Jauuai'j 27, 1876. ] 



JOUBNAL OF liORTIOULXUBE AND COl'TAGK GARDENER. 



71 



flowering the first year, and has given me some seed which I 

 intend shall be proved. 



Before testing the correctness of the atatemeut I name it at 

 a period enabling others to try this mode of culture, for a 

 supply of small healthy flowering plants cannot fail to be 

 most valuable in hundreds of gardens. 



The plants when not stopped for flowering the same season 

 require to be potted rather deeply, giving small shifts from 

 thumbs onwai'ds to .'-inch pots; miniature plants, however, 

 flowering freely in .'i-inch pots. Other plants should be stopped 

 for making larger specimens the following season. The plants 

 require brisk top and bottom heat, pleuty of light and copious 

 supplies of water in their growing season, including frequent 

 sjriagings. The plan is worthy of a trial, for if it fails the 

 lo5s will be small, while if it succeeds the gain will be great. 

 —11. U. S. 



MUSS.ENDA FRONDOSA. 



Unuek the above name I have for some years cultivated 

 plants which have never failed being admired by those for 

 whom they were provided and their many visitors. The plants, 

 which have flowered throughout the winter and during the 

 early spring months, have afforded a tino contrast to the effect 

 produced by the Poinssttias. 



Liko the Poinsettias, the Musstendas are not ornamental by 

 their flowers so much as by the bracts accompanying them. 

 In the former plants these bracts are rich scarlet, in the latter 

 pure white. The plants are altogether smaller than the Poin- 

 sfttias in habit, foliage, and flower heads; yet I have fre- 

 quently had pure white discs of Jlussjendas 8 inches in diameter, 

 and when half a dozen of these are produced on one plant the 

 effect is something to be admired. 



But these plants are not of the easiest culture, and hence it is, 

 perhaps, that they are so seldom seen in gardens. They are 

 stove plants, requiring much the same treatment as Gardenias, 

 to which they are allied, both genera belonging to the natural 

 order Cinchonaceffi. Yet the MnsEiendas require more closely 

 pruning than Gardenias ; but I have invariably had the finest 

 heads from young plants which have been treated as follows ; 



Select healthy cuttings of the young spring growth, but not 

 too soft, and strike them in sand in brisk heat. Pot them off 

 when rooted in small pots, using peat and a free admixture of 

 fiilver sand. Plunge the pots in bottom heat and syringe the 

 plants freely. Shift-on as required, using loam with the peat 

 when the plants have attained strength. Stop them once or 

 twice, but not after July. I have occasionally struck five cuttings 

 in a pot, and shifted them on without separating the plants, 

 obtaining thereby good heads, but sacrificing compact habit. 



During the growing season the plants require brisk heat, a 

 moist atmosphere, and plenty of light. Until the pots are 

 filled with roots they should be plunged in bottom heat, and 

 after that period they should be placed on a shelf in the stove 

 as near the glass as possible to prevent the plants being drawn. 

 After blooming they should be rested, and subsequently cut 

 down, starting them again in heat and renewing their soil; 

 but young plants are the best. — W. J. B. 



FLOWERS IN THE NORTH. 



Now that the winter appears to be gone we are having some 

 lovely bracing breezes from the west and the rays of old Sol 

 to cheer us. We feel braced up for fresh action with a rise in 

 temperature of some 12' or 14% and are anticipating the 

 spring. We have a few lingering tokens left us of the past 

 year in the shape of hardy Perpetual Roses, and the old friend 

 Gloire de Dijon gives us a few buds yet, and the Christmas 

 Koso is still affording us pleasure in the sunshine and for 

 bouquets, and the Jasminum nudiflorum is gay as gay can be 

 at this season. The old monthly China Rose affords us nice 

 buds for a variety of purposes. Forsythia viridissima is no 

 way behind with its lovely yellow blooms ; a few stray blooms 

 of Cydonia japonica, too, are very desirable at this midwinter 

 season. 



