October 29, 167-1. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICDLTDBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



377 



ing it oan be put into a shed or iinder a stage till spring, and 

 disrooted and grown on. I used to grow six plants of it, and 

 it was much cnred for by the late Countess of Wemyss. I 

 believe it would bloom out of doors in autumn in a warm 

 Bheltered spot.— John Addison, Onniaton, Tranent, N.B. 



MILDEWED VINES— AVOID A SPDET. 

 When Ovid prescribed his well-known but I fear little-heeded 

 remedies of love, one of the precepts ho urged upon all de- 

 sirous of getting rid of the tender passion was that they should 

 look upon the dark side of everything. 



" Ad mala quisque animum referat sua." 

 And as an instance of this he says — 



" Est tibi rure bono generosfp fertilia uvse: 

 Vinea ne uascens uva sit usta, time." 



Which I render thus — 



" A fruitful vineyard on rich soil is thine : 

 Suspect tach berry i7iildewt'd on the Vine." 



Such has been the actual case with my Vines this year. In 

 an orchard house 120 feet in length my Vines have usually 

 been most prolific, but this year the earliest leaves, and the 

 wood also on which they grew, presented a mildewed appear- 

 ance. The berries attained no plumpness, and were so utterly 

 good for nothing, that I was surprised that even the wasps 

 liked them. I shall be glad to know upon your authority 

 whether it will be worth my while to retain these Vines. I 

 may mention that I have observed other Vines on my neigh- 

 bours' walls similarly affected. I send you a leaf, and " ex uno 

 disce omncs." My Peaches, on the other hand, have been plen- 

 tiful and excellent, and have not only given me in succession 

 fine fruit from the Itth of July till the beginning of this 

 month, but have supplied many of my friends' tables also. So 

 many blossoms set in the spring that my chief care was to 

 thin. This I always do severely, for I remember when I was 

 in the Oxford crew old Coombes, our trainer, used to say, 

 when he thought our boat, "Juveiulibus acta lacertis," was 

 going at a iiihHi/ pace, " Govern yourselves, gents ! " He well 

 knew in a six-mile race the vanity of spurts, and that a long 

 pull, and a strong pull, and a pull all together, was the correct 

 thing. Well, sir, we lost our race that year, partly owing to 

 our disregard of his instructions, though doubtless we should 

 have been distanced anyhow, for the Cambridge was a clip- 

 ping crew. There were two Denmans in it, the sons of a Judge 

 who had himself walked when a young man from Cambridge 

 to London, and the elder of the two destined to be a Judge, 

 while the younger performed the same pedestrian feat. There 

 was a Cobbold in it, who on account of his many-horse power 

 was called " The Steam Engine," and a likely Westminster lad 

 named Vialls, whom we rather disrespectfully called " Bottles," 

 the stroke oar. This, I know, is a digression ; but patience, 

 good sir, I shall soon come to my horticultural point. We 

 became like exhausted trees from an overcrop of Peaches, for 

 owing to an accidental circumstance, involving the catching of a 

 crab on the larboard side, we came to grief at the start, and 

 our stroke, anxious to make up for the ground, or rather water, 

 lost by this disaster, and oblivious of Coombes' oft-repeated 

 formula, " Govern yourselves, gents ! " put on a terrific spurt 

 before we had got our second wind ; and although the imme- 

 diate result of this ill-advised burst was nearly to overhaul our 

 opponents at the Horseferry (we used to row from Westminster 

 to Putney in those days), yet after that we saw no more of 

 them until we met them at dinner at the Bells Tavern, for no 

 Lord Mayor used to ask us to dine then ; if he had we should 

 have sent him a prompt and civil reply. 



Well, but now to my application. When my Peach trees are 

 covered with early fruit I say to them, " Govern yourselves, 

 gents ! Do not exhaust yourselves by overdoing it, and taxing 

 too much your latent energies. Slow and steady wins the race." 

 And I take the liberty at stated intervals of divesting them of 

 their redundant fruit until I have reduced them to about one 

 Peach per square foot, and the result is not only plenty of 

 Peaches, but fruit large, well ripened, and delicious. — A Con- 

 stant Reader. 



Question. — Does " usta uva" mean a mildeiced berry ? 



