33 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



[ Jannarj 8, 1874. 



In preparing pots for them select such as are about 4 inches 

 deep and S inches -wide, put a bit of rotten duns in each pot, fill 

 each pot up with light rich soil, and plant the hulbs so shallow 

 that nearly half the bulb stands above the soil ; plunge the pots 

 in the open air, and cover them 6 or 8 inches deep with rotten 

 bark. During spring take them out as they are wanted to come 

 into flower, and set them in the window of a warm room where 

 they will be fully exposed to the sun. Those who do not possess 

 a garden may set the pots in a cellar or outhouse, or in the 

 corner of a yard, and cover them with light soil or sand until 

 they are wanted to bring into the rooms to flower. When the 

 leaves begin to decay after they have done flowering, give them 

 no water. When the leaves are dead take them out of the soil 

 and remove the offsets, and lay them in an airy situation until 

 the time of planting. If grown in water-glasses they require to 

 be placed in a light airy situation, and the water will require to 

 be changed once in three or four days. If drawn-up weakly it 

 will be necessary to support the stems with sticks, split at the 

 bottom so as to fit the edge of the glass at the top. This, how- 

 ever, will not be necessary if they are kept in a light and airy 

 situation. When out of flower plant them in pots of soil to 

 perfect their leaves, and treat them as above; they will flower 

 again the succeeding year. This is the favourite mode of 

 house culture, and the bulbs best adapted for it are Hyacinths, 

 Polyanthus Narcissus, Van Thol and other Tulips, Crocus, 

 Perfian Iris, Narcissus, Colchieums, Guernsey Lily, Jonquil, 

 and others. Dark-coloured glasses are the best, as they prevent 

 the light from interfering with the roots of theplants. Eain water 

 is preferable to any other, and it should be changed frequently to 

 prevent its getting putrid, and in performing this operation care 

 must be taken both in withdrawing and in replacing the roots. 

 This is necessary till the flowers have expanded, for after this 

 the plants may be left undisturbed till the flowers have decayed. 

 The water which is supplied must not be colder than that which 

 is withdrawn or than the general temperature of the apartment. 

 Much heat is not necessary for such plants, because they flower 

 better the more slowly their vegetation proceeds. Chimney- 

 pieces and other warm situations are not nearly so well adapted 

 for these bulbs as stages near the window, or the window-sill 

 itself. 



At this season, when there is little to be done in the way of 

 cropi^ing, everything around the villa should be made clean and 

 neat. All vegetable refuse may be collected into a heap to rot 

 for manure : nothing of this kind should be lost. Vacant ground, 

 if any, may be turned-up rough to be fully exposed to the action 

 of the weather. This is especially necessary for strong soils, in 

 order that the frost may separate their parts and render them 

 more friable. When manure is applied, a little at a time as 

 often as an opportunity or the nature of the crops will allow, is 

 better than when the ground is overloaded with dung. 



Vegetables. — If a sowing of Peas and Beans has not yet 

 been made, no time should be lost in getting them in while the 

 weather continues favourable. 



Feuit. — Continue to prune any fruit tree if not done last 

 week, taking care, however, to keep the spurs short and close, 

 otherwise they soon become long and give the trees an unsightly 

 appearance. 



Floweks. — Remove everything unsightly from the flower 

 plot. Nothing looks worse than to see decayed stems of plants 

 standing at this season. Bulbs, if any, that have made their 

 appearance above ground should be protected in the event of 

 frosty weather ; but not unless, as this has a tendency to make 

 them weak and tender. 



It has been proved by severe winters that evergreens are ex- 

 tremely hardy and will bear any severity of frost. All those 

 evergreens considered most tender, such as Portugal Laurels, 

 Khododendrons, d'c, were observed to brave the frost unhurt, 

 when they were placed in high unsheltered places, or facing the 

 east or north. It was observed also, that those evergreens were 

 destroyed whose aspect was south and west, and which lay in 

 warm and sheltered situations. 3^he cause is this : The shrubs 

 did not suffer which were not subject to alternations of heat and 

 cold, while those which lay in warm situations, being thawed by 

 the sun's rays during the day, could not endure the sudden chill 

 of returning frost at night. — W. Keane. 



WERE THE FEUITS MADE FOE MAN, OE DID 

 MAN MAKE THE FEUITS? 



(Essay by Professor Asa Gray, read before the American Pomologica] 

 Society.) 



