November U, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF EORnCULTOBE AND OOTTAGK GABDENEP. 



417 



in any favourable climate. So my fruit trees are not uncared 

 for : they have tlie best of drainage and the best of soil my 

 skill can devise. It is not tho soil with which the trees have 

 actual contact that is in fault and that could make a climate 

 good or bad. It is the soil and subfoil of the nciphbourhcod 

 which helps to keep the temperature low and tho atmosphere 

 humid. Draining my Peach borders is but like a drop in the 

 ocean ; it will not prevent the Polypodium luxuriating on the 

 branches of the neighbouring Oaks, nor the moss growing on 

 the tops of the hedgerows. The fogs will still rise in the 

 neighbouring valley, and the midsummer frosts defy our 

 garden walls. 



My trees are altogether isolated from the natural soil, but 

 they are not isolated from the atmosphere for which the na- 

 tural soil and subsoil in the neighbourhood are partially re- 

 sponsible. 'Where Peaches are so isolated, as with glass, they 

 do remarkably well. This year I have been also wonderfully 

 Buccessful out of doors, but I do not yet know whether the 

 credit belongs to myself or to the season. I have learned a 

 great deal since I have been here, and I have materially altered 

 my practice. Time alone will show whether I am more per- 

 manently successful than my predecessors. I trust I have 

 said enough to show that Oldlands is not the worst place in 

 the world to grow Peaches. — Wm. Taylok. 



ABKUS PBECATOEIUS. 



The above is the name of jour ("Old Querist") plant 

 raised from seed received from the West Indies, and now 

 " looking sickly." Its browned hue is but the natural tint of 



Fig. 91.— AbruB precatorius. 



antumn, for the plant is deciduous. It, like all other deciduous 

 plants, must now be allowed a period of rest by withholding 

 water as the foliage decays, yet not permitting the soil to 

 become "dry as dust," which is a cause of injury to many 

 plants during their resting period. 



We have known such climbing plants as Passiflora, Clero- 

 dendron, Clematis, and Stephanotis to have been impaired in 

 vigour by extreme dryness in the resting period. We have even 

 known Fuchsias, Roses, Deutzias, and other leaf-shedding plants 

 to have been dried so extremely in the winter as to almost re- 

 fuse to break into growth in the spring. We have known also 

 fruit trees and Vines to be greatly injured by the same cause — 

 the former putting forth weak blossoms, and the latter breaking 

 weakly and irregularly. It is sometimes forgotten that plants 



which need rest need also support. The soil of all deciduous 

 plants must be perceptibly moist throughout the winter, or 

 the rest to which they are subjected may be the rest of death 

 as it certainly will lead to impaired health. We mention 

 this now as the period when errors in over-resting plants and 

 trees may be made, thoughtlessly by some and systematically 

 by others. With a low temperature and moisture in the soil 

 plants have rest and at the same time support, but total dry- 

 ness of tho soil is an evil ever to be avoided alike with hardy 

 trees and shrubs and tender plants. 



Let your plants, therefore (a specimen of which we figure), 

 have rest, but let that rest be reasonable. Keep the plant 

 cool but in a not lower temperature than .55'. With an in- 

 crease of heat in the spring it will start into growth, and may 

 then have fresh soil given, taking the old soil away partially, 

 but shaking-out the plant entirely. A mixture of equal parts 

 of loam and peat with lumps of charcoal and a tenth part of 

 silver sand will be a suitable compost. It is the Wild Liquorice, 

 native of the West Indies; it is a pretty stove-climbing plant, 

 its pale purple flowers being attractive and its foliage agreeable ; 

 is of easy culture, and readily propagated from cuttings in- 

 serted in sand and placed under a bellglass in the spring. Its 

 roots possess the same property as the Liquorice of commerce, 

 but the seeds if eaten are apt to produce violent headache. 



ROYAL HOKTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



The following address from the Council of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society has been issued to the Fellows along with the 

 list of privileges for 187G which we published last week. 



The address sets forth very clearly the present state of the 

 Society and the necessity there is for such arrangements as the 

 Council have made for next year. The pernicious abuse of 

 the transferable tickets which have hitherto been issued to 

 the Fellows has very materially contributed to the reduction 

 of the Society's income, by extending the privileges of the 

 Society to those who did not contribute one farthing towards 

 its maintenance. Notwithstanding the enormous increase of 

 the neighbourhood during the last ten years in extent and 

 population, the income of the Society from subscriptions is 

 very much less now than it was ten years ago. The system 

 of lending and borrowing tickets, which had become prevalent, 

 had its natural consequence, and those who were benefited by 

 it had no need to subscribe to the Society's funds. It is, 

 therefore, against this abuse that the Council have been 

 careful to provide in the new arrangements for 1876. All 

 transferable tickets have been abolished, and every Fellow or 

 Fellow's nominee will have to show their tickets on entering the 

 garden as they would to any place of public entertainment. 



To compensate for the loss of transferable tickets the Council 

 have acted most liberally towards the Fellows. Every four- 

 guinea Fellow will have three tickets, one for himself per- 

 sonally and the other two for his nominees. He will also 

 have the privilege of procuring for each adult member of his 

 family personal tickets at the rate of one guinea each, which 

 will admit on all except specially reserved occasions ; and a 

 two-guinea ticket will admit all the junior members of his 

 family under twelve. To illustrate this we will suppose the 

 head of a family is a four-guinea Fellow. He receives one 

 ticket for himself, one for his wife, and one for an adult mem- 

 ber of his family, admitting three persons for four guineas. 

 If he has three more adult members of bis family, he can 

 by the payment of one guinea each obtain three more 

 tickets which will admit them also to full privileges. Thus 

 by a payment of seven guineas six members of a household 

 are admitted to all the benefits arising from the daily use of 

 the gardens, admission to all shows, promenades, fetes, and 

 conversazioni. And where, it may be asked, is there in all the 

 metropolis a fashionable suburb which has at its doors a re- 

 sort and attractions which can be obtained on such terms ? 



The Council of the Eoyal Horticultural Society have the 

 pleasure of announcing to the Fellows that they have suc- 

 ceeded in making arrangements with Her Majesty's Com- 

 missioners of 1851, whereby the gardens are granted to them 

 virtually rent free, but only upon the performance of one im- 

 portant condition — viz., that the annual income from sub- 

 scriptions shall be raised to i'10,000. 



The present income from subscriptions amounts to i;7700, a 

 sum which experience has proved to be quite inadequate to 

 maintain the gardens efficiently with regard either to their 

 usefulness or their attractiveness. 



The Council have been most desirous that the necessary ad- 



