456 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTDEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ Juie 25, 1868. 



These, with nnmeroas fine Tarietiea, thrive admirably here in 

 the north-east of Scotland, at an elevation of 700 feet above the 

 sea level. 



Then, for pot culture, how can your contributor omit E. 

 Edgworthii and Nuttallii, one so handsome a plant, the other 

 ledeeming the rough coarseness of its leaf, and rather crabbed 

 growth, by the size, beauty, and deUcious fragrance of its 

 flowers ?— H. C. J. 



LICHENS ON FRUIT TREES. 



The espalier Apple and Pear trees here, both in their trunks 

 and branches, I found on my arrival, two years ago last April, 

 " 83 green as grass." I bought a mason's whitewashing brush, 

 and having slaked some lime I made a thickish wash of it, 

 added a little soot, and laid on the wash over the lichens in 

 Tfinter. The trees are perfectly clean, and I have seen no re- 

 newal of the lichens. 



I have drained all tbree of my gardens 3 feet 6 inches deep. 

 I believe lichens betoken a want of drainage, but also that 

 they may be attributed to other causes. They harbour insect 

 pests, and can no more be beneficial to a tree than scurf on 

 the skin to an animal. The skin is the second lung, and per- 

 forms the o£Bce of leaves till these are formed. Stoppage 

 of the pores of the skin cannot be advantageous to health. 

 Attention must be paid by arboriculturists to the skin and 

 leaves of trees, and as much attention should be paid to the 

 roots as to the branches. We want gardeners to be as " well 

 up" in the roots as in the branches. — W. F. Eadclyffe, Oke- 

 ford Fitzpaine, 



NAMING PLANTS IN PUBLIC GARDENS. 



The spirited and artistic manner in which the public gardens 

 in the neighbourhood of the metropolis are managed, at once 

 proclaims the desire of those who have their direction to pro- 

 vide the public with the means of pleasure and gratification of 

 the purest and most healthy nature ; and the thousands who 

 escape the smoke and din of city life to avail themselves of 

 spare moments to breathe the breath of flowers, return invi- 

 gorated to their multifarious duties, their mind provided with 

 a fresh train of thought, which must, perhaps imperceptibly, 

 exert a beneficial influence over their nature. As regards the 

 town population, the objects of public gardens are to a great 

 extent answered. These visitors come to enjoy a feast of 

 heauty, and their presence in turn gives energy and pleasure 

 to the promoters. Thus the enjoyment is reciprocal. 



There is another and an important class of visitors, who 

 bom the very extremity of the kingdom, and even beyond its 

 limits, periodically visit public gardens near London, but with 

 an object different from that of their city brethren. A mere 

 least of flowers is not the primary object of their visit, these 

 they leave at home in abundance. Public gardens are by this 

 class of visitors regarded as standards of excellence, and they 

 are anxious to see how near their own approach this standard ; 

 or such gardens are looked upon as experimental gardens, 

 where objects are examined with a critical eye, their adap- 

 tations and quaUties duly noted, and conclusions arrived at 

 as to the desirability of the plants for the home plots. These, 

 in numbers of cases, are so limited as not to admit of un- 

 proved novelties. Every bed is under the eye, and must be 

 planted in confidence to give a good return. Viewed from this 

 stand-point public gardens are not only establishments of 

 pablic interest, but are emphatically institutions of public use- 

 inlness; and as the directors are evidently desirous of contri- 

 fcnting to the public good, they would greatly enhance the in- 

 terest of these gardens it the plants employed were legibly and 

 correctly named. This omission is a drawback common to 

 most of them. At the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, Eoyal Hor- 

 ticultural Gardens, Battersea Park, &c., the public cannot learn 

 the names of the plants employed except by going to a con- 

 siderable amount of trouble. If the men who happen to be 

 ^forking on the spot are appealed to for information, it is ten 

 to one if they are able to give the names promptly and cor- 

 rectly, and as long as the authorities withhold from the public 

 the means of acquiring the names in a proper and legitimate 

 manner, so long will these men be troubled and hindered in 

 their work by the queries of visitors, who from curiosity or 

 more solid motives are naturally anxious to know what they 

 are looking at and admiring. The omission is certainly incon- 

 venient, and a remedy would, I am sure, be hailed with plea- 

 sure by thousands. 



