4S8 



JOUENAIi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



r NoTember 28, IS65. 



but those left show plainly what can be done in " a small span- 

 roofed house " with very little care. The truth is, orehard- 

 houBe culture is so simplified here, that no extra care was 

 required ; everything in the shape of a fruit tree bears well and 

 does well. VentOation and syringing, like cold water and diet 

 At Malvern, are two gi-eat points, to which must be added the 

 summer surface food of malt dust and manure. WTiat power 

 there is La the compost ! Our G G's, which may mean great 

 guns or great gardeners, do not, I fear, appreciate it. 



While reading about retarding-houses by your correspondent 

 " G. H." and Mr. Fish, and thinking of what our forefathers 

 would have said if any one had proposed to build a glass-roofed 

 Sioose to retard fruit ; and if he had done so, and succeeded 

 >in keeping back a Noblesse Peach a month or five weeks by 

 planting the tree in a glass-roofed house, he would have been 

 scorched and have had his thumbs squeezed, to have made 

 him confess his obligation to some dabbler in witchcraft — 

 jc thinking of these old days of scorching and thumb-squeez- 

 ing — (I suppose they were necessary to bring abont our present 

 happy state ; " We are a great people, sir-ee," as the Ameri- 

 cans say) — I had nearly forgotten my retarding glass-roofed 

 houses. There are four of them, lean-to's, each about 50 feet 

 long and 12 feet wide. The back walls are fine Beech hedges 

 abont thirty years old, carefully clipped ; the front walls are 

 ditto, the hedges much younger. In these houses there are 

 dwarf bushes of Peaches and Nectarines planted in the borders 

 to supply shoots for budding in unfavourable seasons. They 

 grow with healthy vigour, require no syringing, and bear fniit 

 in seasons when spring frosts are not too severe. The last 

 season brought out the retarding principle so strongly, that 

 although the idea was old — for had I not written it in my 

 book ? — I could not help feeling much interested in it. I now 

 call to mind that the Early York Peach, which ripMied in my 

 large houses August 7th, was not ripe in these hedge houses 

 till the second week in September. It was the same with the 

 midseason Peaches ; they ripened from a month to five weeks 

 later than those in the houses I have mentioned. Peaches in 

 the open air on dwarf bushes ripened before those in these 

 hedge houses, a very curious fact — rather witchcrafty. I hope 

 my thumbs are safe. 



With reference to my notice of " G. H.'s " article in No. 235, 

 I fear I mistook his remark to his French friend respecting the 

 premature rest of his orchard-house trees as a sarcasm, and 

 dii him injustice. I also understood him to say that he opened 

 his /orciX'/-honse in July night and day, which was certainly 

 most peculiar practice, and I wrote strongly on the subject. 



I sometimes think I am like an old horse, accustomed for 

 years to jog along a straight smooth road, with the bridle on 

 his neck, and whenever this is taken in hand with a seeming 

 intent to turn him into a narrow lane, he shakes his head and 

 becomes a little restive, or " rusty " as the people say here. I 

 have no intention of quoting Dr. Bennet or Morton, wishing to 

 keep to orchard-liouse temperature only as being more to our 

 purpose. In T".,e last, from the 13th to the 18th, we had cold and 

 etondy we" : ■ r here, the thermometer more than once sinking 

 to33°atr _ ;■ ; nthe small epan-roofedhousewhichlhave men- 

 tioned it des. 'jr'l^-d to 40°. In July the minirr mTn temperature 

 oat of doors v.,i- 40° for some few nights ; in the house it was 

 48°. In August, the lowest temperature out of doors was 35° ; 

 in the house — the span-roofed house — it was 43°. Now, then, 

 let us look at the results of these low night temperatures. The 

 Cherries ripened gradually and were of the finest flavour, the 

 trees keeping their leaves till last week. The Peach trees are 

 now (Nov. 16th), full of leaves of a ripe yellow hue, dropping 

 off by thousands when the tree is touched. Now, what can be 

 more perfect success in fruit culture than this, abundance of 

 fine ripe fruit and the trees in the healthiest state possible ? 

 They were not syringed after the middle of July, and yet all 

 through August and September their foUage was green and 

 beautiful. Yet according to " G. H.," my recommendation of 

 ventilation night and day in summer has done much mischief, 

 sad. puts fruit trees to premature rest, from the great inequaUty 

 of temperature. If I remember correctly, Mitchell and other 

 Australian explorers found in tropical Australia the day tem- 

 perature from l"'.' to 120°, hoar frosts in the mornings, and yet 

 tiie most vigoiDtii tropical vegetation. Depend upon it if we 

 can command hot sunny weather in summer, we need not 

 fear our fruit-bi-.usfs being open all night. Black Hamburgh 

 Grapes grown here in a house with latticework of laths in front, 

 90 as to be always open, are the finest of all, their skins so tender 

 as to melt, and their richness of flavour remarkable. 



