M2 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t May 18, 1876. 



Canary Islands, having a green half-shrnbby stem from 1 to 

 2 feet in heiglit, clothed with very graceful, partially-drooping, 

 pinnately-winged leaves, from 4 to 6 inches long, gracefully 

 expanding, with extremely narrow, alternate, filiform, or 

 thread-like loaf-lobes. In its young state it forms a very 

 elegant outline, equalling the most graceful forms of Equise- 

 lum or Casuarina, and of a delicate verdure. It is admirably 

 adapted for the finest decorative table groups, and equally 

 valuable for conservatory baskets or a beautiful centre feature 

 in an artistic drawing-room plant vase. In planting-out for 

 the summer months it should first be moved to a plant frame 

 or pit, and from thence grouped out with other subtropical 

 and decorative-leaved plants, amongst which, by its most 

 elegant outline, it appears a marked and conspicuous feature." 



DESTRUCTION OF EED SPIDEE. 



As your correspondent "Lancashire Reader" asks for in- 

 formation in regard to the destruction of this pest, allow me 

 to state a most effectual mode of destroying it in vineries, &c. 

 When a lad serving under my father we were once troubled 

 with it in a vinery, owing to having Strawberries and other 

 plants in the house with the Vines. My father's plan was 

 this : — 



Some time during the evening after the sun had gone down 

 and the hot-water pipes were of the desired boat, we well 

 steamed the house, then applied a Uttle sulphur in a liquid 

 state on the pipes with a paint brush (but very little), and so 

 left it. We never found any red spider recover from this 

 ordeal. The houee was frequently steamed, in fact on most 

 nights ; and I know for a certainty that it is a great preventive 

 of red spider, thoush sometimes in the case of Strawberries on 

 high shelves becoming dry one is obliged to use stronger force 

 to dispel the enemy. I have seen the pipes painted with 

 sulphur and lime with the same result. 



Laying sulphur in a dry state on the shelves through the 

 forcing season was another old scheme of my father's ; it was 

 laid on the front shelf close to the glass soon after the house 

 was started. " Prevention better than cure " he used to say, 

 which is a true old saying. This latter mode was more for the 

 prevention of mildew than the foimer pest, though it answers 

 equally well in both cases, as I have often proved since. 



We were seldom troubled with red spider, owing, as I have 

 always found, to our frequently steaming the house of an even- 

 ing. It was discontinued afttr the fruit on the Vinos arrived 

 at the stoning period. I never saw any mildew, as some 

 might be ltd to think, arise from the constant steaming; the 

 houEO was well ventilated (a grand point), and air was given 

 daily more or less during all weathers. 



My father was what we young gardeners now-a-days call old- 

 fashioned — that is to say, one of the old school ; nevertheless 

 I have tried the foregoing plan in Peach houses and vineries 

 that I have had charge of in my previous situations with the 

 same desired result. A dusting of sulphur or Pooley's tobacco 

 powder on the leaves of Vines, Ac, is also an excellent antidote 

 against red spider, especially it it is not convenient (for instance 

 in summer) to steam the pipes. — F. H. Feoud. 



certain that the pipes have two thorough coats. The house 

 was filled with vapour, which immediately affected the red 

 spider, it at once becoming stationary on the leaves and in a 

 few hours found, as those on the leaf accompanying will show 

 by their dried-up and shrivelled state, dead. 



That sulphuring the hot-water pipes is not always etfeotual 

 in destroying red spider will be evidenced by the liveliness of 

 the insects you will find on the Peach leaf enclosed you along 

 with the Vine leaf. The pipes in the house from which the 

 Peach leaf was taken were, at the same time as the pipes in 

 the vinery, thoroughly painted with sulphur, the difference in 

 the result being attributable to the pipes in the Peach house 

 not being hotter than the hand could bear : hence no sulphur 

 fumes were given out and the house was not filled with sul- 

 phurous vapour, and so far from destroying the red spider they 

 are as active now a,i before the sulphur was placed on the 

 pipes. To heat the pipes in this house to 200° or 210° and 

 keep the house close for a night would assuredly kill every red 

 spider, and yet I dare not do it, for the leaves of the Peaches 

 are as yet tender, though the fruit is ripening. The trees are 

 vigorous, many leaves being inches long and 3 inches wide 

 at the widest part, and to keep trees in this condition inhaling 

 sulphurous vapour for any lengthened period would not be 

 safe practice. 



