May 1*, 18Sa ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOULTOBE AND OOTTAQB GABDENEB. 



3C0 



the backs and fronts of pits and frames are generally devoted 

 to other young plants, which are just removed as the room is 

 wanted — a way to make the most of the glnsB, but which 

 involves much time and labour, and a considerable amount of 

 contrivance, so that the plants shall not suffer from the change. 

 M'atfrin;! required mncli attention, not so much as to quan- 

 tity given as to discretion in giving it. To newly potted 

 plants, and even those partly or wholly established, it is of little 

 use to flood the roots, when these roots are already surrounded 

 with earth quite moist enough for them to absorb moisture 

 freely. In such cases a damp atmosphere, from dampiuf; the 

 floor, stage, and even in many cases syringing the foliage 

 gently, and shading in the brightest sun, will be better appre- 

 ciated by the plants than deluging their roots, already damp 

 enough, with water. When obliged to water, the water should 

 flow over the surface of the pot, and not be poured into a hole 

 close to the stem of the plant, one of the most effectual means 

 for killing outright many plants that are at all sensitive. — 

 B. F. 



COVENT GARDEN MARIvET.— M.\y 13. 



There has been verj* littlo alteration here. A pnoil attontlance hoth of 

 CTOwers and dealers keeps the demand itnd supply about balanced. 

 Forced frmt is particularly good, and foreign produce arrives in fair con- 

 dition. Goad old Potatoes command a ready sale at former prices. The 

 qnotations for new ones are declining. 



FRUIT. 



Apricots '. doK. 2 



Cherries lb. 3 



B. d. S. 



Apples rVBleve 8 0to5 



' ■ ' 4 



6 

 

 

 

 18 

 

 1 

 1 

 12 



ChestnutB bnsh. 



Currants ^ sieve 



Black do. 



Figs doz. 12 



Filberts lb. 1 



Cobs lb. n 



Gooseberries ..quart 

 Grapes, Hothouse, .lb. H 

 Lemons 100 8 12 



B. 



Melons each 8 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges 100 3 



Peaches doz. 24 



d. R. 



0tol5 

 



Pears (dessert) .. doz. 



Pine Apples lb. 



Plums ^ sieve 



Quinces doz. 



RaspberriRS lb. 



Strawberries . . per lb. 



d 

 

 

 

 

 

 10 































10 





 



Walnuts bush. 10 16 



do per 100 1 2 



VEGETABLES. 



Artichokes doz. 



AsparaKus 100 



Beans, Kidney 100 



Beet, Ked doz. 



Broccoli bundle 



Brns. Sprouts ^ sieve 



Cabbage doz. 



Capsicums 100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 



Celery bundle 



Cucumbers each 



Endive doz. 



Fensel bunch 



GarUc lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish .. bundle 



8. d. s. 

 S 0to4 



2 



9 







1 







1 



8 

 



1 6 



6 



1 

 3 

 8 

 8 

 3 



Leeka bunch 



Lettuce.... per score 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustd.& Cress, punnet 



Onions per bushel 



Parsley per sieve 



Parsnips doz. 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Radishes doz. bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Savoys doz. 



Sea-kale basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes per doz. 



Turnips bunch 



d. B. d 

 3 too 



6 



6 



6 

 

 

 

 

 6 

 

 9 

 1 

 

 

 9 



3 



4 

 6 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



•»• We request that no one will write privately to the depart- 

 mental writers of the *' Journal of Horticulture. Cottage 

 Gardener, and Countiy Gentleman." By so doing they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed soleh/ to 

 The Editors of the Journal of Horticulture, d-c,, 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.C, 



N.B. — Many questions must remain unanswered until next 

 week. 



Books (/. Stead).— K Supplement to the "Cottage Gardeners' Dic- 

 tionary " is now printing. 



YocKG Melons Yellow and Dhoppixg UT. PJ.t).— The cause is penc- 

 rally twofold— First, when the soil is too rich and the plants too vigorous, 

 they must waste a little of their surplus strength before the fruit can 

 appropriate it rather than the foliage. The second cause is want of 

 sfa-ength in the plant from the fruit being allowed to set too soon. 

