442 



JOUENAL OP HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I November 18, 187B. 



12 inches high, and with careful stopping of Bome of the 

 Bhoots give a long encoession of Viloom. Seed may be had 

 mixed, or in eeveral ehowy and distinct colours. Grow the 

 seedlings till they flower and then take cuttings, keeping them 

 named and separate as with other bedding plants. Perhaps 

 plants may be procurable ; if so a season would be saved, the 

 expense being of course greater. Both the Clematis and An- 

 tirrhinum like a little chalk or old mortar mixed with the 

 staple soil, but the Snapdragon requires no manure whatever, 

 and might be grown almost without any soil at all. 



The Viola, in moist rich soils, and in all but very dry sea- 

 sons, is a capital bedding plant, including as it does colours 

 not seen in the Geranium family, and its height never exceeds 

 a foot. None of the sorts can be depended upon to come true 

 from seed, but mixed beds from seed of T. Perfection and 

 V. lutea grandiflora will give a pleasing variety of purple, 

 yellow, white and intermediate shades. The seed should be 

 sown in a warm house, the seedlings hardened off, and planted 

 out in May, when bloom will soon appear and will probably 

 continue far into the autumn. Cuttings of named varieties 

 struck in August will flower early in the year, and old plants 

 divided in spring will give a succession of bloom for the later 

 mouths. The Viola is perfectly hardy, but unless it has fre- 

 quent change of soil soon degenerates into insignificance. 



Pyrethrum Prince Arthur is an improvement on the old 

 double white Pyrethrum, being dwarf and free-flowering. 

 Plants from cuttings do not attain a greater height than 12 

 inches, and bloom profusely all the season. I have tried these 

 cuttings in the open ground, but on the return of spring their 

 place was vacant ; and the cold frame is therefore their proper 

 home during the winter. Pyrethrum Golden Gem, a new 

 variety of the well-known Golden Feather, has small double 

 white flowers which last for many months if the seed be sown 

 early. The foliage is similar to, but not nearly so good as, that 

 of the Golden Feather, and becomes rusty when the flowers 

 appear. This comes quite true from seed, and is about 

 12 inches high when full grown, and is good for a mass where 

 white and yellow are wanted, bat as an edging we have no 

 occasion for it. 



Tom Thumb Tropajolums, sometimes called Nasturtiums, 

 have showy and lasting blooms of many rich colours, and in 

 poor soil they make quite a blaze. Their culture as hardy 

 annuals is too well known to require comment, but cuttings 

 are generally taken when it is desirable to keep the stock true. 



Tagetes eignata pumila has lately been aspiring to the proud 

 position hitherto held by the Calceolaria ; the latter, however, 

 stUl holds its ground in rich soils, and may be kept through 

 the winter without fire heat. The Tagetes, on the other 

 hand, does better in poor, light, or dry gravelly soils. It is 

 a haU-hardy annual with bright yellow flowers, grows from 

 9 to 12 inches high, and may be raised from seed in the 

 spring as advised for Violas. 



There are other plants I might mention, but space forbids 

 any further extension of these notes. Those plants I have 

 named need as little attention, and give as little trouble to 

 grow, as we can expect with cultivated plants that would, if 

 neglected, be overrun in one season by our native weeds, or 

 become weeds themselves. 



Before closing I should like to add that by leaving herb- 

 aceous plants in the beds we invite bare earth and desolation 

 for several months in the year ; therefore clear and dig the 

 beds and plant or plunge evergreens, or bulbs, or spring- 

 flowering perennials, or all three, and you will avoid the horti- 

 cultural bugbear of the age, and help to fill up the dreadful 

 gap in the floral cycle which is almost universally met in 

 places devoted to summer-bedding. Variety and change are 

 in small gardens essential to the happiness of the proprietor 

 and to the enjoyment of friends and neighbours. — F. B., 

 Blacklicath. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



At the meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works the 

 week before last, it was resolved that the Works Committee 

 should consider the desirability of taking steps for applying to 

 Parliament in the next session for obtaining the fee of the 

 Chelsea Botanical Gardens belonging to the Apothecaries' 

 Company, and that the Sohcitor to the Board be instructed to 

 give the necessary notices. 



We are informed that Mr. Wills, with a generosity that 



does him credit, gives the gold med.al which was awarded by 

 the Council of the Boyal Horticultural Society for the new 



Drac£enas to his foreman Mr. F. Bause, and Mr. Wills has 

 given instructions that the inscription be appropriate to Mr. 

 Bause's acceptance of the honour. This is a graceful recog- 

 nition of the successful hybridist's valuable services. 



