356 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ May 14, 1868. 



■whole is well aliglit, and the house so full of smoke as to be 

 ■anpleasant. Next add more paper, and quit the house when 

 enough has been put on to fill it so full of smoke that 

 a plant cannot be seen from the outside. The paper or leaf 

 should be damp or limp, but not so wet as to require constant 

 Wowing, for if wet the operator must remain in the house 

 3U08t of the time. It is enough if the green fly be killed, and 

 that it will be if the paper or leaf be good, and the house filled 

 ■with smoke. 



There are several fumigatorg. I have tried many, but I do 

 aot care for any beyond that described, which any smith can 

 make ; indeed, were not flower pots so liable to crack, I would 

 as readily use one with a hole in the side as the best of the 

 Jumigators. If flower pots are used hard ones should be chosen, 

 and put pieces of lath or slate beneath them, so as to let air in 

 hy the hole in the bottom. 



The day after fumigation the house should be kept as close 

 as practicable, not giving more air than can be avoided, and a 

 aioist atmosphere should be maintained by sprinkling the floor 

 and other surfaces with water, but do not syringe until the 

 evening ; then give a thorough syringing, and again on the 

 following morning, and admit air. 



Various methods have been proposed for fumigating houses 

 ■without having to stand the annoyance of the smoke. They 

 >ave with me signally failed. I have, however, the pleasure 

 io state that I had a canister of " Tobacco grains," a prepara- 

 tion made of duty-free tobacco, which I think is likely to 

 supersede the troublesome and annoying mode of fumigation 

 iitherto practised. The " grains " have the appearance of 

 jnahogany sawdust ; all that is required is to spread them rather 

 thinly on a plate or tray of sheet iron pierced with a num- 

 ber of small holes. The house is then shut up, as for fumi- 

 gation with tobacco or tobacco paper, and the tray being 

 placed in front of the house the " grains " should be lighted 

 in several places, a piece of paper being sufficient. They bum 

 iike a fuse, produce smoke, and the house being filled with this 

 the green fly is destroyed without injury to the foliage, although 

 I expected before trying the materials that the contrary would 

 be the case. After lighting the " grains " the operator may 

 quit the house, and before he has so much ag sneezed. I 

 understand the price is to be one-fourth that of tobacco. It 

 oanuet fail to be a boon to amateurs and gardeners. 



Fumigation with tobacco is the best of all remedies for the 

 attaoks of green fly. It may be employed for plants in as well 

 as out of flower, and it does not dirty their foliage, nor injure 

 it when used in solution, and po'ivders are apt to do so. It is 

 a cure as well as a preventive, and should be resorted to when- 

 ever a plant is in the least infested. The best natural pre- 

 ■♦entives of green fly are giving an abimdanoe of air, keeping 

 the house cool, the plants as near the glass as possible, and 

 giving frequent and thorough syringings. 



As fumigation cannot well be practised on plants and trees 

 in the open air I must defer reference to them until another 

 time, and conclude this first communication with a statement 

 of my firm conviction that no other mode of freeing plants 

 Bnder glass of green aphis is equal to tobacco smoke. There 

 are other modes, but I cannot do more than state what I 

 have proved to be the best, and that I shall strictly adhere to 

 in subsequent notes. — G. Abbey. 



(To be coulin-ueil.) 



THE LOQUAT. 



It is to be regretted that Mr. Bateman in his lecture on 

 Hay 5th, as reported in your columns, did not go more 

 iully into the culture of this fruit. The best description of it 

 is to be found in Loudon's " Encyclopa-dia of Gardening," 

 ■where also may be read an account of how the trees were 

 managed at Lord Bagot's. It was, I think, hoped and expected 

 that Mr. Bateman would have thrown some new light on its 

 culture. There is no doubt about the excellence of the fruit 

 ■when grown in a climate suited to it. A friend who lived in 

 St. Helena some years reports it as being peculiarly excellent 

 there. As grown in the south of Prance it is said to be good, 

 bnt I have only eaten it when preserved in syrup, in which 

 state it has not the least flavour, but is merely a lump of sugar 

 with two or three stones enclosed. 