Sulphur fumes have been known to be fatal to red spider 

 for many years — a practice indeed which at the early part of 

 the present century was regarded as a proved remedy. — 

 A YoBKSHiEE Reader. 



[The Vine leaf sent shows signs of having been scorched, 

 but whether by the sulphur fumes or by some other cause we 

 are of course unable to determine. The red spiders were dead. 

 The Peach leaf is exceedingly fine, being of the size named 

 above and of a deep healthy green, indicative of superior cul- 

 ture. We should detect no insects on the leaf, but their effects 

 were visible. Sulphurous vapour at a certain strength is fatal 

 to animal life, and a few degrees beyond that strength to vege- 

 table life also : hence it should be carefully employed, and 

 always " under the eye of the master."] 



I LEG to enclose for your inspection a Vine leaf from which you 

 will obtain, as I have, proof conclusive that painting the pipes 

 is not useless as an antidote against red spider. My experience 

 teaches me that sulphur used in this form is fatal to the red 

 spider — experience diametrically opposed to that of a " Laxca- 

 sniuE Reader" (seepage 35G). The vinery from which the leaf 

 forwarded you is taken had a severe attack of red spider just 

 when the Grapes were changing colour. Syringing would have 

 destroyed the bloom, steaming would have caused the berries 

 to crack, whilst to have let the red spider have its way the 

 present crop would have been considerably deteriorated as well 

 as weakening the Vines for future bearing. To combat the 

 red spider I had mixed to the consistency of paint flowers of 

 Bulphnr with a soft-soap solution, which would be about 8 ozb. 

 of soft soap to a gallon of boiling water, and whilst the com- 

 position was preparing the furnace was set to work, heating 

 the water in the pipes so that the hand could not be borne 

 upon the return as well as the flow pipes. A dull cold after- 

 noon was chosen for the operation. The pipes being thoroughly 

 hot and the house closed, the pipes were thoroughly painted by 

 a boy with a dust-brnsh such as painters use, whilst I removed 

 soEDe laterals which experience had told me must succumb to 

 the sulphur fumes, and I like to remain in the house watching 

 the work done, feeling the fumes fill the house and making 



LORD LONDESBORODGH'S GARDEN AT 



NORBITON. 



Mk. Denning's name is familiar to hortionltnral readers 

 principally in connection with the splendid examples of 

 Orchids which from time to time he has exhibited at the 

 London exhibitions. But Lord Londesborough has something 

 more than a grand collection of these plants, and his gardener 

 has other duties to perform besides growing them, as may bo 

 seen at a glance, even during a rapid " look round" the estab- 

 lishment. No detailed account of the place is here attempted, 

 a full description would be too voluminous, and all that is now 

 essayed is to convey an idea of an impression made during 

 half an hour's visit, and without any note being taken on any 

 point save a few names of the Orchids. 



Lord Londesborough has no residence here, and there are 

 no pleasure grounds, lawns, or flower beds. Flowers are cul- 

 tivated, and extensively, so far as they are adaptable to 

 travelling, and can be sent away either as cut blooms or as 

 decorative plants to anyplace where their noble onuer may 

 require them. The garden is a great horticultural supply 

 establishment. It is not only devoted to the growing of 

 plants and flowers, but also to the cultivation of fruit and the 

 production of vegetables on a large scale. It is a modern, 

 well-arranged, and well-appointed garden, and considering the 

 time that it has been formed, the few years that have elapsed 

 since the site of it was a Turnip field, it is not a little sur- 

 prising to see its fruitful and established condition now. 



In extent it is twelve acres. It is not surrounded by walls, and 

 therefore resembles a large garden devoted to the growing of 

 floral and culinary products for market purposes. Indeed the 

 practice is akin to market practice, the whole of the produce 

 being appropriated by the owner. The site of the garden is a 

 natural hollow, the rising ground on the east and west afford- 

 ing some shelter, and the winds of the north are broken by a 

 small plantation. Besides the protection of the rising ground 

 surrounding the garden, the hollow has another important 

 advantage — a moist subsoil, and vegetable crops grow luxuri- 

 antly in dry weather. There is further a full and complete 

 supply of water laid on from a source not likely to fail in the 

 grcpt demands which are made on it at all seasons. 



Tie most striking features of this garden are its esteneive 



