Febrairy 2-1, 1876, ] 



JOURNAL OP HOllTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



151 



purple, opening in September and Ootober. Native of North 

 America. 



A. nnduln t us. —Thia epeoieB grows from 3 to 4 feet high, 

 brauchiug abundantly. The flowers are very profuse, pale 

 bine, and open in August, September, and October. Native 

 of North America.— W. S.— (T7ic Gardener.) 



MILDEW AND RED SPIDER SUBDUED. 



Mb Douglas asks what is to be done if red spider appears 

 on the Vine.-i, for if you put sulphur on the pipps he is afraid 

 the fruit would be rusted. Now what I have to impart is not 

 new, hut is not so well known as it should be. It answers no 

 good purpose to paint the pipes with sulphur, but the reveree. 

 It is Bulpburetid vapour in the atmosphere which we want to 

 destroy both red spider and mildew ; dry sulphur does no harm 

 to either. 



If at the time of closing the house Mr. Douglas will place a 

 pail half filled with cold water in the vinery or any other lioufe 

 affected with spider or mildew, and take half a pouud of sul- 

 phur and mix it up in a basin with boiling water till it is quite 

 made iuto a paste, tbeu mix it in the pail with the water, then 

 place in the mixture some lumps of unslacked lime, he will 

 create a vapour that will destroy both red spider and mildew 

 without icjuricg the most tender plant. If the house is a large 

 one two pails will be better than one. In the morning the 

 spiders will be found dead in their webs, or if not, the vapour 

 has not been strong enough ; but in any case it will be well to 

 repeat the dose a few nights after to destroy the offspring that 

 wore in the eggs at the time of the first operation. I keep the 

 unslacked lime on the boiler, for it not kept dry it will go down 

 and be of no use. 



For thirty-six years I have not been troubled with spider or 

 mildew on my Peach walls, but both pests had been very 

 troublesome to my predecessor. After the trees have been 

 nailed I mix G lbs. of sulphur and tone it down with soot and 

 apply it on the wall with the syringe or engine. I put it on 

 thickest at the bottom of the wall for the vapour from the 

 sulphur to ascend amongst the foliage. After the fruit is set, 

 on a fine sunny afternoon when the wall is still warm, I syringe 

 with milkwarm water ; the vapour will spread itself over the 

 whole wall. I do this two or three times a week on fine days. 

 Syringing the tender foliage of Peach trees with cold water is 

 a sad mistake, too often practised I am sorry to say.— J. C, 

 Felton Park Gardens. 



parent 2 feet in height. The parent tree eecms to promise 

 acorns soon, as it blossoms and forms strong footstalks, and 

 the cup upon the fo<itstalk with the appearance of the acorn, 

 which with a little more age will swell to perfection. 



This Oak is distinguished in this country by the title of the 

 Lucombe Oak. Its shoots in general are from 4 to 5 feet 

 every year, so that it will in the space of thirty or forty years 

 outgrow in altitude the common Oak of a hundred years of 

 age. I have a leaping pole full 5 feet long, a tide shoot from 

 one of the graft only a year and a half old. From the similarity 

 of this Oak to those of the iron or wainscot Oak it appears 

 to be a descendant from that species, though it differs from it 

 in every other particular. Several gentlemen around this 

 neighbourhood and in the adjoining counties of Cornwall and 

 Somerset have planted them, and they are found to flourish 

 in all soils. 



HISTORY OP THE LUCOMBE OAK. 



[We have been favoured with a copy of a letter from John 

 Z-pbaniah Holwell, Esci.,F.R,S., dated from Exeter, February 

 22ud, 1773] 



Sir, — In my rambles through this city I have been tempted 

 to visit the nursery of Mr. W. Lucombe, of St. Thomas, on the 

 report of a v<ry extraordinary and new species of Oak, first 

 discovered and propagated by that ingenious gardener; and as 

 this plant appears to me capable of proving an inestimable 

 acquisition to this kingdom, I cannot resist the desire I feel of 

 commuuioating to jou some particulars relative tj its history 

 and character. 



About seven years past Mr. Lucombe sowed a parcel of 

 acorns, saved from a tree of his own growth, of the iron or 

 wainscot species. When they came up he observed one amongst 

 them that kept its leaves throughout the winter. Struck with 

 the phenomenon, he cherished and paid particular attention to 

 it, and propagated by grafting some thousands from it, which 

 I had tiao pleasure of seeing eight days ago io high fiouiishiug 

 beauty and verdure, notwithstanding the seveiity of thewiuter. 

