JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 6, 1870. 



think it adtieable not to have the late Grapes ripe in Septem- 

 ber, as most growers recommend, but that the beginning of 

 October is preferable, because then we can maintain a high 

 temperature all through the month with advantage to the 

 Vines and fruit. — Willum Tatlok. 



A NEW MODE OP GROWING GEAPES. 



This new mode embraces two alterations of the old mode, 

 consiBting in a peculiar construction of building and also in a 

 peculiar construction of the receptacle for the roots. I will 

 not waste many words in the description of my plan. 



The house, now seven or eight years old, consists of slanting 

 sides running north and south. These sides are 3 J feet from 

 each other at the top and 7 feet at the bottom, and 9 feet in 

 height ; the top is covered with glass in the usual manner. 

 The houses I first built were only 27 feet in length, a door at 

 each end being sufficient for ventilation. The Vines are 

 trained to the sides. The peculiarity of these houses con- 

 sists in the angle of the sides allowing the rays of the sun to 

 glance off at the time when burning usually takes place. 

 Daring the several years Grapes have been grown on this 

 plan not a leaf has been scorched, although both doors have 

 been closed for ripening during the hottest part of the day— in 

 fact these bouses are sun-traps, the air of which becomes 

 heated to 90' and upwards, the only effect being to ripen and 

 thoroughly blacken the crop. 



These houses cost me £12 10s. each ; they are imperishable, 

 the wood having been soaked in creosote, and there is no 

 putty. I do not think there has been more than one broken 

 tquare of glass since their erection ; they cost nothing for 

 repairs. Persons from distant parts of the country have come 

 for patterns of these houses. I had not finer bunches or 

 berries of Black Hamburgh in any of the other houses. There 

 is no artificial heat. 



My plan of treating the roots of Vines is rather a novel one. 

 Some years since when visiting a vinery at Sootney Castle 1 

 observed that there was a trench, 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep, 

 out through the Vine border close to the wall. The gardener 

 informed me he did this in order that ho might fill it with 

 leaves, which exhaled snlficient moisture to keep the air from 

 becoming too dry. I have never seen more magniticent Grapes 

 than in that house. He called my attention to the manner 

 in which the roots extended themselves into the leaf mould. 

 He pulled up one of the main roots, the end of which was a 

 mass of rootlets resembling a sponge. I then saw at once the 

 cause of his success ; he informed me he cut these oS every 

 year, took out the somewhat exhausted leaf mould, and added 

 fresh leaves as before well trodden down. From this de- 

 scription it will be easily seen how the following plan would 

 answer: — 



Make a trough 10 feet long by 3 feet wide, and 1 foot in 

 depth, to be slightly slantiug to admit of water passing out. 

 This trough can be constructed of wood (the commonest fir 

 being the best) soaked in creosote at 180' temperature. This 

 trough will last for ever if recently creosoted. Pave it on all 

 Bides with old turf before planting the Vine. The soil should be 

 of the richest description, and well-rotted leaf mould ; there will 

 be 30 cube feet on five bushels of soil. By the time the Grapes 

 are ripe this will be reduced to about one-half, unless more 

 has been added on the surface, which, if well rotted, has a 

 good effect. When the plant is at rest let four men with four 

 steel forks lift up the entire roots and shake off the soil. If 

 necessary prune the roots, take away all the old soil, half-fill 

 the trough with fresh soil, lay the roots as soon as possible 

 evenly on this surface, and then fill up to the height of the 

 trough, which, if required, may be on small wheels, and if 

 placed inside one of the above houses must be only 7 feet long, 

 and there may be two rods to each Vine. Boards can be 

 placed across the troughs for walking on. — Obsebveb. 



IRIS RETICULATA. 

 This charming Iris can ba enjoyed only when under glass, 

 but I find that when grown in pots the bulbs become smaller 

 and do not flower the second year. As the price still keeps 

 up I presume that other people are equally unsuccessful. 

 Possibly the plan I adopt with the Persian Iris might answer 

 with this — namely, to grow it in the open border, picking off 

 any flowers. In autumn lift, pot the best plants, and return 

 the others to the ground. Iris pavonia is not hardy enough for 

 this treatment, but it is so cheap that there must be some easy 



plan practised in Holland of obtaining bulbs of a flowering 

 size. — G. S. 



