&t»roh 25, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTlOULTlJltB AlitD C0TTA(JE GARDENER. 



23S 



Keep the sap flowing through the oU wood by allowing only 

 those buds which proceed from the extremities of it to grow, 

 and it will stand any frost as well as the young. 



Is well-ripened wood hardier than that which is immature ? 

 Certainly ; but then it depends upon what you mean by " well- 

 lipened." The shoot which " P." speaks of as having pushed 

 from the base of his Marochal Niel is no doubt to all intents 

 and purposes " well- ripened." Though, doubtless, succulent 

 for the first month of its career, if it has grown some 5 or 

 6 feet it can be succulent no longer. The pulp has ere this 

 changed into woody fibre throughout a considerable portion 

 of its length, and this being the case, it is as frost-proof as if 

 twelve months old. Possibly the extremity for a foot or 

 18 inches may be still pulpy : in that case it is most likely 

 frostbitten, but the rest of the shoot has a better chance of 

 life than the remainder of the tree which this gross shoot has 

 robbed of a considerable supply of winter food. 



Some may aek, Which is the better of these two ways of 

 growing Roses ? It all depends what you want them for. If 

 you require trim shapely plants for ornamental purposes or 

 specimens, and do not mind the trouble, keep down your 

 gross shoots. The quality of the flowers as to size will not be 

 quite so good, but you will make up for it in (luantity. If yon 

 grow a large number, you must of necessity allow them to grow 

 pretty much as they will, and select the best shoots at pruning 

 time. If yoia grow for exhibition, encourage your strong shoots 

 from the base, and cut out your old wood every year. Properly 

 managed, these produce the best and largest blooms, but you 

 must content yourself with a less number. — E. W. Beachey. 



NOTES FROM NICE. 



The wild flowers are certainly in great " abundance," and 

 though from the increase of buildings and consequent en- 

 closure of land, they are not to be now met with so near to 

 the city, yet the market is profusely and cheaply supplied with 

 them, and also with cultivated floral beauties. The leading 

 sorts are Anemones of various colours. Hyacinths, Narcissus, 

 Stocks, Wallflowers, Primulas, Violets, Eoses, Lilac, &c. 



It has been ascertained at Nice that the leaves of the large 

 scarlet Geraniums, which grow there so extensively in the open 

 air all the year round, have very useful healing properties 

 when applied in various forms to wounds and bruises. The 

 leaves are placed over the parts afl^ected, or made up into a 

 plaister and laid on as may be needed. 



^Icdical Dulnj. — This title sounds rather oddly, but it is 

 nevertheless a fact, that there has, amongst other novelties at 

 Nice, been recently established a dairy under this name, and it 

 is stated that it has introduced a new system of taking 

 medicine homa?opathically, so as still further to carry out the 

 minimisation of infinitesimal doses. Goats are kept, and when 

 any patient requires a particular medicine it is first ad- 

 ministered to the animal, and some of the milk afterwards 

 taken by the invalid. Some goats are kept for particular 

 medicines, so that there is the belladonna goat, arnica, 

 camphor, &a. 



COMFAR&TIVB TEMPERATURE. 



BOYAL HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

 I WAS much surprised to hear from the Chairman at the 

 adjourned meeting of this Society on the 9th inst. that the 

 opinion of the larger exhibitors at the four minor shows had 

 been taken, and a committee formed for the purpose of inquir- 

 ing into this special matter. Now I think it is pretty well 

 known in the horticultural world that the firm of which I am 

 the so le surviving partner were the originators of the spring 

 exhib itions at the Royal Horticultural Society, and farther, I 



personally made out the first schedule issued by the then 

 Council, and we have been very large and successful exhibitors at 

 these shows, as their prize list will testify, and for the past two 

 seasons we have not been out in the cold at the Chrysanthe- 

 mum Shows, and I have the presumption to assume that if 

 anyone had been consulted amongst the exhibitors that Wm. 

 Cutbush ct Son of Highgate would have been in the party. 



