'26 



JOUBKAL 01" HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ Jannai7 9, 1886. 



say, get Uicm frost-bitton ? Orcbids, it is true, will do at a 

 low temperature ; but to suppose that tbcy can be grown as 

 ordinary grecnbouse plants can be, is only misleading. Tbcy 

 require exclusion from air, and not so dry a tumperatme as a 

 grecnbouse must bave. In a bouse witb a nortbcru aspect, 

 and carefully regulated as to temperature and ventilation, grown 

 ly tbemselves, they will do wlU ; and even, as Mr. Low bus 

 proved, many sorts that have luugiiisbed under other treatment 

 have thriven under this. Various points in the cultivation of 

 Orchids, as in other plants, are only arrived at by constant 

 attention and knowledge of the different kinds, each, it may be, 

 requiring its own special method. Thus with Cuhmthe and Li- 

 matodes, it has been a customary plan, when the leaves drop, to 

 lay them on one side ; but, this according to Mr. Low's ideas, is 

 all wrong. He keeps them growing, as it is then that the flower- 

 buds are produced. What a charm, too, iu these line winter- 

 blooming Orcbids of which, as they bloom, the spike lengthens 

 until it reaches 3 or 4 feet in length ! How dehciously sweet- 

 scented, too, are some of these flowers ! Dendrobium bedyos- 

 mum (well deserving its name), for example, one bloom of which 

 would scent a whole house. 



But we must pass away from the Orchids and look at these 

 ranges of pits. Himdretls and tens of huudred.s of young plants 

 of Erica ; pots full of young Conifers of the rarest kinds in 

 myriads ; and in the houses range after range filled with the 

 winter and spring-blooming Heaths in flower. A curious fact 

 Mr. Low mentioned with regard to these — viz., that the hot 

 September bad so hurried on the blooming season that hiemalis 

 was nearly over ; and vernalis, which should not have been in 

 bloom till i'ebraary, was now all coming into bloom. These 

 plants are dispersed all over the coimtrj-. They are killed by 

 tens of thousands every year in London drawing-rooms, are 

 hawked about by itinerant vendors in the suburbs, and hence 

 there is a never-failing demand for them, and a never-failing 

 supply. 



Camellias are here by the thousand, Mr. Low importing 

 evci-y year a very large number from Ghent, that city of Ca- 

 meUias, and also growing a large quantity of his own working. 

 Witb regard to these latter, he bad been adopting a plan of his 

 own. Instead of allowing the top bud to giow out and make 

 the young wood for the new year, he cuts oil that bud, and by 

 that means iuduces the third and fourth eyes to push their 

 buds forth, and thus to make a more bushy and stubbj- plant. 

 This system seemed to be answering well, as the i)lanta were 

 looking well and vigorous under the treatment. 



The splendid tree Ferns belonging to this establishment were 

 so much admired at the Guildhall that it would be needless to 

 say anything about them, save that Mr. Low was adopting a 

 curious plan with some of the stems which bad come home 

 dead — nanielj% hollowing out the top, and placing a young 

 plant in the crown of the stem. 



We can see liere what changes railway's, especially in their 

 improved system of commimication, are making in evei'ything. 

 Mr. Low was sending a large quantity of greenhouse plants 

 away to the north of Scotland. Instead of mats, baskets, &c., 

 and all the expense and trouble connected with it, they were 

 being conveyed in waggons to the Great Northern Railway, 

 where a truck or more is placed at his disposal ; the plants are 

 packed in this, and they reach Aberdcensliiro without even a 

 change of carriage. Where the consignee lives near the station 

 this can be easily managed, and the plants sustain no damage, 

 while the saving of expense is very great. Thus in one way or 

 another I was picking up during these two hom-s much inter- 

 esting information, learning something fresh, and also to admire 

 the zeal and energy displayed by our great plant-merchants. 

 The depth of winter is not usually a good time for visiting 

 gardens, but I have found out that at aU times something is to 

 be learned. — D., Deal. 



I unless there be reciprocity between root and branch little pro- 

 gress will be made. Here the Golden-variegated Geraniums 

 I have done very well, although the season has been unusually 

 I warm and diy ; they bave afforded a good supjily of cuttings, 

 , and will give many more in spring if wanted. I would advise 

 the inexperienced to have their pbints well established in pots 

 before planting, as this is vei-y conducive to success in the 

 growth of this class of Geraniums ; also, not to plant out too 

 soon. If good plants are in store they will at once give effect, 

 while small plants turned out too early, will tliroughont the 

 season disappoint the cx))ectalion8 which have been formed of 

 them. 



