March 9, 187C. ) 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTOKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



197 



For table plants short standards are best about 15 inches 

 high, and the usual mode of working these is by wedge-graft- 

 ing. A cleft is made in the stock at the top and about an inch 

 long to receive the scion, which is cut like a wedge and must 

 fit exactly. This mode of grafting is illustrated and described in 

 the " Cottage Gardener's Dictionary," page 301, and " Science 

 and Practice of Gardening," page 245. The graft being secured 

 by thrusting through the stock and scion a spine of the 

 Pereekia, binding lightly with cotton so as to keep the edges 

 close, and grafting wax may be placed over it to exclude 

 moisture and air ; or it answers equally well to bind a little 

 more over the union and keep it moist with the syringe, the 

 plants being kept rather close and moist until the union is 

 complete, as it wUl be in three weeks or a month, or it may be 

 longer, as the plants are in a medium for effecting a speedy 

 growth. 



In the case of pyramids the stocks will require to be taller and 

 stronger than those required for table decoration ; they should 

 therefore, when the 5-inch pots are filled with roots, be trans- 

 ferred to 9-inch pots, continuing the moisture and bottom heat 

 until they are sufficiently strong for grafting. If extra tall 

 plants are wanted the stocks may be cut down to ((inches, and 

 kept rather dry until they break, when they should be shook 

 out, returned to the same pots, and have brisk top and bottom 

 heat, with abundant moisture, selecting the strongest shoot 

 and securing it to a stake, removing the others, and shifting 

 into 9-inch pots when the 5-inch pots are filled with roots. 

 These plants are dried a little when of the size required for 

 grafting to induce ripening, and are grafted, commencing at 

 about 9 inches from the rim of the pot, and at that distance 

 upward on opposite sides of the stock, the top of the stock 

 being grafted as for dwarf standards, the only difference be- 

 tween it and those on the sides being their insertion on the 

 side of the stock instead of on the top, a sloping incision being 

 made with a sharp knife extending down the stock an inch, a 

 scion being selected of the same diameter as the stock, and 

 prepared wedge-like to fit exactly the incision in the stock, into 

 which it is inserted, secured with a spine of the Pereskia passing 

 from the front through the stock and scion, securing as before 

 stated with a little moss tied over the union, and kept damp 

 by frequent sprinkling of water from a syringe. A moist and 

 rather close atmosphere facilitates the operation. 



Standards may be had of almost any height, but for general 

 usefulness the low standard is best. In the case of standards 

 18 inches high for table purposes a scion may be put on the 

 top and two others about G inches lower down on the sides of 

 the stock, which of course form a head sooner than one scion; 

 whilst for tall standards one on the top and two 9 inches down 

 on opposite sides of the stock, but with some little distance 

 higher or lower in each case, so that they may not be upon the 

 same plane, for that would be to cut the stock through. 



It will be found that the stem will not be able to support 

 of itself the succulent put upon it, and wood stakes are certain 

 to break off at the surface from decay, and for tall plants do 

 not maintain the plants erect. Iron stakes with three or four 

 prongs fitting within the rim of the pots are most suitable, and 

 should be painted green. Even these, after the plants become 

 well famished with spray, are not certain to maintain the 

 equilibrium of the heads. I have seen a wire run round the 

 pot beneath the rim, and from this copper wire taken to the 

 centre stake, securing to it and the wire round the pot under 

 the rim, and three or four of those equidistant around the pot 

 prevent the displacement of the head from the perpendicular. 

 It is also well to secure the stock and the scion to the upright 

 stake with copper wire, or lead answers when the growths are 

 moderate. 



The plants will hardly need potting the year of grafting, but 

 the following spring the potting should be liberal, giving a 

 plant from a 9-inch pot a 13-inch or 15-inch pot, watering 

 carefully until the roots are in possession of the fresh soil, 

 then watering copiously, and when fall of roots with liquid 

 manure. In future years the pots may be increased in size, 

 but not so much as in the first, and alter the second year the 

 surface soil may be removed, and a top-dressing given of equal 

 parts of turfy loam and cowdung, potting only in alternate 

 years. 



Well-grown plants of EpiphyUums are splendid objects, and 

 the flowers are of the finest for catting — G. Abbey. 



two years old. I have Melon seed saved in 1857 in first-rate 

 condition, and Cucumber seeds of 1801. I think it mostly 

 depends in the place where they are stored. — L. Abthcs 

 Brenan, Clerk, Cloughhan, Pomeroij. 



