November C, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



355 



Myatt'h Early PROtrFIC AantRAP Ktdney Potato.— Mr. H. Howell, 

 Spring Grove, St. Lawrence, Jersoy, wishes to know whore he could pro- 

 cure a quantity, with price per SACK. 



Vine LhaV (H. /'., Randall* Park).— It is difficult to identify, but it 

 looks like *ne from West' a St. Peter's. 



Pruning Standard Apricot Trees (A. K. H.).— Our advice is, Do not 

 pruno them ; but next year stop every shoot to within U inches of its 

 base, and the resulting shoots to 1 inch as soon as they are 2 inches in 

 length, and continue to do this throughout the season. If the shoots 

 made thin year are very long, they may be cut back to ID inches in length. 

 If the head U irregular and of bad shape, it may be thinned and regu- 

 lated in mild weather early in February. Avoid the use of the knife, if 

 possible, for severe winter pruning is the ruin of Apricot trees. 



Planting Rhododendrons—List of Hardy (Idem).— Rhododendrons 

 may be planted at any time of the year except when frosty, but we prefer 

 September and March. John Waterer. crimson ; Lefevreanum, purplish 

 crimson ; Blandyanum supcrbum, vivid light crimson ; Jenny Lind, rose ; 

 Miieulatum purpuroum. purplish rose, much spotted; Lady Dorothy 

 !l»evili, purple, spotted black; Bylsianum, white, margin crimson ; Atro- 

 sanguineum, blood red : Alarm, white centre, edged scarlet ; Brayanum, 

 rosy scarlet ; Blanche superbe, white; Comet, scarlet; Chancellor, pur- 

 plish lilac, spotted ; Barclayanura, reddish rose ; Lucy Neal, claret, 

 spotted ; Victoria, plum ; Madame Miolan Carvalho, white; Neilsoni, rosy 

 lake; Maid of Athens, rose, brown spots; Sydney Herbert, crimson, 

 blotch of black spots ; Standish's Perfection, white, shaded pinkish lilac, 

 blotch greenish yellow ; Lady Lopes, rose, dark spots ; and Towardi, rosy 

 lilac. All these are very hardy, blooming late (after spring frosts), of 

 free growth, and have fine foliage. 



Mushroom-bed tn the Open Air (Idem). — Your plan will not answer. 

 You must make up a bed of horse-droppings and litter after the fashion 

 of a Potato-hog, beating it firm, and having the materials thrown up to 

 heat and turned over once or twice to part with their rankness. It 

 should be beaten firm, and when as warm as new milk pieces of spawn 

 should be inserted an inch below the surface, and 6 inches apart ; and 

 when the heat declines, place about 3 inches of soil all over, and beat 

 Srm. Cover with straw so as to keep out frost, employing the hurdlo 

 lined with straw to keep off heavy cold rains. 



Passion-Flower foe South Aspect (Idem).— Passiflora crerulea is the 

 only one suitable. 



Mrs. Pollock and Italia Unita Pelargoniums Losing Variegation 

 (Idem). — The cause we are not able to explain, nor do we know of a 

 remedy beyond growing in pots and keeping under glass constantly. 

 The marking on the leaves will return with the fresh growth as it 

 advances, unless the leaves have become green, when those shoots may 

 remain green-leaved, but it is seldom that this is the case, or only a 

 stray shoot now and then exhibits this peculiarity. You will find some 

 excellent observations on preserving the colours in the leaves by Mr. 

 Pearson in the first page of the present Number. 



Planting Conifers and Evergreen Shrubs (G.).— If you have re- 

 moved all the stumps and most of the thick roots of the old trees, you 

 may safely plant the trees you wish ; but they will be in danger of being 

 attacked by the fungi which are generated with rapidity on dead wood, 

 whether buried deeply in the soil or existing on or near the surface. 

