316 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTDBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ April 23, 1668. 



tain, from the strength in the plant before the fniit is allowed 

 to appear ; and the disbudding, done more quickly than we 

 can write a line, does away with a spray of useless shoots and 

 the necessity of using the knife among them to give the large 

 primary leaves justice. 



In all crops, and especially early ones, it is desirable to assist 

 the setting of the fruit by bringing the male and female flowers 

 into contact with each other, and this is best done in sunshine. 

 Daring the setting process the atmosphere of the place should 

 be rather dry and airy, and this can hardly be the case unless 

 the soil is dry on the surface. Unlike Cucumbers, Melons 

 rather prefer never to have water poured over their foliage ; if 

 even the syringe is used, the moisture should be dissipated 

 and the foliage dry before the sun beats on it strongly. The 

 plants may be watered as wanted at the roots ; but when, ac- 

 cording to the above plan, we stop the point of the secondary 

 shoots to encourage the free protrusion of the fruitful tertiaries, 

 it is well to give as much watering as will save watering again 

 nntil the fruit be fairly set. If obliged to give it in an extreme 

 case, it is well to supply it to the soil underneath without 

 wetting the surface. 



The only other peculiarity is to secure dryness on the sur- 

 face of the soil as the fruit approaches maturity ; but here, 

 too, again by means of holes or drain-tiles set upright, you 

 may give water beneath when you judge there is a need for 

 moisture. This is often required when Melons are grown over 

 hot-water pipes, or tanks, but of that we are not treating, but 

 merely giving the simplest plan for a beginner trying his 

 success over a rough dung bed. There need be no difficulty in 

 effecting a creditable result, if a few minutes can be spared 

 every day to look to the disbudding and stopping, especially 

 before the fruit takes all the running. — E. F. 



COVENT GARDEN MARIO^T.— April 22. 



The mnrket is well attended, and there are larpe supplies, some articles 

 continuing: in excess, especially Cucumbers and Elidney Beans. Good 

 samples of the former may be had for 12s. per dozen. The latter bring 

 only a nominal price, those of out-door growth from France competing. 

 Some good parcels of Green Peas are to hand and sell for 58, per pint 

 ready shelled. 



FEUIT. 



g. d. e. 



Apples ^ sieve 3 to r> 



Apricots doz. 



Cherries lb. 6 



Chestnuts bush. 



Currants ^ sieve 



Black do. 



Figs doz. 



Filberts lb. 1 



Cobs lb. 1 



Gooseberries .. quart 2 



Grapes, Hothouse.. lb. 12 



Lemons 100 8 



Melons each 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges 100 3 



Peaches doz. 



Pears (dessert) ,. doz. 4 



Pine Apples lb. 8 



j Plnms i sieve 



Quinces doz. 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberries . . per lb. 5 



Walnuts bush. 10 



do perlQO 1 



d. s. 

 OtoO 







7 







8 



10 



VEGETABLES. 



Artichokes doz. 



Asparagrns 100 



Beans, Kidney 100 



Beet, Red doz. 



Broccoli bundle 



Bras. Sprouts i sieve 



Cabbage doz. 



Capsicums 100 



Carrots bunch 



Canliflower doz. 



Celery bundle 



Cucumbers each 



Endive doz. 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish , . bundle 



a. 8. 



3 0to4 

 10 

 6 

 3 

 9 1 

 

 Q 

 

 6 

 



3 

 2 6 





 8 

 5 

 

 6 

 

 

 

 

 



Leeks bnnch 



Lettuce .... per score 

 Mushrooms .... pottle 

 Mustd.& Cress, punuet 

 Onions..,, perbnshel 



Parsley per sieve 



Parsnips doz. 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Radishes doz. bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Savoys doz. 



Sea-kale basket 



ShaUota lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes.... per doz. 

 Turnips bunch 



d. 8. d 

 3 too 



1 6 



1 6 







5 



9 



3 







6 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



N.B. — MaBy questions must remain unanswered until nest 

 week. 



Bodes (S. A. TT.).— Lindley's " Theorv of Horticulture" is 2ls., and 

 obtainable from any bookseller. Johnson's " Science and Practice of 

 Gardening" is Ss., and may be had freo by post from our office if you 

 enclose forty postage stamps. 



MowTKo Machine (S.).— We cannot recommend one more than another, 

 lor they all will work well if properly managed. The charge you in- 

 curred for repairing was certainly very large, but would have been 

 avoided if you had written to the makers and stated what you required. 

 The cost of carriage to any distance is heavy. 



YotJNG Gardeners at Chiswick (W. Jt.).— If yon write to Mr. Barron, 

 Royal Horticultural Society's Garden, Chiswick, he will give you the in- 

 formation yon require. 



Soil Manitred with Salt (D. S. X.). —Having destroyed the slugs by 

 the application of salt as you state, if the ground be then dug the seed or 

 plants may be inserted immediately. 



Drying Flowers (Mande).~\ery few retain their full colour when 

 dried. Te enable them to retain as much as jKissible, let them be placed 

 between folds of blotting paper, pressed very gently, and the blotting 

 paper changed for fresh every morning and evening. 



RiBES SANOUiNEuai (Bruno). — The flowers you enclosed are of far 

 darker crimson than those of the species usually grown. We think it 

 worth propagating, although it may be the sub-variety known as Ribes 

 sanguineum atro-rubrnm. 



