Pelar- 

 goniums, will do very well in the cold pit, excepting during the 

 dark dull days, say for two months or more, beginning with 

 the 1st of December. A well-filled cold pit affords a greater 

 number of plants in spring than any other structure of a like 

 size, and that, too, with but little trouble or expense. — J. 

 RoBeoN. 



EAST LOTHI.VN PUIirLE AND "WHITE STOCKS; 



I WAS much pleased to observe that Mr. D. Thomson had, in 

 a recent number of this .Journal, directed attention to the 

 excellence for bedding and other purposes of what he calls the 

 East Lothian Purple and White Stocks. He most justly 

 ascribes the production of these to Mr. Campbell, gardener, 

 Traprain, a name well known in East Lothian in connection 

 with the culture of Stocks. Although it is several years since 

 Mr. Campbell, after much care and labour, succeeded in pro- 

 ducing these, still, as yet, his productions are comparatively 

 little known out of the district in which he resides. He was 

 generous enough, however, to distribute his small stock of seed 

 amongst his gardening friends in East Lothian, and time 

 enough has elapsed to prove and establish their constancy. 



Several years' residence in the locality enabled me to see, at 

 the raiser's and other places, and to judge of the merits of 

 these Stocks, and I can fully corroborate all that has been 

 written by Mr. Thomson in their favour. Indeed, for the 

 decoration of the flower garden in autumn, whether grown in 

 beds or borders, they are invaluable. They continue to bloom 

 long after most of the bedding plants now used have been 

 removed ; thus having a twofold use — namely, affording a 

 supply of cut flowers at a season when the usual resources are 

 gone, and extending the season of bloom. 



Having last autumn, through the kindness of the raiser, 

 been supplied with a few seeds of these Stocks, and the seed- 

 lings being duly cared for, two rows were planted under the 

 shelter of the mansion. These are still (December 20lb), won- 

 derfully gay and attractive. Others planted in an exposed 

 situation have only lately ceased to be so. The purity and 

 brightness of the flowers, the certainty of 70 or 80 per cent, 

 being double, and their compact bushy habit, are other high 

 recommendations to tbese Stocks. 



Apart altogether from the Scarlet Stock, so much grown in 

 East Lothian, and mentioned by Mr. Thomson, I may state 

 that Mr. Campbell has also a scarlet of his own producing. 

 I have had the two varieties growing side by side last season. 

 The flowers of the latter are, I think, brighter, and the habit 

 is certainly more dwarf and compact. The per-centage of 

 double flowers is about the same in the scarlets as in the 

 Purple and "SMiite. 



In pots for in-door decoration these Stocks also become 

 highly serviceable. The plan which I have adopted when I 

 want them for this purpose is to deprive of tbtir flower spikes 

 a few of those planted-out, and which have proved to be double ; 

 to lift them carefully, and to pot in October ; to water and 

 place them in a shady situation ; and on the approach of 



severe weather, to move them under protection. Such will 

 flower at almost any season, but are better of being kept grow- 

 ing, and of their flower spikes being kept off till May or June, 

 and shortly afterwards they will be a mass of bloom, fit for 

 almost any purpose, making a display such ae few plants could 

 excel or even approach. — J. A., Walllwuee Gardens. 



CUPKESSUS MACROCARPA AND OTHER 

 CONIFERS. 



In Mr. Kent's excellent observations on the Cupressua ma- 

 crocarpa I wish to notice one point in which my experience 

 differs from his, and to give a word of encouragement to these 

 who live on heavy clay soils, as regards the growing of this 

 very beautiful Conifer. 



I may say without fear of contradiction from any one ac- 

 quainted with the spot where I live, that it is on one of the 

 stiffest clays in England. In 18C0, I made a mound in an 

 open .ind airy situation with the clay dug out in making a 

 pond, some of it only being the top spit with a barrowload or 

 two of rather finer soil for the roots to settle in. In this I 

 planted a Cupressus macrocarpa from a neighbouring nursery- 

 man, which was then, I should imagine, about G feet high. 

 Two years ago it was nearly blown down, but it is now 26 feet 

 high, and 13 feet through in the widest part, and it would have 

 been much wider than this had I not cut off the tops of many 

 of the largest branches in the manner described by Mr. Kent 

 recently, as it was growing lop-sided. Notwithstanding the 

 severity of last winter, the thermometer here having been 

 down to zero, it only lost one branch, and is even at its 

 present age a very beautiful tree and growing vigorously, al- 

 though within a hundred yards or so of it Finns insignis was 

 killed. 



Not far from this tree, but in a rather more sheltered situa- 

 tion, I have three specimens of Cupressus Lambertiana (which 

 is so similar in its character to macrocarpa, that as far as 

 fitness of situation is concerned, it may be considered identi- 

 cal),* which I raised from seed, I think, in 1857. They are all 

 growing in still stiffer clay than C. macrocarpa, as one of them 

 is in the blue clay which was taken from the bottom of the 

 new-made pond, and the other two are in the original soil which 

 has never been moved. They are all growing most vigorously, 

 none of them being materially injured except one, which lost 

 3 or 4 feet of its leader and side branches last winter, but as I 

 have not yet cut it, I measured it yesterday, and found it to 

 be rather over 10 feet, and nearly as broad as it is high. Of 

 the other two both of them are nearly as large as this ; one is 

 not injured at all, and the other has only lost one or two small 

 branches, but in other respects is perfectly healthy and of a 

 beautiful colour. In fact, I have never seen, hardly I think 

 in the Wellingtonia, such rapid growth, as they spread laterally 

 in the same luxuriant manner. 



Now, at my father's place, only about a mile and a half 

 from this, a specimen of Cupressus macrocarpa of nearly the 

 same size as mine, and which was in a most luxuriant state of 

 growth, was killed, though it was protected on three sides by a 

 house, walls, aud trees, and tlie thermometer ranged a degree 

 higher than mine here, but it was in a lower situation and near 

 a river; whilst some plants of Cupressus Lambertiana, which I 

 raised from seed at the same time as those before mentioned, 

 were either killed or so much injured that they will never be 

 worth anything. 



From the above, and observations elsewhere, I gather one or 

 two facts, probably well known to other observers, but which 

 moy be useful to those about to plant. 



1st, That Cupressus macrocarpa will grow most luxuriantly 

 in a stiff clay with a " good heart to it." 



2nd, That" it should not be planted, nor, indeed, any other 

 half-hardy Conifer, in a low damp situation, or near a river. 



3rd, Tliat it should not be planted at the corner of a house, 

 nor in any place where there is a strong draught, as this is 

 even more deadly than severe frost. 



I may add, that the only Conifers that I have tried that do 

 not seem to thrive in clay, are the Deodar and Pinus cembra, 

 the former especially looking very unhealthy, and making 

 hardly any progress ; the latter looks healthy, but grows very 

 slowly. Picea cephalonica grows very well, but making early 

 shoots, which are cut off by late frosts, it does not, therefore, 

 make much progress here. Wellingtonias grow most luxuri- 



• Thev are the same. 



