Novembor 14, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



.399 



pliinta witli full-blovm flowers, which, from their wonderful 

 Bize ami sweetness, cannot be surpassed ; nor indeed can any 

 Violet come near the Czar. I feel myself greatly indebted to 

 llr. Urahaui for the trouble and patience wliioli ho has exer- 

 cised in order to produce such a treasure for our gardens. — 



I'llOSPEIlO. 



STRIKING CUTTINGS OF THE VERBENA. 



Since Aufjust I have read in the Journal of various metliods 

 of Btriliiuj,' Verbena cuttings ; and in one Number I saw tlio 

 reply to a correspondent, that those wlio succeed in striking 

 the Verbena from cuttings cannot fail in striking other bedding 

 plants, making it appear that the Verbena is dillicult to strike. 

 As I have found it not only an easy but a very simple matter, 

 perhaps the i)Ian I pursued may bo of some use to those who 

 find a dillieulty in the operation. 



About the second week in August I took as many cuttings 

 from the old plants as I thought I should reiiuire, and jiut two 

 cuttings into a four-incli pot, pressing the cuttings tirmly in, 

 and watering them out of a can with the rose on. Tlio soil I 

 used was common soil out of the kitchen garden, mixed with a 

 little Reigate sand. After I had jiotted all I wanted I placed 

 them in a corner of the garden tliat was overhung by large 

 trees ; the trees effectually kept tlie hot sun from scxirching the 

 plants. I watered tliem occasionally, just keeping tliem moi'-t ; 

 and did nothing more to them till the llith of October, when 

 I nipped tlie tops off, took the plants into the greenhouse, and 

 placed tlieiu near the glass, where they can have plenty of air 

 and light. 



I may add in conclusion, that out of two hundred cuttings 

 I only lost four ; and a gentleman's gardener called to-day to 

 806 me, and he said he had never seen finer and healthier- 

 looking Verbenas. 



I may also state that all my bedding plants have struck 

 without the aid of any artificial heat, including Verbenas, Ge- 

 j-aniums, 1 oth common and fancy, and variegated, Ageratmus, 

 Salvias, itc. — John Bowlbt. 



TRANSPLANTING FROM RUSHTON. 



Ip I lacked the Roman toga, and the still more rare Roman 

 virtue, to make me fancy that I was Marius sitting amongst the 

 ruins of Carthage ; if the monogamist character of my views 

 and sundry other small matters forbade me to fancy that I was 

 Boabdil, as he stood on the hill still called " Oltimu sospriu del 

 Uoro," and looked for the last time on the proud walls and 

 glittering minarets of his loved Grenada ; and if my aver.sion to 

 that nasty weed, almost equal to that of James I., of blessed 

 memory, prevented me from imagining myself to be Macaulay's 

 New Zealander, as he sat smoking his calumet, looking over 

 the ruins of once proud London — I had the other day, when 

 standing in Mr. Radclyffe's garden at Tarrant Rushton, one 

 thing in common with them all, I was looking on glory de- 

 parted or departing. I felt that I was standing where, probably, 

 I should never stand again, for, alas ! Rushton is doomed, and 

 however its worthy rector may be designated hereafter, he will 

 no longer be known as Rushton Radclyffe. He hands over the 

 living either in March next, or March twelvemonth at the 

 latest, to a younger rector, and he will be fain to pitch his tent 

 elsewhere, and what he can take with him of his loved pets 

 Tfill migrate too. 



Already I seemed to see the new " Incumbrance," as an old 

 dame once said to the late Bishop Blomfield, sending his men 

 into the very sanctum of our friend. What in the world could 

 Tie want with all those great sprawling trees? Wouldn't the 

 house look much better well cleaned and whitewashed? And 

 so away would go Solfaterre, Celine Forestier, and Triomphe de 

 Bennes ; and, then, who would take the care of those Peach trees, 

 from which the present rector has gathered upwards of. 4.500 

 Peaches in nine years, that has been taken of them ? No one, 

 I fear ; and so I thought I would just say a few words anent this 

 garden, ere it passes away from the notice of the horticultural 

 world for ever. 



I think that Mr. Radclyffe would be the last to let it be sup- 

 posed that there were no such Rose trees in England as his, 

 or that the growth which they manifest is something new and 

 above that which other growers accomplish. No, it is simply 

 this : In every point that can benefit the Rose grower the 

 garden at Rushton is deficient ; the soil is poor and hot, the 

 situation exposed to the violent south-westerly gales, which 

 so prevail in Doreetshire ; moreover, it lies in a valley where 



frosts are much more severe than on higher giound ; and all 

 these things have to bo combated. Yea, they have been and 

 are fairly beaten, the Roses enualling those of more favoured 

 localities, and all this from the determined perseverance, in- 

 telligent gardening, and constant care of the rector of Rushton. 



