Octobor 23, 18C6. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



315 



gardener, called ray attention to a miserablo variety of Viola 

 montana that ho had received for Viola cornuta. Weeing, then, 

 that there are so many varieties abroad, it is of the greatest 

 importance to secure the only one that will give satisfaction as 

 a bedding plant, and for this purpose the kind grown at Hunt- 

 royde ia invaluable. — Bruce Findlay, isotonic Garden, Man- 

 chester. 



GRASSES FOR LAWNS. 



Aohostis stolonifera angustifolia (Narrow-Ieavod Creeping 

 Bent Grass). — This is frequently found on moist ground, and 

 affords fair herbage, and is equally good for pasture or hay ; 

 but its chief value is for lawns with wet bottoms. It forms 

 a close even turf, but is incapable of enduring drought, tho 

 creeping roots being near the surface. 



Panicle densely crowded with florets. Florets small. Inner 

 valve of the calyx smooth, outer valve serrulated. Corolla 

 without any rudiment of an awn. — G. Abbey. 

 (To be continued.) 



SEEDING CUCUMBERS— WINTERING 



BOUGAINVILLAEA SPLENDENS. 



Your correspondent "Curcuma" asks for " the best plan of 

 making Cucumbers seed freely." I think if he give the fol- 

 lowing plan a fair trial he will find no difficulty in obtaining 

 plenty of good seed. Take a cutting of a young, healthy, but 

 not over-vigorous shoot of the variety from which seed is 

 desired, strike it in a thumb-pot in a gentle bottom heat, and, 

 when well rooted and beginning to grow, put it into an eight- 

 inch pot, using rather rich compost. Train it, without stopping, 

 as near the glass as possible, till a well-formed fruit is deve- 

 loped ; then stop the shoot one joint above the fruit, and keep 

 all the laterals pinched to one leaf, so that the strength of the 

 plant may be thrown as much as possible into the fruit. Of 

 course the necessary attention must be paid at the proper time 

 to fertilising with the pollen of a male blossom of the same 

 variety. Give occasional waterings with liquid manure, and a 



moist atmosphere till tho fruit shows signs of ripening, then 

 very gradually withhold water. 



I invariably reject all ill-formed and crooked fruit, having 

 an idea that seed from them would reproduce the deformity. 

 Can any of your readers state from experience whether such is 

 the case ? or is it only " an old woman's whim?" 



I have a nice young plant of the BongainvilltEa splendens. 

 It has been kept in the stove all the summer, where it has 

 made shoots about 1H inches long. I have now removed it to 

 a late vinery, where tho Grapes are just ripening, to harden 

 its wood. Can you inform mo if this is suitable treatment, 

 and when I may expect it to bloom ? — Cucumis. 



[We have repeatedly tried your plan of growing Cucumbers 

 from cuttings, not with tho view of obtaining seed, but for 

 winter fruit ; and from their extreme liability to produce small 

 fruit and of an inferior quality, we gave up tho practice as bad, 

 for our aim was not seed but seedless fruit, and that we never 

 obtained except in the case of one or two fruit from a plant, 

 all the others being more or less knob-ended and full of seeds. 

 We never experienced any difficulty in obtaining abundance of 

 seed, the female blossom being duly fertilised ; nor have we 

 found any difference between the fruit of plants raised from 

 the seed of straight or crooked fruit. We find that impreg- 

 nated or seedid fruit are much more liable to deformity than 

 unimpregnated fruit, the deformity very often being in conse- 

 quence of the seeding. 



Your treatment of the Bougainvillaea is correct, only it must 

 have in your late vinery abundance of light, with dryness at 

 the root. It may flower in spring, but we apprehend it will 

 not do so until more vigorous growth shall have been made 

 and well matured, for this is essential.] 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



We have been requested to again call attention to the fact, 

 that there will be no meeting of tho Royal Horticultural 

 Society this day, as erroneously stated on the cover of the 

 Society's pocket Almanack. The next meeting will be held on 

 Tuesday, November 6th. The dates given in the body of the 

 Almanack are correct. 



The authorities at Aldershot are encouraging the prac- 

 tice of gardening in the camp. Prizes are given every season 

 for the best gardens to non-commissioned officers and men, 

 and now it is announced that officers and others who may wish 

 to enclose the gardens round their huts may have materials 

 for that purpose by applying to the Deputy Assistant-Quarter- 

 master-General. The various plantations which the engineers 

 have been for some time planting around the camp and on the 

 other parts of the manoeuvring grounds will add their beauties 

 to that of the various gardens. We hope some of the bedding 

 plants being given away from the parks and Iiew will find 

 their way to Aldershot. 



We learn that a plant of Calycanthus occidentalis 



trained against a wall in Kew Gardens, is now ripening several 

 of its fruit, which are not often seen in this country. The 

 fact of ripe fruit of Passiflora laurifolia having been produced 

 by Mr. Carr, gardener to P. L. Hinds, Esq., of ISyfleet Lodge, 

 as noticed in our last Number, and in our Fruit Committee 

 report of this week, is also worthy of attention, as this is sup- 

 posed to be the first time that the species has been fruited in 

 England. 



We learn from our American namesake, that Chilopsis 



saligna has recently been introduced into cultivation at Phila- 

 delphia from Western Texas. It has Willow-shaped leaves and 

 Bignonia-like flowers, which are strongly tinged with purple, 

 and sweet-scented, like the perfume from rose water. It was 

 by Cavanilles called Bignonia linearis. It flowers about the 

 middle of May ; is a small tree of about 15 feet high, but is 

 most beautiful when in fiower. It has a scanty foliage, and 

 deciduous leaves; is a rapid grower, and delights in a dry 

 climate and hard limestone soil. 



WORK FOR THE WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Few observations at this season are requisite under this 

 head, the operations being principally confined to wheeling in 

 manure and trenching up vacant ground, taking care that the 

 dead and dying refuse is trenched in or charred for manure. 

 Broccoli, it should now be laid down, of course with the heads 