Then we are in possession of some of the harbingers of 

 spring. The Winter Aconite is in bloom ; the Snowdrops are 

 peeping ; the Salix is pushing on for Palm Sun- tide ; the Cycla- 

 mens with their beautiful foliage, flowers in themselves ; the 

 Daphne mezereum almost tempted to break forth ; the Daisy 

 peeping up among the grass ; the Dandelion half afraid to 

 show his face to the sun ; Primroses greeting us with their 

 cheerful presence ; the Bearsfoot rearing np its head in its 



wilderness home ; a stray shoot of Alyssum saxatile giving us 

 a few blooms; Violet,-;, too, are doing us good service in a sunny 

 corner, with other of our old favourites, telling us to antici- 

 pate the spring. — M. H., Bedale, Yorkshire. 



GEOS COLMAN GRAPE. 



Permit me to thank your correspondents for detailing their 

 experience with this fine-looking Grape. 



My object was to test its merits as to quality. I am glad to 

 note that in this respect it has proved better than I had anti- 

 cipated. My experience of the Grape was limited to cool 

 treatment, and the fruit was not good, and when I have 

 tested it in half a dozen gardens under similar treatment I 

 have always found it deficient in flavour. This, it wonld 

 appear, was because it requii-ed more heat to bring out its 

 good quaUties, for in every instance where it has proved 

 satisfactory the Vines have received Muscat treatment. 



A fair amount of evidence is now furnished that Gros 

 Colman is worthy of cultivation if heat can be afforded to 

 perfect its fruit. It is, besides being a good keeper, one of 

 the most imposing of black Grapes, and, especially for market 

 purposes, will produce most tempting fruit. 



It ought also to be of good quality, or it should not have 

 taken first honours at the great Show at South Kensington, 

 where I read of its beating " splendid fruit " of Lady Downe's 

 from Mr. Kniller of Malshanger Park, and Mr. Coleman of 

 Eastnor Castle. As neither those growers nor the sort they 

 exhibited is easily beaten, Mr. Wildsmith must have had 

 something more than appearance to have turned the scale in 

 his favour with Gros Colman. 



Although it is exceedingly easy to err in arriving at a con- 

 clusion too hastily, yet the testimony forthcoming would seem 

 to warrant at least one Vine being tested in every well-heated 

 vinery where a variety of Grapes are not objected to, and it is 

 equally evident that Gros Colman will not perfect its fruit in 

 a low temperature. — Ex-Exuibitok. 



PEARS AND THEIR CULTURE.— No. 1. 



The culture of Pears is beset with few difficulties which 

 may not be overcome by ordinary care and painstaking. True 

 it is that some delicate sorts are materially affected by climate 

 and soil, yet really good kinds are so numerous that it is quite 

 possible to make a good selection for everyone and everywhere 

 in this country. 



The stocks upon which Pears are grafted often exercise 

 greater influence upon the growth and fruit than either climate 

 or soil. Nurserymen are fully aware of this, and those with 

 whom fruit trees are a speciality take especial care to graft 

 each kind upon a suitable stock — thus we find preference 

 given to the Quince for one kind, another is found to answer 

 best upon the Pear, and others again require a system of 

 double grafting. I have numerous examples of each kind, the 

 flourishing condition of which, and the excellent fruit that 

 many of them have produced, affords ample proof of the 

 fitness of the stocks and the soundness of the judgment exer- 

 cised in their selection. 



The most useful, and therefore the best, forms for trained 

 Pear trees are the pyramidal for orchards and the quarters of 

 a fruit garden; a modified form of the horizontal, derived from 

 the French and termed Palmetto Verrier, for walls and espaliers ; 

 and cordons for the same purpose. We are now so familiar 

 with cordons and pyramids that any explanatory notes about 

 them are unnecessary. I have not yet met with any good 

 examples of the Palmette Verrier, and therefore call especial 

 attention to it as the best combination of vertical and horizon- 

 tal training I have seen. It is a hint from nature appUed to 

 practice in the happiest manner, meeting and entirely over- 

 coming the well-worn objection taken to the excessive vigour 

 of the upper branches of trees trained horizontally. The 

 sketch which I append (fig. 20) will make this so plain as to 

 render description quite unnecessary, and I need only add that 

 the lower branches must have a good start so as to reach tha 

 highest point of growth simultaneously with the others. 



Apart from its great and general utility the Pear has several 

 properties which especially commend it to the connoisseur. Tho 

 melting .juicy flesh, with its rich flavour and tempting aroma, 

 full and pronounced in some, and ranging through many 

 degrees of delicacy in others ; and the singular manner in which 

 these and all its higher qualities are subject to local influences, 