I offer these remarks to the inexperienced, not to those who 

 can judge for themselves. Many bedding plants may be turned 

 out from store pots and boxes, but the Golden-variegated 

 Geraniums will not succeed under that mode of treatment. — 

 Jamks Keix). 



GOLDEN VARIEGATED GERANIUMS. 

 I FISD that these varieties have disappointed expectation in 

 several places, owing, I doubt not, to Uie unusually dry hot 

 summer, along with sudden transitions of temperature, nights 

 being chilling, and days scorching. However, there is one 

 peculiarity in these Geraniums which has arrested my at- 

 tention — namely, a deficiency of fibrous roots compared with 

 other bedding Geianiums. This deficiency, I think, in a great 

 measure prevents them making equal growth with others of 

 much stronger constitution, and of which the roots are in pro- 

 portion to the growth of the branches, for it is evident that 



ROY.U. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MoKEY Phizes scbsiiicied for Cebtificaies at S-vtubda* 

 Shows. 



At the Meeting on Satiu-day last Mr. George Ward, gardener 

 to T. X. Miller, Esq., of liishop Stortford, exhibited two very 

 handsome Smooth-leaved Cayenne I'incs, which weighed 7^ lbs. 

 and 7i lbs. respectively. They were awarded a first prize of 

 £1. We take this opportuuity to state that the system of award- 

 ing certificates, as was done last year, has been abandoned, and 

 money prizes instituted instead for meritorious subjects ex- 

 hibited at these Saturday meetings. These meetings will be 

 continued throughout the year, and schedules containing the 

 details of subjects invited may be obtained on application to 

 the Assistant Secretary at South Kensington. 



"WTilATHER WISDOM. 



{Continued from page 526. i 



My former remarks on this subject were written with the view 

 of directing the attention of your readers to a more careful and 

 regular study of the barometer, in order to enable them, by 

 noting down at fixed periods its various changes, to anticipate 

 to a certain extent probable weather. Many persons are fully 

 alive to the various causes which produce the rising and falling 

 of the mercurial column, and they, I am sure, do place reliance 

 upon the weather-glass. That dependance is verj' often severely 

 tried by the apparent waywardness of the mercury. The column 

 will remain high when the weather seems to say, •' You ought 

 to be low ;" and the barometer will show a great diminution of 

 atmospheric pressure when the sky is calm luid serene. But 

 persons more advanced in the pursuit of the knowledge of the 

 science of weather go deeper into the subject. They know, 

 and experience teaches them, that though bad weather was not 

 actually present at the particular spot where the barometer was 

 observed to be low, yet a gale has been raging not many miles 

 distant. The barometer, be it remarked, is a very delicate in- 

 strument, and is affected not only by the atmosphere immedi- 

 ately above the locality of observation, but by the great atmo- 

 spheric waves which are sweeping at a distance over the saiSace 

 of the sxvrrounding country. 



To those of your readers who ai"e but imperfectly acquainted 

 with the real cause of the rise and fall of the luercurial column 

 I would now particularly address the following remarks : — 

 Whenever there is an invisible agent at work persons are apt 

 to be sceptical. Every one knows how the mechanism of a 

 clock or the hands of a watch are set in motion ; there is the 

 weight, the spring, or it may be other causes. It is reasonable 

 to suppose that some result will follow the adaptation of the 

 dilTerent parts. No one wonders at the movement of the hands ; 

 but look at the barometer ! It is not wound up, and there is 

 nothing visible to cause any motion. Watch the glass carefully 

 duing a gale or heavy fall of rain ; the mercury falls fast, almost 

 whilst the eye is upon it; and because there is apparently 

 nothing to account for the change they have seen, persons go 

 away disappointed from such a contemplation, and as tbcy do 

 not "recognise the hidden power which acts on the column, the 

 instrument is despised. Men will, however, put faith in the 

 correctness of a watch or clock because they know how it is set 

 in motion ; but as to the barometer, they say, '■ It is of no use ; 

 its movements are mysterious, and therefore it must be disre- 



