March 12, 1868. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICDLTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



199 



Ilaving convinced myself through experiments that stem- 

 roots upon Vines are an evil, I have found the following treat- 

 ment effectual in lessening the tendency of the Vine to pro- 

 duce them. 



First, take care that the soil of which the border is composed 

 13 thoroughly well drained, and of such a nature that when the 

 roots are penetrating it for food they may take up that which 

 is most suitable to their requirements. I have found a rich 

 soil injurious to the Vine when young, and if the latter is treated 

 on the restrictive system it induces a plethoric condition of 

 growth not required for the production of good Grapes. The soil 

 had better be too poor than too rich. Encourage the roots near 

 the surface, and if they are in outside borders, protect them 

 from frost and superfluous moisture. 



With regard to Vines intended to Jbe| forced, great care 

 should be taken to iudnce root action as soon as the buds burst 

 into leaf ; for if the leaf become developed before the roots can 

 supply it with sap, it must receive some injury from the want 

 of nourishment. Avoid a high internal temperature and an 

 excessively moist atmosphere, especially in dull weather and 

 in the early stages of the Vines' growth. When the surround- 

 ing atmosphere is cold, and strong winds prevail, root action 

 is less active, especially in outside borders, through the tem- 

 perature being reduced. At such times I have found it bene- 

 ficial to reduce the interior temperature in proportion also, 

 which keeps the demand and supply upon more equal terms. 



There are several other things besides those above mentioned, 

 but of a less serious character, that will arise during the pro- 

 gress of the Vine through its different stages of growth, but 

 the effect they have upon air-root production must depend in 

 a great measure upon the skill with which the Vine is culti- 

 vated. — Thosus Record, Hau-klnirst, Kent. 



formed a pleasing contrast to the almost magenta hue of its 

 congener, P. cortusoides. I have succeeded in keeping Primnla 

 erosa (Fortuneij.out in the open border all this winter with the 

 protection of a hand-glass during severe frost, and it is now 

 coming into bloom. 



Primula cortusoides amona, in my opinion quite distinct 

 from cortusoides, has no protection at all, and is coming up 

 green and healthy, and Primula verticillata is alive and well. 



Can any of your readers tell mo where to obtain the old 

 " Double White Cowslip •' " I have tried in vain. Mr. Yonell, 

 of Yarmouth, used to have a large stock, but has lost them all. 



Sophora [Baptisia] australis is another beautiful old-fashioned 

 flower I wish to procure, and I should like to hear of some one 

 who grows Narcissus triandrus. 



Every one should grow that lovely little perennial, Sisyrin- 

 chium convolutum. It keeps opening a succession of yellow 

 stars all the summer. — H. Hartuk Cbewe. 



FLOWERS OF OTHER DAYS. 



*' Be not the first by Tvbom the new is tried. 

 Nor yet the first to lay tho old aside." 



I AM rejoiced to see that several of your correspondents are 

 ably fighting the cause of that shamefully and sadly neglected 

 class, the herbaceous perennials and biennials. It is mar- 

 vellous to me how any real lover of flowers can do without 

 them. I have nearly as many as my little garden will hold 

 already, but mean to go on cramming it as long as there is 

 any available space. The difBculty is to get hold of many of 

 the best old-fashioned plants ; they are almost lost to culti- 

 vation, and it is only by making friends with such lovers of 

 the olden time as your correspondent Mr. JleUish seems to be, 

 that you can obtain these herbaceous gems. 



However, I think we are waking up, and fine fellows though 

 they are, we are not going to let the ribbon gardeners and 

 sub-tropical florists have it all their own way, and we shall 

 soon, I hope, see some of those glorious old herbaceous gar- 

 dens, the beauties of which Hill and Milton loved to describe, 

 aad which Curtis delighted to paint. 



To all lovers of beautiful herbaceous plants let me recommend 

 Michauxia campanuloides, a tall Campanula-like plant, with 

 large conspicuous white blossoms, somewhat like a Turk's Cap 

 Lily. I saw it last autumn, at Glasnevin, several feet in height 

 and making a raagnifioent appearance. I have just been plant- 

 ing out a bed of strong young plants from which I promise 

 myself much pleasure. It is a biennial, and grows very freely 

 from seed. 



Saponaria ocymoides and Silene alpestris make most lovely 

 pink and white beds in May, perfect sheets of bloom. 



