»62 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 21, 18T6. 



Many bouses are devoted to the culture of Heaths, New 

 Hollaed plants, Geraniums, Ferns, and Orchids. Most of the 

 houses are 130 feet long. Grapes and Peaches are largely 

 grown here, the Grapes being very fine, especially Mrs. Pince's 

 Black Muscat, which continues to be a great favourite. The 

 propagating department is a remarkable feature in this estab- 

 lishment. The houses are the best constructed of the kind in 

 the country, and it is surprising how tens of thousands of 

 plants are produced here in a short time. 



It is now time to pass on to the outdoor department, which 

 after all is the chief glory of the establishment. The grounds 

 are about sixty- acres in extent. Of ornamental trees, shrubs, 

 fruit, etc., there are great collections. Many of them are of 

 great beauty, and as yet not in common use. I noticed many 

 hybrids comparatively new. Hybridising has long been carried 

 on here with remarkable success, many new plants having 

 been thus produced. The Conifer Walk is a quarter of a 

 mile in length and intersects the nursery. In this department 

 are plants of considerable size and great beauty, popular 

 kinds, which I need not enumerate. On the left of this walk 

 is the Winter Garden, planted also with Conifers and ever- 

 greens. The Irish Yew and standard Portugal Laurel are 

 exceptionally fine and symmetrical. The variegated Hollies, 

 both globular and pyramidal, are also striking objects. Oppo- 

 site this is the Italian Garden, a perfect gem of its kind. The 

 Irish Yews and Laurels with the vases give this garden a most 

 exotic appearance, and the general beauty is greatly enhanced 

 during the summer months by an extensive display of bedding 

 and subtropical plants. I noticed here two new plants — one 

 Begonia Woodmanii, a very fine variety, flowering well out- 

 doors ; the other a Geranium named Bold Brook Pet, a dwarf 

 variety with large trusses of orange-scarlet flowers. For the 

 removing and transplanting of large trees Barron's tree-moving 

 machine is employed. It will carry eight tons and upwards, 

 and Dr. Woodman said there is very little risk in removing 

 them of that weight ; and to substantiate his testimony he 

 drove me to Exminster, a distance of three miles, where they 

 have recently formed a new nursery, and where large trees 

 have been planted and are flourishing well. 



The nursery throughout is in a high state of keeping, and 

 an inspection of the grounds and plant houses affords both 

 enjoyment and instruction. — N. Cole, Kensington Palace. 



HEEBACEOUS PLANTS FOB BEDDING. 



Among notices to correspondents in our Journal information 

 ia requested about a hardy herbaceous plant for bedding to 

 flower at the same time as Geraniums. I have used effectively 

 Centranthus ruber. There are three colours or varieties of this 

 plant — red, crimson, and white, and when contrasted together 

 or in separate colours they are very effective. By careful cul- 

 ture the plants may be had in bloom through the summer and 

 often into early winter. To have a continuous bloom they 

 require to be thinned and stopped to produce successional 

 growths. 



Geranium sanguineum is a plant that continues long in 

 bloom. With careful thinning the shoots and stopping them 

 the blooming season may be prolonged. Crucianella stylosa 

 is a continuous-blooming plant, and might answer for the pur- 

 pose named. It should have poor soil and be kept as dry as 

 possible, otherwise it is a rampant-growing plant. Delphinium 

 Belladonna, with careful stopping and pegging-down in good 

 soil, is a very useful plant for bedding, and may be kept in 

 bloom a long time. Nepeta violacea flowers a long time, and 

 by careful thinning of the shoots gives a succession of bloom 

 till autumn. Dielytra spectabilis is a fine plant for bedding 

 in good soil, and by thinning the shoots it blooms a long time 

 and is always prized for cut flowers, CEnothera macrocarpa 

 and others might be named. — M. H. 



EXTKACT FROM THE EEPORTorTHE BRISBANE 

 BOTANIC GARDEN, QUEENSLAND. 

 To illustrate the capabilities of the Queensland climate, it 

 may be mentioned that the several varieties of the Mango 

 plant, introduced principally from the far apart latitudes of 

 Java, the West Indies, and Bombay, have yielded during this 

 season more abundantly than heretofore; and this notwith- 

 standing the unfavourable weather which characterised the 

 earlier period of the season, upon the state of which the Mango 

 is supposed to be mainly dependant in its fruiting. All the 



plants are yet quite young — some having been propagated ia 

 these grounds, others imported in an infant state. There are 

 three varieties from Java — the Sangier, the Gnmpoha, and 

 Dagieng. The fruit of all these plants is mellow and grateful 

 to the palate, and invariably elicits high encomiums from those 

 whose experience well qualifies them to form a judgment. 

