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JOURNAL OP HORTICULTDRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



415 



enter, and the Fig branches vrill thus be as dry as if they were 

 in the middle of a haystack. The trees should be covered up 

 in the above manner daring the tirst dry period after the leaves 

 have fallen, and before severe frosts occur. In this con- 

 dition the trees may remain until the beginning of April, when 

 the covering should be entirely removed during mild weather, 

 and the trees protected at night and during frosty days with a 

 double thickness of mats, removing them during mild weather. 

 When signs of growth appear take off the covering by day in 

 mild weather, but protect at night until danger from frost 

 is past. The double covering of mats should be gradually 

 reduced, first by removing one mat, and then withdrawing the 

 other when danger is no longer apprehended. Under these 

 circumstances the swelling and ripening of large green autumn 

 Figs is not uncommon ; but when a covering of a couple of 

 mats only is given, tlien it is useless to expect them to ripen, 

 though they may do so after an unusually mild winter. 



The past season has been very favourable to the ripening of 

 Figs, and in more than one instance have large autumn Figs 

 survived the winter, and ripened at an earlier season than usual. 

 The Fig noticed by " H., .S'(. Boniface Cottapr, Vcntnor" (Vol. 

 IX., page 91), was undoubtedly one of these large autumn 

 Pigs, as they are called, being a very early one, indeed the 

 earliest ripe out-door Fig recorded in this country. I have a 

 note of one gathered on the 3rd of August, from a wall so far 

 north as West Yorkshire. "H.'s" Fig so satisfactorily ac- 

 counted for by " G. S.," at page 129 of the same volume, being 

 the earliest recorded, I should like to know if there has been 

 gathered in England a ripe Fig from the open wall prior to the 

 24th of July. 



I may take this opportunity of thanking " G. S." for his 

 hints on obtaining a third crop of Figs, and in his views 

 I fully concur. What I had producing three crops was the 

 Brown Turkey in a forcing-house. The Eai-ly Violet gives 

 three crops very easily in a forcing-house, and is, besides, the 

 hardiest of all, and a most abundant bearer, but the fruit is 

 small, and in my opinion not much in point of flavour. lu an 

 orchardhoUBe in Yorkshire, except in 1859, it did not yield 

 two crops, so that " G. S." has an advantage over northern 

 cultivators. It produces two crops, ripening early in a heated 

 house, such as a vinery, with occasional fire heat, or Peach- 

 house having a little fire in spring to keep out frost, and iu 

 autumn to ripen the fruit and wood. The Brown Turkey and 

 White Marseilles also ripen two crops iu such houses, with 

 occasional fire heat, fn spring and autumn. 



When the trees are only protected by a covering of mats 

 during severe weather in winter, it is useless to leave the 

 green Figs larger than a pea, all the others should be cut off 

 with a sharp knife by the time the leaves fall. In our climate 

 the Fig is usually leafless by the commencement of November, 

 and begins to grow about the middle of JIay. 



When the growth of the trees is weak, and the fruit small, a 

 top-dressing of manure should be given in autumn, pointing in 

 the short dung, and removing the littery portion in spring. 

 This will not only protect the roots from frost, but enrich the 

 soil. During very dry weather a good watering with liquid 

 manure at 90', will contribute to increase the size of the fruit, 

 and to keep it on the trees. 



The best kinds for walls are the Brown Turkey or Lee's Per- 

 petual, White Marseilles or Naples, Brunswick ; and for earli- 

 ness and productiveness, the Early Violet may be added. 



In conclusion, I would say. Avoid a rich soil, keep the shoots 

 thin, have every part of the wall covered with young wood, 

 tolerate no long bare shoots, protect tlie trees from frost, keep- 

 ing the growth short ; and if it is desired to obtain fruit with 

 certainty, cover the wall and border with glass, having standard 

 and dwarf trees planted in the border, or in pots standing upon 

 it, and, to secme two crops, run two fom--inch hot-water pipes 

 along the front. — G. Abbey. 



The Jourm,vl of Hobticttltitbe, as a raiser of new plants, to 

 inspire them with confidence in my statements. I have now 

 a great number of small seedling Verbenas just peeping np, 

 the seeds of which were sown in December, 18(53. These, how- 

 ever, are from a bed where the seeJ-pans had been emptied 

 out, as described in my former communication. I need not go 

 so far as Birmingham to see a lot of seedling Verbenas, as I 

 have in my possession some thousands. Many of them, I am 

 happy to say, are very great improvements on existing va- 

 rieties, and many of them destined to be the pioneers of a new 

 race of that very popular plant. Should chance bring Mr. 