 The best remedy for that is to treat the plants as lately detailed in 

 "Doings of the Last Week." 



Thomson's Styptic for Budding {A SuhscrihcT).—T\\Q styptic should 

 be applied after the bud is inserted, putting it on the cats made in the 

 stock, but not over the bud itself. This should be done before the bud 

 is bound np. 



Causing Steam in a Vinery (T. i?.\— It is ahvavs ver\- unadvisable, 

 and a great waste of fuel, to cause water to boil in hot-water pipes, and it 

 is a dangerous and bad practice to pour water in a vineiy on pipes thus 

 hot. It is safest to use evaporating pans on the pipes, and to sprinkle 

 the floor and the stages to secure atmospheric moisture. The danger of 

 steaming a house from watering pipes thus hot will be in proportion to 

 the nearness of the pipes to the foliage. In a lofty house, when the 



plants are a long way from the pipes, the danger will he leaa. StUI the 



prftiticr is an uusafo one. The vapour that osoapt-d from a wmall riHti^m 

 in a bouse will do no barm. When tliiH matter waw ix-ferre.] to lately it 

 was in tbo case of a correspondeut who had ii large tank the length of 

 tbo house. When the Grapes are ripe it would bo as well to cover th& 

 cistern. 



Gardhn Plans {Broughi-up a Pi(jur;/i'<0i/l.— Except for a croquet ground 

 wo do nut admire the arrangement of your lawn and borders. The large 

 circular bed will look very well, only you will have rather much white, 

 having out of tJte four bauds one of Cineraria and one of Ceraatiuiu. A 

 dwarf yellow plant next tbo gravel would niuke mor»s variety. Your 

 border round tbo lawn will do verj' well; ouly as it is narrow and will be 

 seen from both slides, it would look as well to have both hides alike — say,, 

 pbmt the centre all round flith plants of scarlet PclargoniMm and yeUow 

 Calceolaria of tbe same height, and the two sides with Lobelia and 'Cera&- 

 tium mi;:ed. The broad Itorders, 4, wo would ribbuu, keening tbo tallest 

 plants nest the wall, and for uniformity we would plant the edging the- 

 same as the narrow borders. (Zfur/donyi.^We think a centre and five 

 bands round would bo enough for your bed, and wo would plant thus^ 

 beginning at the centre — Stella Pelargonium, Centaurea argentca, Ama- 

 r.iuthns uiclancholicns ruber, Calceolaria Aurea floribundn, blue Lobelia,. 

 Cerastium. Wo break our rule in giving you this advice, as our part is to 

 improve, not to plant. 



Orchard-house Plum Tree Attacked by Insects [E. A. S.).— From, 

 your description wc do not know whether you have the brown scale or 

 the brown aphis, Aphis persicie; but in either case washing with quassia 

 water or soft soap water are effective remedies. If the insect is the 

 brown aphis lose no time about it, as one of the clusters you speak of 

 will soon fill a honse if let alone. The largest are very full of blackish yel- 

 low matter, and most of these if squeezed will ?liow strings of young 

 ones like ropes of onions. Some years ago we sufiered from them, and 

 that has made us look sharply after them ever since. It is safest to keep 

 them away. 



Scale on Peach Trees (W. M.) —The brown scale on the Peach shoots 

 you must wash off with a hair brush, and use soft-soap water, two ounces 

 to the gallon if the Peaches are still small, but weaker if larger. We 

 cleared a house once by syringing frequently with quassia water, a pound 

 boiled in four quarts of water, and then that increased to five gallons. 

 Yon might wash the stems alone with quassia water as strong as a 

 pound to the gallon, but that would be too strong to syringe with. 