It is a common opinion that the Goano on the Chineha 



Islands is an accumulation of excrements of the thousands of 

 birds swarming there. This is only partly the case. The 

 upper stratum, and much the less, consists of the excrements 

 and remains of birds, as also the excrements and remains of 

 seals (Otaria) frequenting the island. The lower, and much 

 larger mass, has been formed in prehistoric times, through the 

 sinking to the sea bottom of excrements of numerous birds 

 that confined themselves to a small region of the sea; thus 

 were produced layers which afterwards were raised with the 

 sea bottom and formed the islands. This mode of deposit of 

 guano is still going on. — {CJiemisclies Centralhlatt.) 



Some interesting observations have lately been made 



by M. Nobbe on the boot formation of sosie of the Conifer.e. 

 If seeds of Silver-leaved Fir (Pinus Picea), Spruce Fir (P. 

 Abies), and Scotch Fir (P. sylvestris), be placed in sand which 

 is supplied with a nutritive solution, there is found to be the 

 greatest difference, at the end of a year, in formation of roots 

 by the three. Thus the Spruce Fir had nearly double the 

 number of root fibres of the Silver-leaved Fir, while the Scotch 

 Fir had twenty-four times as many. Similarly, as regards 

 length of root, one year's root-product of the Spruce was 

 double in length that of the Silver-leaved Fir, and the Scotch 

 Fir roots were even six times longer than those of the Spruce, 

 and twelve times the length of the Silver-leaved Fir. As re- 

 gards above-ground vegetation, the entire surface of the parts, 

 in Spruce, Silver-leaved, and Scotch Fir respectively, was 100, 

 107, 297, so that the much greater development of the Scotch 

 Fir is here also apparent. It is well known how this tree 

 maintains a large body on email supplies of nutritive material, 

 and how it thrives where Silver-leaved Firs succumb. Even 

 at six months' age it rules a space of ground which ideally 

 may be considered as an inverted cone of 80 to 90 centimetres 

 in height, and nearly 2000 square centimetres of base-surface. 

 The foregoing facts also throw light on the difiiculty of trans- 

 planting Scotch Firs, a considerable portion of the roots being 

 generally left behind. — (English Mechanic.) 



One of the most important of the late discoveries in 



chemistry is that made by Professor Mantogazza, of Pavia, 

 that ozone is generated in immense quantities by all plants 

 and flowers possessing green leaves and aromatic odours. 

 Hyacinths, Mignonette, Heliotrope, Lemon, Mint, Lavender, 

 Narcissus, Cherry Laurel, and the like, all throw off ozone 

 largely on exposure to the sun's rays ; and so powerful is this 

 great amospheric purifier that it is the belief of chemists that 

 whole districts can be redeemed from the deadly malaria which 

 infects them by simply covering them with aromatic vegeta- 

 tion. The bearing of this upon flower culture in our large 

 cities is also very important. Experiments have proved that 

 the air of cities contains less ozone than that of the surround- 

 ing country, and the thickly inhabited parts of the cities less 

 than the more sparsely built, or than the parks and open 

 squares. Plants and flowers and green trees can alone restore 

 the balance ; so that every little flower pot is not merely a 

 thing of beauty while it lasts, but has a direct and beneficial 

 influence upon the health of the neighbourhood in which it is 

 found. — (Sanitary Record.) 



The following gentlemen have consented to act as 



Judges at Messrs. James Carter & Co.'s Annual Root Show to 

 be held at the Agricultural Hall on November 18th and 19th. 

 Mr. James Brebner, Her Majesty's Norfolk Farm ; Mr. A. 

 Blake, Heythorp Park Farm ; Mr. William Briginshaw, Her 

 Majesty's Bagshot Park Farm; Mr. E. W. Booth, Trent Park 

 Farm. Captain Walter of Tangley, Berks, has also consented 

 to act as referee. 



Late Striwbebeies. — On Saturday, 30th of October, upon 

 the same stall as before in Nottingham Market (see page 358, 

 October 2l8t), were exhibited by Mr. Joseph Lamb of Burton 

 Joyce two more fine baskets of Strawberries, even finer than 

 before, and gathered under the same conditions. This I think 

 may be considered the latest I'ate that ripe Strawberries have 

 been gathered from the open fiela without protection, and con- 

 sidering the cold wet weather we have lately experienced makes 

 the fact the more remarkable ; and had the plants been pre- 

 pared by taking oft the first crop when in flower most likely 

 the crop would have been more remarkable still, anu sbows 

 what might be done with this useful sort — viz., theVioomtebi* 