I do not desire to add fuel to the already fierce fire at South 

 Kensington, but having had a message conveyed to me from 

 one of the leading members of the Council through my good 

 friend and neighbour Mr. B. S. Williams only one day after 

 the Council had decided to withdraw the four minor shows, 

 already advertised in the schedule for 1875, that the Hyacinth 

 Show would not be held, and to save any expense or inconve- 

 nience to me the information was thus kindly conveyed. Not 

 being fully patisfied, I wrote to the office, and received a reply 

 from the Assistant Secretary, dated 13th of February, that it had 

 been decided not to hold the Shows in March, April, Septem- 

 ber, and November. Placing full confidence in this and sub- 

 sequent advertisements, I at once arranged to put back our 

 collection of Hyacinths and early Tulips for an exhibition here 

 at Easter, and which will, if all is well, be carried out. Judge, 

 then, of my astonishment, one week only before the original 

 date announced for the Hyacinth Show, to hear that the Council 

 had changed their minds, and would, with certain reductions, 

 hold this and the other three Shows. 



I ask. Does the Council consider this justice to an old ex- 

 hibitor and staunch supporter of the Society ? Had the 

 Council condescended at the first to have called the exhi- 

 bitors together and stated the position they were in, I am quite 

 sure there would have been found but one opinion amongst the 

 trade exhibitors — " Hold all your Shows, pay the prizes you 

 offer to the amateurs, and we will for this season do our best 

 and support you con amorc." 



It is very hard upon amateurs as well as ourselves in the 

 case of the Hyacinth, for, relying upon the fact of a schedule 

 being issired, purchases were made of expensive sorts on pur- 

 pose to exhibit, as they are of little use after. In general, for 

 decorative purposes, a nincpenny or shilling bulb produces 

 as good an effect, and I know many of our own clients are 

 exceedingly indignant at the vacillating policy of the Council. 

 If this is to be the course the Council mean to adopt — play at 

 battledore and shuttlecock with the exhibitors — there can be 

 no unanimity betwixt horticulturists and themselves. — Jahes 

 Cutbush, Highgate Nurseries. 



ECONOMISING FLOWER POTS. 



How to enclose a little bit of mother earth in which to grow 

 a plant, and at the same time keep it in a portable state, seems 

 at first sight a very simple problem indeed, and one which 

 may be solved in a multitude of ways. Where only a few 

 plants are concerned little difficulty is experienced, but when 

 the few become thousands the accumulated little difficulties go 

 to make up one so great that with many a flower-pot famine 

 is an event which happens almost annually about this season, 

 and it may therefore be worth while to take stock of some of 

 the ways and means of meeting it. In the case of bedding 

 Geraniums — and it is to them only that my remarks will 

 apply in the meantime — many methods have been tried with 

 the view of economising pots and space. But the best of them 

 seem to me to be failures so far as true economy is concerned, 

 pots being in the end by far the cheapest, entailing the least 

 labour, and giving the most satisfaction. 



One of the best substitutes are long narrow boxes about 

 7 inches wide by inches deep, made of three-quarter-inch 

 boards. This width will hold two rows of Geraniums, each 

 row being placed about an inch from the side, and it is best 

 to plant them not triangularly, but in pairs. The great dis- 

 advantage attending this boxing system is, or rather was, that 

 at planting time it was almost impossible to remove them with 

 anything like good balls, but this is now obviated in some 

 measure by a variety of ways. One is to have a quantity of 

 good sound turf about 2 inches thick, and free from perennial 

 weeds, laid up in autumn and allowed partially to rot, though 

 not to such an extent as to destroy the fibre. In preparing 

 the boxes place a layer of this in the bottom with what was 

 once the grassy side downwards, keeping it as whole as possible. 

 Over this place a little soil, and then put in the plants in the 

 usual way, and in due time they will root into the turf. 



At planting time pretty good balls can thus be obtained by 

 making a cut along the middle of the box, and across between 



