34 



JOUBNAIi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 10, 1866. 



Prize for Fifty Roses.— The fifty-one Roses mentioned at page B 

 should have been disqualified. I advise the Jersey rosarians to word 

 their prize schedule thus : — " For fifty cut Roses in fifty distinct varieties." 

 There can then be no mistake. Fifty cut Roses may be mistaken for one 

 variety, or any number of varieties. They might add, in reference to 

 RoseB, fruits, or vegetables, that any greater or less number than is 

 specified will disqualify. Single blooms without buds count for a truss; 

 I advise them not to permit the addition of foliage, a common practice 

 in the country, but disallowed in London.— W. F. Radclyffe, Okeford 

 Fitzpaine. 



Destroying Earwigs (TV. Hidlet).~A good plan is to place a little dry 

 moss in the bottom of a small flower-pot. and invert the latter on the top 

 of a peg or stick amongst the plants, and so high that one edge will rest 

 on the soil and the other be half an inch or so above it. The earwigs 

 will congregate in the moss, the traps should therefore be examined every 

 day or every other day, and the earwigs shaken into boilint* water. The 

 stems of Broad Beans cut into six-inch lengths, and laid horizontally 

 among the plants, are good traps, and so are the stems of Jerusalem Arti- 

 chokes, Sunflower, nnd Giant Cow Parsnip (Hcraeleum giganteum), when 

 cut into lengths of 6 to 8 inches. The best of all traps are of metal, and 

 they may be had of all nursery and seedsmen. 



Tritoma tVARiA and Burchelli (Vynette).— They belong to the na- 

 tural order Liliacea? and sub-order Aloes?. The former was but little 

 grown until during the last few years, yet it was introduced from the 

 Cape of Good Hope in 1707. Good loam, enriched with one-third leaf 

 mould and well-reduced hotbed manure, suits it. If the soil is wet and 

 heavy it would be improved by the addition of one-fourth«harp sand. 

 All it requires is a mulching of leaf mould or littery manure three parts 

 reduced placed round the crown in autumn after blooming. The dead 

 foliage should not he cut off until spring, as if left it forms a protection to 

 the crown. If the weather prove dry during the throwing up of the spike 

 and flowering, copious supplies of liquid manure are beneficial. It stands 

 with us on a lawn unprotected, and every year produces from twenty to 

 thirty spikes of bloom in September. It is there even finer than in an 

 open border, where it has proved equally hardy. As a proof of its hardi- 

 ness we may state that it withstood without protection the severe winter 

 of 1860 and 1861 in an open border two hundred miles north of Glouces- 

 tershire. There is no difference as to treatment between T. uvaria and 

 T. Burchelli, but they are very distinct; the latter is more dwarf and 

 compact and very bright in colour. 



Flower Device (R. W.). — You will find the information you seek as to 

 the arrangement of the colours in Vol. I., New Series, pages 131, 151, 191, 

 240, 299, 813, 833, 132, 172, 211, 212, 251. 271, 355, and 875. If you peruse 

 these carefully we t hink you will be able to hit off a design. We cannot 

 furnish such. 



Distinguishing Ripe Melons fldem).— When a Melon is ripe it will 

 turn to a yellowish colour, and have a grateful odour. It should be cut 

 before it is dead ripe, and before the fruit pnrts from the footstalk. Cut 

 it with an inch of the footstalk attached. All the Melons will not be ripe 

 at one time ; they should not, therefore, be all cut at once. 



Peach Tree Leaves Blistered (Old Soldier, Dublin).— The leaf sent 

 is now showing the effects of the late spring frosts. We consider that 

 the evil has been produced by a rupture of the sap-vessels from exposure 

 to cold. The only measures to adopt are to syringe the trees freely in 

 the evenings of hot days, to pick off the worst leaves, and, should the 

 foliage become covered with a white powder, or be attacked by mildew, 

 to dust it with flowers of sulphur. The fruit is now falling in conse- 

 quence of its not having stoned. 



Rose Tree Leaves Eaten (C. F. W.).— You can do much to rid your 

 trees of the destroyers by spreading a white sheet under the heads, and 

 shaking them a little after dark. The marauders will fall on the sheet, 

 and may readily be destroyed. You may also make the leaves distasteful 

 to them by syringing every other night with water in which soft 6oap 

 has been dissolved at the rate of 2 ozs. to the gallon. 



Thunbergia fragrans (B.J.).— It is quite true, as you say, that this is 

 not a *' new " plant, for it was cultivated at Kew in 1796, and a drawing of 

 it is in the " Botanical Magazine " published in 1817 ; but if a plant has 

 been lost, and reintroduced, nurserymen may be excused for represent- 

 ing it as a novelty. 



Pelargonium (Jlf. B.).— Tho varieties of the strain of which you en- 

 closed a truss, are far too numerous and nearly resembling each other 

 for us to be able to tell its name. 