 Its growth is straight and handsome as Fir, its leaves ever- 

 green, and the wood is thought by the best judges in hard- 

 ness and strength to exceed all other Oak. Ho makes but one 

 shoot in the year — viz., in May, end continues growing with- 

 out interrupiion ; whereas other Oaks shoot twice — viz, in 

 May and August. But the peculiar and inestimable part of 

 its character is the amazing quickness of its growth, which I 

 imagine may be attributed, in some degree at least, to its 

 making but one shoot iu the year ; for I btlieve that all trees 

 which shoot twice are for some time at a standstill before they 

 make the second. I had the curiosity to take the dimensions 

 of the parent tree (seven years old) and some of the grafts : 

 the first measured 21 feet high and full 20 inches in the girt ; 

 a graft of four years old 16 feet high and full 14 inches iu the 

 girt. The first he grafted is six years old, and he outshot his 



PORTRAITS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, and FRUIT. 



Ceocus Weldeni. Nat. vrd., Iridacfaj. Linn., Triandria 

 MoDOgynia. — " This can scarcely be considered as more than a 

 variety of Crocus biflorus, with which it agrees in time of 

 flowering, leaves, and corm-structure. The flower is less 

 showy than those of either the old garden biflorus or the two 

 wild Italian varieties (lineatus and putillus), being entirely 

 without stripes, conoolorous at the throat, and white, except 

 that the three outer segments are marked on the outside with 

 a more or less decided hue of slaly-purple. It is a native of 

 the limestone hills of Dalmatia, flowering in January and 

 February. In our English gardens it does not expand till 

 March."— (Bo(. Mag., t. C211 ) 



Stapelia OLiVACEA. A'a(. ord., Aselepiadaceffi. Linn., Pent- 

 andria Digyuia. — " This interesting species appears to have 

 been known for some little time in gardens as Stapelia eruci- 

 formis, although there seems to be some doubt whether that 

 name does not b^long to another species {Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 1876, iii., p. 206). It was sent to Kew by HE. Sir Henry 

 Barkly in April, 1874, where it flowered in September follow- 

 ing."— (rftirf., t. 6212.) 



Ctpella PERUVIANA. Nat. ord., Iridacese. Linn., Mona- 

 delphia Triandiia. — " This handsome Irid, new so far as I can 

 make out, was introduced in 1874, by Messrs. Veitch, from 

 the Peruvian Andes. It does not agree with the six species of 

 Cypella desciibed by Klatt in his monograph above cited 

 either in habit or precisely in stigma. They are all natives of 

 Brazil, and have spathes produced from the sides of great 

 ensiform Iris-like leaves. Here the habit is substantially that 

 of Pbalocallis, Polia, or Beatouia, but in all these the siigmas 

 are materially different. These South American Irids are 

 very difliuult to study, the flowers being so fugacious in a 

 living state, and seldom represented in a satisfactory manner 

 in herbarium specimens. We have in the Kew Herbarium 

 specimens of either the same plant or a closely allied one from 

 the temperate region of the liolivian Andes, in grassy places, 

 near Sorata, gathered by Mandon."— {/6i((., (- 0213 ) 



Pescatoria Datana var. bhodacra. Nat. ord , Orchidaoea, 

 Linn., Gynandria Mouaudria. — " In the present state of dr- 

 chidology it is not possible for the botanist or the horticul- 

 turist to speak with confidence of generic limits in any con- 

 siderable group. I have retained this under Pescatoria, follow- 

 ing Reichenbaeh (iu the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1. c), by whom 

 the genus (usually wrongly writttn Pescatoreu), was founded. 

 As above observed, liowever, this genus has been referred by 

 him to Zygopetolum as l"ng ago as 1861, together with EoUea, 

 Warscewiczella, Warrea, Ketersteiuia, and Promenaja. 



" Pescatoria Dayana has several varieties in cultivation, de- 

 pending on the markings on the perianth being absent, or 

 violet, or green, or red. That here figured was communicated 

 by Messrs. Veitch iu September, 1874, and a perfectly similar 

 plant, but witbcnt red tips to the sepals, was sent by Mr. Bull 

 the previous June." — [Ibid., t. C214.) 



Viburnum dilatatum. Is'at. ord , Caprifoliaoeffl. Lin7i., 

 Pentandria Digyuia. — " A very handsome hardy shrub, with 

 apparently a wide distribution in Japan, having been colUcted 

 in various localities from Nagasaki and Yokohama to Hako- 

 dadi— that i?, nearly throughout the length of the archipelago. 



"V. dilatatum was introduced by Messrs. Veitch, who sent 

 flowering specimens for figuring to K«w in June last, with the 

 information that it is perfectly hardy." — {Ibid., t. 6215.) 



Senecio (Kleinia) chordifolia. Nat. ord., Compositse. 

 Linn., Syngenesia Superllua. — "A very curious succulent 

 Groundsel, remarkable for the great length of its simple. 