These need not be taken as mutually exclusive propositions ; 

 for as "God helps those who help themselves," and man's 

 work in this respect is mainly, if not wholly, in directing the 

 course or tendency of nature, so there is a just sense in which 

 we may say " The art itself is nature," by which the greatest 

 triumphs of horticultural skill have been accomplished. More- 

 over, I am not one of those naturalists who would have you 



believe that nothing which comes by degrees, and in the course 

 of nature, is to be attributed to Divine power. 



The answer I should give to the question, as we thus put 

 it, is — 



1. Some fruits were given to man as they are, and he has 

 only gathered and consumed them. But these are all minor 

 fruits, and such as have only lately come within the reach of 

 civiUsed man, or are not thought worth his trouble. Huckle- 

 berries and Cranberries, Persimmons and Papaws are examples 

 taken from this country. Whether even such fruits have or 

 not been under a course of improvement irrespective of man, 

 is another question. 



2. Others have come to man full-flavoured and nearly all 

 that he has done has been to increase their size and abun- 

 dance, or extend their season. Currants and Gooseberries, 

 Raspberries and Blackberries, Chestnuts, and, above all. Straw- 

 berries, are of this class. 



3. But most of the esteemed and important fniits, as well 

 as the grains, have not so much been given to man as made 

 by him. The gift outright was mainly plastic raw material, 

 time, and opportunity. As to the cereal grains, it is only of 

 the Oat that we probably know the wild original ; of Wheat 

 there has been an ingenious conjecture, partly but insufficiently 

 confirmed by experiment ; of the rest, no wild stock is known 

 which is not, most likely, itself an escape from cultivation. Of 

 some of them, such especially as Maize, not only can no wild 

 original be indicated, but in all probability none exists. 



So of the staple fruits. Of some the wild originals can be 

 pretty well made out, of more they are merely conjectural ; 

 of some they are quite unknown, and perhaps long ago extinct. 



To cite examples iu confirmation or illustration of these 

 points, to note how very ancient some of our varieties of com- 

 mon fruits are, and how very recent certain others — to con- 

 sider how they have originated, with or without man's con- 

 scious agency, and how they have been perfected, diversified, 

 and preserved, mainly under man's direct care — would be to 

 expand this note into an essay, and yet to say nothing with 

 which pomologists are not familiar. 



It would be curious to speculate as to what our pomology 

 would have been if the civilisation from which it, and we our- 

 selves, have sprung had had its birthplace along the southern 

 shores of our great lakes, the northern of the Gulf of Mexico, 

 and the intervening Mississippi, instead of the Levant, Meso- 

 potamia, and the Nile, and our old world had been opened to 

 us a new world less than four hundred years ago. 



Seemingly, we should not have as great a variety of choice 

 fruits as we have now, and they would mostly have been 

 different, but probably neither scanty nor poor. In Grapes, 

 at least, we would have been gainers. Our five or six available 

 species, of which we are now just beginning to know the capa- 

 bilities, would have given us at least as many choice sorts 

 and as wide a diversity as we now have of Pears ; while Pears 

 would be a recent acquisition, somewhat as our American 

 Grapes now are. Our Apples would have been developed from 

 Pyrus coronaria ; might have equalled anything we actually 

 possess from Pyrus Malus in flavour, though perhaps not in 

 variety, if it be true, as Karl Koch supposes, that the Apples of 

 the orchards are from three or four species. Our Plums would 

 have been the progeny of the Chicasa, the Beach Plum, and 

 our wild red and yellow Prunus americana, which have already 

 shown great capacity for improvement ; our Cherries might 

 have been as well flavoured, but probably not as large as they 

 now are. But instead of Peaches and Figs, we should be dis- 

 cussing manifold and most luscious varieties of Persimmon 

 and Papaw, the former, probably, equal to the Kaki just ac- 

 quired from the far east. As to Strawberries, Gooseberries, 

 and Currants, we should have lost nothing and gained some- 

 thing, as we possess several species, besides the European types 

 themselves ; as to Blackberries and Raspberries, we should 

 have been better off than now, by the earlier development and 

 diversification of our indigenous species. And we might have 

 had all our finest Strawberries a thousand or more years ago, 

 these having come from our American types Fragaria virgini- 

 ana with its varieties (which, as'well as the old-world F. vesca, 

 occurs all across the continent), and F. chUensis which ascends 

 the Pacific coast to Oregon. 



Then we should consider how much earlier our race, with 

 an American birthplace, would have been in possession of 

 Tomatoes, of the Pine Apple, of the Cherimoyer, and the other 

 Custard Apples, of the Star Apples, and other sapotaceous 

 fruits, of Chocolate, of Lima Beans in aU their varieties, of 

 Pea-nuts ; not to speak of Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, and 



