12 



JOUBNAL Off HORTICULTOBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



( July U, 1874. 



latter follows his guide reminds one of a bear in the Zoological 

 Gardens, who walks about indeed and looks around him enough, 

 but would evidently get away if he could from the chain which 

 confines him. 



But if the grower has to complain of undiscerning and taste- 

 less mortals who wonder at what they call his useless enthusiasm, 

 he can always find devotees like himself in the nearest horti- 

 cultural society, and there in the presence of a company, though 

 few, there will be no danger of his beauties wasting their sweet- 

 ness on the desert air. The tendency will rather be the other 

 way, for the visitors may be so critical and keen in their con- 

 ceptions of floral excellence, that your productions may be 

 blamed for not baring been grown with sufficient care, or pre- 

 pared for the show with the proper degree of art. But do not be 

 discouraged at this, but join the society at once. Get the prin- 

 cipal lists of articles to be competed for as early as you can, and 

 then select those in the growth of which you are most likely to 

 be successful. But I shall presume you have done this, and are 

 now prepared to contest the reward of excellence or superiority 

 with your neighbours. A few hints derived from my own ob- 

 servations and experience in connection with a society of 

 amateurs may not be useless in reference to the general subject 

 of flower shows. In employing Art for the purposes of successful 

 competition, let Art always be the handmaid of Nature, to wait 

 upon and follow her rules, and to confer upon her a higher 

 beauty. This principle should regulate the choice of articles to 

 be exhibited, for some will bend much and others little to the 

 care of the gardener. Those caDed florists' flowers are always 

 desirable objects, as they are so amazingly affected by skilful 

 growth. But the rule is adverse to the practice of what is 

 called dressing flowers, that being an operation which more 

 often alters than improves the subject of its manipulation. If 

 by art a Carnation may present a form in a show-pan which it 

 never had or could have when grown on its stems in a bed, the 

 triumph may be allowed in a technical point of view, but ought 

 not to be admitted by a rational horticulturist. A Carnation- 

 grower should seek the improvement of the growth of the 

 flower, and not to be satisfied with trussiug-up and patching 

 the disordered petals with string and cardboard. The object is 

 to make art so as to bear on vegetable growth, that bad habits 

 may be corrected, and symmetry and beauty more uniformly 

 obtained. A visitor at a floral exhibition not initiated iu the 

 mysteries of flower-craft, who would see a stand of Carnations, 

 and purchase of the exhibitor on the faith of their being so 

 compact and regular, would have aright to complain if he found 

 the following year that these qualities were conferred by dress- 

 ing. Skill iu growing is in my opinion the object to be aimed 

 at in horticultural societies, and artificial trimming shovild be 

 discouraged. It is otk the same principle that the system of 

 sticking and propping-up is objectionable, and is disused at the 

 higher shows. Some Pelargoniums present an immense front 

 of flowers, while the back is a miserable scaffolding of sticks ; 

 others throw oil all their branches from one stem, and dispose 

 foliage and bloom equally round their pots. The first may be 

 more attractive, merely as presenting a mass of bloom, but there 

 can be no doubt that the latter deserve the prize, as developing 

 most the subserviency of Art to Nature. 



A real love of science should be always made to repress a 

 mere spirit of gambling at flower shows. No one can have been 

 long acquainted with the operations of such societies without 

 having seen a dangerous tendency in some minds to look for 

 prizes for their own sake. Persona have been known to with- 

 hold their patronage from these institutions because sufiicient 

 prominency has not been given to some productions which they 

 happen to fancy, or perhaps have in abundance in their garden. 

 The veriest rubbish has in this manner found its way to the 

 exhibition ; and when the foUy of such a system has compelled 

 its continuance, the guinea has been withheld and the patronage 

 withdrawn. Unequivocal marks of disappointment and vexation 

 may also be seen sometimes displayed by some unsuccessful 

 candidate, although the superiority of the winning article is un- 

 questionable. AU such feelings and tempers will be best con- 

 quered by loving floriculture for its own sake. Those who do 

 this will feel compensated for the loss of a prize by the superior 

 method of growth which they now have exhibited for theu' 

 imitation, and they will go and count their deficiencies by the 

 higher examples brought under their notice. 



The greatest triumph which gardeners have achieved in the 

 management of plants is that by which almost innumerable and 

 very beautiful varieties of flowers have been raised from the 

 weeds of our fields, as in the Heartsease and Tulip, and to what 

 in exotics are comparatively little better, the single Dahlia, the 

 Dianthus, Pelargonium, and several other genera. This is 

 effected by what is technically designated hybridising and cross- 

 breeding, by which process the proportions of dissimilar but 

 aUied species, and in some cases genera, are so intermixed that 

 the seedling produce wiU partake of the character of both 

 parents, and the flowers be frequently superior to those of either. 



