108 



JOUBNAIi OF HOBTICULTUIIE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Uujr 29, 18<i6. 



cool temperature nt night, and tho high temperature during 

 the day from the effects of sun, are the best means of all others 

 for keepin;; insects nt bay. Kecji a high temperature at night 

 to unduly expand the tissues, when there is no sun to concen- 

 trate stroDgth, and the weakness thu3 secured just gives every 

 enoonragement to insects to commence their ravages. In de- 

 stroying them, we have great faith in heat suddenly applied, 

 when as a liquid it scalds tho insects and yet does no harm to 

 the plant ; but for keepiug them ofl commend us to lotting tho 

 plants have rest, instead of excitement in darkness. 



And then again, on the principle of sudden fluctuations, 

 plants aro safer every way when a fair distance from the glass 

 than when they are exposed close to it. We should be afraid to 

 tell what a gentleman told ns his tobacco and Gishurst, fkc, 

 cost him in a twelvemonth, and we recollect a great gardener 

 telling us that when last he went through that gentleman's 

 houses he had a good sprinkling of mealy bug on his clothes. 

 We believe that after a cleaning process had been gone through 

 the keeping clean would have partly depended on burning less 

 fuel. Even in the tropics the heat is not always at fever heat ' 

 at night, and there is not always a parching draught of air ] 

 during tlje day. ] 



Small Phmt-lwusea. — There are two things that prevent! 

 many an enthusiast from having one of these plant-houses in 

 his little garden or attached to his residence. The first is, he 

 hears from all great gardeners about tho superiority of hot water, 

 but he dreads the bill of a hot-water man, and he cannot get ! 

 into the simplicities enough to have faith in a stove or a small ] 

 flue. The second drawback affects the giving of air. It is [ 

 more than a mystery, it becomes a puzzle and a drawback. He ' 

 knows that if he opens the door a good deal of air will at once I 

 enter — that is, that there will be immediately an attempt at j 

 equilibrium between the atmosphere without and the atmosphere 

 within; but then the opening of the door would be too much in j 

 coldish weather for his small house of, say, 12 to 18 feet long I 

 and 8 to 12 feet wide. He can easily have a sash or two, or J 

 large-framed squares, made to open in fi-ont ; but then he ! 

 knows that a fixed roof is a great point of economy, and he 

 dreads the expense and the bother of having moveable sashes | 

 or ventilators at the apex. Well, for all such small plant-houses, I 

 although as has been seen, we are advocates for air-giving at I 

 the apex, yet from 12 to 15 inches of an opening at each end j 

 of such apex will prevent all mischief, provided that in extra 

 hot weather more air is given by the ventilator in front or by ' 

 the door in hot weather. If these end ventilators stand open i 

 night and day from April to the end of October, the labotirs of 

 the amateur will be vastly diminished. 



For the thousands of our readers, many of whom are anxious 

 to have a house, and are deterred by this question of air and , 

 its generally supposed intricate minutias we wish for their en- 

 couragement broadly to proclaim that, provided air is given 

 early, much less than is generally supposed will do — and that 

 if the temperature inside during the day will fluctuate back- 

 wards and forwards, according as the sun enters or emerges 

 from a cloud, the plants will do better than when treated on a 

 more unnatural, though perhaps more attentive system. We 

 have ourselves done it, and seen others lessen and enlarge the 

 air-openings of houses some six or seven times in an hour — a 

 good thing for securing attention as well as wearing shoe leather, 

 but really doing no great amount of good to the plants so 

 treated. 



OHNAMESTAL DEPAETMENT. 



Kept potting Fuchsias, Geraniums, Begonias. Brought 

 Oamellias into vineries, the plants quite done blooming. Potted 

 Ferns, and Selaginellas Brought Azaleas done blooming into a 

 closer moister atmosphere, and this is just one of those cases in 

 which we little folk have to think and scheme more than many 

 of our great gardeners, who have a place and a house for every- 

 thing ; the man who has a flowering and a growing house for 

 Azaleas can easily keep the one cool, and the other in the 

 hnmidity and heat of the tropics ; but the difhc.ulty with the 

 man of one house is to give flowering, and growing, and resting 

 plants the right treatment they require under the same roof ; 

 and what is not quite agreeable is, many employers, who 

 shonld know better, expect results in their small places which 

 can only be fully obtained when there is a place for everything 

 according to its requirements. Oar work, however, has chiefly 

 been in rolling, mowing, cleaning up, and, as the nights are 

 still so cold, preparing the ground by digging and turning in 

 sunbeams, for getting the flower-beds into a suitable state for 

 the reception of the plants that are now chiefly growing in 

 earth-pit? and trenches )irith 1«sb or more of protection. 



