76 



JODENAL OP HORTlODLTtRS AlJl) COTT^AGE GAKDENEB. 



t Jaaa»ry 28, 1875. 



wintering bedding plants and a large collection of Fuchsias. 

 Most of the latter were large plants trained as pyramids, and, 

 perhaps, half a score years old. The branches are roughly cut- 

 back in the winter. Under this treatment they flower pro- 

 fusely, much more so than young plants. The internal ar- 

 rangement of the house we enter next is unique ; the stages 

 are composed of rockwork, and the " clinkers " that are ob- 

 tained from brickfields cemented together. The house is a 

 lean-to, and one terrace rises above another from the front 

 path to tho back wall, the artificial rockwork being clothed 

 with Lycopodium, Isolepis, &a., the occupants of the stages 

 being well-grown specimens of the finer species of Ferns. 

 There were very handsome specimens of the magnificent 

 Adiantum Farleyense. A characteristic of this variety, which 

 others as well as Mr. Fish have noted is, that large plants die- 

 off suddenly without any apparent cause. A plant under Mr. 

 Fish's care, 5 feet through, went in this way. A. tenerum is 

 a charming species, so is A. colpodes, and the most useful and 

 easiest grown of all is A. cuneatum. The finest plant of Pla- 

 tycerium alcicorne I had ever seen was suspended in a basket 

 in this house. Trained overhead in wild profusion are Passion- 

 Fiowers, represented by Passiflora princeps, P. alata, P. quad- 

 rangularis, and P. odorata. Trained against the wall of the 

 passage leading to the conservatory was a grand specimen of 

 Heliotrope, which must be useful to cut from all the year round. 

 The brilliant Taosonia Van-Volxemii is trained to the roof, 

 and in contrast to it is a noble specimen of Mandevilla sua- 

 veolens. Its snow-white flowers are deliciously scented. It 

 succeeds best planted out ; if the roots are confined to a poo the 

 leaves become a prey to red spider. Plumbago capensis, also 

 planted out, was in good health, and produced its pretty pale 

 blue flowers in abundance. In another house are great tree- 

 like specimens of Brugmansia suaveolens and B. atro-pur- 

 purea, and when covered with hundreds of the large trumpet- 

 shaped flowers the sight is sufficiently striking to be remem- 

 bered during the years of an ordinary life. Brugmansias do 

 not thrive well in pots, they are gross feeders, the roots will 

 not bear restriction. There are in the same house some speci- 

 mens of Australian tree Ferns that would dehght the heart of 

 a Loudon exhibitor. 



The kitchen and fruit garden is removed some distance from 

 the house. It is surrounded by a wall, which is furnished 

 with well-trained Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot trees. The 

 blossoms are protected from frosts by an ample glass coping. 

 The sheets of glass are only used when the trees are in flower ; 

 they are placed upon a framework of iron, which is permanently 

 fixed to the wall. The trees are trained to stout iron wires 

 strained perpendicularly, and not iu the usual horizontal 

 manner. Apricots do pretty well for a time, but the trees are 

 short-lived, and frequently require renewal. Plums will not 

 thrive as standards, but do well trained as cordons; the trees 

 are trained to single wires fixed iu a horizontal position about 

 a foot from the surface of the ground. Apples also do well 

 under the same treatment, but they must be worked upon the 

 French Paradise stock, and not upon our own EugUsh Para- 

 dise, which causes the trees to grow too strongly. Another 

 system of cordon training, which may be called diamond cor- 

 don, answers well for Apples. The trees are about 3, or they 

 may be 4 feet apart, and are trained to stout wires fixed 

 obliquely iu the ground. The first wire leans to the right, 

 the next to the left, and so on to right and left alternately ; 

 the trees thus cross each other, and form a row of diamonds. 

 Fruit trees have little tendency to make wood here, all the 

 branches being studded with fruit buds. The bush and pyra- 

 midal-trained Apple and Pear trees have a remarkable appear- 

 ance, as almost every bud seems to be a fruit bud. la the 

 garden are specimens of Beard's glass walls ; these hasten the 

 blossoming of tho trees, consequently they require protection 

 both from frosts and the proverbial early birds which eat the 

 early blossoms. 



