October 10, 1865. 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



291 



varieties of proliferum. rnilifcnim itself is reiimrkalily lieiiii- 

 liful, but it is ecli|iBe(l liy tlie liner varieties cif liuleamiiu, 

 Fodtii, and Wollastonii. The latter is certainly "iie of the 

 handsomest of our native varieties of Ferns. Nothing can lie 

 more graceful tlian its wide and wavy fronds. Besides tliese 

 varieties of imiliforuni, there are several forms of I'olystielmm 

 finguiare which are certainly acquisitions — viz., Ehvorthii, with 

 its taperinp dark green fronds ; grandiceiis, beautifully crested, 

 with a largo corymbose head ; Kitsonia\ and 'Wakeleyanum, a 

 curious and somewhat elegant variety ; and so are |iteroiphorum, 

 nearly erect, with deep green fronds, and discovered, I believe, 

 by the Rev. H. A. Walker, of Hentield; and plumosum, the 

 most beautiful, perbai'S, of all the rolystichnms, with charm- 

 ing w.avy fronds. P. acijeatum acrocladon is more striking 

 than the ordinaiy crested form, and its liabit being evergreen 

 it is most desirable. Among the Blechuums, spicaut imbri- 

 catum, a short stumpy-looking variety, which, as a friend 

 said, almost made him laugh to look at it, cristatuni, and con- 

 cinnum, were all noticeable. The Hart's-tongues were in- 

 numerable. What could be more pretty than a jiitful of Scolo- 

 pendrium vnlgaro erispum raised from seed? — a fact which 

 was almost doubted by one of our most siu;cessful hybridisers 

 and raisers a few days afterwards, who said he had never seen 

 a fertile frond of erispum. Then how grand iscris|)um latmn ! 

 anil huw curious marginatum, and muricatum, and endivic- 

 foliura ! 



No one who has not seen such an establishment can have 

 any idea of the extent to which Fern cnltiire is carried — the 

 thousands and tens of thousands of seedlings raised here from 

 time to time, and the curious forms that come up amongst these 

 seedlings ; and if Jlr. Berkeley be right we are only on the 

 threshold of these things, for he believes a wide field to be 

 opened for the hybridising of Ferns ; and as one of our greatest 

 living botanists, his words are not likely to be spoken at random. 

 That the cultivators of our British Ferns are very numerous 

 there can be no doubt ; but I think they ought to be increased 

 a himdredfold. With a pit in some shady place, or rockwork 

 in some corner where nothing else will grow, they afford a 

 source of unceasing pleasure, and that with comparatively little 

 care and attention ; .and, as I have already said, their forms 

 are so beautiful and various, that one need not envy those who 

 can grow their collections of exotic Ferns. It were needless, 

 I think, to give a list of the sorts suitable for this purpose. 

 Those I have named may be, I think, relied on ; but a beginner 

 could not do better than place himself or herself (for our 

 columns bear witness to the zeal with which ladies cultivate 

 them), in the hands of any of our great Fern-growers, for they 

 may rest assured that they would receive sound advice as to 

 the sorts. 



Messrs. Ivei"y are also well knowni for their fine collections 

 of Azaleas, and for the many excellent seedlings which have 

 been sent out from their establishment. Of these there are 

 now several fine sorts, the two most remarkable being Forget- 

 me-not and Fascination. The former is of a brilliant glossy 

 purple, deeply spotted in the upper petals, dwarf habit, and 

 very enduring in its bloom. The latter is one of the most 

 lovely flowers we have. It is a seedling, not a sjiort, and (luite 

 ccUpses Etoile de Gand, Due d'Aremberg, and other flowers of 

 the same class. It is a beautiful rosy pink, with deep crimson 

 spots on the upper petals, broadly edged with white, perfect in 

 form, and very smooth. Beauty of Dorking, a large-foliaged 

 form of Beauty of Keigate ; Flower of the I'.ay. an improve- 

 ment on Iveryaua, and Variegata Superba, are also good kinds 

 of Mr. Ivery's raising ; while the flowers of other growers, both 

 home and foreign, are to be found here in large numbers. I 

 believe Fascination, although advertised, will not be sent out 

 this year, as Messrs. Ivery wish the plants to be larger before 

 they distribute it. 



