218 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



1 Septemter 16, 1675. 



large, and each etrikingly and beautifully coloured, 

 oefore saw s ch a group of Petunia flowers. 



We never 



CAEYOPHYLLUS AROMATIOUS. 

 This ib a commercial plant of considerable importance, and 

 has been known to this country for nearly a century. It ia 

 only cultivated in choice and botanical collections of plants, 

 where it flourishes in a soil composed of loam and peat, and 

 muBt have a high steady temperature. It is propagated by 

 cuttings inserted in sand under a bellglass. But while we 

 speak of it and know it as a plant in our artificial mode of 

 growing it, yet in its perfected ttate it is a tree of which the 

 clove spice of commerce ie the dried flower buds. Dr. Hogg 

 in his "Vegetable Kingdom" states that the Clove is a tree 

 20 to 10 feet high, a native of the Moluccas, but now cultivated 

 all over the East Indies where situations favourable to its 

 growth can be obtained, and also in some of the West India 

 islands. The cloves of commerce are the unexpanded flower 

 bnds, the corolla forming a ball on the top between the teeth 

 of the calyx. They are first gathered when the trees are about 





■ -^ ■ - s r- 



'" Fig. 52. — CaryopbylluB aromaticug. 

 six years old, and are either collected by hand or beaten with 

 reeds so as to fall upon cloths which are placed under the 

 trees to receive them, and dried either by fire heat or in the 

 BUn. The fiuit, which is a dry berry, also possesses a very 

 aromatic taste and odour. The ueo of cloves in domestic 

 economy is well known. Water extracts the odour of cloves, 

 with comparatively little of their taste. All their sensible pro- 

 perties are imparted to alcohol ; and the tincture when evapo- 

 rated leaves an excessively fiery extract, which becomes insipid 

 when deprived of the oil by distillation with water, while the 

 oil which comes over is mild. Oil of cloves is obtained by dif - 

 tilling cloves with water, to which it is customary to add 

 common salt in order to raise the temperature of ebullition ; 

 and the water should be repeatedly distilled from the same 

 cloves in order completely to exhaust them. 



At the Intebnational Potato Show to be held in the 

 Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill, September 29th and 30tb, 



the prizes amount to upwards of £100. 

 the 20th. 



Entries close on 



PEACH BUSHES. 



I NOTICED a few days since that Mr. Rivers of Sawbridge- 

 worth had sent to London ripe Peaches of the Early Beatrice 

 grown on a bush outdoors. I think it possible that in many 

 parts of England the Peach may be grown and ripened on 

 bushes. For some years I have had the Early York so grown, 

 and it generally bears well. This year I have gathered more 

 than six dozen well-coloured fruit of excellent flavour. I have 

 also Crawford's Early very fine on a bush with large and good 

 fruit. I shall try the Early Beatrice, the Prince of Wales, and 

 one or two others. I have no wall, so rely solely on bush- 

 growing also for other fruits. My laud is high up, and bleak 

 in winter, yet I generallj' have good crops ; the only drawback 

 being the number of bullfinches that eat out the bloom buds 

 and do more damage to me than the frosts ever do. Perhaps 

 others will try a few bushes of different sorts of Peach out of 

 doors and give their experience. Mine are planted amongst 

 the shrubs and used as ornamental trees, as I do also my 

 Pears and Plums, and they have a very pretty effect both when 

 in bloom and also when covered with bright high-coloured 

 fruit ; besides which I save the labour and expense of wall- 

 training.— Haerison Weir, Weirlcigli. 



[We had a seedling Peach tree trained as au espalier in a 

 garden on a southern slope near Witham in Essex. It ripened 

 its fruit annually.— Eds ] 



An Agave Americana is now in flower at Siebald's Holme, 

 Wisbech ; it stands in front of the house bordering on the 

 street, and first showed for bloom about the 15th of May last. 

 Its stem has reached 17 feet, and the twenty-five clusters of 

 flowers are of a brilliant chrome yellow. The plant is known 

 to be above eighty years of age. It was last year repotted, 

 which is supposed to have thrown it into flower. 



OLLA PODRIDA— A CONTINENTAL TOUB.— No. 4. 



From Milan we went to Venice. As Venice is quite a city 

 sui generis built on the sand dunes of the Adriatic, and as 

 the streets are all turned into canals, and the locomotion 

 effected by gondolas instead of voitures, it is hardly fair to 

 expect any public gardens ; and yet Venice has a public garden 

 on the extreme north-east point of the city, and a botanic 

 garden near the railway station. I paid a hurried visit to the 

 latter during a heavy fall of rain, but was much better pleased 

 with it than the one at Milan. There was a very fine collec- 

 tion there of Yuccas and Agaves grown in pots, and shaded 

 from the sun by being grown under double span sheds, covered 

 with Bamboo mats. This species of Bamboo, nearly allied 

 to the Arundinaria falcata, is much used in different ways for 

 shading. I first noticed it in Milan, fplit and cut into lengths 

 like tile laths, nailed against the sides of scaffolding poles to 

 form a protection for workmen against the scalding sun, and 

 also to prevent pieces of stone, or brick and mortar, from 

 falling into the streets. It is also used nailed across windows 

 to prevent plastering of walls from drying too fast and crack- 

 ing. The smaller and finer ends are again made into blinds, 

 by having cord twisted in and out between them, having much 

 the appearance of fine straw. These blinds admit the air, but 

 form a very perfect shade, and are very durable. 



The Agaves and Yuccas at the Orto Botanico at Venice were 

 growing under blinds made of the coarser Bamboo, which 

 could be rolled up at pleasure. The collection was a very good 

 and varied one, and the plants setmed to rejoice in their 

 treatment. I have heard of Orchids in India being grown 

 much in the same way in houses lathed-in with split Bamboos, 

 and covered on the sunny side with leaves of the Sago Palm. 

 One of the most striking Yuccas was Yucca quadricolor. There 

 were also a nice collection of Eoses, including many of our 

 best sorts, and some, too, of the older varieties, which I had 

 not seen for some time, and a very large kind of yellow 

 Banksian ; but the climate was too hot, and the petals of the 

 Koses were too thin, as if they bad been forced too much into 

 growth. There were also some good specimens of Acacias and 

 some plants of Heliotrope which promised to be very fine. 

 However, the rain began to come down in torrents, and as the 

 gondola was in waiting outside I had to hurry back through 

 the gardens. 



The public garden at the north-east end of the city is very 



