January 20, 187G. ] 



JOUBNAL Of HOimCULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



49 



foliage and fine flowers ; hence it is advisable to keep the pots 

 plunged. 



By a judicious system of airing, the frame treatment will 

 bring the plants into flower three weeks earlier than those 

 planted in the garden, and they will be equally fine. A most 

 important point is to keep the glass clean, for with light the 

 plants will not be injuriously drawn even if only a small quan- 

 tity of air is admitted, and the warmer temperature will expe- 

 dite the blooming season. 



I have been in the habit of growing bulbs largely, and, next 

 to the Hyacinths, the Ranunculuses have been the most prized. 

 If a failure occurred it arose from exposing the pots to a dry 

 atmosphere, and in attempting to force the plants in a higher 

 temperature than they would endure. A cool frame, judicious 

 attention, and patience have always brought me a reward of 

 healthy plants and handsome flowers. As they have rewarded 

 me so will they others who treat the plants similarly. Try 

 them.— B. C. B. 



H.EMATOXYLON CAMPECHIANDM. 

 This evergreen stove plant, which attains to a moderately- 

 sized^tree in South America, furnishes the logwood of com- 



a fine grain, and is susceptible of a fine polish. It is chiefly 

 employed by the calico printer to give cotton a black or a 

 brown colour ; if it be dyed with an alum mordaunt in a 

 decoction of logwood it becomes black. It was first cultivated 

 in Jamaica in 1715, from seeds brought from the Bay of 

 Campeachy, and was introduced into English gardens in 1724. 

 Its colouring properties depend on a pecaUar principle called 

 hemuloxijlin or hematin. 



MISTLETOE CULTURE. 



Mr. Kentish in his entertaining paper has stated that the 

 Mistletoe cannot keep the tree alive on which it is growing, 

 neither can it support itself if its foster parent is denuded of its 

 own growth. This may be true, yet the Mistletoe will flourish 

 when the tree to which it is attached has but very few live 

 twigs. Some of the finest "Mistletoe boughs" that I have 

 seen were those on which the parasite had so far taken pos- 

 session of a tree that the growth of that tree was almost 

 entirely subdued : still there were some live twigs. 



Bat what I wish to particularly mention now is a mode of 

 growing the Mistletoe which I once saw in the nursery of Mr. 

 Charles Van Geert at Antwerp. These were miniature Mis- 

 tletoe trees grown precisely after the manner of standard 

 Eoses. The stems, if I recollect rightly, were Thorn, 3 to 

 4 feet high, and the heads of Mistletoe were round, dense, and 

 about a foot in diameter, some being covered with fruit. But 

 in these heads a few twigs of Thorn were encouraged to grow, 

 but they were so few as scarcely to be noticeable. These 

 miniature Mistletoe trees had a most novel appearance, and I 

 was not surprised to hear that they had sold rapidly. Only a 

 very few were left at the time of my visit. 



It would be instructive to know if Mistletoe can with any 

 degree of certainty be cultivated in that manner, and whether 

 it is established by grafting or seeds. It is an experiment that 

 might well be made in the Mistletoe-growing districts, and 

 plants similar to those which Mr. Van Geert had produced at 

 Antwerp could not fail to create a sensation in Covent Garden 

 Market at Christmas time.— J. B. 



OLD APPLE TREES. 



Fig. 12.— Hffimatosylon campechianum. 



meice, and from the colour of which its name is derived — haima, 

 blood, and xijlon, wood. It belongs to the order of Legumi- 

 nous plants, and has agreeable foliage and slender racemes of 

 yellow flowers. It is of easy cultivation and may be readily 

 increased from seeds, which, however, germinate more freely if 

 steeped in warm water for some hours before sowing. Cut- 

 tings of partially-ripened yoang shoots also strike freely in 

 sand under a bellglass. A compost of loam, peat, and sand 

 is suited to the requirements of this plant with a temperature 

 in summer of 70' to 85", and in winter .50° to 55°. 



It is a native of Campeachy, the shores of Honduras Bay, 

 and other parts of tropical America ; but it has been intro- 

 duced into Jamaica, where it has become naturalised. The 

 flowers are fragrant, and give out an agreeable odour said to 

 resemble that of the Jonquil. The wood is hard, compact, and 

 heavy, with a specific gravity higher than that of water ; has 



The able way your correspondent " Eadical Conservative" 

 has treated the subject of old trees at page 32 leaves little to 

 bo said, and what I may add shall be confined to old Apple 

 trees. I confess, like " Radical Conservative," to have some 

 misgiving on the subject of pruning old Apple trees, but I 

 differ with him entirely on the subject of heading-down and 

 regrafting them ; for although the scions may take very well, 

 and a strong growth follow, it often happens that the trees die 

 in less than half a dozen years after the operation, and long 

 before a similar tree would have succumbed that had not been 

 so treated. So repeatedly is this the case that the experienced 

 orchard manager knows at a glance whether it is worth while 

 subjecting a tree to the process or not. 



As an example of this I may mention a case that has only 

 received its final termination the day I write this. Three 

 years ago I received a number of grafts of new kinds of Apples 

 which I was anxious to propagate, but not having young stocks, 

 an old tree was cut down. The tree was healthy, and on an 

 average might yield, perhaps, a dozen or more bushels of fruit 

 annually. Well, the branches of this tree were cut off mostly 

 at places where they were as thick as the handle of an ordi- 

 nary working tool, and were crown-grafted. The scions took 

 very well, and for two years looked promising, but last year I 

 found one-third of the tree died in early summer and a similar 

 portion later on, leaving only a distorted, one-sided, ugly 

 object that evidently was only likely to drag out a wretched 

 existence, so the spade and mattock made short work of it 

 to-day. I may add that I had previously secured scions of 

 most ol the kinds the year after the tree was grafted, as its death 

 was not unlocked for ; and I only mention it here to prove the 

 inutility of regrafting old trees, for the fellows to this one that 

 were operated upon are still healthy and bearing, one or more 

 of them having had twenty bushels of fruit on it the past 

 season, and likely to do service for many years yet. So much 

 for regrafting old trees. 



And now to the matter of pruning old trees. Tho operation 

 performed above was only an extreme case of pruning, the tree 

 being only cut down, or rather its branches cut off, leaving 

 some forty or fifty beads or points, but showing in the result 