 These last mentioned are considered fully equal in flavour to 

 the far-famed Mango of Bombay, of which these gardens 

 contain three varieties — viz., the Strawberry, the Alphonse, 

 and the Goa. A Mango seed forwarded some years since from 

 the West Indies has been succestfuUy propagated, and plants of 

 it distributed to some of the residents of Brisbane. A specimen 

 of this season's fruit from one of these plants turned the scale 

 at 2G ozs. 



The following is a list of the principal plants that have 

 flowered or borne fruit during the past year : — Rhopala corco- 

 vadeneis. Rhododendron virginalis, Pandanus utilis, Pandanus 

 latifolius, Pandanus pygmteus, Oreodoxa oleracea (twelve years 

 old), Anthurium Scherzerianum, Philodendron Lindenianum, 

 Strelitzea Nicoli, Maranta grandis, Achris sapota (Sopadilla 

 Plum), Passiflora macrocarpa (fruit 8 lbs. weight), Lilium 

 Wallichianum. 



CoFFa!A AiiiBicA (Coffee). — Attention has been called to this 

 plant in consequence of a despatch to His Excellency the 

 Governor from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord 

 Carnarvon, as to the Coffee-leaf disease in Cejlon. The Coffee 

 plant in Ceylon is suffering great ravages from a well-defined 

 species of fungus, Hemeleia vastatrix, which belongs to a class 

 of most minute parasitic plants, which include the oidium of 

 the Vine and the perenospora of the Potato. This disease haa 

 for some time past been causing great anxiety and conster- 

 nation amongst the planters there, as well as in some other 

 parts of the world where it has appeared. It is satisfactory to 

 find that no trace of this disease has as yet been found in 

 Queensland, neither do I think, if care is taken, is it likely to 

 take root here. In my report on this matter to His Excellency 

 I went fully into the position and prospects of coffee culti- 

 vation in this colony, and have only now to remark that there 

 is a fine field in the northern districts for the profitable in- 

 vestment of capital in the cultivation of this great commercial 

 staple. Thousands of acres of suitable land are to be found 

 from the Herbert River to the Endeavour River, all along the 

 north-east coast, and extending from ten to thirty miles inland. 

 In this district the branches of the tree grow very robust and 

 horizontal, while it begins to bear fruit about the third year, 

 producing very shortly thereafter 3 lbs. of berries per tree per 

 annum. The plant flourishes, however, in all parts of the 

 colony, although it is not so productive in the south, and takes 

 longer time to come to maturity. I have every hope that on 

 the publication of my report in England the attention of 

 capitalists and planters wUl be directed to this colony, when it 

 is known that the plant has found such a congenial habitation 

 in northern Queensland, where there appears also to be every 

 prospect of now obtaining a cheap, though inferior, class of 

 labour ; and especially when it is found that the plant is not 

 subject to the ravages of this most destructive fungus. I would 

 consequently call the attention of the Government to the great 

 care necessary, at present, in permitting Coffee plants from 

 being imported into the colony from countries affected with 

 the diseape; and I would suggest that, untU the cause and 

 origin of the disease is fully diagnosed, only seeds and plants 

 be permitted to be imported from those countries where the 

 disease does not exist. His Excellency has forwarded me a 

 copy of the correspondence upon " the Coffee-leaf disease," 

 which can be consulted, in the Botanical Library, by persons 

 interested. 



Chocolate, or Cocoa (Theobroma Cacao). — This is another 

 plant that could also be cultivated with great success in the 

 same northern districts as coffee, i nd would form a most profit- 

 able and lucrative investment for capital, as there is an ex- 

 tensive market all over the world for its consumption. It ia a 

 plant which can be cultivated with much less trouble and 

 expense for labour than coffee, being a tree of larger dimen- 

 sions ; it requires, however, to be planted more openly, but 

 during the period the trees are taking to arrive at maturity 

 the distance between the rows in the plantation could be 

 turned to profitable account by the raising of such plants as 

 Ginger, Arrowroot, Cassava, Indigo, &e. The trees take from 

 four to six years to come to maturity, but thereafter they 

 require very little labour or attention except to gather the 

 fruit, for the Cocoa crop may be said to last throughout the 

 whole year, although there are three principal gatherings of 