Some years ago I was much interested in this tree, which is 

 one of the noblest of evergreens, and I found that the trees 

 laised from seed, which may be done with great facility, would 

 take a lifetime before they would bear fruit in this country, 

 and under the artificial treatment here practised. The best 



mode I soon found was to graft scions, from old trees it pos- 

 sible, on strong stocks of the Whitethorn (Cratiegus oxyacantha), 

 growing in the open air, and then to put them into large pots 

 by the end of October. The stock should be stout, and if as 

 stout as a small broomstick all the better. The grafting and 

 the confinement of the roots to the pot soon make the tree 

 ready to bear fruit. 



The best method of grafting is that called rind-grafting, 

 which is done by paring the graft very thin, and then inserting 

 it between the bark and the wood ; this is best done in April, 

 towards the end, when the bark rises freely. As the leaves of 

 the Loquat are large, they should be removed, with the excep- 

 tion of those at the crown of the shoot. The grafts should 

 then be firmly bound as usual and clayed, binding some moss 

 over the clay ; or a better practice would be moulding the stock 

 and graft up to its tip with cocoa-nut fibre. If the weather be 

 hot and sunny the grafts should be shaded for a week or so, 

 by placing a flower pot over them, tilted up on its northern 

 side. Loquats may be grafted even now if stout stocks could 

 be found. Some of the ends of the shoots from the tall naked- 

 branched tree now in the conservatory at South Kensington 

 would make excellent grafts. By the end of October the grafted 

 trees may be taken up and potted, or planted out in a house 

 prepared for them. If they have made vigorous growth they 

 will soon make bearing trees if properly treated, and the treat- 

 ment required seems at present not very clear. 



The account given in Loudon's " Encyclopaedia " of Lord 

 Bagot's mode of treatment is very interesting, but in my opinion 

 the Loquat should not be considered a stove plant ; for, as it 

 grows and bears freely on the shores of the Mediterranean with a 

 mild winter and hot summer, I see no reason why it should not 

 ripen its fruit here in a climate under glass approximating to that 

 of the above localities. It therefore seems to me that grafted 

 trees should either be grown in ISinch pots with a rich com- 

 post, or planted in the borders of a well-ventilated orchard 

 house, fitted with hot-water pipes to give the temperature in 

 winter necessary to their well-doing. 



The routine culture should be as follows : — From the Ist of 

 June till the last week in October the house should be open 

 night and day, the trees being watered and syringed as required. 

 From the 1st of November and all through the winter the 

 minimum temperature should be 50°, thus imitating the 

 climate of, say, Hyeres in the blossoming season. During 

 March, April, and May the same gentle artificial heat should 

 be continued. This, with the occasional high temperature 

 which sunshine will give, will ripen the fruit, and free ventila- 

 tion without artificial heat during the summer and autumn 

 months, during which the temperature of an orchard house 

 ranges from 70° to 05°, till the Ist of November, will give health 

 and strength to the trees, so that they will blossom in Decem- 

 ber, and set their fruit freely. 



The Loquat is such a magnificent evergreen, independent of 

 its pleasant fruit, that it is almost worthy of a house being 

 devoted to its culture ; but this need not be, for if some of our 

 best kinds of dessert Oranges are planted with it they wiU 

 succeed, and ripen their fruit in great perfection. As a pre- 

 serve in syrup the Loquat is merely a vehicle for sugar, and 

 has no peculiar flavour ; if bottled and preserved without sugar 

 it would retain its agreeable acidity, and be an excellent fruit 

 for tarts. 



In selecting trees for cultivation, care should be taken not to 

 plant trees raised from seed, but those grafted either on the 

 Pear or Whitethorn. If possible a good free-bearing variety 

 should be selected, as they, hke all our cultivated fruits, are 

 apt to difier, as far as I recollect and have heard, not only in the 

 size of their fruit, but in their bearing qualities. — Mespilus. 



ANTHURIUM SCHERZERIANUM. 



This plant may be reckoned among the finest of modem 

 accessions to our stoves. It is a distinct and beautiful dwarf- 

 growing species, which even in a small state produces in great 

 abundance its large scarlet flower spathes, which last in good 

 condition for three months. It appears to be a plant very easy 

 to cultivate, growing and flowering freely in a shady part of an 

 ordinary Pine stove. Indeed so useful and effective a plant 

 does it appear to be, that it is worthy of being grown by the 

 dozen where there is much demand for decorative stove plants. 



It grows freely in a mixture of sphagnum, peat, sand, and 

 broken potsherds ; and although it makes nice flowering plants 

 in U-inch pots, it seems to like lakher a liberal amount of pot 



