342 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOUliTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



( October 15, 1874. 



vast variety of climate and soil of Queensland, it must of 

 necessity be the case that each locality has a distinct descrip- 

 tion of vegetation most suited to it. 



The reserve proclaimed at Toowoomba, on the Darling 

 Downs, has long been needed for the successful cultivation of 

 plants requiring a much cooler region than the neighbourhood 

 of Brisbane. The elevation and atpect are well adapted for the 

 Grape Vine, the Peach, the Apricot, the Nectarine, the Plum, 

 the Cherry, the Apple, the Pear, the Walnut, the Hickory Nut, 

 the Spanish Chestnut, the Hazel Nut, the Jerusalem Filbert, 

 the Fig, the Strawberry, the Hop, and the Orange, not to speak 

 cf the various useful and ornamental trees and shrubs that 

 adorn the parks of the old country, such as the Oak, the 

 Horse Chestnut, the Alder, the Birch, the Hornbeam, the 

 Beech, the Guelder Kose, &a. There might be also added 

 many of the trees of North America, such as the glorious 

 Magnolias, and others. 



CULTDEE OF PEAS. 



The varieties of Peas are legion, and I think it is useless to 

 have sixty or seventy sorts offered by seedsmen, when three or 

 four are quite enough for any gardener to grow to keep up a 

 supply from June till October. During the twenty years I 

 was gardener at Gosford I only grew two or three sorts, and 

 need to have Peas some seasons up to the 10th of November. 

 I grow Peas now to send to Edinburgh market ; and some years 

 I grew two acres, but not above three-quarters of an acre this 

 season. The sort I grew for early work this year was Kentish 

 Invicta, which I find better than Sangster's No. 1. I am told 

 Multum-in-Parvo is the best early Pea, but I do not know it. 



The Pea I have grown for a late crop for twenty-five years 

 is Lynn's Black-eyed Marrow, the only Pea I know with a black 

 eye, and I have seen no Pea to surpass it. It grows 4 feet high, 

 is a branching sort, is not apt to mildew, bears profusely, and 

 is sweet, and the pods fill well, though not so large as Veitch's 

 Perfection ; but with me it bears far better, and will retain its 

 flavour till nearly ripe. If the soil is suitable for Peas it may 

 be planted 4 to 6 inches between each pea ; if sown thickly 

 they are sure to rot, or will not bear well. I introduced this 

 Pea to Scotland thirty-two years ago from Hackney. I got a 

 quart of it sent by the mail coach, and when I saw it in a 

 bearing state I kept all for seed, and have grown it ever since. 

 1 think Little Gem (Maclean's) a very useful sort. I sowed about 

 1000 square yards of it on the 15th of July, 20 inches between 

 the rows, and now (October 13th), I could puU a quantity fit 

 for table, and it is blooming in great style. I enclose a pod of 

 it. It requires no stakes ; and as a rule I do not believe in 

 staking Peas. I sowed Lynn's Pea this year on 7th May, and 

 on the 3rd of this month I pulled twenty pecks on one day. 



From my own experience I would say to those who want a 

 Bupply of Peas from June tDl October, if they sow the best early 

 Pea known, and at the same time Maclean's Advancer and 

 Lynn's, and then go on with the latter till the end of April, 

 they will not regret it. I have tried Carter's G. F. Wilson 

 beside Lynn's ; but I prefer the latter, and I like to stick to 

 an old friend till he deceives me. — John Addison, Ormistoii, 

 Tranent, N.B. 



FLOWERS FOR OUR BORDERS.— No. 42. 



FORSYTHIA VIEIBISSIMA.— Deep Geeen FoRSYTHli. 



Among the numerous valuable plants discovered by Mr. 

 Fortune on his first visit to China, and subsequently intro- 

 duced to this country, two are remarkable for the profusion of 

 their large yellow flowers, produced, in the case of one, in the 

 very heart of winter, and in that of the other in early spring. 

 We allude to Jasminum nudiflorum and Forsythia viri- 

 diBsima. It is doubtless some drawback on the merits of these 

 fine shrubs, that in both the blossoms appear before the leaves ; 

 but winter flowers are so acceptable, even when, as in these 

 instances, unaccompanied by their usual leafy attendants, 

 that this circumstance has not prevented them from attaining 

 a considerable place in the estimation of the public. Both 

 are highly ornamental objects for a wall when this can be 

 spared, for although the shrubs themselves are quite hardy, 

 the flowers of the Forsythia sometimes suffer from severe 

 frost when grown as a bush or standard, as in the case of 

 many winter-flowering plants ; and the shoots of the Jasmine 

 are of such tenuity, that some support is rendered necessary 

 by this circumstance alone. 



Forsythia viiidissima is a free-growing shrub, reaching ulti- 



mately the height of 8 feet, or even more, with somewhat 

 angular branches, which when mature are of a dark brown 

 tint. The leaves are opposite, generally lance-shaped, acute, 

 and toothed at the margin from the middle upwards, but 

 entire near the base; they are, when full grown, of a clear 

 deep green colour, to which circumstance the specific name 

 alludes. In the axUs of each leaf a small bud is formed, 

 which, as the autumn advances, becomes gradually more con- 

 spicuous, until, when the leaves have fallen, these buds assume 

 so prominent an aspect as to form a marked feature in its 

 winter physiognomy. They remain dormant until March, 

 when they gradually unfold themselves and disclose a pro- 

 fusion of large bright yellow blossoms, emitting a delicate- 

 balsamic odour, in which respect they have an advantage over 

 those of the Jasminum nudiflorum, which are scentless. The 

 flowers are produced sometimes in pairs, but often singly, on 

 short footstalks so slender that the blossoms are generally 

 drooping; they are, as already intimated, of considerable size, 

 somewhat campanulate in form, with a short tube plaited 

 within, and a limb cleft into four spreading obtuse segments. 

 The stamens are two in number, with filaments so short that 

 they are quite concealed in the tube. 



Fig. 100. — Forsythia vixidieeima. 



The Forsythia is easily cultivated, and as easily increaped, 

 the most ready mode of propagating it being by layers ; but 

 cuttings of the ripened wood aWout a foot or more long, taken 

 off in autumn and planted in sandy loam, wUl root freely. 



A soil of this character is also best suited for established 

 plants ; in rich moist earth it produces long-jointed shoots, 

 and continues its growth later in autumn than is compatible 

 with the due maturation of the wood. A situation against a 

 wall is to be preferred for it, because in this position the shoots 

 will be subjected to a greater amount of heat, which will ma- 

 terially assist the ripening process. It cannot be too often 

 repeated that in this consists the whole art and mystery of 

 acclimatising the plants of warmer regions than our own, 

 though in this instance we have to deal with a plant from a 

 district where the winters are certainly much more severe than 

 in any part of Great Britain. The summers are, however, of 

 an equally extreme character, and the shrubs and other plants 

 of the north of China are therefore well prepared by the roast- 

 ing they undergo to endure the subsequent reduction of tempe; 

 rature. As a further illustration of this principle, we may 

 remark that in the neighbourhood of New York, where, as our 

 readers know, the winters are of a rigorous nature, the For- 

 sythia flowers freely as a bush or standard, and this ia to be 