" G. H." ger.;;..ii-^s by far too much, and hall insinuates 



that the 27th of last September was an unfortunate day by 

 which to judge of temperature. I keep closely to my expe- 

 rience gained here, I know of no better mode of acting. As to 

 calculations without experience, they are, as we used to write 

 at school, a " great sea " of conjecture. At Chiswisk, on that 

 day the maximum was 78°, minimum 32°. Here it was 69° 

 and 33° (Negretti's instruments are used), out of doors, and 80* 

 and 41° in my large orchard-house. It is curious that the 

 maximum at Chiswick is always above mine, and the minimum 

 below. The last three summers when I have read of the " tre- 

 mendous heat" in different locahties, varying from 90° to 96°, 

 I have always felt strong doubts about where the thermometers 

 were placed. I could never come near by 10° or 12° to these 

 wonderful records of great heat, and have never believed them. 

 In taking the maximum temperature, no walls, no gravel walks, 

 should be near, all should be free exposure, and the thermo- 

 meter densely shaded. 



Ihave just observed, page 403, the paragraph in which " G. H." 

 gives the great change his trees were subjected to — " 95° in the 

 day to 45° at night " — and quotes my being surprised at their 

 not being killed. He has forgotten that he was alluding to his 

 forcing-house, as I understood him. In my houses the very 

 best ripening effects are induced by the gi-eat extremes of tem- 

 perature. If I could control Nature I would have bright sunny 

 days all through June, July, August, and September ; the ther- 

 mometer in my orchard-houses 80° to 90° by day, and 40° to 50° 

 by night. I fuUy believe such a climate woull le perfect in its 

 growing and ripening powers. — Thos. Rivers, 



THE NATURAL ORDERS OF PLANTS.— No. 1. 



THE LEGUMINOS.E. 

 It seems a little strange that out of the large numberof Natural 

 Orders of plants so few should be selected by cultivators as wor- 

 thy of special collection. When Orchids, and Ferns, and Cras- 

 suiaceas, perhaps, have been named, there is scarcely another 

 family represented in our gardens except in the most fragmentary 

 manner, and even then it is without any care or thought having 

 been taken to obtain the species because they were of this or 

 that family. Geraniums are grown not because they belong to 

 the Geraniaceae, but by reason of their specific qualities ; Cala- 

 diums are grown not because they are Araceous plants, but for 

 the sake of their leaves ; and so with nearly everything else. 

 A Fern, on the other hand, oftentimes of the most insignificant 

 pretensions, is cherished simply because it is a Fern ; and 

 many an Orchid that will not compare for beauty with a spring 

 Crocus receives a select place because of the general honour in 

 which its race is held. Cannot something be done for other 

 large and beautiful families ? How dehghtful it would be, in- 

 stead of incessantly hearing the cry, " Come and see my 

 fernery " — as if it were something so unusual to see Ferns that 

 our eyes must sparkle with dehght at the very thought o[ a 

 femeiy — how delightful it would be, on visiting some new 

 place, or a friend's httle floricultural retreat in the countrj-, to 

 hear, instead of the above, some such unaccustomed call as, 

 " Come and see my Epacrids ! " Every one loves Ferns, just as 

 every one loves music, but even the Irish melodies played five 

 hundred times running on a piano would become rather tiresome 

 at the last. Let there be ferneries by all means, and Orchid- 

 houses as many as there can be had plants to fiU, but it would 

 give more pleasure in the long run if our plant-lovers would 

 try to be more different from one another in their floral hob- 

 bies. The advantage to science and to practical horticulture 

 would be immense, since it is only by growing many plants of 

 similar structure side by side, as is done with. Ferns and 

 Orchids, that clear and definite knowledge is obtained as to 

 their various Ukings and requiremephi. What a charming 

 spectacle a collection of Leguminous plants would make 1 

 Everv possible variety of habit is found among them ; every 

 conceivable diversity of inflorescence and of coloui- m the 

 coroUa; scarcely any two species have leaves exactly alike, 

 and one set of forms or another is to be found in bloom what- 

 ever the season of the year. The Leguminosse present the 

 beau idral of a botanical family. Upon our lawns, mingUng 

 with the grass, often springs up that delicate little plant the 

 Bird's-foot (Omithopus perpusillus), so small as to be well 

 nigh hidden among the grass ; at the other extreme of dimen- 

 sions, without leaving the garden enclosure, we have the 

 Kobinia and the Wistaria, the Laburnum and the Sophosa. 

 In the tropics there are Mimosas so prodigious as to compete 

 in bulk of stem with the Wellingtonias of Cahfomia ! These, 



