168 



JOURNAL OF HOETIOULTUEB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ March 2, 1876. 



Cattings taken in June and inBerted round the sides of a 

 pot in sandy soil and placed in a hotbed will speedily be well 

 rooted, and may then be potted-off singly into linch pots, and 

 placed in a cold frame kept close and shaded until the patting 

 is recovered from, and then have moderate ventilation, and be 

 kept duly watered, the object being to keep them dwarf by 

 close proximity to the glass and at a temperature only prc- 

 motive of slow growth. By the middle of September remove 

 them to a light airy position in a cool stove or warm greenhouse, 

 and in January or February will be a reward of massive heads 

 of blue flowers. 



Turfy loam with a third of leaf soil, or preferably a fourth 

 of old cow dung, will grow them well. Weak liquid manure 

 given at every alternate watering after the blooming pots are 

 filled with roots will be found highly beneficial. — G. A. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



We have received from A. D. Huesey Freke, Esq., of Han- 

 nington Hall, Highworth, a branch of Blace Thokn, on which 

 a summer shoot has been produced of the extraordinary 

 length of 4 feet 9 inches. It is very slender, and so like an 

 Elm at first sight that we are not surprised Mr. Freke thought 

 it a lusus nature: It is undoubtedly the shoot of a Plum, and 

 is so unlike the growth of the Black Thorn or Sloe that the 

 suspicion is it may be a bud sport. We have preserved it, 

 and will have the shoot cut into scions and grafted, for the 

 purpose of ascertaining whether or not it produces fruit of the 

 Black Thorn or of some other form of Prunus. 



The thirty-third anniversary dinner of the Gaedenees' 



EoTAi Benevolent Instittjiion will be held on the 30th of 

 June at the Albion Tavern, Aldersgate Street. Dr. Hogg, one 

 of the Vice-Presidents, will preside. 



A " Visitor " informs us that the new Dbacenas at 



the Anerley Park Nursery have been operated on by Mr. Bause, 

 who has propagated the tops of the plants " without losing a 

 leaf," and that the colours of many are greatly intensified now 

 that they are no longer seedling but cutting plants. Some 

 plants which did not at the first show colour have recently 

 " broke " into varieties of great beauty. Mr. Wills, we are 

 informed, has had tempting offers made for the collection, 

 but it is not yet decided in what form the plants wUl be dis- 

 posed of. 



Tdooa filamentosa vakieoata is not only one of the 



finest of hardy, or nearly hardy, variegated plants, but its 

 beauty is infinitely increased if the plants are grown in heat. 

 The ivory whiteness of the foliage is then most pure, and the 

 leaves in some degree lose their upright habit and recurve in 

 the most elegant manner, rendering it one of the most effective 

 of indoor decorative plants. At the Anerley Park Nursery are 

 some very perfect specimens of this plant, and what is especially 

 noteworthy is the manifest fact that the manager has found 

 out a means of increasing it freely ; the stock of this, as of 

 other valuable plants, attesting that not only is Mr. Bause an 

 eminent hybridiser, but is an equally accomplished propagator 

 of plants. 



We have had forwarded to us by Messrs. James Carter 



and Co. a collection of blooms of carmine and white-fringed 

 Peimdlas, gathered from plants which are being grown for 

 seed in their nurseries. These blooms are exceedingly fine, 

 the whites being spotlessly pure, and the darks rich and deep. 

 The individual pips average 2 inches in diameter, and they are 

 elegantly fringed ; but the greatest merit possessed by these 

 flowers is their unusual substance. 



Me. Wills of the Eoyal Exotic Nursery, Onslow 



Crescent, supplied the floeal deooeations at the Eoyal Albert 

 Hall and the Eoyal box at the state concert. Mr. Wills also 

 supplied the bouquets presented to Her Majesty and the 

 Princesses. Her Majesty's bouquet was composed of Eoses, 

 Eucharis, Odontogloaeum Alexandra?, Coelogyne cristata.Violets, 

 and Lilies of the Valley. That of the Princess of Wales con- 

 tained Neapolitan Violets, Dendrobium Wardianum, Lilies of 

 the Valley, and various other flowers. The Princess Beatrice's 

 bouquet comprised various Orchids, Lilies of the Valley, Eoses, 

 Eucharis, and Lilac, surrounded by Brussels-lace holders. 