 Pointon this way, I should be very happy to show him my 

 stock. In the meantime, will Mr. Pointon kindly favour us 

 with a paper for the Journal, describing his mode of treating 

 the Verbena from seed or otherwise ? — J. Wills. 



SOWING \TERBENA SEED. 



UsDEK this heading Mr. T. Pointon writes (page 40.5), com- 

 menting on some statements contained in one of my articles 

 on the above subject. I agree with Mr. Pointon, that some 

 seeds of the strong-habited kinds will vegetate in a fortnight ; 

 whilst others will not, as I stated in the article he comments 

 upon, vegetate in two years. 



Mr. Pointon must allow me, as the raiser of many good Ver- 

 benas, to be capable of describing my mode of treatment, and 

 I believe my name is sufficiently well known to the readers of 



THE STORY OF MY FIRST ORCHID. 



[We have lived — we will not say how many years — under the 

 conviction that young writers, especially of the Eve variety, 

 have great awe of editors, classing them with ogres, literally 

 making their bread of correspondents' brains, and drinking 

 from cups formed from authors' skulls : but the following com- 

 munication dispels the conviction we had. It was accompanied 

 by a note in which our ears are boxed with this sentence — 

 " Ediiors, like other people, are difficult to please." We re- 

 solved at once to show Miss Maud that tct' are not difficult to 

 please by inserting her " scrap," as she calls it in the note 

 aforesaid — (rather a good retort that!) and by assuring her 

 that we wiD insert such "scraps" as often as she pleases to 

 send them, and the oftener she is so pleased the better. — Eds.] 



I HAD a Dendrobium nobile given me once — I think it was 

 in the May or June of 186 — . I must confess I did not know 

 what to do with it ; its thick white waxy roots were bare of 

 soil. I had gi-own many things, but never an Orchid — the 

 name sounded very terrible to me. 



To ask our gardener would have been useless, for he would 

 not gi'ow Orchids — " didn't like them." 



After a great deal of thinking I potted my plant after the 

 directions given by some learned man, and yet with a vague 

 idea that I only half understood him ; but then, I fancy, gar- . 

 deners' descriptions are like the cook's receipt, the most essen- 

 tial ingredient left out. 



The Dendrobium grew and flourished. In the following 

 year, as the young shoots grew, the leaves fell oft from the old 

 stem. I became very uneasy and sought professional advice. 

 " Oh, the thing is dead, clean dead, sure enough," said one, 

 " you have pinched it of water ; the young ones may live, 

 though, if you can winter them, but they are scratchey things 

 to manage." "Your plant is not dead," said number-thi-ee 

 gardener, whose opinion I sought, "it is in first-rate condition, 

 wiU flower next spring ; never does flower until the leaves fall 

 off, and the stem is well dried-in." 



" Will those dried bits of stick ever flower again ?" I asked. 

 " Yes," said one. " No," said another ; " and whatever you do 

 never let a drop of water touch your Dendrobium ; that is the 

 secret of Orchid-growing." 



Another said, "Water it overhead many times a-day; it 

 will not do without moisture." 



Now, I did not do as the old man in the story did with his 

 ass — if I had been a man probably I should — then my poor 

 plant would have gone to the rubbish-beap ; but being a girl — 

 a woman — I did not take all for gospel. So I watered my 

 Orchid when it needed it, which was very often during the 

 hot summer weather. I kept it very clean, and think that is 

 a secret of Orchid-growing, and when the autumn came and the 

 heat lessened, I gave it less and less, sometimes sponging the 

 leaves, and often dusting them with a clean handkerchief. 

 Whether the treatment was right or wrong the plant grew and 

 flourished. 



In the autumn of that year there came a time of grief, and 

 it was left untended for days, pushed out of sight behind a 

 large Crenate Cactus — left, indeed, to its fate. Never shall I 

 forget its appearance when pulled into the light ; it was covered 

 all over with the red spider : there needed no glass to find the 

 insects out, they were plain enough even to the naked eye. 

 Up and do\vn the poor leaves they hurried in ceaseless crowds — 

 hundreds, nay, thousands of them. Never was Rotten Row 

 busier or gayer than those leaves as they stood in the full glare 

 of the sunshine, red and yellow, and white and yellow green. 

 There were fathers and grandfathers, and little ones, meeting 



