196 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 11 ,1866. 



appeared to be about 30 inches wide. The bed of Mrs. Pollock 

 had a simple edging of Lobelia Paxtoniana. On a raised 

 terrace, between the panel and a broad gravel walk, was a very 

 neat series of chain beds. The smaller beds in the chain were 

 planted with Viola lutea and Lobelia Blue King, mixed ; these 

 had a very charming effect. The larger beds in the chain, I 

 think, were planted with Centaurea candidissima, Perilla, and 

 Verbena venoea. The whole group of beds was so beautiful, 

 and the arrangement of the colours in them so perfect, that it 

 struck me as being one of the most successful groups I had ever 

 seen. Another irregular chain which I saw was very success- 

 fully planted with a centre of Pelargonium Rubens Improved ; 

 2nd row, Flower of the Day ; 3rd row, Verbena Purple King, 

 with an edging of Cerastium tomentosum. Thi6 arrangement 

 looked exceedingly beautiful. Altogether I considered the bed- 

 ding-out at the Liverpool Botanic Gardens much superior to 

 anything I had seen in the neighbourhood of London this 

 season. 



Mr. Tyerman had a fine bed of a dark-leaved plant which I 

 think is likely to prove useful. It is riantago purpurea major. 

 This is also a perfectly hardy plant, and may be used with 

 good advantage with the Violas. It seeds very freely, and is 

 easily propagated by offsets. 



A large bed of Geranium anemona>folium produced a line 

 effect. This plant would look well in a sub-tropical arrange- 

 ment. 



In one of the large greenhouses containing a miscellaneous 

 collection of plants, the whole of the roof was covered with 

 Fuchsias. They were planted just inside the front wall, and 

 trained up the rafters. The effect on looking from either 

 end was exceedingly pretty. The Liverpool Botanic Gardens 

 and the Denbies are the only places where I have seen Fuchsias 

 show off to such advantage. — J. Wills. 



MR. HARLOCK'S ORCHARD-HOUSE AT ELY. 



Heaeino of the success of this mode of culture at Ely. I 

 was induced on the 30th of last month to pay a visit to that city, 

 and with the kind permission of Mr. Harlock I saw all that I 

 wished to see. 



The house is span-roofed, 100 feet long and 25 feet wide, 

 ventilated on each sido, and at the apex of the roof. The trees 

 are from five to six years old, and all, or nearly all, open pyra- 

 mids from G to 8 feet in height. Mr. Grix, the gardener, who 

 is a self-taught orchard-house cultivator, not having practised 

 summer pinching, has hitherto satisfied himself with winter 

 pruning, which he has done well ; but, owing to the shoots not 

 having been shortened, the luxuriant growth of the trees this 

 season gives a crowded appearance to the house which summer 

 pruning would have obviated. 



In no place have I seen orchard-house culture more 

 thoroughly carried out. The trees are all in IB-inch pots, are 

 top-dressed in autumn and surface-dressed in summer, the 

 pots stand on concreted borders, and, owing to their large size, 

 and the rich surface-dressings given, the trees are all in the 

 most vigorous health — not a trace of red spider or mildew to be 

 seen. A large portion of the crop had been gathered — a most 

 abundant one, most of the Peach and Nectarine trees having 

 borne from six to nine dozen each ; the Apricots had borne a 

 crop equally good, one and a half bushel having been gathered. 

 I saw only the later kinds of Peaches, such as the Walbnrton 

 Admirable, the Boudin, and others ; the fruit abundant and 

 very large. At the time of my visit 115 fine luxuriant trees 

 of Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots, and a few Plums, were in 

 the house, forming a group exhibiting the most perfect culture 

 'I ever witnessed. 



