148 



JOURNAL OF HORTICDLTTJEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ August 13, 1874. 



Society at South Kensington, where it has attracted the atten- 

 tion of many visitors. There are many situations in a garden 

 in which a summer house of this description would be an 

 ornament, and prove useful as weU, while a covering of heath 

 or reeds would ensure greater coolness in summer than a 

 wooden or tiled roof would do. 



EOSE SHOWS. 



;"9The paragraph in last week's Journal with the familiar 

 signature of "D., Deal," appended to it, concerning a new 

 mode of exhibiting, has struck me with amazement, and 

 almost consternation. I only see your excellent paper, as I find 

 this supplies all my wants, and contains more information about 

 Roses than all the others combined ; and it does not do to 

 discuss a proposition without knowing its exact nature, but yet, 

 as " D., Deal," has opened the question, there can be no harm 

 in my saying what I for one think of it. " To show Koses 

 grouped in beds like they do at the great exhibitions in France." 

 Such, I believe, is the proposition, and a more revolutionary 

 and preposterous one I have never seen. Why, the merits of 

 the individual bloom must be entirely out of the question if 

 grouping or massing is to be the test. What, Messrs. Editors, 

 is to become of all our boxes and tubes which we have got to- 

 gether at so much expense ? What is to become of the small 

 growers? Are they to be left out in the cold, or their small 

 offerings to Flora's court to be swamped by the hecatombs of 

 the champion growers ? 



Then, as to space : How can the managers allot the proper 

 space without having awkward gaps ? for we know, even with 

 our present system, how many persons enter and do not stage, 

 so'that it often happens that all the arrangements made pre- 

 viously by the manager have to be altered on the morning of 

 the show. The boxes have to be moved and made to cover 

 more space, or vice versa. But how could this be done where 

 beds were allotted to each entry ? The secretaries would be 

 compelled to impose a fine, or take some other disagreeable 

 course, to insure the attendance of those who enter (like, I 

 regret to say, Mr. Quilter did at Birmingham, in imposing what 

 really amounted to a fine of £2 on all who entered and did not 

 compete for his champion cups). In fact, the proposition if 

 carried out would be replete with difficulties, and would in my 

 opinion ruin, or at all events greatly decrease, the welfare of 

 every Eose .sliow in England. Such, gentlemen, are my senti- 

 ments. — John B. M. CiJin, Monkton Wtjhl. 



QUISQUALIS PUBESCENS. 



M. HoDLLET directs attention to this as an ornamental plant 

 of the highest merit, but not sufficiently known. He says : 

 I had long cultivated in pots some plants of it, but they never 

 gave the slightest sign of flowering. Two years ago, however, 

 it struck me to turn a plant out in the bed of a stove, and in 

 a short while its branches extended to a length of upwards 

 of 80 feet, and this year formed garlands of flame-coloured 

 flowers. These continue more than two months, and I can 

 affirm that no climber is better suited for covering the pillars 

 and walls of plant stoves. It has, besides, another good 

 quality — that of never being attacked by insects, to which 

 other stove climbers are so subject. It is probable that in the 

 south-east of Prance — at Nice, for instance — it would, like the 

 Bougainvillea, flower well out of doors. It should be planted 

 out in the house in a mixture of leaf mould and loam, to which 

 a little peat may be added for young plants. It is easily pro- 

 pagated by cuttings of the half-ripened shoots put-in in peat 

 soil under a bell-glass in the propagating house. 



The plant belongs to the order Oombretaoete, and being a 

 native of the warm parts of India, it thrives in the stove, and 

 possibly it could even be grown in an intermediate house. — 

 (^Abridged from Revue Sorticole.) 



THE PLAGUE OP GNATS AND PLIES. 



Some of my family have left London to enjoy for a time 

 life in the country. The change is very enjoyable and plea- 

 sant to them, but there is a drawback to their comfort in the 

 plague of gnats and flies. They have written to me for a 

 remedy, and I shall be glad to tell them the best, and one that 

 will be effectual. I hope this will excuse my troubling you. 

 — E. M. M. 