Mr. Fish is well known as one of the foremost writers on all 

 matters horticultural, and the arrangement of the beautiful 

 grounds at Hardwicke show that if his precepts are good his 

 example is better; and I can only conclude by thanking him 

 for the kind manner in which I was received and shown over 

 the beautiful gardens under his charge. — J. Dougi..\s. 



that place, and thence went to Nottingham. He wrote on the 

 cultivation of the Cucumber, and was one of the editors of the 

 " Gardener's Magazine of Botany," which failed as it deserved, 

 because started by its publisher in spiteful opposition to 

 " Paxton's Flower Garden." Mr. Ayres suggested a form of 

 hothouse, the manufacture of which we beUeve he was pur- 

 suing at the time of his decease. 



Archibald Turnbull died on the 19th inst., aged eighty- 

 five. He was of the firm of Dickson & Turnbull, nurserymen, 

 Perth, and is a great loss to the locahty. 



METEOROLOGICAL BEPORT FOR 1874. 



Ticehurst, Sussex. 



380 feet above the sea; 51° 2' N. Lat. ; 0" 26' E. Long. 



WHITE HARICOTS. 



Deaths. — William Port Ayres died on the 14th inst. His 

 father was a gardener, and the son, after oompletins; his pro- 

 fpsfional education at Chiswick, became gardener to J. Cook, 

 Esq., Blftckheath. He did not sucosed as a nurseryman at 



Among the little-known vegetables on this side of the channel , 

 perhaps the least known of all is the Haricot Vert, or Green 

 Haricot, which is highly esteemed in Paris, but seldom seen 

 save upon the tables of the rich, where it ranks as a luxury 

 even greater thau early Green Peas. As a dried vegetable 

 Haricot Blanc, or White Haricot, is much more widely known 

 in France, where it forms a portion of the daily food of the 

 people ; ever since the Potato famine it has been, but unfortu- 

 nately not extensively, used in England. 



The difference between onr Scarlet Eunner and the Haricot 

 is that we eat the whole of the former while young — that is to 

 say, the whole of the pod and its contents, cut up, while with 

 the Haricot Bean the entire pod, which is lined with a tough 

 skin, is discarded, and the seeds or green beans alone eaten 

 being shelled like Peas. There is no reason why Haricots 

 should not be grown iu this country, at any rate to be eaten, 

 young; when required as a part of the supply of winter vege- 

 tables, doubtless they can be imported at a much lower price 

 than we could produce them here ; rent of land and price of 

 labour almost preclude the growing of ripened seeds in England. 



There is a widespread but erroneous idea that our climate 

 is not suitable for the growth of many vegetables extensively 

 cultivated by our continental neighbours ; the truth being, 

 however, that we could grow them as well, or even better, but 

 not so cheaply. Yet the outlay in their production need not 

 be so great as to preclude a profitable return on their sale. 



The imported White Haricots, such as we buy for culinary 

 purposes, are also excellent for sowing ; we have taken the 

 Beans haphazard for this purpose from a sack, and found that 

 every seed germinated and bore a large crop of sweet, deli- 

 cately-flavoured, nutritions food. The bine of this variety 

 grows as rapidly and quite as luxuriantly as our common 

 Runuer Bean, to which, at the season of blooming, it forms a 

 pretty contrast in the colour of the flowers, the pure white- 

 winged blossoms of the one adding intensity of colour to the 

 brilliant scarlet of the other. The Haricot is as long in the 

 pod, but neither so wide nor so coarse in texture as that of its 

 compeer. The cultivation is exactly similar, where the one will 

 !;row well tho other will likewise flourish. Both descriptions 

 being half-hardy annuals, the seed should not be sown iu the 

 open ground until the end of April or beginning of May. When 

 tho plants have attained a sutVidieut hei^'ht to cover the sticks 

 up which they are trained they should be topped ; this tends 

 to make them throw out side shoots and bear a heavier crop 

 of beans. Haricots may be grown dwarf in a manner similar 

 to that pursued with Scarlet Runners, but the yield will be 

 nothing like so great. The young green Haricot Beans will 