WooDLiCE IN Cucumber Bed {T. 5.).— All old gardens are more or less 

 infested with woodlice, especially where there are frames and pits and 

 much dung heat. The drier the manure nsed the more likely will the 

 woodUce be to appear. They like a dry retreat, and from that fact, Ss 

 often stated, may be derived a lesson as to how to destroy them. If yonr 

 bed is very much infested water it well, except a few inches in width at 

 back and front, and cover that dry part with a little dry hay. Provide 

 yourself with boiling water and a small-rosed watering pot. and gently 

 turn over the hay in the morning, and sprinkle the woodlice with the water 

 as you proceed. If that is not practicable, take a number of tbe smallest 

 Ijots, plr.co a piece of boiled potato in tbe bottom, and a littlo dry hay or 

 moss over it, lay the pots on their sides, take them out in the morning, and 

 throw the intruders into hot water, or do as you think best. Weodlicc- 

 are quite as fond of Slelous as Cucumbers. 



Woodlice {Q. B.). — Woodlice devour the stems, leaves, and young 

 growths of many plants. As to the means of destroying them see the 

 preceding answer and several of our recent numbers. 



Strawberry Plants Barren {A. B.).—ln your case, if you layered 

 all the plants irnm fruiting plants, we would attribute so much barren- 

 ness to excessive vigour. In such a case we would put considerable 

 faith in the opinion of the gardener, and wait and see what next year 

 would do ; but were we in your case and short of ground, we would layer 

 fresh runners and do away with the ban-en plants. Most likely your 

 plants were too vigorous to be well ripened last autumn. 



Grapes Spotted {V/. C.I.— We think the cause of spot on the berries 

 is removing the covering of the outside border too soon, and having too 

 much moisture in the atmosphere of the house from watering Ferns, Ac. 

 The reason that the Black Hamburgh suflers whilst the Black Muscat ol 

 Alexandria, or Muscat Hamburgh, grafted on it escapes, wo attribute to 

 the latter looking after itself and taking the most of the nourishment. 

 It is singular how a graft often escapes the evils that annoy tbe parent 

 stoeki even to making an unhealthy stock healthy. 



Cyclamens fro>i Italy fG. B".).— Tbe Cyclamens found in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Son-entum at the end of April, and brigbt pink, are undoubt- 

 edly C. repandum, the flowers being brighter in colour than those of 

 C. ncapolitanum. which flowers in autumn after C. eiu*opa?um. C. re- 

 pandum is sometimes called ncapolitanum, bedcra'folium, and osstivnm. 

 It is quite hardy, succeeding in warm ledges that are sheltered from sue 

 in summer during the hottest part of the day. Cyclamens succeed in a 

 compost of turfy loam, leaf mould, and pieces of grit from tbe size of a 

 pea up to that of a walnut. The corms should be planted as soon as they 

 arrive, and so that the crown will he covered from U to 2 inches deep, 

 Tbe drainage must be good. If you wish to grow them iu pots provide 

 good drainage, and, using the above compost, pot so that the crown will 

 be covered with about an inch of soil. Plunge the pots iu a rather shady 

 border out of doore, and do not water but plunge them to the rims in 

 rough ashes, the pots being set on a bed of loose open rubble. A pot 

 three times the diameter of the corms will be quite large enough. In 

 autumn tbe pots may bo moved to a cold frame, or be left where they are. 

 If placed in a frame they should be plunged, and beneath them should be 

 open rubble, for wet is very injurious to Cyclamens; and not less so is 

 tbo deprivation of air, of which they cannot have too much when the 

 weather is mild. The soil should be kept moist, but not saturated, other- 

 wise the plants will perish. The best time to repot them is when they 

 are beginning to gi'ow. They may be kept nearthe glass in a greenhouse, 

 and in the coolest and most airy part, keeping them rather dry iu winter. 

 When in growth the soil, of course, ought to be watered so as to maintain 

 them in a healtliy state. After the plants have flowered plunge the pots 

 out-doors in a pasition shaded from powerful sun, and remove them to 

 tbe greeuhouse or frame before severe weather. C. repandum is best 

 and most successfully grown on rockwork; it does not succeed well in 

 pots. 



Cucdmeers Bitter [Bhhopstolie).—Vi'e are not aware that there is any 

 mode of preventing bitterueis in Cucumbers, except by growing them 