Natiu'e unaided by Art has accomplished much, and has 

 produced the Golden Pippin Apple from the wild Crab, and the 



Damson and other Plums from the common Sloe, yet it must 

 be confessed that Art properly directed has effected and will 

 effect more in a few years than Nature, dependant upon acci- 

 dental circumstances, would do in a long lifetime. As an opera- 

 tion to fill up the leisure hours of the lady gardener and amateur 

 I do not know anything more pleasing, for there is something 

 akin to creative power in it, as we are bringing new forms into 

 existence, and though all the offspriug may not be equally 

 interesting, some may be very pretty, and others superlatively 

 beautiful. " No one but a parent can have a parent's feeling " 

 is a trite saying, and certainly the pleasure of an enthusiastic 

 florist in viewing a first-rate flower of his own raising, amounts 

 in some cases to a species of idolatry. To explain the method of 

 artificial fertilisation it will be necessary to make a few remarks 

 on the formation of flowers. In all flowers when divested of 

 the petals or corolla there will be found standing in the centre 

 and attached to the flower-stalk, of a Fuchsia for illustration, 

 a small pin-like substance which is called the pistil or female 

 organ, and surrounding it a number of shorter pins of various 

 lengths with rather large heads, which are called stamens or 

 male organs. A slight examination of various flowers will show 

 how beautifully Nature has provided for the multiplication of 

 the different species of plants, as in some cases the farina falls 

 from the anther upon the stigma, while in others it is deposited 

 there by an elastic force in the filament, as is exemplified in the 

 ICalmia. The pistil consists of three parts — viz., the ovary, 

 the style, and the stigma, and has been hkened to a column, as 

 the first will represent the pedestal, the second the shaft, the 

 third the capital. The stamen also consists of three parts, which 

 are called the filament, anther, and pollen or farina — a sort of 

 mealy powder which the anther throws out, which, when it falls 

 upon the stigma or top of the pistUlum, fructifies it, and a pro- 

 duction of seed is the consequence. 



Now, when gardeners wish to produce hybrid or cross-bred 

 plants they divest the flowers which it is intended to produce 

 seed from of their stamens, and proceed to fertilise the stigma 

 with the farina taken from some other plant ; and thus, if I wished 

 for a family of plants between Fuchsia globosa and F. Venus 

 Victrix, I should take the stamens from the flowers of the latter 

 directly the flowers were open, and fertilise the stigma with 

 farina taken from F. globosa, and the result would probably 

 be plants resembling F. globosa in habit, and partaking of 

 the colom- of Venus Victrix in the flower. The habit of the 

 plant generally resembles the male parent, and the flowers 

 those of the female, and for this reason particular attention 

 should be paid to the choice of parents it we wish to make 

 decided improvements in the habits of our plants. After the 

 stigma is fertilised it should be guarded from the contact of 

 honey-sucking insects by a muslin bag placed over the flower, or 

 by keeping the plants in a pit or frame covered with strong 

 gauze or fine cauvas. The best instrument to convey farina 

 from one plant to another is a camel-hair pencil, and the best 

 time to apply it is early in the morning when the flower is full 

 grown and the stigma is covered with its own mucus ; but to 

 make assm'ance doubly sure, it is well to apply the pollen 

 several days successively. — W. Keake. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST AND PRESENT WEEKS. 



KITCHEN GiBDEX. 



We are trtily grateful for the rain we have had ; during the 

 last week 0.75 inch fell, making the total for the month 1.98 inch. 

 The want of rain seems to have been felt in many parts of 

 England, and also in Scotland this year. Whenever a dry 

 period occtirs in Scotland, the old people make a comparison 

 vrith the memorable year of drought — 182(;, when the cereal 

 crops did not grow more than a few inches in height. It has 

 been stated that since then no season so dry as the present has 

 occurred. In our own garden water has been short, but owing 

 to our system of culture, which has been previously detailed, 

 the crops have suffered but Httle. The rain has also given us 

 an opportunity to plant-out all green crops — Brussels Sprouts, 

 Savoys, Broccoli, &c. The above may be planted in the driest 

 weather if plentiful supplies of water can be given, and the 

 plants will not suffer much. 



The earliest crop of Peas has been cleared off the ground, 

 and the sticks used for succeesioual crops. We have generally 

 made a sowing of Peas at this time. Last year nearly aU the 

 most api^roved earlj^ sorts were tried, but none of them gave 

 satisfaction. In moderately heavy, or what would be called 

 medium soils. Peas do well late in the autumn, and furnish 

 dishes of Green Peas until the frosts destroy them. We have 

 tried them here many years in succession, but have not been 

 vei-y successful with them. The weeds have also been picked 

 out of the walks. This is best done after rain ; they come out 

 more readily when the ground is wet, and moreover they are 

 more conspicuous. Gooseberry or other bushes growing near 

 the Box edging have a tendency during the growing season to 

 hang over and destroy the Box; we went over ours and propped 

 up the branches with forked sticks, and in other cases cut away 