 There is, however, an equal probability that such a result may not 

 follow. We remember a large plantation of Spruce, Scotch Fir, and 

 Larch, that had been planted on the site of an old wood, and finer trees 

 we never saw ; and we know an avenue of Deodar Cedar partly on the 

 site of an old wood, and the whole of the trees grew well until they 

 attained a height of 30 feet, when these growing where the old wood had 

 been began to die back at the points of the branches, and to exhibit 

 other tokens of decay. At last the trees were uprooted by a gale, and 

 every root the thickness of the thumb was found to be white with the 

 mycelium of some fungus, they and the thicker roots being as brittle as 

 timber having the dry rot. 



Conifers from Cuttings ant* Seed (Idem). — Those from seed make 

 the healthiest, the most vigorous, the best habited, and finest trees. A 

 few, such as the Cupres3uses, do well from cuttings, making fine trees ; 

 but we are so convinced of the great advantage a seedling possesses over 

 a cutting, that we plant none but seedlings when we can obtain them. 



Manurtng Rhododendrons (J. C. U.\ — Rhododendrons will bear 

 manure ; but beyond furnishing humus to the roots. as it, leaf mould, and 

 other decaying vegetable substances do, there is no benefit in its appli- 

 cation, as peat contains every requisite for their growth. Peat well 

 mixed with the soil aad copious supplies of water in dry weather will 

 serve you better than applying manure. It is moisture that Rhododen- 

 drons require, and a soil that will retain it for their use. 



Apple Trees Blighted (Dfroniemis).— From the appearance of the 

 shoot sent wo should say the trees are infestod with the American blight 

 (AphiH, or Eriosoma lanigera), one of the most injurious of the insects 

 attacking tho Apple tree. You say your trees have "the bark dying in 

 spots about the size of half-a-crowu ;" that is canker; but the shoot you 

 sent us is not caukered. " The wounds are ed^i-il with a substance like 

 mildew ; tho small branches are eaten half through, like tho piece on- 

 closed." The white substance is the insect's white cottony covering. 

 "Many shoots are qui to dry and dead;'' that is canker again. The 

 Americnn blight lodges in tho crevices of the bark, appearing at first 

 like a fine, white, cottony substance, but upon closer examination many 

 small wingloss insects will bo observed. Wo find no remedy equal to 

 syringing the trees with water, employing a powerful garden engine. 

 This dashes the insects to the ground, and if the soil be hoed and raked 

 they will be rendered incapable of further injury. The insect, in addi- 

 tion to attacking the branches, infests the roots, but near the surface. 

 The only safe remedy in that case is to dig out the old soil for a distance 

 of 2 or 3 feet from the stem, and after washing the roots with water, to 

 wash them with soot and lime, brought to the consistency of paint with 

 urine, replacing the old soil by fresh, and either burning the old soil or 

 removing it to a part of the garden where fruit trees are not grown. It 

 may be necessary to repeat the washing of the branches with water many 

 times ; but it is a certain and safe cure. We think the canker is pro- 

 duced by the dryness of the soil, and by pernicious substances in the 

 subsoil. Your remedy will be to lift the trees and trench the ground 

 2 feet or 2 feet 6 inches deep; a considerable portion of the bad sub- 

 stratum will thus be turned to the top, where it will be next to harmless 

 after exposure to the weather. When the roots reach the soil turned down 

 rom the top to the bottom, the trees generally thrive well afterwards. 



Glazing without Lapping (A. R. L.).— Glazing sashes 12 inches 

 between the sash-bars, or any other width, without lapping, would be 

 perfectly safe on Beard s system. When we tried it on a small scale by 

 the ordinary mode of glazing, something like one or two per cent, of the 

 squares were cracked by expansion. As you must place the glass closely, 

 edge to edge, there can be no great expansion there without the squares 

 being apt to crack each other. The only way by common glazing that 

 you can help yourself is not to place the squares tightly, but to leave 

 one-sixteenth of an inch play on each side between the rebates of the 

 bars, and use rather soft oil putty with no white lead in it. But for the 

 expansion there can be no question of the system answering. As it is, 

 there is a little risk by the usual mode of glazing. 



