February 20, 1866. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



151 



EosES {F. J.).— If true to name several are very good, bat some are very 

 old. Duke of Camhridiie, William Jesse, and La Reine are Hybrid Per- 

 ■petuals. Ch^edole, General AlLird, Madame Plantier, Duke "of Devun- 

 sliire, and Dauphine. Hybrid China, &c. ; Siiakespeare. and Alplionee 

 IfaiDe, Gallica ; Eugene Hardy, China ; and De Candolle, Moss. 



Lapageria ROSEA CoMMENxnjG Growth {W. A. 0.).—YoxiT plant will 

 310W, as it is pushing up new shoots the size of the little finger, require to 

 have the soU kept wet (and it never ought to be dry), increasing the 

 quantity as the growth may render necessary. Water, therefore, and 

 encourage growth. 



KiENoyATiiiG Lawn (Salterton).~AhoTil the middle of next month apply 

 a dressing of rich compost, or verj* old rotten manure, so as to cover it 

 from a quarter to half an inch thick, prior to which the hare places 

 should be pointed over with u fork so as to loosen the soil. Distribute 

 the compost evenly; and, as early in April as there is a prospect of rain, 

 sow over it the following uiLxture, scattering a quantity over the bare 

 places first, about double that given in other places : — Festuca rubra, 

 6 lbs. ; Festuca tenuifoliu, 4 lbs. ; Festuca duriuscula, 61bs. ; Cynosurus 

 crietatus, 6 lbs. ; Poa nemoralis, 4 lbs.; Poa pratensis, 4 lbs. ; Lotus cor- 

 niculatu^, 2 lbs.; Trifolium minus, 4 lbs. ; and Trifolium repens, 4 lbs. 

 As you have tried at various times laying turf we give you this heavy 

 seeding, and we think the result will be a good lawn of fine tnrf. The 

 quantities named are for an acre ; you will, therefore, have to take pro- 

 portional parts of each Grass according to the extent of ground to be 

 sown. After sowing rake with an iron rake, and roll well immediately 

 afterwards. "You must sow and roU on a dry day. and if rain fall at night 

 or on the nest day your lawn will soon be green. Keep well rolled after 

 June, and do not mow before that time. If you have the bare places 

 Tightly scratched, sow the seeds, and then manure, the seeds will very 

 likely be buried too deeply ; thej- will grow much better bare than covered 

 deeply with soil, in which case most of them will perish. White Clover 

 bears dry weather well, and, so far from its being the first to go, stands 

 with us after the Grass has been burnt up. It, Yellow Suckling Clover 

 (Trifohum minus), and Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus comiculatus), last year 

 and the year before grew so well on our dry light soil over gravel, as to 

 render the lawn quite green after the Grasses were apparently burnt up. 



FOBMING Grass Steps (An Old SiifiscH&cr).— We made some steps of 

 grass in the autumn of 18G4 in precisely the same manner as your 

 gardener, and upwards of an hundred yards of the sides of a terrace, and 

 the grass not only withstood the drought of 1865 without becoming brown, 

 but now forms as green, firm, and close a turf as that upon the level. We 

 tliink that the sides of the steps have been made perpendicular, and 

 in that case the turves might bulge out, and, consequently, would not 

 unite well to the soil. Had they been slightly on the slope, four steps 

 are 9 inches in height, and slope from the perpendicuUir from 2 to 

 3 Inches in that beight\ been beaten firmly at first, gone over once or 

 twice after the first rain, and watered occasionally in dry weather, we 

 t hink the sods would have stood instead of crumbling down. We have 

 steps green enough in which the risers are quite perpendicular, but these 

 are not nearly so fine as where slightly on the slope. If you were to have 

 the whole rclaid, the best method to adopt would be to put the sods on 

 large enough to reach from the top of the step, beginning at the back, 

 down to the next step, the soil being previously made rather loose on the 

 surface, to lay them when the ground is moist, to beat firm, and to allow 

 an inch or two of slope on the upright part. Ours done in this manner 

 Stand well and look well. If you make little holes, say a quarter of an 

 inch deep and half an inch apart, scatter grass seeds in them, and then 

 slightly scratch with a rake, afterwards beating, grass wiU probably cover 

 the steps in time, but turfing would be by far the best course to pursue. 

 Our steps lead to a croquet lawn, and are subjected to much wear and 

 tearduring the season. Allow a little slope and all will be well ; it is the 

 roots that hold the turf and keep the soil from crumbling down. 



Hotbed on Vine-bordee (Tropic us). —Yon may make a bed of dung 

 apon the Vine-border, and so far from injuring the Vines it will have the 

 contrarj- effect. The only injury that can possibly result will arise from 

 treading upon the border. There is no danger of burning the roots of the 

 Vines. You cannot possibly make the bed so hot as to do that. Boards 

 should be placed on the border to walk upon. 



