Sh) 



JOURNAL OF nORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( Daocmb«r 30, lS6g. 



a bor of excellent drawing instruments for lOi. It is advised 

 to parchase good instruments, especially compasses, aa it is 

 impossible to work accurately with luose-jointed compasses. 



" I have omitted to mention with the other leading subjects 

 for study the geography of plants, an important and highly 

 interesting stady, a knowledge of which is calculated to mate- 

 rially assist ns in our efforts to alTord each plant a temperature 

 and soil similar to those in which it is known to flourish in its 

 native country — to produce, in fact, an artificial climate as 

 nearly similar to the natural one as possible. 



" With the wish that these few hints may prove nseful, I 

 will bring this paper to a close, only pausing to observe that 

 that man must best succeed in his calling who, in addition to 

 thoroughly mastering its fundamental laws, also makes it his 

 life's study.— Edwakd LocKnnBSi, Egerton Home Gardens, 

 KeiU." 



A CHRISTJIAS RETROSPECT OF THE FUNGUS 

 SEASON 



[TffE following ./>» d'l'sprit, written by one of our contribu- 

 tors, au enthusiastic fungologiat, is so full of wit that we 

 believe our reader's will thank us for printing it. Nearly every 

 word is a play on some well-known genus of fungi and equally 

 well-known authority on the subject.] 



"December 25tb, 7 p.ji. — Gentlemen — We have had a grand 

 Agari-cultuml season this year, particularly in the rich vale of 

 BiTkfUij. Spores have been up, and mycelium active, fungo- 

 logists have not had Mush-room to complain, for fungi have 

 been so abundant that a Batscit might have been swept up 

 with a Broijme amjuhere : not, indeed, like certain seasons, 

 when fungi prove so scarce that one might naturally imagine 

 Bome Ro<]ues had been and Uyd'n'um. We have Cooked a 

 good many species this year, and had some very S^pjheeria 

 Frit'i and no Pliallus-ij, not needing the accompaniment of 

 Currey, or any other condiment. Not to b-LinI; the question, j 

 however (or to be wanting in Curtis-y), fungi are not without 

 a certain (){i)diuvi, but no one can deny that edible Tode- stools 

 are better than Lad-ham Cooked by any Bunt-ing Hitssry, 

 for you see they never Pa-nus, neither are we evSr attacked 

 by Delirium TremiUm after dining. 



"P.S. — 9 P.M. — Since writing the above some of my guests 

 have expressed their opinion as to the advisability of sending 

 it to The Journal of Horticulture. 



" Guest No. 1 merely says ' o-dont-ia .'.' ," 



" Guest No. 2. • I don't think Dr. Hogg will like that re- 

 ference to Bad-ham.' 



" Guest No. 3. ' Don't let us have any more contents out of 

 that Crucihulnm.'' 



" Guest No. 4. ' Dry-rot it (I), I can't understand it.' 



" Guest No. 5. ' Such a fanciful flight is not worthy of true 

 wings ,'onlv Cham-piynom).' 



Guest No. 6. ' • • • • •.'— W. G. S." 



VIVIPAROUS BRITISH FERNS. 



So many interesting instances of the proliferous tendencies 

 of our native Ferns have come under my own immediate notice 

 as to warrant me in placing them on record. With this object 

 it is my intention briefly to refer to a few facts having indirect 

 reference to the present subject, then I propose, seriatim, to 

 show that proliferous Ferns are formed on the candex ; on the 

 rachis ; on arrested, or dwarf, or deformed fronds ; on in- 

 cipient sori ; by morphology ; and from pseudo-bulbs. 



li -January, 18.34, Newman in his " History of British Ferns," 

 names Poly|tichum angulare as the only British species that 

 produces bulbilla?. In the spring of that year bulbs were 

 detected on one of my seedling Scolopendriums, when, having 

 communicated my discovery to a leading amateur authority, he 

 examined his own plants, confirming the fact by finding similar 

 formations. By the close of that year, with his further assist- 

 ance and that of the Curator of the Oxford Botanical Gardens, 

 ten species were found to be viviparous. Subsequently the late 

 Mr. .Jackson, of Barnstaple, discovered that the stump of a 

 frond, though several years old, if removed with a bit of the 

 caudex is capable, with the assistance of bottom heat, of form- 

 ing several bulbs. 



I now refer to my own experience. 



