160 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



C August 29, 1865. 



plunged out of doors in a dry situation, and covered with an 

 inch or two of sawdust, tan, &c. Deutzias, Weigelas, Dielytras, 

 Lilacs, and other deciduous plants for forcing, to be kept dry 

 and in a sunny place. Now is the time to procure, for forcing, 

 dwarf plants (and the fuller of buds for bloom the better), of 

 Ehododcndi-ons, Ghent Azaleas, Kalmias, Andi-omeda, Ber- 

 beris Darwinii, Daphne cneorum, and Bhodora canadensis. All 

 these requii-e peat soil, and should be taken up with good balls, 

 EUid placed in pots just sufficient to hold them well. They may 

 be plunged in coal ashes in a warm situation, or if there is 

 a frame at hberty place them in it, as also the forcing-bulbs 

 named above, which are all the. better of protection from wet 

 and severe frost. We can go any time and draft one or two as 

 we want them into the stove, which is now our forcing-house. 

 Cyclamens comn, Atkinsi, and vemivm to be placed on shelves 

 in the late vinery, about half the stock of the two fonner, and 

 all of the last, for if it is the true kind it will bloom in Novem- 

 ber. C. persicum and its varieties to be housed forthwith and 

 placed on the shelves of the late vinery, as well as the Chiera- 

 lias. Calceolarias, Pelargoniums, itc, from frames, where they 

 must no longer remain. Primulas, for spring blooming, to 

 have a position near the glass, and to be shifted iuto then- 

 hlooming-pots. Chi-ysanthemimis to be brought into this 

 house at or liy the middle of the month, if no protection can 

 be given outside. I %vould here remark, that iu this month, 

 the stove being for winter-blooming plants, a brisk heat must 

 be maintained, and atmospheric moisture should be kept up 

 more abundantly than in an ordinary stove. The temperature 

 should range £i-om 70° to 7.5° by day, and from .5.5° to 60° by 

 night. Early in the month plants of Adiautuni cmieatum, 

 A. icapiUus-Veneris, Asplenium marinum, Lomaria Patersoni, 

 L. L'Herminieri, Goniophlebium loriceiun, Asplenium Veiteh- 

 ianum, A. bifidum, A. monanthemum prolifenun, Blechnum 

 gracile, B. polypodioides, DootUa aspera, Lastrea glabella, Ne- 

 phi-olepis pectinata, N. davaJhoides, and N. exaltata, Polystiehum 

 angulare prolifenim, Pteris argyrsea (small ]ilants), P. cretica 

 albo-Uneata, P. scaberula, P. serridata, Adiantum curv'atum, 

 and A. macrophylhmi, should have the di-ainage looked to, 

 some of the old soil removed, and the bro-\vn fronds taken off, 

 replaciug the soil removed, or repotting, if necessary. In the 

 moist growing-heat of the stove they will soon become fresh, 

 and be hvely all the winter, and veiy usefiU for table decoration. 

 Some of the Lycopods are also useful, as Selaginella LyaUi, 

 Wildenovi, formosa, its near relation stolonifera, Martensi, 

 Lobbi, umbrosa, and deuticulata, the most useful of them .ill. 

 The third and last lot of Hyacmths to be potted iu the last 

 week. 



NorajiBER. — Cyclamens will be represented by late plants of 

 neapoUtanum. vernmn, and, it maybe, forward plants of ooiun 

 ajid Atkinsi, but this is not general. Chrysanthemums will 

 now be coming iuto fine bloom. In the late vinery ever)- bunch 

 of Grapes must be cut with an inch or two of wood to it, and 

 the end of this dipped in boUiug seaUngwax or pitch and tar. 

 The bunches may then be hung up by this piece of wood in a 

 cool dry room, where they should be looked over twice a-week, 

 and every tainted beny taken out. The Grapes may thus be 

 sometimes kept till New Year's-day or even later. If the berries 

 are very close together make a loop, and di-aw it tightly round 

 the footstalk after passing it over three or four berries at the 

 lower end of the bunch, and thus suspend. This will cause 

 the shoulders to fall, and the berries will not hang so closely. 

 If the shoulders are large it would be well to take them off. 

 The Grapes being thus disposed of, the early vinei-j- may be 

 eased of the Chrysanthemums, and the shelves of the remainder 

 of the Cinerarias, Calceolarias, Pelargoniums. Fuchsias (young 

 stock to be kept slowly growing ah the winter for early bloom). 

 Primulas, Cyclamen persicmn and C. Atkinsi, and Violets. 

