Jinuary 2, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



antly, as, I believe, thoy Jo almost everywhere, except in very 

 shallow and poor soils, and I Lave some which I raised from 

 cuttings, which it would bo impossible to tell from seedlings, 

 80 symmetrical is their growth. — A Soueesetshirk 1'akso.n. 



CATERPILLARS ON GOOSEBERRY BUSHES. 



In " Manures for the Many," ga3 ammoniacal liquor is 

 highly spoken of as a manure ; and in various parts of this 

 Journal, from time to time, tan strewed underneath the bushes 

 is recommended for the prevention of caterpillars. (las 

 ammoniacal liquor I know is a very dangerous agent for inex- 

 perienced persons to deal with. The way I propose to use it 

 is as follows: — To sprinkle over a cartload of tan, say 10 cwt., 

 and well mix in it 5 gallons of ammoniacal liquor ; then to 

 spread the tan so mixed under the hushes to the depth of 

 2 inches. Would this injure the trees, and do you think it 

 would have the desired effect ? — B. Hammond. 



(We are decidedly of opinion that spreading tan as you pro- 

 pose will effectually protect the Gooseberry bushes from the 

 ravages of caterpillars. It prevents the fly emerging from the 

 soil where it is in the pupa state, and it prevents the cater- 

 pillars descending into the soil to assume the pupa form ; for 

 the insect in all its stages seems to have an antipathy to tan. 

 The fumes of the ammoniacal liquor would tend to check the 

 visits of the fly to deposit its eggs on the leaves. We thiuk 

 the proportions you propose are good, and would not injure 

 tlae bushes.] 



PROLIFEROUS FERNS. 



I HAVE read somewhere that it takes a higher order of gene- 

 ralship to make a well-arranged and orderly retreat than to 

 laarch on to an easy victory with drums beating and colours 

 flying ; but I have never j-et heard of a general who appeared 

 to relish recording his own defeat, and yet that anomalous 

 position is now mine. 



Having built up a theory on seemingly good foundations, I 

 am now obliged to demolish it with the " stubborn facts " of a 

 far better pteridologist than I can ever pretend to be, and at 

 the same time I have to record my own defeat ; yet there 

 is something so innately beautiful in truth, that I cannot but 

 be glad to have arrived at it even at the expense of a pet theory. 

 Mr. WoUaston kindly allows me to state his experience of pro- 

 liferous Ferns in general, which, it will be seen, sets at rest all 

 doubt as to their not being proliferous in a wild state; but 

 I had better give Mr. Wollaston's information in his own 

 words. 



" BeHeving as I do," writes Mr. WoIUston, " that Ferns in 

 general have one common origin, it naturally follows that for 

 the same reason that exotic Ferns are viviparous in numerous 

 modiiied ways, so likewise are the British, varying in their 

 prolific tendency according to habitat, climate, culture, etc." 



This is, then, if I may so say, Mr. Wollaston's theory or 

 reasoning, and it is borne out by the following fact ; — 



"I have found," says Mr. WoUaston, " at least a hundred 

 plants of Tolystichum angulare both normal and abnormal 

 (one a normal form as long ago as 1S05), that had bulbillai on 

 them in their wild state." 



Mr. WoUaston then proceeds to the " possible causes of the 

 development of bulbill.T " on Polystichum angulare (which, he 

 says, he has found on the rachis of recent and one-year-old 

 fronds), in these words: — "A moist atmosphere is almost in- 

 dispensable for the development of bulbilla" ; and coupled with 

 heat, as in a forcing house, it is the greatest incentive. 



" I do not agree in tolo with ' Filix-fixmina,' that it is ' an 

 effort of nature to throw off exuberant health ' (see Journal 

 OF HoBTicuLTDEE, Nov. 28th) ; but it is the nature of plants 

 in general, and more especially of Ferns, to reproduce them- 

 selves in some way, and one of the ways is by bulbilla;. This 

 is shown most strikingly if, by an accident, a Fern is trodden 

 on or injured ; it will then throw off numerous smaU plants, 

 or, if at all bulbiferous, innumerable bulbilhu. 



" Arrestation is another cause of viviparous growth — that is, 

 if a frond of a Fern is broken off, or pierced by an insect, or 

 imperfect, as in the abnormal growth of the marginate or inter- 

 rupted varieties of Scolopendrium vulgare, one or more bul- 

 biUa; may be seen. In the variety of Scolopendrium vulgare 

 called Wardii I have seen more than one hundred young plants 

 on one frond. 



" It may not be generally known, although it has been pub- 



lished before, that from each old frond of Polystichum angulare, 

 Scolopendrium vulgare, and probably many other species, a 

 young plant may be produced by taking the club-shaped portion 

 of the stipes with a rootlet attached (each frond having at 

 least onci, and putting it into a pot of sandy peat with a little 

 bottom heat. 



