July 30, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTIOULTDRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



95 



sound and excellent iu quality until the end of June in the 

 present year. Myatt's Prolific Ashleaf, Royal Ashleaf, Rector 

 of Woodstock, and Yorkshire Hero are all perfectly sound, and 

 they are already taken up, and the seed put on end in single 

 layers upon the store-shelves, where it will remain undisturbed 

 till next planting season. These shelves are in tiers '.I inches 

 apart, one above another, and as the bottoms are of laths half 

 an inch apart, the air circulates freely among the seed. Let 

 me here repeat an important piece of advice. Never leave seed 

 Potatoes laying out of doors to become green, but always put 

 them on the store-shelves immediately after they are lifted. 

 To this may be added another that is even more important. Lift 

 your Potatoes early, and defy the blight. — Edward Luckhcrst. 



EOSE HEDGES IN THE SOUTH OF PRANCE. 



M. Andbio writes as follows iu the " Illustration Hurticole :" — 

 On our last excursion from Marseilles to Genoa we were greatly 

 struck, as anyone seeing them for the first time would be, 

 with the magnificence of the Roses all along the Mediterranean 

 shores. The Rose hedges, and the espalier Roses especially, 

 offer an indescribably gorgeous sight. Under the genial influ- 

 ence of the warm sun of Provence, from the Coruiche to the 

 extremity of the Riviera di Pouente — that is, as far as the Gulf 

 of Genoa, and protected to the north by the mountains, which 

 gradually slope down to the seacoast, Roses attain the size 

 of Pajonies, and develope a depth and brilliancy of colour and 

 a richness of fragrance of unusual intensity. 



But this is in part due to another cause, or rather two other 

 causes, which lead to the same result, the main point being 

 the choice of suitable subjects for stocks to graft upon. 



These stocks are Rosa Baukeia; and Rosa indica major. 



The Banksian Rose presents three varieties — namely. White 

 Bauksian, producing a profusion of small white flowers, 

 scarcely so large as those of the double-flowered Cherry, and of 

 a most delicious fragrance ; Yellow Banksian, with still larger 

 clusters of small, nankeen-yellow, scentless flowers; Chinese 

 Thorny Banksian, flowers less numerous and about three 

 times as large as in the two preceding, and of the most grate- 

 ful odour. These three forms attain an unsurpassable vigour 

 in this region. In two years one plant will cover an immense 

 wall, the gable of a house, or climb to the top of a tall tree, 

 from which its branches hang like flowery cascades, embalm- 

 ing the air around with a rich perfume during the months of 

 April and May. Now, if these be taken for stocks upon which 

 to bud some of the choicer Teas, Noisettes, and Bourbons, the 

 growth of the latter will be prodigious. The stock should be 

 two years old, having well ripened though still smooth wood. 

 In this way such varieties as Gloire do Dijon, Marcchal Niel, 

 Lamarque, Safrano, Chromatella, Aimue Vibert, Le Pactole, 

 and all the Teas, attain such dimensions as to be no longer 

 recognisable. 



Rosa indica major is almost naturalised throughout the 

 whole of this region. It possesses the additional claim to 

 favour of flowering nearly all the winter, forming beautiful 

 hedges of dark green shining foliage, from which thousands of 

 clusters of lovely flowers rise, of a tender delicate transparent 

 pink, or almost pure white, with a brighter tinge in the centre 

 and at the tips of the petals. This Rose is an evergreen, and 

 makes an excellent stock for grafting or budding. 



It is either planted in nursery beds, where it quickly throws 

 np a stem suitable for standards in the same way as we 

 employ the Dog Rose, or iu hedges, and left to its naturally 

 luxuriant growth to produce its own charming flowers in rich 

 profusion ; or rows of cuttings are put iu where it is intended 

 to leave them, and subsequently budded with some of the 

 varieties of the diverse tribes we have named. 



We admired it most when treated in the manner last indi- 

 cated. In the gardens of the Villa Lizerbe, Nice, the residence 

 of M. Cazale, we saw three or four long hedges reared in this 

 way ; and on the Cth of May they presented a most gorgeous 

 feast of flowers. To give only one instance, we plucked at 

 random a flower of Gloire de Dijon, which measured 5J inches 

 in diameter, or 16^ in circumference ; and it would not have 

 been difiicult to find even larger flowers. 



This is how the inteUigent head gardener, M. Guichard, ob- 

 tained Buch splendid results : The soil where the hedge was to 

 be made having been moved to the depth of more than 3 feet, 

 was planted towards the end of winter with cuttings of well- 

 ripened wood of Rosa indica major, about 9 inches apart. 

