74 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



[ July 23, 1874. 



will form the most favourable staple that can be had for the 

 purpose, as will be clearly seen iu the increasing prosperity 

 and rare failnres among sorts that have not answered weU pre- 

 Tionsly. — Edwaed Luckeubst. 



The accompanying design (/('_';. 23), is suitable for beds of 

 20 feet and upwards to 100 feet in diameter. If the dotted 

 circle were left out, all the bed, except the scroll, carpeted 

 with one colour, say grey, with the scroll of blue, and the little 

 circles, 2, of crimson, the effect could not fail to be very striking. 



MELON JUDGING. 



Mr. W. Taylor (page 47), does me the honour of criticism, 

 which though upon the whole unfavourable to my views re- 

 specting Melon judging, to some extent coincides with them. 

 I am glad Mr. Taylor so far agrees with me as to consider 

 " a noble Melon is a great addition to the dessert;" but the 

 following sentences of bis second paragraph all go to show 

 that a noble fruit is often disappointing, " not so good as it 

 looked." I do not see how Mr. Taylor can reconcile such a 

 statement as that in the Fecond paragraph— \'iz., " A noble 

 Melon, but not so good as it ought to be;" and iu the third 

 paragraph advance all at once to the contrary opinion, " The 

 most perfectly-developed and highest-coloured fruit" are " also 

 the best flavoured." This I also agree with except as to colour, 

 which I submit is no criterion of flavour in a Melon. " Per- 

 fect development," as I accept the term, does not of necessity 

 mean size, nor is " the smallest examples " a plant produces 

 intended by me to have the highest flavour; but I do submit 

 that a Melon plant with three fruit, or less, of not more than 

 3 lbs. weight each, will have them of better flavour than a 

 plant of which the fruits weigh over 5 lbs. each, the kind 

 being the same, the culture equal, and flavour the test of 

 judging. High colour is not accompanied by high flavour. 

 Some Melons are naturally high coloured — examples, Golden 

 Gem, Golden Perfection, &c., which are good high-flavoured 

 sorts ; but we have others equally high in colour, as Paterson's 

 Hybrid, which has been grown to, I believe, 21 lbs. weight, 

 equal in colour to either, with a flavour no better than that 

 of the Mammoth Gourd when ripe. 



Grant " the most perfectly-developed and highest- coloured" 

 Melon to be also the best flavoured, and I shall not complain 

 of Melon judging, making no reservation, only that the highest- 

 coloured fruit refers to the highest-coloured specimen of its 

 kind, and not to Melons generally, to auy and every kind alike, 

 for they go in races as do Grapes ; and to be guided by the 

 colour irrespective of the kind, would be to arrive at an issue 

 foreign to their quality. 



" Culture is everything," says Mr. Taylor. No one can tell 

 the quality of a Melon by the exterior, " to be judged correctly 

 it must be cut and tasted." Why ? Mr. Taylor tells us, " the 

 most perfectly-developed and highept-coloured fruit of any 

 given kind are the best flavoured." What is there in a Melon 

 that causes such an uncertainty of quality ? What is there to 

 recommend the present syetem of judging Melons by cutting 

 them, other fruits being exempted from so mutilating an 

 ordeal ? Simply nothing but prejudice arising from long 

 usage. Were other fruits to be judged by the same test, that 

 of flavour, I venture to predict the prize lists would be dif- 

 ferent from what they now are, our shows of fruit would be less 

 imposing, few caring to send fruit to be plucked, cut, spoiled 

 in appearance, and wasted. — G. Abbey. 



STELLARIA GEAMINEA AXJEEA. 



Among the newer or least-tried bedding plants of the season 

 this — known best, perhaps, by the name of Golden Chickweed 

 — will, if I mistake not, have many admirers on account of its 

 excellent qnaliflcations as a plant remarkably well suited for 

 use in many ways in the present style of bedding. I am 

 unable to say how long it has been before the public, but last 

 year it came under my notice, and I considered it was a trea- 

 sure. This spring a friend sent me half a dozen plants iu a 

 match-box, with the advice to " to take care of it ; use all you 

 can get for bedding, and you will like it;" and he is right. 

 I do like it, and would ask others who grow it to let us know 

 at the end of the season what they think of it. 