In walking round the nursei-y I -was attracted by a most 

 delicate perfume, wliich seemed as if some bulbs of Lilies were 

 at hand, but found that this was occasioned by a plantation 

 of the Chinese Yam, Dioscorea batatas, the bine of which was 

 trained so as to form a long arch, and the blossoms of which 

 loaded the air with their fragrance. This is worth knowing, 

 for the root may be used for this jnirpose. Mr. Ivery gi-ows it 

 very successfully in good deep soil. There was a nice collec- 

 tion of the French varieties of that favourite autumn flower, 

 the Gladiolus, in bloom. Amongst ithem I noticed Egerie, 

 Oracle, Mathilde de Landevoisin, Ninon de I'Enclos, Le Pous- 

 sin, Penelope, and Janire as very good. These are amongst 

 the cheaper varieties. Messrs. Ivery have a nice collection of 

 Ivies, some of them veiy pretty both in theu- variegation and 



the character of their foliage. There were some rows of Pater- 

 son's seedling Potatoes, which have made so much noise, 

 but which, if these were a fair Kam]ile, wore fit for field use, 

 but certainly not for tho garden. There were four kinds — 

 Victoria, Blue, Blue Kidney, and Seedling Rock. The latter 

 was the largest cropper ; but they were all coarse, very deeply 

 eyed, good, as I have said, for cattle, itc, but not to be named 

 with some of those long-established favourites which we liave 

 grown for many years. By-the-by, have any of our Potato- 

 growing friends noticed the entirely d.fferent character of the 

 disease this year ? Here, with us, it does not assume that 

 brown dry apjiearance, but the Potatoes become a mass of cor- 

 ruption, almost as if they had mortified — very unlike any form 

 of the disease I have before seen, and I have watched it now 

 since 18-16. What a ju-oof, too, of our feebleness and ignorance it 

 is ! We knew as little about it, and can provide as little against 

 it, as when nearly twenty years ago it came upon us. 



There were many other things to be noticed in Messrs. Ivery's 

 establishment, but my time was limited, and I wanted to see 

 Deepdene, .so I had to leave ; but I have, I hope, indicated 

 enough to show how well worth visiting it i.s. As it is 

 only an hour's ride from London by rail, it is accessible not 

 merely to i-esidents in or near the great metropolis, but to that 

 large and increasing class who find that their circulation gets 

 sluggish unless from time to time they come into contact wiih 

 the great heart of England, where everything of every kind, 

 good or bad, is to be found. — D., Deal. 



THE RIPENING OF I'E.VOIIES IN ORCHARD- 

 HOUSES. 



In your Number of the 2(;th ultimo, your correspondent 

 " G. H.," in his scientific dialogue with his French friend, has 

 made some unfavourable comments on ray system of free ven- 

 tilation of orchard-houses, it therefore behoves me to say a 

 few words. I have one great comfort when I read such matter. 

 I have for some fifteen years practised with the greatest success 

 the mode of cultivation I recommend, I still practise it ; in 

 short, all that I say should be done, I do, and never fail in my 

 culture. 



We fruit-cnltivators all have our little climatic worlds ; that 

 of " G. H." must be miserably cold. Mine is in .an eastern 

 corner of Hertfordshire, the climate dry and cold in winter, and 

 dry and moderately warm in summer, the temperature in hot 

 weather being always r/' below the maximum at Chiswick ; and 

 out-of-door fruits rijien about ten days later than they do at 

 Twickenham, and Teddington, to the north of the Thames. 

 Now, my climatic world has rather a wide extent, for all 

 through the eastern counties, through the south, through the 

 west, through the midland counties, as far north as the Trent, 

 and I may add in places much farther north, for at Liverpool, 

 in the Highlands near Perth, and at Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 

 do Peaches ripen in houses not heated by hot-water pipes, but 

 simply orchard-houses, with free lateral ventilation ; so that, as 

 it will be seen, my climatic world is not a small one, and I feel 

 perfectly satisfied that the system I have recommended is the 

 safe one. It will, however, be seen, that I have been cautious, 

 for at page 1.5 of the later editions of the "Orchard-House," I 

 have recommended a four-inch hot-water pipe to be carried 

 round span-roofed houses " in the cool, moist climates of many 

 places in the north." Again, I read in the twelfth edition, 

 page 16, " In the cold stormy climates of the north of either 

 Scotland or Ireland, it will, perhaps, be quite necessary to in- 

 troduce hot-water pipes into honses in which Peaches, &c., are 

 citltivated, not exactly to force them, but to insure their ripen- 

 ing properly. The slioots of such trees also require a dry and 

 wiirm atmosphere in the autumn, or they will not ripen." 

 This passage also occurs as far back as the eighth edition, so 

 that " G. H.," if he lives in a cold, unfavourable climate, 

 ought not to have committed himself as he seems to have done. 



It may, perhaps, interest some of your readers if I give a 

 register of the ripening of orchard-house fruit here this season 

 in a spiin-roofed house 100 feet long, oj feet high at the sides, 

 and about 12,J feet to the ridge. I must first premise that the 

 side shutters, 20 inches wide, were open night and day from the 

 10th of .July, closed by day during the stormy weather in August, 

 open night and day 'at the end of th.at month, and they con- 

 tinue so to the present time. My .\pricots, a most m.agnificent 

 crop, ripened as follows (including Peaches, Sec.) : — .Time 26th, 

 Sardinian Apricot, ripe ; July 2ud, Oulin's Early Peach Apri- 