PROPAGATI^■G-CA8E (Iilem). — The Bijou and Wardian cases are the 

 best, and they may be had furnished with heating apparatus complete. 

 They are very useful for raising plants from seeds and cuttings, and 

 keeping them in winter. We do not know the prices of them. I\Ir. Gray, 

 horticultural builder, Danvers Street, Chelsea, would furnish full particu- 

 lars on request. 



Hardiness of Plants fJJcm).— Of the plants named by you, you can- 

 not grow Dracaenas in a temperatm'e of fi-om 38 to 40-. except D. aus- 

 trnlis, D. (Cordylinel indivisa, and D. Veitchii ; or Stephanotis, Caladiums, 

 Eucharis, Hoyas, Gardenias, and Ixoras ; but Mandevilla suaveolens will 

 do if not kept wet. The Orange tree will do well. The others must have 

 a stove of not less than .'jO^ in winter, 55^ being more desirable. Cala- 

 diums require a temperature of at least 60^. 



Grafting Orange Trees (H. M. L.).— From the middle of March to 

 the end of April is a good time to graft Orange trees. The most eligible 

 method is inarching; but whip-grafting will also answer. In the latter 

 case the stocks should be plunged in a hotbed of about 70- in the middle 

 of March, and in ten dnys they will be ready for grafting. It was not 

 necessary to pot the stocks, as doing so only makes them take up more 

 room. The atmosiiheric heat should be from 50- to 55- at night, and the 

 atmosphere close and moist. Leave on the stock a few eyes above 

 the graft to draw the sap into the scion. Employ whip or side-grafting 

 with a tongue, and in addition to covering with clay, cover with 

 moss over the clay to keep it moist. The best soil for Orange trees is 

 loam from rotted turves a year old, with one-fourth well-rotted manure, 

 adding sand according as the soil is light or heavy, so as to render it 

 friable. Keep in heat until the grafts begin to grow, then cut the head off 

 the stock down to the graft, and loosen the matting, covering, however, 

 again with moss, and after the growth has fairly commenced remove the 

 plants to an airy greenhouse. 



GuTTA PERcnA— Indian-rubber (A. A. F.).— Gutta percha is obtained 

 trom the sap ^f a tree called Isonandra gutta. a native of Borneo and 

 other islands its neighbours. The bark is wounded, the sap exudes, is 

 collected, and soon hardens. Indian-rubber, or caoutchouc, is obtained 

 chie0y from the sap of the Siphonia elastica. a tree found in Guiana and 

 Brazil ; but there are some other trees which produce it. It is obtained 

 in the same mode as the gutta percha. 



Growing Cucotbers in a Framb (A Subscriber, West rrf Ireland).— 

 We think you would have a good crop of late Cucumbers without more 

 artificial heat by proceeding as follows : — Take out another foot of soil 

 from the inside of the frame, and thus make it 3 instead of 2 feet deep, 

 and in June place 2 feet of hot dung in the frame, cover with 3 inches of 

 soil, and place in the centre of each light half a barrowlul in the form 

 of a cone «ith the top flattened. Whcu the mounds of soil are wanned 

 through turn out a couple of plants iu each, watering, d-c., and in a fort- 

 night cover the whole of the bed 9 inches thick with soU. The linings 

 against the brick wall would do little if any good. To husband the sun 

 heat you must give air early in the moi-ning, and close early in the after- 

 noon ; and if it be done so that tho heat does not exceed 90= after shut- 

 ting up, you have not closed too eaiiy. A sprinkling of water at the 

 time of shutting up is advantjxgeous, and keeps red spider in check. 

 Keep well watered, but do not soak the soil. 



Veronica speciosa Training — Honeysuckle Straggling (Idem).— 

 The shoots of the Veronica should be thinned out, cutting away quite 

 closely the weakest, those which have flowered, and the foreright shoots. 

 Leave sufficient shoots to train-in, nailing or tying them so as to cover 

 the wall evenly in every part, and keep them well tied-in as they grow. Do 

 not overcrowd the branches by training them too closely, but allow room 

 between each for light and air. After August the shoots, with the ex- 

 ception of the leaders, may be permitted to hang loose. The Honey- 

 suclde should be trained to the wall, cutting out the old weak wood, and 

 distributing the rest regularly, and not too closely together. In summer 

 remove the straggling growths, and keep those required to fill vacant 

 space neatly nailed or tied-in. 



Forwarding Potatoes for an Early Crop {Idem).— You cannot do 

 better than take a box about S inches deep and in it pack the sets closely 

 together, eyes upwards ; then place it in a comer of your hotbed, and 

 cover the sets with a piece of cotton or old cahco. They will soon make 

 sprouts from half an inch to an inch in length ; then remove the cover- 

 ing, and take the Potatoes to your dwelling for a few days to harden, and 

 when hardened off plant in the open ground. Do not lay "them on the dung 

 and cover with soil; they will root, and be difficult to separate when re- 

 quired for planting, and, besides, it will not do to take them from a hotbed 

 and plant at once in the open ground. 



