Jsnuiu? 21, 1875. ] 



JOTJBNAL OP HORTIOULTUBS AND OOTTAGE (iARDENER, 



53 



placed in the soil. They may be successfully grown in pots 

 plunged in ashea in the reserve ground. When wanted for 

 the spring garden they are beat grown in pots, and plunged 

 where they are wished to grow, for they are then easily re- 

 moved when their bloom is past. While in liloom they are 

 very gay for the coal greenhouse in early spring. They are 

 rather impatient about being disturbed when they are once 

 established. They may be increased by division, but I prefer 

 raising them from seed. 



I have sown the seed as soon as ripe, placed the seed pan in 

 a cold pit, and the seedlings made their appearance in the 

 following spring. When they have completed their first growth 

 they may be potted, and placed in a cold pit, or plunged in 

 the reserve ground until they are required for planting out. 



I often wonder the Adonises are not more cultivated. Ver- 

 nalis (yellow-fleshed) is the most desirable of the family 

 for either rockwork or border. Adonis pyreuaica (yellow- 

 flowered) is a very desirable plant, growing a little taller than 

 vernalis, and is later in blooming ; it does well on the rockery. 

 A. sibirica (yellow-flowered), introduced nearly fifty years ago, 

 is very rarely seen. A. apennina (yellow-flowered), ought to 

 bo in more general cultivation ; being of dwarf compact babit, 

 is very desirable for the rockery, border, or spring garden. 



There is little difference in the colour of those I have enume- 

 rated, but being spring- flowering plants they ought to be more 

 frequently met with ; they cannot fail to repay any extra 

 labour that may be bestowed upon them. We have an annual 

 species known among many of our cottagers as the " Pheasant's- 

 eye " (Adonis autumnalis) , a very pretty crimson border flower. 

 Some doubt is entertained about its being one of our own 

 native plants. — Veritas. 



under glass. I was tempted to try it outside on a wall with 

 south-east aspect, with very pleasing results ; for it soon 

 reached the top of the wall, which is about 14 feet high. Its 

 very rapid growth I attribute to its roots having extended into 

 a rich open Vine border — soil just suited to its wants. This 

 plant, growing so well and so admired by everybody who saw 

 it, I was induced to plant one on the verandah abovenamed, 

 and with the like pleasing results. 



The early flowering of the plant this season — having com- 

 menced to flower in December — is no doubt caused by the very 

 dry summer, and consequent early ripening of the wood and 

 development of flower buds. Since the plants have been out 

 we have had on many occasions 12' and 16' of frost, but I 

 have never known the unexpanded flower to be injured. 



I would say to all lovers of beautiful wall plants who reside 

 in the warmest parts of the British isles, Plant the above 

 Acacia ; and should it never favour you with a flower, its 

 beautiful bipinnate, light-green. Fern-like leaves, differing from 

 everything you have, and forming a pleasing contrast to all 

 that is near, will be ample compensation for the trouble taken. 

 — W. Osborne, Go. Cork. 



[The specimen was of the species intended. The name 

 Mr. Osborne has applied to this Acacia is one of the several 

 synonyms of the plant now called by botanists Acaoia deal- 

 bata. There is a portrait of it in the " Botanical Register" 

 i under the name of Acacia decurrens. It is a native of Van 

 Diemen's Land, where it is called " The Green Wattle." — Ens.] 



BUDDING. 



'.' A. C." in the number of December 10th recommends the 

 use of a quill in Rose-budding, and says, " One chief requisite 

 of budding now is a bundle of toothpicks." Necessity compels 

 me to carry a toothpick, but for the purpose its name denotes. 

 Certainly not as an aid in the operation of budding. 



I am equally successful with " A. C," and should like to 

 make known the method I adopt in separating the wood from 

 the shield. I learnt it some years ago from a gardener who 

 was in the habit of inserting a thousand buds a-day (at least 

 so he told me), and it may account for his, to me, astonishing 

 dexterity. 