Meeses. BACKHonsE & Son state DAruNE EurESTEia to 



be a real Alpine gem, surpassing the well-known D. cneorum 

 (the Trailing Sweet-scented Daphne) both in beauty and 

 fragrance. D. rupestris has erect shoots, and forms dense 

 compact tufts or carpets 2 inches high, and a foot or more 



across, covered with a mass of bloom which sometimes almost 

 eclipses the plant. Its colour is a soft shaded pink or rose, 

 and its flowers are individually larger and more waxy than 

 those of D. cneorum, yet forming clustered heads in the same 

 way. D. rupestris is essentially a rock plant, growing wild in 

 fissures of limestone in peaty loam. It is perfectly hardy and 

 of easy culture. Its scent is powerful yet very delicate. 



LoED WiNMAELEiGH has presented a petition to ParUa- 



ment from landowners and others in the manufacturing dis- 

 tricts, praying for the amendment of the laws relating to 

 NOXIOUS TAPonEs. His lordship alluded to the disastrous effect 

 of the increased discharge of noxious vapours in destroying 

 vegetation, and stated that in some districts the woods in .luly 

 presented the appearance of trees in midwinter, and land was 

 being rendered gradually valueless. That is no overdrawn 

 picture, as many districts unfortunately prove, and now that 

 minerals are being sought for, and furnaces being erected in 

 many rural districts, legislation on the point is greatly needed. 

 Great injury has already been done to nurserymen and others, 

 and redress is at present an expensive luxury. The Duke of 

 Kichmond admitted the existence of the evil, but was not at 

 present prepared to submit a remedy. 



The New York Practical Farmer, in alluding to the 



approaching Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, states that 

 the preparations for the hoeticdltokal exhibition are well 

 advanced. The grounds, containing more than 40 acres, are 

 well laid out in irregular plots for the exhibition of trees, 

 shrubs, bedding plants, &c., which will be furnished by the 

 150 exhibitors who have already applied for space. In the 

 horticultural building there will be a magnificent display of 

 tender plants collected from all parts of the world. All the 

 native trees of this country will be represented, together with 

 many of foreign origin, particularly the later importations 

 from China and Japan. England, France, Germany, BrazU, 

 Netherlands, Cuba, and Mexico have already applied for space, 

 and so many applications have been made that additional 

 room will be needed to accommodate some special displays. 

 Arrangements have been made for putting up one more build- 

 ing, in which will be shown a very large collection of Ehodo- 

 dendrous from Waterer's of England, and, later in the season, 

 for other displays of like character. Many plants have already 

 arrived, and have been placed in the building ; amongst these 

 is a very fine collection of Australian Ferns from Miller and 

 Sievers of San Francisco. 



Tub English Mechanic says that the well-known 



Dresden manufacturer, Herr F. Siemens, has recently patented 

 a method of hardening, tempering, and pressing glass, which 

 appears likely to become of more practical utility than the 

 process of hardening discovered by M. de la Bastie. At the 

 time when the latter's discovery was made pubUc it was an- 

 nounced that Herr Siemens and others had been experiment- 

 ing in a similar direction, and the accusation was freely made 

 that Bastie's process was being pirated. Whether or not it is 

 so in Germany, the process described by Herr Siemens in his 

 English specification certainly keeps clear of the " claim " put 

 forward by M. Eoyer de la Bastie, for he does not employ the 

 method of hardening glass by plunging it when heated into 

 a liquid bath at a lower temperature, but hardens the glass by 

 placing it in moulds and pressing it at the same time. The 

 method of Herr Siemens consists in heating and then suddenly 

 cooling the glass to be hardened or tempered. 



APPLICATION OP MANUBE. 



Many years of experience and observation have satisfied me 

 that the spreading of manure on the surface of the soil, and 

 letting it remain there for some weeks or even months, is good 

 practice, and especially in dealing with light soil. In such 

 soil, if the manure is dug in deeply in the autumn, much of 

 its virtue, I think, is washed into the subsoil before the roots 

 of the summer crops can appropriate the food ; in fact I think 

 the food is in a great measure conveyed beyond the reach of 

 such roots. 



I have frequently tried the experiment on light soil of digging 

 in a portion in the autumn and leaving another portion covered 

 with manure throughout the winter, digging it in in the spring, 

 and the last-named plan has invariably proved the best. I 

 have not had an opportunity of experimenting on heavy soil. 

 With light old garden soil I am so far convinced that Mr. 

 Graves is right that, had 1 my manure to purchase and digging 

 to pay for, I should spread the manure on the surface fully 