The Strawberry ]ilants, notwithstanding the hot season, 

 looked full and vigorous, but then tliey had been watered in- 

 cessantly. I never, said " Stephen," was " tiredor of anything 

 tliau I wor of watering this year." All the first-rate kinds wero 

 liere, and giving iiromise of great things, the most vigorous 

 Ijeing Sir Josejih Paxton and Wonderful. Then there are the 

 Peach trees looking so clean and bright, with well-ripened 

 wood, close cut, whicli seemed to say. Only take of me, and see 

 what I will do for you next year. 



Mr. Radclyffe is so constant a correspondent of The Journal 

 OF HoitTicuLTUUE, that he leaves but little for me to say, and 

 I am sure that ho would not like tliat 1 should say all I heard 

 of liis open-handed liberality and kindness as a neighbour, 

 clergyman, and friend. All about him hope that he will not 

 move far away, and that if Rushton knows him no more, he 

 may find a garden (for I do not think he cares much about 

 the home), whero under more favourable auspices lie may yet 

 achieve greater things as a rosarian. Let all who complain of 

 soil aud situation take a lesson from him, and their motto 

 will be, " A't/ despcraiidum." — D., Deal. 



ARCHERFIELD. 



The rapidity with which the traveller is now carried over 

 the couuti-y allows him but little time to contemplate the cha- 

 racter of each district until it has been left behind, and other 

 features present themselves. Thus it is only when the journey 

 is prolonged amidst scenery of a uniform kind that the mind 

 begins to realise the certainty of distance ; but then the mono- 

 tony soon becomes more tiring than change. A railway skirt- 

 ing the ocean is at most times agreeable, while a moor or 

 morass becomes wearisome, aud even the well-cultivated tracts 

 of country, known as the fen districts, lose all interest after the 

 first sight has been obtained. There are, however, large tracts 

 of level country which have been brought into the highest 

 possible state of cultivation, and which will at all times claim 

 attention ; for instance, the market gardens in the flats which 

 border the river Thames, both above and below London, can- 

 not fail to attract attention, and so with the more extensive 

 tracts of level country in agricultural crops, when their culti- 

 vation is of the highest order. It is to a district of the latter 

 description that I have now to introduce the reader, it being 

 an extensive plain bordering on the German Ocean and its 

 tributaries, and one which for many years has stood in thfl 

 foremost rank of agricultural progress. For at least two or 

 three generations the Lothians of Scotland have held a high 

 reputation for their agriculture, and piarticularly the East 

 Lothian, or Haddingtonshire, to which I now refer. It is a 

 flat country, d\xe portion having the Frith of Forth for its 

 northern, and the German Ocean for its eastern boundary, 

 being level, or nearly so, for many miles inland, yet not the 

 dead flat of the fen districts of Lincolnshire and adjacent 

 counties, but destitute of eminences of any importance, ex- 

 cepting in such solitary cases as that of the remarkable mass 

 of rock, called North Berwick Law, which is a huge mis-shapen 

 mass of basalt, rising abruptly out of the plain. This pro- 

 minent feature, visible for several miles, is, in some respects, 

 the counterpart of its near neighbour the Bass Rock, only the 

 latter rises out of the ocean, and possesses no small historical 

 interest. The aspect of the country is more in accordance 

 with what a farmer would admire than what the man of taste 

 would wish for : large fields, with only moderate-sized hedges 

 in straight lines, and but few trees, give the idea rather of a 

 wholly agricultural district than of a picturesque one ; and if 

 wo add the fact that dweUing-houses are but thinly scattered, 

 aud those that do exist present more the appearance of useful- 

 ness than of ornament, we have but little for the lover of 

 varied landscape to admire in the picture. This flat coimtry 

 is divided into fields of from twenty to fifty acres or more, and 

 the farm buildings are substantial, including that which forms 

 BO striking a contrast with most English homesteads, the build- 

 ing for the steam-engine, with its tall chimney, a number of 

 corn stacks surrounding the whole. It may be remarked that 

 in most cases the farm-house is on the south side of the build- 

 ing, and farther, that the farms are large, and not more than 

 one-fourth of their acreage, if so much, is devoted to perma- 



