230 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



f September 9, 1875. 



form a low bank backed by evergreens. For the most part the 

 old world spociea are on one side, and the new world ones on 

 the other. An edging of Ivy along the path both tends to keep 

 them cool and damp and to collect the dust raised by the feet 

 of visitors, which in hot dry days, when many thousands are in 

 the garden, ia most prejudicial to the general health of such 

 tender plants. About 150 species and varieties are planted 

 out, many of them represented by both European and Ameri- 

 can specimens. 



The collection of LiHums has been removed from the south 

 end of the Herbaceous Ground, where they suffered from the 

 intrusion of the roots of trees into soil prepared for them, to 

 the west side of the Ivy collection on the other side of the wall 

 bounding the ground. The collection has been removed and 

 planted in two deep beds of mixed peat and loam with broken 

 bricks, which latter are found to be very advantageous for hold- 

 ing moisture in the light sandy soil of these gardens. The 

 beds are edged with Rhododendron, and bushes of these and 

 Camellias are planted down the centre of each, to provide 

 shade in summer and to protect the young growths from the 

 cutting winds of spring. 



A collection of carnivorous plants has been arranged on the 

 table on one side of the Orchid House porch, which it has 

 been necessary to protect from the curiosity of the public by 

 a wire fence. 



During the last year practical lessons in various depart- 

 ments of botany and its kindred subjects have been given to 

 the young gardeners with a view of pieparing them better for 

 their duties in general, and especially of qualifying them for 

 government and other situations in the colonies and India, 

 where a scientific knowledge of gardening, arboriculture, &a. 

 is required. The lessons are given in the evening after work- 

 ing hours, and embrace the elements of structural, systematic, 

 and physiological botany ; of chemistry, physical geography, 

 and meteorology in their application to horticulture ; of eco- 

 nomic botany, forestry, &a. They are given, some in the 

 young men's library, others in the garden or museum. Atten- 

 dance is not compulsory, but anyone commencing one of the 

 courses is required to go through with it and take notes, 

 which are written out in books, and these are examined period- 

 ically. The courses are short, and some of them are repeated 

 twice or oftener during the year, so as to enable a succession 

 of young gardeners (who cannot well attend to more than one 

 course at a time) to obtain instruction in all or most of the 

 subjects taught. 



It should be premised that no young gardeners are taken 

 into the service of the Royal Gardens who have not passed 

 their apprenticeship elsewhere ; that they come ostensibly for 

 the purpose of self-improvement, and are expected to remain 

 for two years in the service. They, however, seldom remain 

 more than twelve or eighteen months, the fact of having served 

 at Kew b»ing considered so high a recommendation for curator- 

 ship? of botanic and other public gardens, and by persons re- 

 quiring gardeners with a special knowledge of plants, and the 

 demands upon Kew for gardeners to serve in India and the 

 colonies being very frequent. 



A large stock of the true Liberian Coflee has been obtained 

 through the kind efiorts of Messrs. Irvine A Woodward of 

 Liverpool. This is a larger and perhaps diiiferent variety from 

 that received from Cipe Coast, and which was mentioned in 

 my last year's report (p. 5). Large quantities of both have 

 been sent to the Coffee-growing British possessions, and have 

 arrived in excellent condition. 



Dr. Thwaites states that the Cape Coast Coffee, the safe ar- 

 rival of which in Ceylon I mentioned in the report of last year, 

 is, notwithstanding that it was immediately attacked by the 

 leaf disease, doing well. He also remarks that "the Cape 

 Coast and Liberian Coffees, although they would seem to 

 differ much as regards size of their respective seeds, yet in the 

 matter of foUaga there is great resemblance between them. 

 In this latter respect they differ considerably from the ordinary 

 Coffee plant of Ceylon ; their leaves being a good deal larger, 

 more firm in texture, and tapering more gradually to the base. " 

 The disease and insect ravages by which of late years Coffee 

 has been attacked in India, Natal, Ceylon, and other colonies 

 has directed the attention of the Local and Home Government 

 to this important culture, and given rise to a very extensive 

 and onerous correspondence with this estabhshment. My at- 

 tention has in consequence been directed — ^(1), to obtaining 

 accurate reports as to the nature of the disease, of which 

 several are confounded under one common epithet; (2), to 

 reoooiaisndiag measures for the cultivation of Coffee in 



colonies once famous for its production where it has been 

 almost abandoned, as well as in others where the cultivation 

 has been scarcely attempted ; and (3), to the cultivation of new 

 and improved varieties. 



