384 



JOTJBNAIi OF HORTICTJLTDBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



r April 17, 1868. 



the late lamented Mr. DonalJ Beaton used to say, never makes 

 root suckers, and the roots of the Manotti are not buried too 

 deeply so as to bo away from the inllacuce of the sun and air. 

 Two inches also are quite deep enough to induce the Itoso to 

 push out roots of its own. 



I caunot agree with Mr. Robson, that if the Manetti stock is 

 merely a medium to obtain Rosea on their own roots, the 

 sooner it is done away with the better, because by budding on 

 a Manetti and then planting, we obtain a fine bed of Roses two 

 or three years sooner than by plants from cuttings. Moreover, 

 in the case of a new or a rare Rose, we obtain ten plants on the 

 Manetti to one by cuttings ; the stock also imparts a vigour to 

 weaker sorts which they would never have on their own roots. 

 In short, I think that one of the greatest advantages of the 

 Manetti stock is that it supplies strength to the Rose, so as to 

 enable it to make a perfect plant on its own roots, and thereby 

 to give it a permanency, in which the old Dog Rose signally 

 {ailed. I do not mean to say that there may not be many very 

 fine old trees found on the l)og Rose, but there are two draw- 

 backs to it — one is that in its wild state the Dog Rose is con 

 stantly renewing itself by root suckers ; every year the suckers 

 tliat are sent up are stronger and stronger, aud the old wood 

 dies back. Any person may see this for himself, if he will 

 examine an oldhedge where the Dog Rose has been allowed to 

 run wild, without being cut for many years. He will find it 

 foil of dead and dying old wood, while the tree is spreading 

 itself with suckers. Now, by budding Roses as standards on 

 the Dog Rose we are budding on a stem which would naturally 

 die in thirteen or fourteen years, and is constantly seeking to 

 renew its life by pushing out suckers, which are the constant 

 plague of all rosarians who adhere to the old-fashioned standards. 

 We are, consequently, lighting against Nature, and only keep 

 up the life of the stem of the standard by cutting off the root 

 suckers, and encouraging the growth of the head. The second 

 drawback to the old Dog Rose is that all the head of the Rose 

 budded on it is above ground, and is, therefore, subject to 

 frosts. In the winter of 1800 I lost every standard that I had 

 but two, and not a single plant on the Manetti stock. This 

 was the case all over the north of England. Mr. May, of 

 Bedale, did not, I believe, save one standard in every thousand 

 out of an extensive stock of Roses. 



One word about soils. The best soil for Roses on the 

 Manetti stock is a good, rich, garden loam, not too sandy or 

 too yellow ; it is not suitable for a clay soil unless the beds 

 are specially prepared with plenty of leaf soil and manure, and 

 well mulched both winter and summer with short manure or 

 cocoa-nut refuse. Wherever, then, the soil is a tenacious clay 

 it is better to adhere to the Dog Rose ; and after all there is 

 no soil that gives so much colour to Roses as marly clay. 

 Where do we see finer colour than in the Roses shown by 

 the Rev. S. R. Hole ? Manetti will also do in light and sandy 

 soils, where the Dog Rose entirely fails ; but in these soils it 

 is better to plant deeper, and to encourage the growth of roots 

 from the Rose itself. 



In concluding these remarks, I digress to " P.'s " letter, and 

 agree with him, that the blooms of King's Acre, shown by Mr. 

 Cranston at the Crystal Palace, were certainly not up to the 

 mark ; but we must remember they were cut in exceedingly 

 hot, dry weather, and had travelled all the way from Hereford- 

 shire. — C. P. Cleaveb. 



THE MANGOSTKEN. 



this fruit are not quite so rare, either, as Mr. Smith snpposeB, 

 nud I could name many places where the true Mangosteen tree 

 may bo seen growing. 



Mr. Smith's suggestions about the carriage of the fruit and 

 seed are most valuable, and will doubtless be acted upon by 

 many persons, myself among the number. It is so infinitely 

 superior a way of obtaining them to the modes now in general 

 use, such as packing in .soil, coating with wax, collodion, &c., 

 that he deserves the thanks of every tropical plant growei. 

 — J. U. 