" A damp atmosphere and arrestation of growth I believe to 

 be the chief causes of the viviparous development of British 

 Ferns." 



After this evidence from so high an authority as Mr. Wol- 

 laston, I feel that there is nothing lolt for mo to do but to 

 retreat as gracefully as may be, conceding to Mr. WoUaston the 

 honour of having settled beyond dispute that the capability o£ 

 becoming proliferous is inherent in Ferns simply as Ferns. 

 Thus I would say. Ferns have the power of reproducing them- 

 selves from seed as well as from bulbill.i! or buds, the develop- 

 ment of this latter power being incidental to certain exciting 

 causes not yet thoroughly understood. I would at the same 

 time suggest that some better name than " bulbs," " buds," 

 or " bulbillio" be given to the reproducing organ. 



In the cultivation of proliferous Ferns my experience differs 

 from that of Mr. WoUaston in so far as regards " arrestation " 

 being a cause of viviparous growth. In those proliferous 

 Ferns which I have under cultivation I find that the healthy 

 fronds have the most bulbs. 



I hope that all Fern hunters will look out for bulbillffi on 

 Ferns in their wild state, and make their success public as 

 soon as possible. — Filix-foimina. 



IMPROVEJIENTS IN BUILDINGS 



AND STnUCTURBS TO BK F.MM.OVED lOK HORTICCLTDRAL 

 PURPOSES. 



A p.iTENT, entitled as above, has recently been obtained by a 

 gentleman very favourably known as a fruit cultivator. The 

 " Cylinder Vinery," described and figured at page 387 of our 

 last volume, is constructed on the principle detailed in the 

 following speciticatiuu : — 



" The object of tliis iuvention is principally to form glazed strne- 

 tnres for protecting Vines, Pears, Peiiciies, Nectarines. Apricots, Figs, 

 Strawberries, Potatoes, or other trees or plants, in snob manner that 

 the structures may readily he removed or the sheets of glass taken 

 away from them at such times as tbey are not required for protecting 

 the trees or plants. For this purpose I employ bars of wood in which 

 grooves are formed for supporting tbe sheets or panes of glass, or it 

 may be for supporting slates, and which bars are boiled in creosote or 

 treated with other preserving agent to retard their decay ; the sheets 

 or panes of glass or slates aro merely insei-ted into the grooves in the 

 bars of wood, and are so held without putty being employed ; tha 

 grooves are by preference made in all cases to pass diagonally into tha 

 bars from one or other of their edges, and I also form the groove» 

 which are to receive the sheets of glass or slate wider at the bottom 

 thau at the mouth or eutrauce ; this allows of a groove smaller 

 at the month beini; employed than could otherwise be the case, as 

 the wood at the month of the groove may spruig back on to the glass 

 after the edge of a pane of glass has been inserted into the groove ; 

 the grooves may be thus formed by first making a groove with a 

 circular saw and then widening-out the bottom of the gi-oove by a 

 plough plane incbned to one aide. The above plan also admits of 

 taming circles. 



■■ For forming a ridge roof I proceed as follows : — I drive posts into 

 the earth at intervals along one side of the row of trees or plants, 

 afterwards I measure-ont the space to be covered, and drive along the 

 opposite side of the row of trees or plants a similar row of posts, and 

 atUi to them a similar bar in which also a groove is formed leading 

 from its upper edge neartot to the row of trees or plants. Along the 

 centre between these two rows of bars I drive in a third row of posts 

 which are to project a greater distance from the surface of the ground 

 than the rows of posts on either side of them, and to the top of these 

 central posts I affix a bar having formed in it two diagonal grooves 

 which proceed from its two lowest edges ; the grooves in the rows o£ 

 bars so fixed in position serve to carry the sheets or panes of glass 

 which ars to glaze-over the space between the rows. To insert glass 

 into the grooves the upper edge of each sheet of glass is first inserted 

 into one of the grooves at the bottom of the upper central bar, and the 

 lower edge of the sheet of glass is then dropped into the groove at the 

 top of one of the outer bars to allow of the sheets of glass being thus 

 slipped mto the grooves ; this is chiefly of nse in insertrnj? a new pane 

 of glass, supposing there be a breakage at any time. The grooves ia 

 the upper central bar are made deeper than the grooves in the oatet 

 bars. On the north side of a structure slates may be used ia a, 

 simdar manner. To form upright walls or screens of glass or slate I 

 drive into the ground at intervals apart from one another rectangular 

 wooden bars which have been treated with creosote, as above men- 

 tioned, and which have had diagonal grooves formed along them 