Blioht on Honeysuckles (ria(or).— The best thing you could do with 

 your Honeysuckles would be to dust the parts insect-infested with ground 

 tobacco, placing it in a small pepper box, such as may be had of any 

 ironmonger for a penny, having previously given the plant a thorough 

 wetting with water, by which the snuff-like ground tobacco will adhere 

 to the shoots. This should be done on a calm evening, and the following 

 evening a good syringing may be given with a solution of soft soap, 2 ozs. 

 to a gallon of rain water. The oftener a plant is syringed in the evening 

 with clear water the less likelihood there will be of insect attacks. It 

 should be done in the evening. Keep the roots well watered and mulched. 

 Cantoa buxifolia (W. D. A.). — The sprig sent us is, we think, Cantua 

 buxifolia. It is necessary that it have a position near the glass in a cool 

 air}' greenhouse, and be kept rather dry in winter, for it succeeds under 

 the same treatment as Heaths. The soil should be open and well drained. 

 If encouraged with heat and moisture it grows too quickly, weak, and 

 tall. No plant succeeds when it is starved. It needs encouragement in 

 the shape of an abundance of air, light, and room. 



Veronica Andersoni variegata for Bedding (.4 !?uhscrtber).^li 

 succeeds out of doors as a bedding plant, the cuttings being struck in 

 early autumn, potted-off, and wintered in a house from which frost is ex- 

 cluded, keeping the shoots well pinchod-back up to May, so as to have a 

 dwarf, compact, bushy plant by planting-out time. 



Thomson's Styptic for Ccttings (Idem).— By giving a touch of 

 Thomson's styptic to the base of cuttings after they are prepared for in- 

 sertion, their rooting is facilitated, especially in the case of softwooded 

 plants likely to imbibe moisture considerably, as Pelargoniums, &c. The 

 great art of striking cuttings is to take the growing points, cutting them 

 transversely immediately below a joint, to afford them a slight increase 

 of temperature to that employed for the old plant, to keep the soil uniformly 

 moist, and the atmosphere close, moist, and the cuttings shaded from 

 strong light ; but the treatment varies considerably with the subject, bo 

 that no definite answer can be given to your query. 



Seedling Anemones {A Constant Header).— Yon should mark the best 

 of the plants now they are in flower, and when the foliage fades take 

 them up and replant in a bed by themselves. The others may be planted 

 in any borders where you can find room for them. Do not allow another 

 season to pass without taking up the plants, and affording them more room. 

 You have in a bed of Anemones a charm which few in these days care 

 to possess. Nothing is finer in its season, and it is a pity they are not 

 more extensively cultivated. 

 I Ipomjea heder-efolia (A. C. Jlf.).— This, the German Ivy plant, is a 

 ' very good plant for the purpose you name — viz., that of a background 

 for a fender basket, and all grounds where a speedy evergreen-growth is 

 required. It very much resembles the small green-leaved Ivies, and has 

 pale lilac flowers similar to a Convolvulus. Being of quick growth, and 

 attaining a height of 10 feet, it soon spreads over much space, and 

 should be frequently pinched to have it compact. The plant flowered in 

 the Pine-Apple Place Nursery, Edgware Road, London, in 1859, against 

 a south wall. It is but little known, but deserves to be more cultivated, 

 as it will grow in almost any place where there is slight heat or safety 

 from frost. 



Grafting the Male on the Female Aucuba (E, B., Ryde). — Not 

 having any experience in the grafting of Aucubas, we are unable to say 

 whether it would be practicable to graft the male on the female Aucuba; 

 but we think it likely. Your best mode of proceeding would be by in- 

 arching, now being a good time. The graft succeeding and flowering, it 

 would impregnate the flowers of the female plant ; but it would answer 

 quite as well to place a male plant by the female as to graft them to- 

 gether, and the flowers can be easily fertilised artificially. 



Cherry Tree Infested with Caterpillars (Tgnorant).~'The best 

 remedy is hand-picking ; but the trees may have white hellebore powder 

 dusted over them with a dredger, which will clear them ; and a good 

 syringing or two of a solution of soft soap, 2 ozs. to a gallon of water, will 

 render the trees obnoxious to them. Sparrows have not in our experience 

 interfered with the bloom buds of Gooseberry bushes, but they may 

 occasionally do so, though it has not occurred to us. We have before heard 

 it said they do, and in one such instance we found the bushes of a neigh- 

 bour had been neaily stripped of their buds by a pair of bullfinches, 

 which we saw on a neighbouring tree awaiting our absence to resume 

 work. The mischief was attributed to the sparrows, but we believe them 

 innocent ; indeed, a pair of bullfinches will do more havoc in the way of 

 stripping trees of their buds in a day than we have seen done by sparrows 

 in twenty vears. We never saw a chaffinch, or "spink," as you call it, 

 peck at the" bud of a fruit tree. We know ol many things for poisoning 

 birds, but we shall be of the last to recommend so suicidal a course to 

 the gardener or farmer. We have not forgotten the fable of the farmer 

 and the crow. 



Tacsonia Van-Volxemi (An In^uin^r).— We do not know a Passiflora 

 Van-Volxemi, and we think the plant you have received is Tacsonia Van- 

 Volxemi, which requires a greenhouse. It will not thrive if planted out 

 of doors. Being a climber it should have a light and airy situation, and 

 be trained near the glass. When growing water it freely, and in winter 

 keep it dry. 



Pear Blossom Injured by Insects (F. H.^.-The specimen enclosed 

 to us has been destroyed by some caterpillar, probably the red-bud cater- 

 pillar (Pyralis luscana), which does considerable injury by preying on the 

 buds. Dusting the trees when the caterpillar makes its appearance with 

 fresh slaked Ume is the only remedy. 



Marie Locise Pear Leaves and Blossom Wrinkled (A Pear Boy.) 

 — Yonr specimen has the appearance of being affected by the Pear-tree 

 blight— a consequence of the sun's rays being hot and the nights coW. 