 They were left to grow as much as they would, and not cut 

 back at all. In August they were budded nearly close to the 



ground, and in the following year already they formed a hedge 

 producing flowers abundantly. Iron wire stretched upon 

 slender bamboo stakes is sufficient to support the branches. 

 Pruning is only resorted to to keep them in shape, remove 

 exhausted branches, and shorten gross shoots. This Rose ij 

 also easily propagated by pegging-down long branches or 

 slightly covering them with earth, cutting them asunder at the 

 joints when rooted, and thus obtaining as many plants as 

 there are joints. 



By this very simple process M. Cazale has succeeded in rais- 

 ing his Rose hedges of incomparable beauty. From these 

 hedges wag^'ou-loads of flowers might be cut every year. It is 

 the varieties which flower in winter, amongst which Safrano is 

 the very best, that are here propagated on a large scale. We 

 particularlv noted Souvenir de la Malmaison, Chromatella, 

 Gloire de Dijon, GcneralJacqueminot, Marcchal Niel, Safrano, 

 and Gloire des Rosomenes. A large number of others grew 

 and flowered equally as well as the foregoing. In conclusion, 

 we recommend R. indica major as a stock wherever the winters 

 are not very severe, and where earthing-up or covering around 

 the base is suflicient protection to secure the advantages of 

 this vigorous-growing species for this purpose. 



PROPAGATION OF HARDY TERRESTRIAL 

 ORCHIDS. 



A CORRESPONDENT, " B. B. B.," wishing for information, wo 

 sent it to a good authority, and he replies : — 



" I should be very pleased if I could inform your correspon- 

 dent how to propagate the Bee Orchis, or, as I suppose he 

 means, Ophrys apifera. It is what I have never been able to 

 accomplish myself ; but it will sometimes propagate itself by 

 two new bulbs in one season instead of one, and that I believe 

 is the way in which it increases itself in its natural state — by 

 small spawn. I have never yet found a seedUng, nor can I get 

 it to vegetate from good seed, although you get good pods 

 from most of them. Some terrrestrial Orchids wUl make three, 

 and I have known Ophrys bombyflora make four bulbs in one 

 season ; but there are very few (under cultivation) that make 

 more than one. When time permits I shall be happy to send 

 you an account of my method of growing them." 



[Pray do. — Eds.] 



LARGE VINE AT THE VICEREGAL LODGE, 

 DUBLIN. 



It is now some years since we first noticed and detailed the 

 history of what is now widely and familiarly known as " The 

 Large Vine at the Viceregal Lodge." The life story of this 

 very remarkable Vine was then a short one ; for be it re- 

 membered that though a wonderful Vine, it is very far from 

 being an old one. In fact, a decade had not then nearly 

 passed from the time Mr. Smith took it — a poor sapling, 

 struggling for life — iu hand. Even then it was a horticultural 

 wonder, filling a curvilinear lean-to house, some 70 feet in 

 length and 15 wide, and carrying a magnificent crop of Grapes, 

 quite a picture to look at. Since that time the house has been 

 made a half-span, and has had its breadth thereby considerably 

 increased. Large increase of space was thus afforded for 

 further extension, and so skilfully was the Vine educated to 

 avail itself of it that it soon entirely occupied it ; and the long 

 Unes of luscious clusters hung as thickly there as in the older 

 portion of the house. It may be as well to mention here, for the 

 information of those who have not seen this Vine or remember 

 the particulars previously given, that the stem enters at one 

 end of the house, and from this seven main rods are conducted 

 horizontally and equidistant from one another, in perfectly 

 straight lines, till further progress is arrested where they reach 

 the opposite end of the house. The wood of these main rods 

 is about the thickness of a ship's cable, and the spurs on 

 either side disposed with the utmost regularity, each rod form- 

 ing a perfectly straight and strongly-defined line fringed with 

 a double row of beautiful stout green foliage, from among 

 which depend on either side, as if strung with almost mathe- 

 matical accuracy, the lonp Unes of sable pendants which are 

 the crowning glory of the Vine. 



It is now j ust about eighteen years since Mr. Smith undertook 

 the education of what was then a weakly plant, and is now a 

 giant in its way, and we are inclined to think, takiug it aU in all, 

 one of the finest examples of successful Vine culture, and per- 

 haps the Tei7 best example of what is called the extension system 