[Will some of onr readers come to the reUef of our corre- 

 spondent, and suggest a remedy? Gnats and flies are difficult 



game to bring down in sufficient quantity to make the sport 

 productive of any beneficial result. They are dillicult to catch, 

 except by the " catch-'em-aUve." You cannot fumigate them 

 without first catching or surrounding them ; to poison them 

 seems the only remedy, and for this purpose we use in dwell- 

 ings " Papier moure," to be had of all grocers and oilmen. 

 —Ens. J. OF H.] 



THE POTATO CROP. 



I SEND you the result of my Potato crop, the whole of 

 which, I am thankful to say, is now safely housed. 



Early Rose, a magnificent crop; Hayes' Kidney, poor; Pat- 

 terson's Victoria, good ; Jersey Blues, very good ; Dalmahoy, 

 very good ; Bresee's King of the Earlies, fair ; Bresee's Peer- 

 less, a splendid crop ; Red-skinned Flourball, poor ; Sutton's 

 New Hundredfold Fluke, excellent. New Extra Early Vermont 

 — of this I planted lib., and have ITJlbs. of Potatoes, some 

 small, but for the most part a fine sample. 



Among all these Potatoes there is not a speck of disease, 

 except among the Bresee's Peerless. Why the disease should 

 have attacked these I cannot conceive ; it is, however, far too 

 valuable a Potato to give up. 



Amongst my Potatoes of every sort are many very small 

 ones. This I attribute to the fact of their having been cut 

 down so often by the spring frosts. Still I hold this to be no 

 argument against early planting, for 



First, the succession of Potato-cutting frosts this spring was 

 quite exceptional. 



Second, it is better to have some small Potatoes amongst 

 the sound ones than to have the whole crop rotten. 



If all the Potatoes had been of good size the ground could 

 not have held them, and then we should have complained of 

 so many green ones. As it is, I have a capital crop on the 

 whole.— H. G M., Guildford. 



PRINCESS ALICE CUCUMBER. 



In the last number of " our Journal," page 119, in your 

 report of the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society at 

 South Kensington on the 5th inst., you say that " Messrs. 

 Gutbush & Sou, of Highgate, sent specimens of Princess AUce 

 Cucumber, a good, prolific, hardy variety of good deep colour, 

 but it was not thought better than other varieties in cultiva- 

 tion," which calls forth our opinion based on three years' trial, 

 and supported by dozens of gardeners who grew it in the last 

 and present season, that it is the best variety for general pur- 

 poses we have yet met with. It is first-class for winter work, 

 ordinary house work, and frames ; hardy in constitution, most 

 prolific bearing, and having firm heavy fruit of a peculiarly 

 nutty flavour. 



We have been for many years, Uke most seedsmen, asked 

 for "a good Cucumber that will do for any purpose;" and 

 until three or four years ago, when we met with Princess Alice 

 in Bedfordshire, we have never been able to procure such a 

 one as would give general satisfaction to our customers ; and 

 if anyone who is at all interested in such a subject would give 

 us a call here within the next three or four weeks, he can be 

 shown it growing in a cool house and in an ordinary pit. 

 Nevertheless, if it is like any other sort we shall be only too 

 pleased to know what the sort is, that we may procure it, and 

 test next year ; but in the meantime we shall maintain our 

 own opinion as to its superiority until proof, direct proof, of 

 our error. — Wji. Cdtbush & Son, Highgate, N. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



We learn that a Pojiological Congkess is to be held at 

 Anoebs, commencing on the 28th of September. The Angers 

 Horticultural Society will have an exhibition of fruit, and all 

 horticultural societies and amateurs both in this and other 

 countries are invited to contribute to the show. The jury is 

 to be chosen from members of the Pomological Congress of 

 France. 



' In the last number of the " Revue Hortioole," M. Car- 



ricsre directs attention to the value of Clematis baleabica as 

 an evergreen cUmber for the conservatory or greenhouse. The 

 plant is a native of the Balearic Isles, and at Paris stands the 

 winter against a wall with a good aspect ; but in this case its 

 flowers are Uable to be nipped by frost owing to the early 

 period (February and March) at which they appear. But for 

 conservatory decoration at that time, when flowers are gene- 