[How shall we answer such an olla podrida of queries and 

 information, in phrases varying from " lively to severe? " (we 

 should have written "serious" instead of "severe," but there 

 is one syllable too many) — we will endeavour to respond in 

 unison. Your Vines are severely mildewed. Burn all the 

 leaves when fallen, then paint the entire vinery, and Vines, 



stems, and branches, with a creamy mixture of clay, lime, and 

 flowers of sulphur; pare off an inch of the inside'border, and 

 dust the whole of the surface with flowers of sulphur. Judging 

 from the leaf sent, we think the house is kept too damp and 

 too little ventilated. Then as to thinning Peaches— and the 

 apothegm applies to all fruit — old Coombes' warning was appli- 

 cable; and we remember an old clergyman, who must have 

 been " A Constant Eeadeh'.s " fellow student at Oxford, who 

 thinned the crops of his dwarf standard Apple trees unmerci- 

 fully, and who used to observe, " I wish my parishioners could 

 thin their families like that." 



" Ueta uva " may mean a mildewed Grape ; but as we know 

 of no mention in any of the Latin Scriptores Eei Rustica) or 

 Geoponio authors who mention mildew by any other name 

 than rubigo, we incline to think that Ovid took his simile from 

 what gardeners now term " the rust," not only because it 

 agrees with the interpretation of "usta," burnt or browned, 

 but because it also is early noticeable upon outdoor Grapes, 

 which alone were known to the Romans; and that young 

 berries were referred to seems indicated by employing the 

 term "nascens," beginning to grow. — Eds.] 



NOVELTIES IN THE EOYAL GAEDENS, KEW. 



In the Temperate house in flower is the beautiful Lapogeria 

 rosea var. alba. The flowers are of the purest white, and 

 chaste in form. To show them to the best advantage the 

 plant must be trained above the level of the eye, and it is then 

 an object of great elegance. This may also be said of the 

 species, to which, of course, the treatment we shall give apphes. 

 It does well in a greenhouse, in shade or otherwise, and may 

 be grown with success in cool ferneries and Orchid houses. 

 Except when required for special purposes, it is always best 

 to plant out ; greater success is insured, and with less trouble. 

 Good drainage is essential. The soil may consist of rough 

 peat and loam, chiefly of the former, with which may be 

 mixed pieces of sandstone or broken bricks. Care must be 

 taken not to have the mass too solid. Snails are extremely 

 fond of the young shoots, and it is necessary to guard against 

 them. It is a good plan to use the hollow rings of earthen 

 ware filled with water as for Dahlias. Increase is effected 

 from cuttings or layers, and also from seeds, which must be 

 secured by artificial impregnation, as the fruit does not set of 

 itself. It is very nearly, if not quite, hardy. An old plant 

 taken from one of the houses has lived on the wall of the 

 herbaceous ground for the last two winters, and though much 

 punished by removal, has been gradually recovering. We hope 

 soon to hear of the Philageiia Veitchii being sent out. It is 

 an interesting hybrid, obtained by the Messrs. Veitch between 

 Lapageria rosea and Philesia buxifolia ; the former was fer- 

 tilised with pollen from the latter, the result is nearly inter- 

 mediate, inclining to Lapageria. Philesia is thriving on a rock- 

 work in this house, where it is very ornamental when in flower. 

 It does well with the same general treatment as given for its 

 ally, but being a dwarf shrub requires a different position, and 

 may rightly be planted on a rockwork devoted to Ferns. We 

 recommend a trial out of doors, it having been described as 

 " probably hardy.'-' 



Rhodochiton volubile trained ou a wire has a very pretty 

 appearance. It is an old acquaintance that should not be for- 

 gotten, though now but httle cultivated. The leaves are 

 heart-shaped and handsome. Flowers are produced in pro- 

 fusion, and long after the corolla has fallen the largo pink 

 calyx remains, forming in this case an attractive Hue of colour. 

 Cuttings may be struck, selecting the small and less vigoioua 

 branches. It is a natve of Mexico, and is allied to Lophosper- 

 mum, from which it differs but little. 



Cyathea meduUaris is one of the noblest of tree Ferns, and 

 a plant iu one of the beds is, perhaps, the finest to be seen 

 anywhere. It is about 24 feet high; the fronds are about 

 12 feet long, and those that are withered hang down, affording 

 a natural protection to the stem, preserving it from undue 

 dryness. A noticeable feature is the violet black colour of 

 the rachis of the fronds. The spores may be sown iu •5-inch 

 pots ; half fill with drainage, and then add a mixture of peat 

 and small crocks to within an inch of the top ; over the mouth 

 place a piece of glass, and stand the pot in a saucer of water. 

 The young plants should be pricked-out separately as soon as 

 they can be distinguished. While on the subject of raising, 

 we may remark that most Ferns for furnishing purposes are 

 best managed by pricking-off little clumps of the prothallia 

 before the fronds appear, to be grown-on without separation 