Having noticed in your last Number a letter from Mr. Smith, 

 ex-curator at Kew, touching the mode of propagating the Man- 

 gosteen, allow me to say a few words in reply. In the first 

 place, then, I think I ought to be a fair judge of what is and 

 what is not the true Mangosteen, having received many trees 

 myself from Ivarang and Singapore, which were selected with 

 the greatest care by an experienced person there. A friend, 

 too, in India, who is a first-rate botanist, has frequently sent 

 me seeds of many varieties of Mangosteen and Platonia. 



In the second place, while quite agreeing with Mr. Smith 

 that raising the JIaugosteen from seed is by far the preferable 

 way, I feel certain that any variety may, with care, be raised 

 from cuttings, and that the cuttings will strike in from six to 

 eight months. Several of our largest nur.serymen have, and aro 

 now, raising them in this manner. Paxton, too, in his " Ma- 

 gazine of Botany," speaks of Mangosteen cuttings rooting in 

 sand under a hand-glass, and I have reason to know that he 

 successfully raised plants in that way himself. True plants of 



THE COILING OF VINES IN POTS. 



I THINK I remember telling your readers that I should this 

 season try the effect of coiling some Vines in pots. I there- 

 fore early in January last operated upon a dozen Vines, by 

 coiling the lower part of each rod, just within the rim of the 

 pot, so that each coil was covered from 1 to 2 inches in depth. 

 The pots were then placed on a hot-water pipe in their usual 

 place in my Orange-house. They seemed at first not to break 

 BO quickly as usual, but they are now growing very vigorously 

 and showing very fine bunches. 



A few days ago I was induced to examine the coils to see if 

 they were rooting as freely as my old friend predicted they 

 would. I found roots protruding from every portion of the 

 coils, but more profusely from those nearest to the surface. 

 They, in fact, have put forth more roots from those parts 

 barely covered — i. <•., covered with a quarter of an inch of earth, 

 than from those covered U inches in depth. I ob6cr^•ed, also, 

 that the portion of coil very near the surface put forth roots 

 earUer by a fortnight than that more deeply covered. I have 

 thus advanced a step, and if I am spared I shall in future 

 cover the coO with only half an inch of compost. The young 

 fresh roots spreading themselves over the surface look so 

 plump and healthy, with their dehcate pink and white tints, 

 that I cannot help looking at them with interest, and I cannot 

 but think that they must give much additional rigour to the 

 Vines. To help on this I shall very shortly give them spme 

 fresh surface food with my usual surface -dressing compost — 

 malt dust and horse-droppings saturated with hquid manure. 



Allow me to correct myself. On reading to-day {April Cth), 

 my article which you inserted at page "287, I find that I have 

 made an incorrect assertion, which I should have corrected if 

 I had seen a proof. At the foot of the seventh paragraph the 

 sentence should read, " Many of the two thousand pyramids 

 on the Quince," instead of " The two thousand." The truth 

 is, the plantation was commenced upwards of twenty years 

 ago, and took some years to complete. I am this season 

 adding to it six hundred trees, 3 feet apart. Last year I did the 

 same, so that the aggregate will be much above two thousand 

 trees growing in ground less than one acre in extent. — T. B. 



WATER, AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF ITS 

 IMI'URITIES. 



I WISH some chemist would study the subject of water as it 

 affects the plants to which it is applied in an artificial manner ; 

 for I am confident that it has more influence on their well- 

 being than the character of the soil in which they aro planted. 

 In allirming this much, I mean the assertion to apply to that 

 class of plants kept in pots, and of which the existence is 

 maintained from day to day by what may be termed regular 

 meals of water ; and as the number of such is very great, it may 

 be inferred that the class of food most reUshed by them is not 

 always that which is given to them : hence disease is the con- 

 sequence, or, if the evil do not advance thus far, lack of Tigoat 

 or health. 



Plants are created to hve in fixed stations, and at such sta- 

 tions they are furnished with all the requirements necessary 

 for their well-doing. The chalky hills arc clothed with Yews, 

 Junipers, and Box, and amongst the herbage we find Wild 

 Thyme and numerous British Orchises, while such water as is 

 to be obtained there is much impregnated with the calcareous 

 constituents of the substratum. On the other hand, soils of a 

 peaty character have the Scotch Fir and Birch, with an un- 

 dergrowth of Heath and ^Tiortleberrj-, with Ferns in greater or 

 less variety, aud the water obtained from them is widely dif- 

 ferent from that foimd in the other locality. It contains iron 

 aud vegetable extract. Such water is just the kind that is 

 wanted to secure the well-being of the plants there, and they 

 thrive with it, and the harmony which Nature presents us 