There aro two things of importance which wo have lately 

 learned, and which wo cannot well keep back for the discoverers 

 to speak about. The iirst is the efiicacy of a common fishing 

 net spread over the glass for preventing turning over of liue- 

 foliaged plants, and giving a better colour than a dense shade ; 

 and the second is the plan of striking cuttings of Centaurta^ 

 caiulidixsima, itc, on the cool system, aspraclised by oorselvasi 

 and others with Calceolarias in the autumn, of which Mr. 

 liobson could tell us something interesting. — It. F. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— May SU. 



A GOOD supply of !>oth foreign nntl hoine-grnwn produco, nod Uat-j 

 week's qnotatiuu« nro K<^nrraUy maintained. Some Euglinli Greeo PM< 

 fire now cumiiiK in, antl will mutorially infliirnco tho market for those of 

 !-"r*iiih Ktowtli iu fUjother week. Thero bnvo been heavy arrivals of 

 I'otiitoes from the we^t uf England and the Channel Islands, and of good 

 qaality. 



TEOETABLES. 



Articbohos each 



Asparagus handle 



Boans. Broad., bnshol 



Kidney 100 



Beet, Red do?.. 



Broccoli bundle 



Brus. Sprouts >j sieve 



Cabbage doz.' 



Capsicums 100 



Carrots bonch 



Cauliflower doz. 



Celery bundle 



Cucumbers each 



pickling .... doz. 



F-ndivo doz. 



Fennel bunch 



Gfirlie lb. 



Herbs bnnch 



Horseradish . . bundle 



Apples }i sieve 



Apricots do». 



Cherries lb. 



Chestnuts buab. 



Currants, Red ^J BJeve 



Black do. 



Figa doz. 



Filberts lb. 



Coba 100 lbs. 



Gooseberries . . (inart 

 Grapes, Hothouse, .lb. 

 Lemons 100 



Lcoka bunoh 



Lettuce per doz. 



Mushrooms jjotlle 



&IuBtd.& Cress, punnet 



Onions buRbid 



Parsley sieve 



Piirsuips doz. 



Pens per quart 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Radishes . . doz. hands 



Rhubarb bundlo 



Savoys dos. 



Seft-kalo basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes.... per doR. 



Turnips bnnch 



VoRctable Marrows dz. 



Melons each 8 



Nectarines dox. 15 80 



Oranges 100 6 



Peaches doz. SO 



Pears (dessert) .. doK, 



kitchen doz. 



Pino Apples lb. 8 



Pltnns V sieve 



Quinces .... i^j sieve 



Riispborries lb. 



Str.iwborries oz. 1 



Walnuts bosh. 14 



TRADE CATAIiOGUES RECEIVED. 



B. S. "Williams, Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, Holloway. 

 — <le7>cral Cutnloqut' tif Fla7iLi. 



F. & A. Dickson & Sons, 100, Eastgate Street, and Upton 

 Nurseries, Chester. — Cataluime of Select Bedding Plants, lic. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

 • ,♦ We request that no one will wiite privately to the depart- 

 mental writers of tho " Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 (lardener, and Connti-y Gentleman." By so doing they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to 

 The Editors of the Journal of Horticulture, dc, 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.C. 

 Insects (B. }iaU\.—V>e examined with a powerfnl mft|?nifier tho soil 

 yon sent, bnt were im»We to discover nny inBccts. If thorc ore ooy 

 %yhich Uide in the soil, j^priuUlu piianu over the surfiice. 



ExuiBITINo-STASD FOB RoSEs 1 H". H. ilf.|.— Eosc-slnnds shrinld be 1 foot 

 C inches broad, I, inches hi;:h at tho back, and4iuchcs iu front; the leogtb 

 of box will vary according to the nnmber of bl loins. The holes should 

 be abont 6 inches apart, and a tin tube in each to hold water. 



GERASirjl nj Wixnow {H'.H. 7!.).— 1, We do not reromnlondRnanolob* 

 raised with the soil, bnt yon may nse it advnnlafremisly by dissolrmff an 

 ounce !n a i?allon of water, and with this water the ])lAnt» at every alter- 

 nate watering. 2, The plants should have a shift at once into pots 7 or 

 H inches iin diameter, and not less than 6 inches. 8, Flants thrlTe best in 

 common pots. 



Devosiensis Rose Flowers sot Opesino (T. r.).— We think the at- 

 mosphere of yimr greonhouso has been kept too cloae and moiat, and th^o 

 temperatnro too low. To open well, a tomporaturo of BO' to 65" is requ- 

 Bite, and a rather dry atmosphere. 



Bed Spipf.r lUndrr OarJcnfr). — Sec what Mr. Fish says to-day io 

 " Doingfl of Last Week." 

 I EHniTCM.— At page S7C, second column. No. 84, "HeUanthus" shonld 



b« " UelUnthaB." 



k ;{:^LJ.iU X''*^-'* 



