382 



JO0BNAL OF HOBTIOULTUBB AND COTTAGB GABDENEB. 



[ October 29, 1874. 



filled and rammed with a compost of wood asheB, garden mould, | allowed to open well, and were gathered in June, except one, 



and a little waste lime (carbonate). The fillicg was securely 

 fastened in by boards. The next year the crop of eonnd fruit 

 was sixteen bushels from an old shell of a tree that had borne 

 nothing of any account for some time. But the strangest part 

 was what followed. For seventeen years after filling, the old 

 Pippin tree continued to flourish and bear well 

 American } 



THE EDELWEISS. 



This, like too many others, has had various names bestowed 

 upon it by botanists. It is now usually mentioned as Leonto- 

 podium vulgare, but it has also been included by previous 

 authorities in one or other of the genera Gnaphalium, Anten- 

 naria, and Filago. 



This plant is a native of the highest mountains of the Alps 

 and Pyrenees, and there 

 on their least acces- 

 sible summits, conse- 

 quently it has been 

 more coveted than it 

 would have been if 

 easily obtainable. One 

 lady was found dead by 

 specimens of this plant 

 which the had suc- 

 ceeded in reaching. 

 Probably it will cease 

 to be so adventurously 

 sought for since the 

 following have appeared 

 in the daily papers : — 



" I write to assure 

 those of your readers 

 that covet the posses- 

 sion of the plant, that 

 it can be most easily 

 grown in England, and 

 requires no special care. 

 In July, 1873, I was at 

 St. Moritz, in the En- 

 gadine, and had a small 

 plant given to me that 

 came, I believe, from 

 the Fex glacier. It was 

 quite ten days before I 

 arrived in England, and 

 I carried my plant, with 

 some other alpine roots, 

 in a small basket, water- 

 ing them occasionally; 

 but had not time to 

 take them out of the 

 basket till I reached 

 home. The leaves of the 

 Edelweiss died down in 



the winter, and I left it in the pot I brought it in, thinking the 

 root had died too. But in the spring I planted it in a flower 

 border ; it speedily revived, and has grown into a large healthy 

 plant. I picked one perfect bloom off it, much finer than I had 

 seen before." 



The Eev. H. Smelt, Wilcott Vicarage, Marlborough, states 

 the following particulars of a specimen of this plant now 

 growing in the garden of that vicarage, at a height by Ordnance 

 Survey of only 423 feet above the level of the sea. " The Edel- 

 weiss in question was brought from Lucerne in the summer of 

 1872 ; it was carried for three days in paper (the little ball of 

 peaty earth nearly dry), in a hat-box to Frankfort-on-Main, 

 where it was potted by a German gardener in German peat, in 

 about the same sized pot as that known to English gardeners 

 as No. (')0, after which it had another five days with but very 

 little water in the same hat-box to this place. On arrival it 

 was immediately planted in the open ground. During the 

 winter (1872-73), whenever snow could be obtained it was care- 

 fully heaped upon it, and in the following summer I was re- 

 warded with one large perfect bloom. Being allowed, how- 

 ever, to remain too long, it lost its proper shape of a star, and 

 grew into three very irregular asterisks of white felt. This 

 year the very dry cold spring and hot burning summer have 

 agreed with it so well that it produced eleven splendid blooms, 

 standing in nearly a circle round the plant. These were 



left, if possible, to seed. The plant is very healthyl but I 

 doubt if, even now, the roots extend beyond the German peat. 

 Every tale has its moral. The moral of this is that, instead 

 of searching for Edelweiss from 7000 to 10,000 feet above the 

 sea, people may find it at 423 feet, and, for aught I know, 

 {Scientiiic 1 lower ; and, instead of breaking their limbs and bruising their 

 persons on the rugged Alps, they may, if they lite, walk across 

 their own English lawns and pick it. I imagine, however, 

 that this will go the way of most morals to tales. It is the 

 spice of danger which makes it edel — noble — and urges men 

 and women to try and get it." 



Leontopodium vulgare belongs to the Natural Order Compo- 

 sitiE (Antennarineie), and the Syngenesia Polygamia superflua 

 of Linnaeus. The name Leontopodium, literally " The Lion's 

 Foot," refers to the soft tufted heads of flowers. Its botanical 

 character is founded on the same. Flower-head terminal, 



enveloped in woolly 



bracts. 



It is single-stemmed, 

 with leaves linear-lan- 

 ceolate in form, and 

 downy on their under 

 side. The flowers are 

 stalkless at the sum- 

 mit of the stem ; they 

 are white with yellow 

 centres, and encircled 

 by hairy calyxes and 

 cottony bracts. The 

 entire plant has a grey 

 appearance. 



Fig. 110.— Edeli^-eiss (leontopodium vclg-^re). 



IRON SASHBABS. 

 In answer to an in- 

 quiry in The Journal 

 OF HoRTicuLTUKE, page 

 217, as to iron sash- 

 bars, a greenhouse and 

 vinery with cast-iron 

 framework and bars, 

 which has been long 

 under my observation, 

 has the disadvantage of 

 requiring paint oftener 

 than wood ; and when 

 this essential is neg- 

 lected any drip from 

 the iron on the plants 

 is injurious. I am not 

 aware of any other ob- 

 jection. 



The late Mr. Erring- 

 ton many years ago, 

 showing me over the 

 houses under his care, one of which was constructed with 

 copper bars, observed to me that he found nothing beat wood 

 for such purposes. — V. 



STKAWBEREY FOE LIGHT SOILS. 

 I AM glad to observe that Mr. Taylor so conclusively confirms 

 what I ventured to advance some time ago, and now reite- 

 rate, that President is the most useful light-soil Strawberry in 

 cultivation. On a light soil I can get double the quantity as 

 compared to any other kind , and of excellent quality. It is my 

 standard variety, and like Mr. Addison with Lynn's Black-eyed 

 Marrow Pea, " I mean to stick to it." But on heavy soil it is 

 another thing. Visitors who have seen the crop, and taken 

 runners and planted them on strong soil, have been dis- 

 appointed. On such soils it is evidently not at home. In a 

 fine Strawberry garden I saw a long line of President, and did 

 not kcow it. " Why," said the gardener, " they are the very 

 plants you gave me." It was a row about 30 yards long, and 

 I am quite certain that at the same time, with some of the same 

 aged — that is, one-year runners, I had double the quantity of 

 fruit on rows one-third the length ; his being in fact almost 

 barren, mine being literally laden with fine produce. The 

 change was so marvellous that I hardly dare mention it, but 

 now Mr. Taylor gives a parallel example, and has drawn it out. 



