September 30, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



289 



send you this my experience in the hope that it may prevent 

 others being the victims of their own overweening confidence, 

 as I have heen. — J. R. E. 



[The bees were starving owing to the bad honey season. 

 Had they been fed with a few pounds of sugar and water they 

 would not have attacked the fruit. — Eds.] 



KOSES. 



A LADY after visiting Mr. Cooling's Rose nursery states, 

 " The best new Rosea I have seen are Captain Christy, Etienne 

 Levet, Louis Van Houtte, Maxima de la Rocheterie, Claude 

 Levet, Marquise de Castellane, Marquise de Mortemart, and 

 Marie Van Houtte (Tea)." She is an excellent judge, and 

 lived here at Okeford Fitzpaine some years. The selection is 

 very good. Marquise de Mortemart is lovely, but a weak 

 grower. Marie Van Houtte I do not possess. All the rest are 

 here and deserve the lady's praise. These are good new Roses 

 and have done well — St. George, Souvenir de John Gould 

 Veitch, John Harrison, and Theodore Buchetet ; these are all 

 high-coloured Roses and of great excellence in my judgment. 

 These are excellent garden Roses — namely, Pierre Seletzsky 

 and Hortense Mignard. Olga Maris is a pretty white Rose in 

 the way of Baronno de Maynard, but it is not so efflorescent 

 nor 60 perpetual a bloomer. The Countess of Oxford is fine, 

 and may be added to those named by the lady. Tho Roses 

 here have done well. Siuce I have been a rosavian I never 

 had them finer than they were here about June 10th. 



The metropolitan shows are too late for any but possessors 

 of large stocks of Roses or persons who bud largely. A good 

 working rosarian, of whom I believe there are but few, ought 

 to have his Roses in full bloom by June 10th. By ten or 

 fifteen days later the centre buds should be mainly out and 

 gone. The corollary buds are of no use for exhibition. — W. F. 

 RADCLYPrE, Okeford Fitzpaine, Dorset. 



PACKING FRUIT AND CUT FLOWERS. 



There are few gardens where some packing is not occasion- 

 ally done, and in numerous instauces it occurs so frequently 

 as to be a rather formidable affair, consuming a good deal of 

 time and material : it is important, therefore, that the best 

 way of doing the work should be clearly understood. It is 

 undoubtedly a simple matter, and yet it must be granted that 

 it is one in which it is most desirable to excel ; and I hope it 

 will not be considered egotisticjl on my part if I state that 

 quite as much pleasure has been felt upon being informed of 

 the satisfactory condition of such soft fruits as ripe Peaches 

 and Nectarines alter a journey of eight hundred miles as in 

 winning a well-contested prize at a flower show. 



Fruit is packed in a variety of ways. Grapes, for example, 

 are frequently sent considerable distances in perfect safety 

 without the use of any special packing materials, the bunches 

 being laid together as closely as possible with a little wadding 

 at top and bottom. Attempts are also made to preserve the 

 bloom by laying the bunches in open boxes and baskets, which 

 are made to fit into other boxes. But it is neither a very suc- 

 cessful nor safe plan ; much rubbing is inevitable from the 

 vibration of the train, and there is great risk of the Grapes 

 being thrown out of the interior boxes and smashed in transit. 

 The plan which has proved perfectly successful, and which 

 is now invariably followed whenever fruit is sent by rail, is to 

 wrap each bunch of Grapes or fruit of other kinds in soft tissue 

 paper, surrounding it with a slight padding of sweet bran as 

 the fruit is placed side by side in a box. The paper is put 

 upon the fruit in plain folds, and not twisted into hard corners, 

 which may press into the next fruit and spoil it. Much care 

 is taken to have each fruit thoroughly enveloped in bran, 

 which is also settled into as compact a mass as possible by 

 slightly jarring each box upon the packing bench after the top 

 layer is put in, and when it is quite full a sheet of paper is 

 put upon the bran and the hinged lid closed by hooks and eye- 

 lets of copper wire, and securely corded. 



If this excellent old method is only done correctly all risk of 

 failure is avoided. I have therefore entered minutely into 

 details in order to assist those who, like me, have had failures, 

 and which they are, of course, most desirous to remedy in 

 future. 



Cut flowers should be packed in a perfectly dry condition, 

 and whatever packing materials are used should also be dry. 

 Considerable quantities are sent in boxes by rail to distances 

 varying from fifty to nearly three hundred miles in the follow- 



ing manner with perfect success : — The bottom and sides of 

 the box is lined with spray and Fern fronds ; upon that at the 

 bottom is placed a compact layer of buds and euch flowers as 

 will not suffer from a little pressure ; then comes another 

 layer with the more delicate flowers enveloped i^ingly in a thin 

 piece of wadding, all packed closely. This is followed by a 

 sheet of silver paper, upon which a third and last layer of 

 padded flowers is placed. A thin sheet of soft wadding is 

 placed upon the top, and the lid fastened in the same manner 

 as the fruit boxes. — Edward Luckhorst. 



DION^A MUSCIPULA. 

 Carnivorous plants have latterly received more than an 

 ordinary share of attention. They are curiosities of the vege- 

 table world, and have been the subjects of considerable research 



Fig. 65. — Dionfcft muscipuld. 



by botanists and philosophers. They are undoubtedly ;(in-- 

 teresting, and some of them are highly attractive. They are 

 also of comparatively easy culture, and anyone possessing a 

 greenhouse may, with a little care, succeed in growing Dionaja 

 musoipnla. It is a native of Csrolina, North America, where 

 it grows in marshes or bogs. The soil best suited for it is 

 sandy peat, with a little finely-chopped sphagnum moss. 

 After being put into small pots a slight covering of live moss 

 should be laid on the surface. They should be then placed on 

 a shelf in an ordinary greenhouse exposed to the full force of 

 the sun. As they require a good deal of water, a layer of moss 

 should be placed on the shelf and the pots slightly plunged 

 in it, which is preferable to placing them in flats of water; 

 as In this manner the soil is not so apt to scur. When the 

 leaves begin to decay withhold the water, bat never let them 

 dry- up entirely. 

 The Dionsea is propagated by seed, which it produces readily 