BoisniMORTEL \H. G.). — This tree, used so commonly with the Plantain 

 to shade the plantations of the Chocolate nut, we believe to be Erythrina 

 umbrosa. We never met with the name E. coceinea in any botanical 

 authority. Steudel in his '* Nomenclator Botanicus " has no such sy- 

 nonym. We have no Burmese Flora. 



Destroying Weeds on Gratel Walks (TT. H. C.).— As you have tried 

 salt, and do not wish to have the walks tarred, we can confidently re- 

 commend the following as the best and cheapest known method of 

 destroying weeds on gravel walks :— Dissolve 1 lb. of powdered arsenic in 

 two gallons of cold rain water, put it in an iron pan over a fire, and stir 

 until the liquid boil, then add nine gallons of cold water and 2 lbs. of 

 crushed soda, stining all the while until the whole boil, and then keep 

 boiling slowly and stirring briskly for half an hour. Apply the hot 

 liquor to the walks in dry weather by a watering-pot with a rose that will 

 allow of its equal distribution. A good soaking is necessary, but the 

 liquid should not be poured on so long as to run to the grass or Box- 

 edgings. The quantity named is sufficient for thirty square yards. It 

 should be applied before the weeds have grown much, in April or May. 

 To keep it from the Box-edging a board should be laid against this, 

 and inclined so as to throw any water that may fall upon the board on 

 to the gravel, and the same on the other side next the grass, the boards 

 being supported from behind. ^Tiere the walks are wide and exten- 

 sive a water barrel with a tap behind may be used, and a perforated tube 

 to distxibnte the water, and in this way the work is expeditiously per- 

 foi-med. Care should be taken to protect the edging as ali*eady directed. 

 Those employingthis Hquid should be careful to keep it beyond thereach 

 of animals. 



Arranging F^rn Case {D.Bavli). — We do not know where miniature 

 rockwork for Fern cases can be i>urchased ; but you may make it youi-self 

 of pieces of porous limestone or sandstone, whichever you can obtain, 

 cemented together. You may foi-m the rockwork according to your own 

 taste. Yon may have it high at the ends and again in the middle ; but it 

 should bo confined to one side of the case, and it will then appear to form 

 a background. You must provide a bottom of zinc or sheet lead to the 

 case, and it should incline to one end. There should be a hole there, 

 and a piece of lead pipe tumished with a tap to allow of water being 

 drawn off. We have had a false bottom made of zinc, with a quarter-of- 

 an-inch hole to every square inch. The edges of this false bottom were 

 turned up an inch all round, and a strip of zinc an inch wide was soldered 

 on in the centre. The false bottom being inverted left an inch cavity 

 beneath it; and the water was let off by the lead pipe once a-fortnight 

 or so. We find that it answers nearly as well to place on the bottom an 

 inch of sandstone in pieces about the size of a walnut, on these half an 

 inch or so of moss or cocoa-nut fibre, and on this the compost for the 

 Feme. The water drains from the compost among the stones, and, passing 

 to the lead pipe, is diawn off when necessary-. The bottom may have 

 holes in it, and it will answer as well ; but to prevent the water dripping 

 on the floor the closed bottom, lead pipe, and tap are necessary. In a 

 miniature pond in the centre you may have a plant or two of Vallisneria 

 spiralis ; and have floating on the surface a few plants of Lemna minor, 

 but not so many as to hide the water. A newt and a few water snails 

 will make all complete. 



Ptebis tricolor Culture {An Admirer).— '^aihink. that yom* plants 

 have not sufficient heat. In summer they require a temperature of from 

 65' to 85- to make anything like good gro^-th, and they winter safely in 

 a temperature of 55- from fire heat. In one of 50 they will live, and oven 

 in one as low as 45", but such a low temperature is not good for them. 

 However warm the plants are kept the old fronds will become brown in 

 winter. Bottom heat is not needed, and that, if from 60" to 65", will do no 

 good, and may do harm by keeping the soil very wet. If you place the 

 plants at the end of next month in a moist gro^s-ing heat of between 60' 

 and 65- by night, and of 75 and 80- by day, keep shaded from bright sun, 

 and pot them when they require it, we think you will find a difference. 

 Secure good drainage. Your compost is good, providing the peat is fibry 

 brown peat and not dark brown, which when wet is like so much mud, 

 and the loam should be turfj- yellow loam. The proportions should be 

 two-thirds of peat, one-third of loam broktn or chopped with a spade, but 

 not sifted, with the addition of one-sLxth of silver sand. 



