April 15, 187S. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



293 



heating means at band to let the first steps be steady steps, 

 knowing they will gain in the end both in the matter of time 

 and quality. Not long ago in looking through the Burghley 

 vineries the Vines were observed to be breaking sturdily and 

 strongly under a very cool temperature. " Gently at first is my 

 plan," said the veteran Mr. Gilbert, and the system has proved 

 him right in past years, and will as certainly prove so again in 

 the season now ensuing. 



For ten years, in the case of Black Hamburgh Grapes, the 

 practice of the writer has been studiously to keep the night 

 temperature down to 50' until the bunches were thinned. 

 Many times the thermometer has been 4 ' and 5° lower than 

 that, even when the bunches have been in bloom, and never 

 once has injury resulted. Never once has red spider been seen, 

 and not one berry in a thousand has shanked. Canon Hall 

 Muscat has been set admirably at 55^, and infinitely better 

 than under a higher temperature. Of course atmospheric 

 moisture and systematic ventilation have been carefully man- 

 aged and regulated according to circumstances. This is only 

 a lesson which outdoor Vines teach, and their teaching was 

 followed. They set freely under the same low temperature, 

 they never shank, and are seldom infested by red spider — never 

 if kept well supplied with water. 



Sometimes the effects of thrips are mistaken for shanking. 

 Even one or two of the insects will ruin a bunch of Grapes, 

 and their presence is frequently not observed. They will 

 nibble round the bunch-stem just at its junction with the 

 shoot, and cheek the flow of sap which should go to perfect 

 the fruit. Two years ago I observed great damage from this 

 source. The foliage was clean and healthy, not an insect to 

 be seen on the leaves, but the bunch-stalks were attacked. 

 Sometimes one and occasionally two and three of the thrips 

 were found paring round the stalk, and would have certainly 

 rained the crop if they had been permitted to enjoy another 

 week's grazing. They will cot start there in the ease of Vines 

 with flimsy foliage, but only when the leaves are stout and 

 leathery do they choose the bunch-staUt as the most vulner- 

 able point of attack, and commit damage before they are seen. 



To what has been said on low temperature a word of caution 

 may be needful. Unpractised cultivators — learners who are 

 feeling their way in Grape-growing — may imagine they have 

 been working too high, applying too much heat. Go on gently 

 as you are for this season. Make no sudden 10° drops as a 

 remedy ; that were too ruthless, but if Grapes do not satisfy 

 this year try a lower mean the next and expect improvement. 

 In the meantime give air early, yet carefully, regulate moisture 

 with temperature, and above all keep a sharp look-out for the 

 very first inroads of insect pest, as, if nothing else wUl cause 

 the Grapes to shank, thrips will certainly do so, and often 

 before they are observed. — A Surrey Gardener. 



BEDDING CALCEOLAEIAS. 



The bedding Calceolaria has of late years proved itself to be 

 one of the hardiest of bedding-out plants, and in many places 

 now occupies a third part of the space allotted for summer 

 bedding. Being anxious to keep as many of these as possible, 

 I procured a new frame, placed it on a border facing the west, 

 into which I put 4 inches of rotten dung ; on this I placed 

 6 inches of fibrous soil and white sand mixed. On the 25th of 

 October I inserted nine hundred Calceolaria cuttings. Not- 

 withstanding the severe winter — there having been more than 

 once 32" of frost — and they having no covering but the glass 

 and an occasional inch of snow, the plants are growing vigor- 

 ously, and have been topped repeatedly. 



After the middle of the present month I shall put them into 

 trenches to make room for more tender plants. This method 

 I carried out last spring with some success by digging-out 

 trenches 2J feet wide and 15 inches deep, into which 1 dig 

 rotten dung and a little river sand. When lifted for trans- 

 planting in the flower garden the very smallest balls of sou 

 would have filled a 4-inch pot and they received no check by 

 planting. With some more dang put into the trenches they 

 become very suitable for growing Celery. — Wu-luh Laurie. 



single specimen in the conservatory. It was taken up from 

 the open ground with a few more small seedlings equally as 

 good in the autumn, potted and placed in a warm house tUl it 

 flowered. — F. H. Fkoud. 



