200 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AMD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I March 5, 1874. 



Betty, Sutton's Red-skinned Flonrball, and other sorts, and 

 have not by disease lost as many gallons as I have practised 

 the method referred to years. 



" D., Deal," asks in your number for February 19tb, Are the 

 Potatoes to be dug before the skins are set ? I have done so 

 for years with the above result. Last year I planted from the 

 22nd to the 2;)th of March, and dug my crop and housed it 

 from the ICth to the Slst of July. I dig tliem on a sunny 

 day, and let them lie open to the sun until evening, when they 

 are carried in-doorB, and kept in boxes. — C. B., Godalminr/. 



VELTHEIMIA VIRIDIFOLIA CULTURE. 



This is an old-fashioned bulbous plant which has been intro- 

 duced from the Cape of Good Hope more than a hundred years. 

 It is of easy culture, thriving well in any good light sandy 

 soil. The flowers somewhat resemble those of the Tritoma, 

 and continue a long time in perfection. Single buds in small 

 pots will flower during the winter months freely, and they 

 produce a very pleasing variety among gay-flowering plants. 

 We prefer growing three or four bulbs in what are termed 

 32-pots. After the flowering season is over gradually with- 

 hold water, but take care never to aUow them to become 

 dust-dry. 



This species is quite hardy, and may be placed out of doors 

 all summer behind a north wall. About August place them 

 in a frame, and give them plenty of air and water. Before 

 frost sets in remove to a shelf in the greenhouse till the flowers 

 appear, when they may be placed among other flowering plants. 

 If kept free from damp the flowers will continue in perfection 

 for three months, or even longer, and they have a very pretty 

 effect among other inmates of the greenhouse in the dull 

 winter months. 



It can be readily increased by offsets from the bulbs, which 

 may be potted-off and grown-on until they become strong, 

 when they will produce flowers. This is a very interesting 

 plant, and requires little care or attention. — J. Smith, Exton 

 Park, Rutland. 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S COUNTRY 

 MEETINGS. 



We have received the following from Messrs. Veitch and 

 Sons : — 



" You last week published a letter from the Secretary of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society to us with reference to the non- 

 holding of a provincial exhibition this year. We shall feel 

 obliged by your publishing this week the enclosed, which is 

 our reply to the Secretary's letter." 



" Koyal Exotic Nurserv, Kins's Koad, Chelsea, S.W. 

 " February'aSth, 1874. 

 *' W. A. Lindsay, Esq., Secretary, Royal Horticultural Society. 



" Dear Sir, — We beg to acknowledRe your letter of the 2oth inst., to which 

 pres'^ure of business has prevented our sooner replyinc. 



" "We must express our very great surprise that it is onlyat so recent a date 

 that the Council acknowledfjed that they have been unable to come to any 

 satisfactory arrangement with rcf^'ard to a provincial show being held this 

 year, that acknowledgment being obtained only in consecpience of the protest 

 sent to them by exhibitors who acted on a rumour which had reached them ; 

 and we think it is not complimentary to exhibitors as a body, or treating 

 them with the courtesy they aro fairly entitled to, to ask them only at the 

 last moment, as it were, to help the Council by " proposals and suggestions " 

 out of what appears to us to be a very great misfortune for the Society. 



" Had the Council really wished to have the opioinua and suggestions of 

 exhibitors, wo submit that it would have been much better to have solicited 

 them last autumn at some of the meetings held for regulating the prize list 

 for this year. 



""When the Annual Report was issued by the Council a short time since, we 

 noticed that the Provincial Show at Bath last summer was specially alluded 

 to as a 'horticultural and financial success;' also that 'very material alter- 

 ations were proposed in the arrangement of future provincial shows, with the 

 object of increasing their scientific value and social comfort.' 



" We think, therefore, from the Council's own statement there is every 

 cause to regret their inability to arrange for such an exhibition, and under 

 the circumstances of the case we fail to see why the last portion of the para- 

 graph quoted was thought necessary, when they must have known that no 

 exhibition was likely to be held this year. "VVe must also add, that as you 

 say in your letter to us, ' the Council are most anxious to promote and encou- 

 rage these shows,' it seems to us extraordinary that they are unable to cai-ry 

 out arrangements which were so successfully managed by the late Council 

 during the last six years. 



" In conclusion we wish to say that we are only now stating our own views, 

 having had no opportunity of conferring with those gentlemen who signed 

 the protest with oarBelves. " We are, dear sir, yours faithfully, 



"James Veitch & Sons." 



Would you let me correct a printer's error in the letter that 

 vou were good enough to print last week ? I spoke of gar- 

 deners as " these more working bees ;" the change of a letter 

 aas made it mere working bees. Xo one who reads the articles 



in your .Journal by gardener contributors or Mr. Fish's speeches 

 would caU first-class gardeners mere working bees. 



I see the question of a coimtry show is being revived. As 

 I read the printed accounts, they seem to show that not only 

 all the old country show fund, but the surplus from the show 

 at Bath last year, have been spent by the acting Council for 

 the general (that is, mainly Kensingtonian) purposes of the 

 Society. But still it seems a vast pity that such a temporary 

 misappropriation of the surplus should lead to a break in 

 country shows which have really helped horticultural progress. 

 — George F. Wilson, Ileatherbank, }l'e)jbridge Heath. 



FLOWERS FOR OUR BORDERS.— No. 27. 



TRITONIA ACEBA.— GOLDES-FLOWEKED TailONIA. 



This fine Caffrarian Irid when vigorously grown, and with 

 healthy foliage, is, undoubtedly, one of the handsomest species 

 not only of its genus, but even of the natural order to which it 

 belongs. Unfortunately, its thin membranous foliage not sel- 

 dom becomes in a dry atmosphere a pruy to that pest of the 



Tritonia aui-ea. 



gardener, red spider, and its vitality being thus weakened, the 

 development of the flower-spike is checked, and the plant is 

 shorn of much of its beauty. With ordinary care, however, 

 and the occasional use of Gishurst compound or Fowler's 

 insecticide, followed by the syringe, it is by no means difficult 

 to preserve the foliage in a healthy state, and the plant wiU 

 well repay the amateur for these slight attentions. 



Strong corms wUl produce stems from 2i to 3 feet high, with 

 a branched spike bearing numerous flowers of a rich apricot 

 colour, each 2 inches across. 



It is found to succeed best in a mixture of equal parts of 

 heath soU, loam, and leaf mould, with a small portion of sharp 

 white sand ; in short, in the same compost in which the 

 Gladiolus, Ixia, and most of the plants usually classed as 

 Cape bulbs are known to flourish. The corms should be 

 potted about October, in well-drained pots tilled with the 

 above compost, and placed in a cold frame, with just sufficient 

 protection to ward-off severe frost ; and during the midwinter 

 months it should be kept nearly dry. Where there is not the 

 convenience of a cold frame the pot might be safely placed in 

 the window of a cool room ; and in either situation it may be 

 retained till May, when it should be stationed out-doors, in a 

 partially shaded border, upon ashes, to exclude the worms. 

 As soon as the flower scape appears the plant may be removed 