I find it particularly suitable for carpet bedding; it docs 

 not exceed 3 inches in height, and it is of a far richer yellow 

 than the Golden Feather Pyrethrum, which most people know 

 very often carries a tinge of green iu it, which rather detracts 

 from its value; and though I think the latter plant will 



not be dispensed with, yet I predict that where the Golden 

 Stellaria can be procured they will not use so much of the 

 other. A single line of plants will spread a foot or more wide 

 during the summer, and it covers the ground as thickly as a 

 mat, almost every shoot that comes in contact with the soil 

 striking root. I have given my plants a rich soil and excel- 

 lent drainage, and they seem to thrive with an abundance of 

 water. I have used them in conjunction with Lobelia pumila 

 grandiflora and Alternaatheraparonychioides, and the effect is 

 striking and good to those who look at it. It is increased by 

 cuttings and division. — Thomas Record. 



DOUBLE PARASITISM— THE MISTLETOE 

 GEO'WING ON THE MISTLETOE. 

 Some time last year we called at Old Gonna, the fine and most 

 charmingly-situated residence of Phineas Riall, Esq., D.L., 

 near Bray. Besides its situation, beautiful surroundings, and 

 magnificent views, there is always here something to be found 

 to interest the lovers of trees and plants, among the number 

 of whom, we may remark in passing, few men have more claim 

 to be classed than the genial, kind-hearted, and widely-esteemed 

 owner of Old Conna. Whether the taste of the visitor lies 

 among the Protean race of British Ferns (a class of plants of 

 which Mr. Riall is an enthusiastic admirer, and of which he 

 has about the most varied collection, both in and out of doors, 

 to be found anywhere), or his hobby be Conifers, choice trees, 

 shrubs, or Roses, he is sure to find at Old Conna something to 

 interest, something to please, and not a little to instruct. But 

 to return to the matter iu hand. On the occasion alluded to,, 

 on inspecting a fine specimen of Mistletoe growing on an old 

 Apple tree in the garden, and laden with its translucent pearly 

 berries, many bird-sown seeds of itself were observed to be 

 attached to the parasite. Several of these had germinated, 

 and had apparently firmly attached themselves by means of 

 the sucker or rooting end to the branchlets of the mother 

 plant, but in no case then noticed had the plumule or as- 

 cending portion taken a vertical direction or developed further 

 growth. 



Being much struck with the fact, then patent, of the young 

 Mistletoe plant rooting (it one may so term the process) in the- 

 parent tissues, we determined to keep the matter in view, and 

 at a future day see what further progress, if any, was made 

 by these partially developed little embryos. With this oliject 

 mainly in prospect we called at Old Conna iu the early part 

 of the present month, and our attention was directed to what 

 appeared to be a sturdy young Mistletoe growing on one of the 

 internodes of the parent plant. Closer inspection left no doubt 

 about the fact. Here was a stout young plant firmly established, 

 which counted two or more years since it raised its little head 

 aloft, and was then about making its third set of leaves. After 

 admiring this tiny but to us at the time exceedingly interest- 

 ing object, we proceeded to examine more closely the thicker 

 or inner ramifications of the plant, and were rewarded by 

 finding, growing midway on one of the thickest and smoothest 

 internodes, a sturdy young plant three times the size of the 

 preceding, full of health and vigour, with two principal bifurca- 

 tions, four secondary branches, and five sets of its twin leaves, 

 counting its age probably by some half dozen or more years. 

 * Here, then, we found established beyond cavil the interesting 

 and, as far as we know, hitherto unnoticed, or at all events unre- 

 corded, fact of the double parasitism. — {Irish Farmers' Gazette.) 



SALT AS MANURE. 

 Various experiments have been made by M. Peligot and 

 others to test the value of salt as a manure. The following 

 summing-up seems to have been arrived at : Salt should never 

 be applied other than in a pulverous state, and never employed 

 on impervious, cold, and humid soils. The best manner to 

 use it is to combine it with other manures, a dose of two hun- 

 dredweight to the acre being sufficient. When selected to- 

 destroy insects, it should be applied before sunrise. In the 

 case of cereals, salt strengthens the stems and causes the ears 

 to fill better, and favours the dissolution and assimilation of 

 the phosphates and silicates. It acts vigorously on Potatoes, 

 and can be detected in their ashes to the extent of one-half of 

 1 per cent. Asparagus is a veritable glutton in the presence 

 of salt. A dose of three hundredweight per acre acts without 

 fail on Beet, injuring its value for sugar purposes, but en- 

 hancing it for the feeding of cattle. Colza has as marked a 