 Tea-scented Eoses wiU also do in a hght any part. Mignonette 

 to be kept rather dry and near the glass. Pelargoniums for an 

 early bloom to be put in their blooming-pots. ThjTsacanthus 

 rutOans will be in fine bloom iu the stove. Euphorbia jao- 

 quinia?i3ora now or soon, and some of the Begonias. I am 

 told that B. DigswelUana is the best of all winter-flowering 

 kinds of Begonias, continuing in bloom all the winter, and 

 being remarkably free. Any of the variegated-leaved Begonias 

 which it may be desired to retain in beauty through the winter 

 must have a place in the stove ; the lands likely to bloom, iu 

 adtUtion to their being attractive by their foliage, are MarshaUi 

 and gi-andis. B. splendida with velvety crimson leaves and 

 large trusses of bloom is well worth a place, for its flowers con- 

 trast extremely well with the fohage. A few of the first-potted 

 Hyacinths, &c., may be introduced into the stove, placing 



them on a shelf in a cool part, and where they can have air 

 liretty freely ; a few more being introduced at intei-vals of a 

 fortnight up to February. One or two Deutzias, Dielytras, 

 Lilacs, Weigelas, Ehododendrons, Azaleas, and other jilants 

 may be introduced into a cool part of the stove in the same 

 way as the Hyacinths, Tulips, &c. If the plants of Salvia 

 splendens, fulgens, splendens Soucheti, and gesneraiflora are 

 not shomng bloom, they may have a shift, and will make fine 

 plants for spring-blooming. Varieties of TropsEolum Lob- 

 bianum trained to an upright stick, and liberally treated to 

 light and air, wOl bloom all the winter iu the \-inery. Osalis 

 elegans «-iU be in bloom, or soon will be, on a shelf in the stove. 

 All plants for forcing should have the protection of pits or 

 frames. Eoses for forcing to be primed. 



December. — Previous directions being attended to, there will 

 be no lack of subjects available this month for decoration. 

 These will consist of Gesneras zebrina and cinnabarina, Poiu- 

 settia pulcherrima. Euphorbia jacquinia-flora, Eranthemum 

 pulcheUum and strictum, EpiphyUum truncatum ; Aphelan- 

 dras cristata, Porteana, Leopoldi, &c. ; Torenia asiatica and 

 pulcherrima; JSchmea fidgens ; a Camellia or two ; Lilies of the 

 Valley for Christmas, and a few Hyacinths, &c., for the new 

 year, in adihtiou to others before noted fi'om the stove. The 

 vineries will afford Chiysanthemums, Primulas, Mignonette, 

 CameUias, Correas, Epacrises, Ericas, CoroniUa glauca, &c. 

 Pelargoniums to be potted, also Cinerarias, Calceolarias, and 

 Primulas for spring bloom. Chrysanthemums done blooming 

 to be placed in a cold pit, thereby making room for the hard- 

 wooded plants and those Uking cool treatment, which will have 

 to be taken out of the early vinery towards the end of the 

 mouth, the plants for forcing taking their place in the early 

 vinery. Gloxinias, Achimenes, Gesneras, Erythrinas, &c., 

 will be at rest ; they will do kept dry in any place with a tem- 

 perature not below 45°. A few plants of the tall Cacti, as they 

 are called, now introduced iuto the stove wiU prove useful. 

 Continue to introduce more plants for forcing, selecting the 

 most promising, it being vain to introduce any not well set for 

 bloom. Fuchsias may be kept over the winter in a shed or 

 cellar from which frost is just excluded. It must be here 

 observed that in the vineries the temperature fi'om fire heat 

 must not on any aecoimt exceed 40° for the mere sake of having 

 plants in flower. It is now too late to do by artificial heat 

 what is best done by sun heat at an earlier period. 



I have now gone over the whole year. It may seem to "An Old 

 Scbscriber" that I have named more plants than can be accom- 

 modated in his or her houses. My object was to make the 

 subject as useful to as many of the readers of this Journal as 

 possible, and if a difficulty of the Idnd alluded to arise with " An 

 Old Subscriber," he will, by gi'owing a few of such plants as 

 he may have convenience for, attain his object. I should be 

 glad to learn any adtUtions that can be made to the list ol 

 plants, with remarks as to the periods when they can be had iu 

 flower, and the means to be adopted for securing this result. — 

 G. Abbey. 



THE RIPENING OP OUT-DOOR FIGS. 



Under the above heading, you inserted, in page 129, imme- 

 diately after a letter from myself, another from " A. T.," of 

 Jersey. The two communications have a more intimate con- 

 nection than at first appears. Our Jersey friend states that on 

 the '29th of July he received a perfectly ripe basket of the most 

 luscious Figs, and we know that these Figs appear in the 

 London market some three or four weeks before we can pro- 

 duce anything like them. Now, most people on reading this 

 statement will content themselves with saying, that Jersey 

 being south of England, and, therefore, having a warmer 

 summer, might be expected to produce earlier Figs ; but the 

 fact is, that Jersey has not a warmer summer than London, 

 the average temperatm-e of Jtrly being (according to Petter- 

 mann) 03.5° in the former place, and 63.6° in the latter. Besides 

 this, it is to be remembered that the comparison is being made 

 between a standard tree in Jersey, and a . wall tree in England. 

 Now, if the extra wai-mth of a wall is equal, as Loudon teUs us, 

 to about 7° of latitude, it is obvious that a wall near London, 

 is, in climate, superior to an open garden in Jersey. So we 

 must discard the popular hj'jiothesis, and seek for some other 

 cause than a wai-m summer for the early ripening of Jersey 

 Figs. 



Now, I believe that my letter above referred to furnishes the 

 clue to the satisfactory solution of the difficulty. The January 

 temperatm-e of Jersey is 41.6°, of London 36.2°; therefore. 