The demand for seed of Eucalyptus globulus has continued 

 unabated. I am stiU unable to endorse the views of those who 

 regard the tree as capable of cultivation in tropical swamps 

 and as a prophylactic against ague and fever. Dut whilst re- 

 sponding in this sense to the multitudes who write to me on 

 the subject, I have accompanied my answer with a packet of 

 fresh seeds for trial. There is little doubt, however, that in 

 places which are favourable to its growth it will prove a very 

 valuable source of timber of hard quality, and, contrary to the 

 usual habit of hardwooded trees, it is of very rapid growth. 



The subject of Cinchona cultivation in the now almost aban- 

 doned colony of St. Helena has been again brought under the 

 notice of the Government, owing to the fact of a large propor- 

 tion of the trees introduced there ten years ago from Kew, and 

 whose culture had been abandoned, having been found after 

 years of neglect to be in a flourishing condition. The suita- 

 bility of the soil and climate of that island for Cinchona culti- 

 vation has now been indisputably proved, and the question 

 of continuing and extending it is one that must depend upon 

 other considerations. The successful introduction of this 

 febrifuge into India, Ceylon, and Jamaica being now accom- 

 plished, this subject no longer demands a notice in my report. 

 The prospect of Ipecacuanha cultivation, which ia no less 

 important than that of Cinchona, is far less encouraging. This 

 arises not so much from want of success in establishing and 

 increasing the plant, as from the apparently extremely slow 

 growth of the underground rootstock from which the drug is 

 obtained, and the small yield of even a fully grown plant. 

 Nevertheless, the cultivation must be persevered with. The 

 causes that retard the progress of this valuable herb under 

 cultivation are those that raise the price of it in its native 

 country. Were it a plant that increased rapidly, it would bo 

 with difficulty eradicated in the forests which it inhabits. 



Tbe plants of the true India-rubber of Para (Hevea bra- 

 sUiensis), which had been taken out to India by Dr. King, 

 Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, have safely 

 arrived and have already to some extent been propagated by 

 cutting?. The cultivation of this tree is extremely important, 

 not merely from the valuable quality of the rubber obtained 

 from it, but also in view of the diminished supply from the 

 Indian Ficus elastica, which, owing to its epiphytic germination 

 and mode of growth, is not well adapted for cultivation for 

 this purpose, while severe inroads have been made upon it in 

 the forest where it occurs. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



A LOAN has enabled the Royal Horticultural Society to pay 

 not only the prizes they offered in 1875, but those also of 1874. 

 The Society also purposes to renew its Pbovincul Shows, and 

 that the first shall he held at Liverpool during next June. 



Sutton & Sons' Royal Berkshire Root Show is to 



take place on 20th November. It is said to be now the largest 

 in the kingdom. .£220 are offered in prizes. The prizes for 

 their Champion Swede amount to upwards of £35, and Mangold 

 prizes in the aggregate to upwards of £80. There is the novelty 

 of a special class for roots cultivated with sewage ; and prizes 

 for vegetables and Potatoes. 



NOTES ON VILLA and SUBUEBAN GARDENING. 



Gathering and Keefino Fruit. — Some may ask. What has 

 this to do with villa gardening ? My answer ia that it ia one of 

 the moat important operations of the season. To take the pains 

 to grow fruit, and neglect the essential points in gathering and 

 keeping it, is like throwing time and labour away. It ia not to 

 be expected that in the uaually limited conveniences appertain- 

 ing to a villa residence that there is a proper place for storing 

 fruit (even professional gardeners often find places deficient of 

 that necessity), but here there ia a atrong reason why more care 

 should be tiken in gathering the fruit ; for depend upon it the 

 more care that ia bestowed npon^the^different sorts^of, fruit the 

 longer and better it will keep. 



Now let us see what ought to be our guide. First, in the 

 work of gathering, it is a wise provision of Nature that all the 

 fruit upou a tree does not ripen at one and the same time : hence 

 the importance of knowing when a fruit is ripe or fit to gather, 

 and in the beat condition for use. Take Peaches and Nectarines, 

 for inattmce ; their natural colour upon the^tree often leads one 