To illustrate how perfectly Mr. Harlock has carried out the 

 orchard-house system, I may mention that in the garden, 

 arranged in row6, were 120 fine pyramids of Pears and Plums, 

 all in 18-inch pots, and nearly all full of fine fruit ; from those 

 not so the fruit had been gathered. These trees had been 

 wintered in the orchard-house with the Peach and other trees, 

 and removed to the open air early in June, when the danger 

 from spring frosts was over. On many of the Pear trees were 

 from five to six dozen of fruit, and the Plums were equally 

 abundant. On trees of Guthrie's Late Green, Reine Claude de 

 Bavay, and Belle de Septembre, were fine crops, and the 

 flavour of the two first, the fruit quite ripe, was remarkably 

 rich. A Diamond Tlum tree was pointed out from which the 

 fruit had been gathered ; this was described as having been the 

 moat beautiful object ever seen, the fruit very large, and out- 



numbering the leaves. Mr. Harlock stated that many of the 

 pyramidal Pear trees on Quince stocks which had been planted 

 out in the garden for some years and had not borne any fruit, 

 were now under pot-culture the most prolific. I noticed par- 

 ticularly Winter Nelis, Glou Morceau, Josephine de Malines, 

 Zephirin Gregoire, and Beurre Sterckmans bearing most 

 abundant crops. The latter sort, which often ripens badly 

 when cultivated in the open ground, is in common with other 

 late Pears so forwarded by its early blossoming, and setting its 

 fruit under glass, that it ripens in December, and is always 

 good. This may be a hint to those who live in places where 

 late Pears ripen with uncertainty. As far as I could judge, 

 Mr. Harlock's Pear trees seemed to be in most robust health, 

 and so fertile as to lead one to think this method of cultivating 

 our fine sorts of Pears far preferable to planting them in the 

 open borders, the blossoms being always safe from spring 

 frosts, and the fruit being large and ripening perfectly. Some 

 Louise Bonne were the largest I have ever seen. I have only 

 to add that Mr. Harlock is an enthusiastic amateur, and 

 derives much pleasure from his fruit culture. His vineries, 

 200 or 300 feet in length, are crowded with Grapes. — Viator. 



THE THEORY OF SILVER SAND. 



We have long been in the habit of using the silver sand of 

 Surrey when striking cuttings, but we do not comprehend very 

 clearly the reason for its beneficial action. Can any of your 

 readers help us to an explanation ? We mix it with the ordi- 

 nary garden mould in varying proportions. There is surely 

 something in the sand which operates chemically, and not 

 merely mechanically ? 



We have noticed, also, that in removing many of the very 

 old timber trees in this neighbourhood that a small collection 

 of flint stones is commonly to be found under the bole of the 

 tree. Did our forefathers place these stones there for a reason 

 similar to that which leads us gardeners to use silver sand? — 

 Silica, Croydon. 



[We have no doubt that silver sand when mixed with the 

 soil in potting acts a little chemically on other constituents of 

 the soil, but to a great extent the action is mechanical. In 

 using it for striking cuttings it is chiefly valued for its purity — 

 its freedom from iron and other minerals, and clay, earth, and 

 calcareous matters, which are often the accompaniments of 

 other pit and river sands. The nearest to silver sand in use- 

 fulness we have found to be that collected on public roads, after 

 heavy rains, which sand, when well washed, is about as pure 

 silex as silver sand. What in practice makes it such a good 

 covering for pots of cuttings is its freedom from other sub- 

 stances, its porosity, which allows the water freely to pass 

 without lodging about and rotting the cuttings, and, notwith- 

 standing this porosity, the closeness with which it clings 

 round the cuttings, preventing the access of air to their base, 

 which, if permitted to any extent, would rob them of their 

 juices and vitality. 



We should suppose that the heaps of flints beneath old timber 

 trees, if placed there at all by our ancestors, must have been used 

 for the purpose of drainage, but we have some doubts about the 

 matter, as we recollect that when a number of Scotch Fir trees 

 were blown down in a storm, and the winds brought along with 

 the torn-up roots a mass of earth almost as large as the end of 

 a cottage, it was noticed that there were lots of stones at the 

 bottom of the excavations thus made ; and great were the 

 divisions of opinion among us young rustics how they came 

 there, some contending that they were placed there as a suit- 

 able foundation for the trees to stand upon, and this opinion 

 was considered an utterance of wisdom until the sceptics by 

 mattock and shovel demonstrated that at a similar depth in 

 the locality plenty of stones were found where there nere no 

 trees growing. This simple matter might lead our learned 

 inquirer to give his valuable opinion as to (he collecting of 

 stones, we will not say growing, as some r c °pl c maintain. 



We are sorry we should be accused " of never giving a reason 

 for what we do," as to give reasons for operations is rather a 

 general habit with us, and if the practice is not more universal 

 it is because we are not wise enough to know the reason why, or, 

 as in the case of the upturned trees, we have come to see that 

 some things that we once looked upon in the relation of cause 

 and consequence have turned out to be a mere fortuitous coin- 

 cidence. If this does make us a little chary in assigning 

 reasons where all does not appear quite transparent, it places 

 us just in the right position of learners ; and we presume that 