To begin with, then, disabuse your mind of the idea that the 

 taking out of the wood is the most delicate part of the opera- 

 tion of budding, or, in fact, delicate at all. The way I shall 

 attempt to describe may be rather characterised as " rough and 

 ready." Insert the knife below the leafstalk in the ordinary 

 way, but bring it out very obUquely, so as to leave a piece of 

 the bark beyond the wood long enough to take between the 

 finger and thumb, then take the end of the wood in the same 

 way with the other hand and snatch the wood and shield 

 asunder. Unless the wood is very green and tender the opera- 

 tion is ninety-niue times out of a hundred perfect, and if it 

 should not be, then use your toothpick. 



My instructor did not complete the severance of the bud 

 from the stem with the knife, but pulled them asunder, tearing 

 off some inches of bark with the bud, but this I found generally 

 damaged the buds remaining on the wood. — Hviierx Bensted, 

 ilaidstonc. 



ACACIA AFFINIS. 



Many of the New Holland Acacias are very beautiful and 

 worthy of more extended cultivation, especially as they are so 

 easily grown, bearing rougher treatment than most of the 

 beautiful plants we got from that country, so rich in flowering 

 shrubs. 



I enclose with these notes a small branch with flowers of an 

 Acacia we have under the above name. I am not quite cer- 

 tain if the name is correct, but it is one of the most beautiful 

 of the Acacia family, and, what makes it doubly valuable here, 

 it is perfectly hardy. The racemes with their many flowers, 

 which I have sent, were taken from a plant growing on lattice- 

 work of a verandah, where frost has free access on all sides. 



A few years ago we had a large plant growing on the back 

 wall of a greenhouse, where it used to bloom most profusely, 

 and furnish us with thousands of its long bunches of golden 

 flowers for cutting at this dull season, when there is but little 

 but what we have from the forcing pit. 



At that time I had a large plant that was of no use to us 



AMBUEY OF CUCUMBER EOOTS. 



I KEAD Mr. Piatt's article on Cucumbers, and I suppose it is 

 in the winter months when he is troubled with what we know 

 as " ambury." The soilT consider is the chief point requiring 

 attention, and the less complicated it is the better. I have 

 found that "mixtures" generally encourage the ambury, es- 

 pecially when some kinds of leaf mould are added. What I 

 find to answer is two parts of turfy loam chopped rough, one 

 part of short litter fresh from the stables, with a sprinkling 

 of half-inch bones. In planting I make a small mound, plant 

 in the centre, and as the roots work through add a little fresh 

 soil. 



Has Mr. Piatt grown Improved Siou House Cucumber ? If 

 not, I would strongly recommend it for winter work. For 

 summer Blue Gown takes the lead with me. I hope he will 

 give my method a trial, and be able to report favourably at 

 some future time. — J. Wilson. 



METEOROLOGY OP THE PAST YEAR, AND ITS 

 EFFECTS ON VEGETATION. 

 Taking water first for consideration, I will consider in what 

 way the supply of 1874 met the wants of that year ; but to do 

 this we must begin at the beginning of the season, or rather 

 we must go back to the last two months of 1873, as I consider 

 the rain that falls then when taken in addition to that which 

 falls the following three months to have an important effect 

 on the sources from which our summer's supplies are drawn^ 

 in other words, the autumn and winter rainfall tell in the 

 following spring and summer. Believing such to be the case, 

 we are not surprised at the outcry for water in many places 

 during the past summer for water for domestic uses, when we 

 find that only a very trifle over .5.} inches of rain fell in the 

 autumn and winter five months of November and December 

 1873, and the three first months of 1871, which was not in- 

 creased to any useful extent by what fell in the following April , 

 the total then barely reaching 7i inches. But somehow the 

 rainfall of the next two months sufficed to keep vegetation 

 moving ; so that, although there was a lack of water almost 

 everywhere for almost all needful purposes, there have been 

 seasons in which vegetation has suffered more than in 1874. 

 The long period of dull deluging weather we had all through 

 May and June, and up almost to the middle of July, rendered 

 a heavy rainfall unnecessary — in fact I am not sure that it 

 would not positively have been an injury ; but as it was, the 

 showers in these months were sufficient to prevent surface 

 crops, as grass, &a., from suffering so much as we have known 

 them to do in former years ; so that, although the growth was 

 restricted, it was hardly ever arrested entirely, and fields in 

 general never had that burnt-up appearance we have often 

 known. Garden crops in like manner being affected accord, 

 ingly, established things struggling through tolerably well- 

 but newly planted ones having more or less of a trial. The 