[The photograph is exceedingly good, and we are sure the 

 plant thus well grown is effective when grouped harmoniously 

 with others. — Ens.] 



BoBAGE AS A DECORATIVE Plast. — I encloso the photograph 

 of a plant of the above (for which I am indebted to Mr. Batters, 

 gardener, Chilworth Manor) to show that it answers well for 

 decorating purposes. Its deep blue flowers and dark green 

 and handsome foUage show out well as seen in the photo- 

 graph. It is suitable for grouping with other plants or as a 



VIOLETS: VARIETIES AND THEIK CULTURE. 



To-day I send you a box of Violet blooms which I have just 

 gathered. They are all grown out of doors and unprotected, 

 which accounts for some of the doable blooms being imper- 

 fect. I think there are fourteen varieties — three of single 

 White, six of single Purple, one of double Purple, one of double 

 Ked, one of double White, one of double White and Lilac, and 

 one of LUac. The Kussian, you will see, are now past their 

 perfection. As a variety it has no equal, I think, for midwinter 

 flowering. Then the kind known as the London blooms next. 

 It has a more compact flower of deeper colour than any other ; 

 its leaves grow high, are earUer, and have a far paler green, 

 are produced with the flowers, and thus protect the latter from 

 frost. The Czar are very fine and beautiful in March, not 

 before or after, being naturally coarse I think. It has but a 

 limited time of beauty, with leaves darker than others. 

 Odorata pendula, of New York I believe it to be, as a spring 

 bloomer has, in my opinion, no superior, with blossoms as 

 large and larger than The Czar without its coarseness, and 

 which also expand more fully on a very long slender stalk, and 

 with rather pale foliage. The two small blue flowers I send 

 are an offshoot of a small variety, which may be the common 

 wild Violet ; it has very dark green leaves. The doable blue, 

 and double white, with Ulac back, bloom profusely out of doors, 

 and are most beautiful all April ; but the Neapolitan double 

 red and double white I find bloom but poorly unless protected. 

 The single white, I imagine, is but a variety of the wild Violet. 



There are several other kinds I am aware, which, added to 

 those I have the pleasure of sending you, surely form a family 

 of easily-grown hardy plants, that would be more cultivated 

 were they more generally known. I may truthfully say I have 

 gathered, literally, bushels of bloom this last winter and 

 spring, some of which have found their way to the London 

 Flower Mission for distribution in hospitals, and no flower 

 can be more suitable for such a purpose. The Violet, foi; its 

 delicious scent, early and continuous blooming, and easy 

 culture, is universally a favourite amongst flowers, and must 

 become more so when its many beautiful varieties are re- 

 cognised. Is not the reason of its partly hidden merit due to 

 the fact that it is not a paying subject with the florist? for the 

 reason that when once supplied with a plant or two no more 

 are required, because it is so hardy and self-increasing that a 

 stock is thus procured without the hazard which attends the 

 propagating of many plants. 



My mode of culture is simple enough. After the blooming 

 season I take rooted offshoots from the parent plant, which I 

 place rather close in rows, each row being 2 feet apart, and in 

 autumn I bank the rows up (as it were) with a small quantity 

 of rotten manure, and then leave them alone. 



There are plenty of other hardy flowers on which I will speak 

 at length.— Henry W. Cooper, F.K.H.S., Surrey. 



[AU the varieties sent to us are distinct and well grown. 

 Florists, we think, do not cultivate Violets largely because the 

 demand for them is very limited. They are not gay flowers 

 for the border. — Eds.] 



THE GREAT HORTICULTURAL SHOW 

 AT ANTWERP. 



In the most excellent and able report in your last number 

 on our Horticultural Show there is one omission on which, 

 for the honour of our city and that of our Eoyal Horticultural 

 Society, I beg to call attention. It concerns the beautiful 

 and rare specimens you noticed as contributed by your coun- 

 tryman, sir. B. S. Williams. It is quite true they were not 

 entered for competition, and could not in consequence come 

 under the public notice of the Jury ; but the Board of Directors 

 of the Eoyal Horticultural Society immediately met and voted 

 the award of a medal of honour to the exhibitor as an una- 

 nimous expression of admiration and gratitude. 



It is to the fact that this decision about such an exceptional 

 distinction only being placed on Mr. Williams's collection of 