No herbaceous plant has afforded me more pleasure this 

 season than Primula denticulata. I have several plants now 

 almost smothered with trusses of lovely pale mauve flowers. 

 One plant which has been out in the open border all the winter, 

 with the protection of a hand-glass during severe frosts, has as 

 many as seventeen or eighteen trusses of bloom. It increases 

 with great rapidity. 



Primula purpurea, a closely alUed but very distinct and 

 lovely species, is quite hardy, and comes into flower as soon as 

 P. denticulata is over. 



Primula altaica, or amoena as some florists call it, a species 

 closely allied to the common Primrose, is now very lovely, its 

 large mauve flowers with a yellow eye come in such dense 

 masses as almost to conceal the leaves. I always have a bed 

 of Primula cortusoides, and very beautiful it is to look at, and 

 last year I tried a bed of Primula involucrata (Munroi), and 

 -was not at all disappointed. Its pretty French white flowers 



Amono the too-much neglected shrubs are the following : — _ 



Berbebis japonica. — I have about thirty plants, some in 

 warm, some in cold situations, all of them in a good, light, but 

 unprepared soil, and some of them exposed to the whole day's 

 sun, but I find them do about equally well in all situations. 

 The winter of 1866-67 damaged a few of them sUghtly, but they 

 have all recovered. They are now in bloom. 



Buxns BALEARicA. — Fourteen plants were all damaged, some 

 killed outright, and most of them to the ground, by the hard 

 frost of January, 1867. Only two, in very sheltered positions, 

 now look tolerably healthy, and I fear the plant is one of tho 

 least hardy evergreens. 



Among the evergreen shrubs, not Conifers, which here suf- 

 fered most from the severe winter of 1866-67 (my thermometer 

 was about zero), I may enumerate Arbutus, Bays, and Laurus- 

 tinns, both sorts, nearly all cut to the ground ; Colchian, and 

 in some places common Laurels, Garrya elliptica, Euonymus 

 japonicus aureus fol. var., and Double-blossomed Furze; the 

 last-named alone being in most cases kUled, not twenty out of 

 fifty plants remaining. 



Two young Cork trees were undamaged. A Piptanthua 

 left out without any protection, though kUled down, survived 

 and blossomed last summer better than plants kept in the 

 house. 



I will with pleasure give you my experience of other shrubs 

 if you desire it, but I especially wish to direct your attention to 

 the little-known hardiness of Chama;rops excelsa, a name which 

 I hope to see, and which deserves to be, at the top of your next 

 article. I planted one in the autumn of 1864, and another in 

 1865, the former in a somewhat sheltered, the latter in an 

 exposed situation. I have never 'given them any sort of pro- 

 tection. One was somewhat damaged in January, 1867 ; the 

 other, the larger, not in the least, and it grew strongly last 

 summer. My only Chamaerops hnmUis, also unprotected, was 

 much damaged, but will recover. — A Soesceibee. 



AUCUBA JAPONICA. 



In reply to "Habey's" inquiry in the Journal of the 5th 

 inst., I beg to state that artificial impregnation of the flowers of 

 our old Aucuba is unnecessary, moderate proximity of the 

 male plant being quite sufficient. 



There may be seen here at present two good-sized plants of 

 our old favourite loaded with clusters of large, beautiful, scarlet 

 berries. These bushes were fertilised by a small plant in a 

 pot being placed a few feet from them when in bloom last 

 spring, and the result proves to be perfectly satisfactory ; for, 

 not only are the clusters largely distributed on the outside o£ 

 the bushes, but they are also to be found in masses in th« 

 interior ; thus showing a wonderfully minute and extensiva 

 distribution of the pollen.— J. Savers, Gardener to T. Bewley, 

 Esq., Itoclcville, Blackrock, near Dublin. 



EFFECT OF CROSS-IMPREGNATION ON SEEDEf. 



I have the Ruimer Kidney Bean Zebra; and should your 

 correspondent " Lansdownb, Worcester," page 1 9 1 , March Sta, 

 not succeed in obtaining them nearer home, I shall be happy to 

 present him with a few— six dozen or so, if he will tell me how 

 and where to send them, and wUl pay carriage. A few would 

 go by post. I have another variety of the same character of 

 Bean, whose ground colour is dark (a sort of mahogany), vntu 

 the same black stripe. 