THE CYCLAMEN, 



AND HOW MANY SPECIES AEE THERE IN OEDINAET 

 CULTIVATION ? 



As the Cyclamen has been recently alluded to, and the 

 names of about a score, either species or varieties, have been 

 mentioned, may I ask how many really distinct species of 

 Cyclamen there are in ordinary cultivation for decorative 

 purposes, and what are their distinctive features ? I con- 

 fess being completely at a loss to make anything like the 

 number put forth as having distinctive botanical names ; 

 whereas if every form or change of colouring which a batch 

 of seed will produce has to be dignified with a name the list 

 may be indefinitely extended. If anyone would undertake the 

 task of defining them into anything like a list, however short 

 it may be, of distinct botanical species he would confer a 

 boon on horticulture ; or if this be not attainable, would some 

 one give us the leading characteristics of each section ? 



For my own part I am very sceptical of there being more 

 than three or fourreally distinct species in ordinary collections, 

 or rather in cultivation for decorative purposes, and very 

 possibly there may not be so many. Where, then, have all the 

 other names sprung from ? And how many could with pro- 

 priety ba appended to the very meritorious collections of finely 

 flowered plants that grace horticultural shows in winter as 

 well as in autumn and spring ? The difiiculty seems the greater 

 from the fact that it often happens that a batch of seedlings 

 from one plant present features widely different from each 

 other both in the making and colouring of the foliage as well 

 as in that of the flowers. The former, which is often regarded 

 as an important part of the plant, is occasionally found with 

 plain rounded leaves devoid of any marking, as well as with 

 foliage of other shapes, and equalling the Begonia in the 

 beauty of its colouring. Now, is it right to call both these 

 examples varieties of C. persicum, which seems the most suit- 

 able name for the kinds that require the aid of a glass struc- 

 ture in winter, and, in fact, are all the better for a little heat 

 to bring out their flowers at that time? But now and then, 

 in favourable seasons, a fair bloom may be had out of doors 

 in the autumn from the same class of plants when the sum- 

 mer and early autumn have favoured their advancing into 

 flower ; but this flowering out of doors, like that of the 

 Camellia under like circumstances, is not always to be depended 

 upon, the ordinary period of flowering being winter and early 

 spring ; but that does not answer the question of what species 

 or variety it is related to, or rather to which it belongs. 



We all know the ordinary white Cyclamen, that flowers before 

 its foliage very early in the autumn, is a hardy one, blooming 

 with us about the same time as the autumn Crocus, which 

 also presents itself without foliage, and in warm summers both 

 are frequently in bloom by the end of August, the ground 

 often dry and very hard at the time, yet this Cyclamen may 

 often be met with a mass of flowers at that time, nestling at 

 the root of some plant or tree where it is not entirely shaded. 

 But, somehow, it is very shy in producing seed in such a position 

 compared with the tender varieties when planted out in sum- 

 mer. Perhaps, however, the advantages given to the latter in 

 the way of leaf soil and the like in which the plant can bury 

 its seed vessels may conduce to its doing better than one 

 whose seed would seem to ripen in the winter. Be this as it 

 may, I do not recollect meeting with any self-sown plants 

 of the hardy one alluded to, while the other comes up by 

 hundreds in the bed where the plants have been grown in 

 summer. 



Now the early autumn-flowering hardy Cyclamen would 

 seem to be quite distinct in every point of view from the 

 greenhouse class, but how many really botanic forms the 

 latter can lay claim to I should like to know ; also whether 

 the whole may not be the result of hybridisation, artificial or 

 natural, or both, that has given us the plants now so much 

 admired ; and if so, would it not be as well to drop many 

 of the names that now serve no further purpose than swelling- 

 out catalogues of such plants ? In doing this I by no means 

 wish to discourage the cultivation of as many varieties aa 

 can be had, but I ask, la it right to give such varieties 

 botanical names ? and to ask some one to define what really 

 distinctive species those under ordinary cultivation consist of, 

 and whether giving such names as C. ibericum, africanum, 

 neapohtantmi, persicum, and others, may not after all be 



