102 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



William Gray, Jr., had used liquid manure with very satisfactory 

 results. As Mr. Atkinson had said, the secret is to use it very 

 weak, and only after the pots are full of roots. He had tried 

 solutions of guano and of ammonia, but preferred cow manure, of 

 which he placed a bushel in his cistern and added more from time 

 to time as the strength became exhausted, cleaning out the cistern 

 once or twice a year. If too strong he diluted it. He found that 

 this affected the flowers mainly, while guano affects both flowers and 

 foliage. Pelargoniums will show the effect of liquid guano in 

 forty-eight hours. You can water them with a weak solution of 

 cow manure without the plants stopping flowering and running to 

 wood. 



James Cruickshanks said the best show of ivy he had ever known 

 out of doors in this climate was on a brick house in Charlestown, 

 the whole end of which was covered ; but it was killed to the ground 

 in the winter of 1857. In the city of Brooklyn whole houses are 

 covered with it, and it keeps as green through the winter as in 

 summer. The chapel at Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, D. C, 

 was also covered with a fine growth of ivy, but this was much 

 injured by the severe cold of the last winter. 



Mr. Gray said that he cultivated ivy out of doors for edgings 

 to walks, and when covered in winter it thrives well, but in the 

 house, without constant care, it becomes covered with scale. 



Marshall P. Wilder alluded to a visit to the ruins of Kenilworth 

 Castle, a few years ago, where he saw the old dilapidated walls 

 covered with ivy, and measured the stem of one of the largest 

 plants, which he found nearly six feet in circumference. 



F. L. Harris had on exhibition flowers of Clematis indivisa^ 

 which, he said, is a native of New Zealand, and though introduced 

 into England nearly thirty years ago, is quite new here. It is be- 

 lieved that the pure white flowers will prove valuable for commercial 

 purposes, such as bouquets, wreaths, etc. In England it is largely 

 cultivated as a greenhouse climber. It requires a cool temperature, 

 say 40°, and after flowering should be pruned liberally, thinning 

 out and shortening the long shoots, so as to produce a supply of 

 young wood for the next winter. 