Having noticed that Soolopendriums occasionally emit roots 

 from the rachis, a frond was selected that had thus formed a 

 single rootlet ; it was potted o£f and placed under a glass shade. 



At the end of a year the frond had almost decayed away, and a 

 small bulb was growing on the rachis. 



Athyrium Filixfumina has with me only once been pro- 

 liferous ; at present a small seedling plant of uncum ramosoin 

 has several bulbill.-i' on two dwarf and curiously ramose fronds. 



Sjolopendrium Wardii is a dwarf and very ramose variety, 

 having a massive multifid head. It is supposed to be a seed- 

 ling sport of laceratum. It never seeds, though in a warm moist 

 atmosphere it becomes highly proliferous, all its numerous 

 apices being furnished with young Ferns, whilst the surface 

 of its fronds only produce a few. Very rarely one of these 

 young plants assumes a perfectly distinct form — viz., psendo- 

 Wardii, being very and acutely ramose ; this variety never bears 

 bulbs, but is profusely soriferons. A large batch of its seed- 

 lings have assumed both forms, pseudo-Wardii being in the 

 proportion of about five to one of Wardii. 



Adiantum capillus-Veneris is erroneously regarded as being 

 viviparous, when, in a congenial temperature, its spores vege- 

 tate on the sori. A plant of this species Irotundatumi, that 

 has not yet fruited, produced a normal frond of two pinnro ; the 

 rachis decayed at the base, throwing the frond on to the surface 

 of the soil. On one pinna three bulbs have formed, and four 

 on the other, exactly where incipient sori may be supposed to 

 be situated. 



Plants of Adiantum bulbifernm, that I gathered in the Isle 

 of Man, have on four separate occasions formed fronds, which by 

 morphology have, in place of expanding their pinns, become a 

 cluster of bulbs, each pinna forming one. 



A depauperated and fertile plant of Aepleninm Adiantnm- 

 nigrum that I found in North Wales, has at the base of each 

 rachis a pear-like enlargement that remains when the fronds 

 fall off, which latter are apparently attached by a similar con- 

 trivance to that exhibited by Woodsia, leaving a cluster of 

 pseudo-bulbs bearing a striking resemblance to the miniature 

 stool of an Orchid. The vitahty of these bulbs has not been 

 tested, though it is almost certain that with careful treatment 

 each is capable of forming a plant. — A. Claiiiam. 



KEEPING BLACK HAMBURGH GRAPES. 



Havinc, read an article in the number of December 2nd, 

 " How we Got over our Peach Failure," I offer a few remarks as 

 to how I managed to keep Black Hamburgh Grapes in a perfect 

 state up to the present time, baring several vineries, and not 

 forcing any of them. 



As a matter of course, the Grapes all ripened about the same 

 time, but having been recommended to adopt the method I am 

 going to describe, I immediately made a beginning. Taking a 

 number of empty blacking bottles, I washed them thoroughly 

 clean, filled them with water, adding to each bottle at the 

 same time charcoal broken in pieces the size of a pigeon's egg. 

 On the 1.5tb of September I selected several bunches, some 

 that were scarcely ripe and the wood in a green state, others 

 quite ripe and the wood perfectly firm. I then proceeded to 

 cut the shoot two or three eyes below the bunch, and I put the 

 stems into the bottles in a slanting direction, so that the 

 bunches hung clear from the sides. 



The result stands thus:— 01 the ripe bunches the stalkB 

 withered, those of the uniipe did not, the stalks being as per- 

 fect as the day they were cut. The berries of none of the 

 bunches have shrivelled, and the flavour is as good as on 

 the day they were cut, if not better. They were put away in a 

 dry attic, where they had plenty of light and a free circulation 

 of air. I may add that as the water evaporated the bottles 

 were refilled. When I now write (December 18:h) they look as 

 though they would keep good for a couple more months. 



I make these remarks for the use of those who may not have 

 an ice house, and during the last two winters no ice could be 

 obtained in this part of the country. — J. S., Eccles llall. 



FRENCH POPPIES. 

 I WAS much struck last May with the beauty of a bed of 

 French Poppies, which, sown the prerious summer directly 

 the seed was ripe, had grown bushy and strong, and rewarded 

 amply their owner, who, with much trouble, has collected 

 about thirty varieties, all varying from 1 to 2 feet, and running 

 through every shade of crimson, scarlet, orange, rose, pink, 

 blush, lilac, cream, white — bordered, striped, spotted, fringed, 

 flounced, and self— and varj'ing from large single blooms to 