DO BABBITS EAT LILIUMS ? 



Now that these beautiful flowers — I mean Lilium auratum 

 and the different varieties of L. lancifolium — are being freely 

 planted in shrubberies, a question of considerable importance 

 is raised as to the danger of the young shoots being devoured 

 by rabbits. I have recently made private inquiries on the 

 point, and the information I have received is somewhat con- 

 flicting, the purport of it being that rabbits will eat the shoots 

 of some kinds of Lilinms leaving others untouched, and that 

 L. auratum generally escapes injury. If cultivators of Liliums 

 in rabbit-infested districts would communicate their experience 

 on this matter, naming those sorts which rabbits injure and 

 those which they do not molest, the information could not fail 

 to be valuable and opportune. — J. W. B. 



[We have other inquiries on this subject, and we should be 

 glad to receive the experience which oar correspondents are 

 seeking.— Eds.] 



Age when Seeds Cease to Germinate. — Peas and Beans 

 will germinate, I know, after three years, and Parsnips when 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



Cleveland HonsE, Clapham Park, Mr. S. KalUs's small 

 but well-managed garden, is celebrated for the high character 

 of its summer carpet bedding. Equally good practice is to be 

 found in the winter, the plants both in the stove and green- 

 house evincing marks of high culture. In the former structure 

 the Palms, Crotons, Orchids, &c., are, if not large, in superb 

 health. In the greenhouse the beautiful and elegant Boronia 

 pinnata is in fine condition; Chorozema Chandlerii, a plant 

 two years old in a 10-inch pot, covers a 4-feet globe trellis, and 

 is a perfect mass of flowers ; Primulas are 20 inches in height 

 and more than a foot through, perfect pyramids of bloom, 

 and Epacrises are admirably cultivated. Mr. Legg promises 

 also to add to his fame as a cultivator a creditable position as 

 a hybridiser, as he has not only succeeded in effecting crosses 

 between the best of the Crotons, but has already raised a batch 

 of seedlings which must be looked forward to with the greatest 

 interest, as, considering their parentage, they cannot fail to 

 prove varieties of distinct character and great merit. The 

 seedlings show great dissimilarity even in their cotyledons, 

 some of which are striped and mottled, which is a tolerably 

 safe index of the brighter colours to follow. When we note 

 that these seedlings are the result of intercrossing such fine 

 sorts as C. Weismannii, C. undnlatum, C. majesticum, and 

 even C. volutum, it will be at once admitted that Mr. Legg has 

 obtained plants of which he may be considered fortunate to 

 possess. It is not chance, however, but well-applied skill that 

 has produced this unusual and highly promising batch of 

 seedhngs, and Mr. Legg has our congratulations. 



We have received from Mr. George Lee, Clevedon, a 



box of blooms of his new Violet Prince Consort. We have 

 seen and grown other improved Violets which have been intro- 

 duced by Mr. Lee, but never have we seen flowers in any mate- 

 rial degree approaching the remarkable blooms now before us. 

 We think their colour is deeper and richer than in other varie- 

 ties, and they are undoubtedly superior in size, and especially 

 in the remarkable substance of their petals, to any examples of 

 this flower which have hitherto come under our notice. Many 

 of the flowers exceed 11 inch in diameter, and they are sup- 

 ported on stout stems 5 inches in length. This is a princely 

 Violet, worthy of the name it bears, and will sustain the repn- 

 tation of its raiser. 



M. Adolphe Brongniart, the distinguished French 



botanist, died in Paris on February 19th. He was born in 1801. 

 Besides his many botanical works, Brongniart is known as one 

 of the first to discover the pollen-tube and the important 

 nature of the offices performed by it in the fertOisation of 

 plants. 



The noble tree (for such it really is) of BbowneA 



grandiceps that some weeks since gave promise of a more than 

 ordinarily fine bloom in Glasnevin Gardens, Dublin, has fully 

 realised our anticipations, having up to this time developed 

 some three dozen or more of its huge compound briUiant flower 

 heads, each as large as a child's. In some instances two are 

 borne on the extremity ot the same branchlet, weighing it 

 down with a duplex mass of floral wealth weighing little short 