From a variety of considerations it might not be desirable to 



have names appended to the plants all over the garden ; bnt 

 would it not be desirable to reserve a plot as a sort of garden 

 of nomenclature, where a plant or two of every kind might 

 have its name attached in a position accessible to all, and 

 in such a manner that it would not be necessary to remove 

 the label in order to read the name? This would be a 

 feature in these establishmen's which would be attractive, in- 

 teresting, and useful. This is the suggestion of a gentleman, 

 a patron and lover of horticulture, who visits periodically 

 the various public gardens for the purpose of acquiring in- 

 formation, and each time returns disappointed at his in- 

 ability to acquire the names of many plants which he would be 

 glad to know, and which he thinks ought to be provided. He 

 reasonably only regards himself as the representative of many 

 others similarly circumstanced, and thought the subject of 

 sufficient importance to be mooted in the columns of The 

 JouBNAii OF Horticulture. — J. W. 



JIAKING SKELETON BOUQUETS, 



When your leaves are dry enough to work handily, com- 

 mence forming them into bouquets. Take the larger leaves 

 and those with the longest stems and place them in a sort of 

 semicircle on a sheet of plate paper ; or, if you wish to form 

 them into a sort of wreatb, ctmmence near the top of the 

 sheet and work in a circle, bringing the sides of the wreath 

 together at the bottom and fastening them in a knot of blue or 

 straw-coloured ribbon. Those colours look best with the snowy 

 iacework of the leaves, though some might prefer green. If 

 a wreath is formed, a small picture may be placed in the 

 centre. A Rose, in bright colours, with a few buds, and a 

 growth of vivid green leaves, would look beautifully if sur- 

 rounded by the frosty network of the skeletonised leaves. The 

 leaves, I should have said before, may be fastened to the paper 

 by just touching the backs of them where they join the stem 

 with a drop of colourless glue. They will overlap each other 

 and hide all traces of their being glued. 01 course, they should 

 not be laid on flat, one over another, as such an arrangement 

 would spoil the effect. They must be disposed as naturally 

 as possible. Nature is always an excellent guide in these 

 matters, and the more closely we imitate her the better we shall 

 succeed in our experiments. Some of the leaves should be 

 curled over the fingers and then fastened along the middle of 

 the wreath, or in the central part of the foreground of the 

 bouquet. They will He up among the others, and their gracefnl 

 curl will relieve the whole collection from any prim, stiff ap- 

 pearance, and make it look airy and light. If a bouquet is 

 made, it should be rounded-up towards the middle in front 

 Uke a bouquet of flowers. You will understand what I mean 

 better, probably, if you imagine a bouquet cut in halves, and 

 one-half laid on a sheet of paper before you. You will observe 

 that it is rounded from the side. If a bouquet is made, leave 

 several long stems of nearly an equal length below the leaves, 

 and glue on a knot of narrow ribbon as though that held the 

 cluster together. 



A nice case for these wreaths or bouquets is made as follows : 

 —Take four pieces of thin light board, and make a box about 

 6 inches deep. Colour the outside with some dark colour, and 

 line the inside with smooth white paper. The box, of course, 

 will be made to correspond to the size of the sheet on which 

 you have made vonr wreath. The sheet should fit in nicely 

 and smoothly, and it will, if you are careful and particular in 

 making the box. I ought to have mentioned that a groove 

 should be cut in the box to admit the glass in front. 



Now, when you have your pictures fitted nicely in the box, 

 or, perhaps, it should more properly be called a frame, if it 

 looks unfinished (and very likely it will), you must go to work 

 and make some sort of a flat frame, the inner edge to be of the 

 same size as the deep or box frame, which can be fitted on over 

 the latter with strong glue. Make it neatly, and give it a 

 colouring of umber, nitric acid, or some such stain. Ihen 

 exercise your taste in forming pretty figures on it with seedB- 

 of different plants. If you place a row along the outer and 

 inner edges, it will look very pretty, and if Peas or Beans are 

 used they will give it the appearance of being "beaded," as 

 carpenters term it. Beans or Peas must be spht before being 

 used, and coloured after being put on. 



Groups of Burs look extremely well ; besides, they need no 

 colouring. They are of fine shape, and when placed in clusters 

 have a decided resemblance to some kinds of flowers. Yon 

 can iavent many ways to make your frame very ornamental. 