Turnips Bolting (F,, Westmoreland), — We know of no better plan of 

 preventing their running to seed than thinning them well, and keeping 

 them properly supplied with water. Good rich soil, and thinning well, 

 with copious supplies of water, are the great points in securing crisp early 

 Turnips. 



Aphelandra Leopoldi Culture (A Co7ista7it Reader). — It is not a 

 plant requiring much water, and should only be watered when the soil be- 

 comes dry, and then it should have a good watering. Itrequires the heat 

 of a stove, a light situation, and an average amount of air. A moist atmo- 

 sphere, but not so as to wet the foliage, is essential ; the plant should not 

 have too much pot room. A compost of two-thirds sandy peat and one* 

 third turfy loam, with a free admixture of sand, suits it ; very liberal 

 drainage is necessary. 



Aucuba Seeds Germinating (Idem). — You may expect the seeds of the 

 Aucuba to vegetate by August if they were sown as soon as ripe, but if 

 not do not throw away the pots containing them, but keep them in a 

 greenhouse fully twelve months longer, and the soil moist. 



Seedling Geraniums Flowering (Amateur of Ayr.). — If the seed be 

 sown in the spring in a gentle heat, and the seedlings be forwarded, they 

 will flower in autumn, but not well until the second year. The best plan 

 is to sow the seed early in the autumn, or as soon as ripe, the seedlings 

 to be hardened off before winter. They flower with certainty in the 

 following year. 



Books on Gardening (Idem).— Thompson's " Gardener's Assistant," 

 31*. Gd. ; Lindley's "Theory of Horticulture," 21s.: Loudon's "Ency- 

 clopaedia of Plants," £3 IS*. (Id. ; and Mcintosh's "Book of the Garden," 

 £3. If these are too expensive, the following will suit you : — " The 

 Science and Practice of Gardening," 3s. ; " Out-Door Gardening," Is. 6d. ; 

 " In-Door Gardening," Is. 6rf. ; and " The Garden Manual," Is. 6d. These 

 works are well suited for amateurs. They may each be had free by post 

 from our office for 2(2. extra. 



Colchican Laurel (Colchican). — It is a variety of the common Laurel, 

 and called botanically Cerasus laurocerasus war. colchica. It was intro- 

 duced from Belgium in 1841, is very hardy, has long pointed leaves, and 

 might be planted whenever the common Laurel is desirable. 



Illustrated Book on Moths (J. B., Durham). — There is no such book 

 at so low a price as 10s. Stainton'a Manual of British Moths and Butter- 

 flies contains woodcuts of many of the species, but they are not coloured. 

 It is an excellent book, and nearest the price you name. 



Names of Plants (C. M.).— Crataegus crus-galli. (Alpha).— 2, Alonsoa 

 acutifolia ; 8. Pilea muscosa. (H. B.). — A Crinum, uncertain which species 

 from the specimen received. (E. S. C). — Lastrea dilatata. (2*. £f.). — 

 1, Orchis maculata; 2, Gymnadenia conopsea; 2, tialix repens. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Suburbs of London for the Week ending July 7th. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



THE FOWLS YOU SHOULD KEEP. 



BEING AN ANSWER TO REV. W. F. BADCLYFFE. 



As a slight return for the valuable instruction on the subject 

 of roses, which I have many times received from Mr. Radclyffe, 

 to say nothing of the entertaining way in which his advice has 

 been frequently given, and, in addition, that Mr. Radelyffe is a 

 brother clergyman : I beg to give my answer to his question of 

 last week, " What fowls shall I keep ? " 



But, Mr. Radclyffe, you have given us no data. Soil is not 

 mentioned — whether you live on clay, sand, or chalk ; climate 

 is not mentioned — aspect ditto ; whether yours is a sunny slope 

 or top of a hill, or wooded or open. Nothing iB given ; only I 

 know you live in the country. Upon that one datum I must 

 perforce build my reply. 



There is much to say for Bantams, but when you show yonr 

 collected eggs there will be the domestic rejoinder, " Oh ! but 

 what bits of things ! " and you will collapse — at least I did. 

 Next Cochins — concerning the egg-laying, you would probably 

 be well satisfied ; but as to the eating, may our friends the 

 Editors have Cochins for dinner to their hearts' content — that 

 is, when I do not dine with them. I gave a Cochin to my man, 

 and he declared that his jaws ached for hours afterwards, I 

 think he even said days, but I presume that was an exaggera- 

 tion. 



Then passing by Game which are most beautiful, but, per- 

 haps, as a man of peace, Mr. Radclyffe might object to them, 

 and quite objecting to a cross between Malay and Game, also 

 keeping to the one fact, the country, I pass by the town-suiting 

 varieties, Spanish and Malays. I come then to Dorkings ; but 

 is the soil a dry one ? or it may be that Mr. Radclyffe would 

 have a great number of funerals among his young ones, and no 

 mortuary fees for compensation. Then, somehow, Dorkings 