Names of Fruit. — (G. K., Scvenoaks). — Poor little wretch It is not 

 worth a name, and we do not recognise it. (A. D. A.). — Siberian Bitter- 

 sweet. (Rev. W. Ager).—1, Winter Codlin : 3, Golden Noble; 4, Dume- 

 low's Seedling; 5, Gravenstein ; 6, Cox's Orange Pippin. Your Aspara- 

 gus soil is too heavy, and requires draining. {J. K. Y.). — We cannot 

 identify any of your three Apples. They must be local varieties. 

 (M. B., Brighton).— Golden Monday. (Thomas B., Bristol).— 1, Figue de 

 Naples; 2, Verulam ; 3, Beurre Diel. (Veritas).— Pear* : 1, Flemish 

 Beauty : 2, Gansel's Bergamot. Apples : 1, White Astrachan ; 3, Monk- 

 ton ; 4, Hollandbury ; 5, Winter Magetin ; 6, Lancashire Fillbasket. (East 

 Sussex). — The Grape is Frankenthal, and the Apples are— 1, Golden 

 Reinette; 3, Russet Table Pearmain. (H. J. C.).— 2, Old Colmar; 4, Bezi 

 Vaet ; 5, Gilogil ; 6, Calebasse ; 7, Thompson's ; 10 and 11, Beurre Diel ; 

 12, Ne Plus Meuris ; 13, Bezi de Caissoy. (J. B.).— Apples : 1, Striped 

 Beefing ; 2. Hollandbury ; 4, Hawthornden ; 7, Lewis's Incomparable ; 

 9, Winter Greening ; 10, Scarlet Nonpareil ; 12, Lord Duncan ; 14, Non- 

 pareil. Pears : — 1, Beurre Diel ; 2, Easter Beurre ; 3, Duchesse d'Angou- 

 leme; 5, Beurre de Capiaumont ; 6, Swan's Egg. 



Names of Plants (W. R. I.). — Specimen very withered, but we think it 

 is Pascalia glauca ; certainly not Rudbeckia Drummondii. (T. M.).— 

 Coniferse are very difficult to name from small fragments, but we think 

 yours are — 1, Cupressus Lawsoniana ; 2. Thuja aurea ; and No. 3 is 

 Euonymus japonicus variegatus. (J. Englefield). — 1, Hypolepis anthris- 

 cifolia ; 2, Litobrochia incisa ; 3, Cyrtomium falcatum ; 4, Adiantum, 

 probably capillus- Veneris. (W. IF.).— 1, Pellsa hastata (?) ; 3, P. macro- 

 phylla; 5, Pelargonium quercif olium ; 6, P. odoratissimum. The other 

 specimens insufficient. <J. A.). — 1, Echeveria caualiculata ; 3, Iresine 

 Herbstii ; 4, Sedum Sieboldii. Send the others when in flower. (IT. F.). 

 — 2, Adiantum, probably A. pedatum ; 3, A. capillus- Veneris ; 4, A. tra- 

 peziforme ; 5, Pteris argyrea. (J. W. O.).— 1, Selaginella, not sufficient to 

 determine the species; 2, Pilea muscosa; 3, Cystopteris fragilis. (J. H. 

 Boyes). — The Fern is correctly named, by some it is considered as a form 

 or variety of Lastrea decomposita only. (Rufits Rex). — 1, Adiantum 

 cuneatum ; 2, Pellrea hastata ; 3, Pteris longifolia var. serrulata ; 4, Pteris, 

 argyrea ; 5, Nephrodium exaltatum ; 6, Adiantum formosum. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Suburbs of London for the Week ending November 3rd. 



POULTEY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



NON-ORNAMENTAL POULTRY. 



I can readily endorse the opinion of " G. R. B." (page 321), 

 on the remarks of "Newiurket" in your Number of Octo- 



ber 16th, but only wish that he had gone still further into the 

 matter, as I consider " Newmarket " undervalues some of our 

 finest breeds of poultry. His first attack is upon Dorkings, 

 which I think is most unjustifiable, as they are considered by 

 many the fowl of fowls ; but as " G. R. B." has given him a 

 good reply, I will leave them. 

 His next is the Spanish, but it is of a more moderate tone. 



