THE GENESEE FARMEPw. 



59 



HORTICULTURAL ITEMS. 

 Prepared from Foreign Journals for the Genesee Farmer. 



Mb. Thomson's Treatise on the Grape- Vine has 

 already reached the second edition. 



The Paris Journal (T Horticulture Pratique has 

 a colored plate of a new . Schizanthus, called 

 Pinnatus occulatus. 



The Revue Horticole speaks of the Elton straw- 

 berry as one of the very finest in general cultiva- 

 tion. In England it is too acid, and is used only 

 for confectionary. 



Grafting roses by the fireside in March has been 

 practiced very successfully by Mr. Ruddook, and 

 Mr. Beaton says the plan is a good one. The 

 Manetti stock was used. 



One Orysanthemura, called Jardin des Plantes, 

 is such a favorite in Covent Garden that the blooms 

 sell for thirty-six cents apiece. Pompones are not 

 in much demand for cut-flowers. 



Eugenia Ugni, the new fruit, is again spokea of 

 as a great acquisition to the list of flavors used by 

 confectioners in ices. A committee of gourmets 

 have declared it a complete success. 



The London Florist^ for December, has a very 

 finely colored plate of the Violette Hative peach. 

 It is an old peach, but one of the best. The cut 

 was taken from a pot-tree in the orchard-house of 

 Mr. Rivers. 



The cultivation of plants in pots for dinner- 

 table decoration has become a very important 

 branch of hot-house culture. D. Beaton, of the 

 London Journal of Horticulture^ devotes two 

 aditorials to this subject. 



In Paris some nurserymen were sentenced to a 

 jrear's imprisonment and 50 francs fine for selling 

 3ome common plants under high-sounding names 

 )f their own invention. They made 800 francs 

 )ut of the gardener to the Princess Mathilda. 



The famous Black Hamburg grape-vine, of 

 Eampton Court, a king among vines, is showing 

 signs of decay. For the past two or three years 

 ;he berries have been decreasin-g in size. A new 

 gardener has undertaken its care, and it is hoped 

 ;hat the royal patient will speedily recover. 



M. Jules de Libon d'Aeioles, in the Revue Hor- 

 Hcole, says that after eleven years experience he 

 las a new appreciation of the superb Poire de 

 S^antes — that it is only exceeded by the Beurre 

 Dlairgeau, when all the circumstances of soil, cul- 

 ;ure and a favorable season are united. 



M. Naudin recommends the cultivation of the 

 Nelombo of Egypt and India in aquariums. He 

 says that, although not equal to the Victoria regia, 

 or the Euryale ferox, it comes immediately after 

 them. A plant two years old will occupy a space 

 of over one hundred and twenty square yards. 



Fancy pansies, in opposition to Florists' pansies, 

 are attracting a good deal of attention, and are' 

 much used among English cultivators. The Lon- 

 don Florist has a beautiful colored plate showing 

 three or four of the choicest varieties, and one 

 double purple, which is not new, but almost the 

 only one of its class. 



Mons. Robert has a patent for renovating dis- 

 eased elms, which he has tried successfully in 

 France, and is about making experiments upon 

 some trees in the English parks. He strips off all 

 the bark, and leaves the trees to reprovide them- 

 selves with this important appendage, and with it 

 returning health. " Phi," in the London Florist, 

 has an article strongly condemning the practice. 



D. Beaton, in the Journal of Horticulture, saya 

 that the gardener at Buckingham Palace has a found- 

 ation laid for a new and valuable strain of lilies, 

 and that Mr. Standish is on the high way for a 

 still more magnificent run of gems from the grand 

 Auratum, from Japan, now selling at ten guineas 

 apiece. Mr. Beaton adds : " Depend upon it, that 

 new- crossed lilies will pay better than new seed- 

 ling grapes in a year or two." 



Thos. "Weaver, gardener at Winchester College, 

 says that he kept the gooseberry caterpillar at de- 

 fiance the past year by picking off the early rid- 

 dled leaves and destroying the eggs and larvae. He 

 says : "What with the minutes and hours altogether 

 I might have spent three or four long days in hand' 

 picking and killing these insects, and in the au- 

 tumn no one would have believed that a caterpil- 

 lar had by any chance touched the bushes this 

 season." 



Mb. Rivers pays a high compliment to the dis- 

 cernment of women in horticultural matters. 

 When the rose Madame Laffey came out, he said 

 it would turn out just what it has proved, and 

 gave as the reason that in France the rose-growers' 

 wives assisted in cultural operations, and as wives 

 all over the world are sharper than their husbands, 

 they can see before their lords which is and which 

 is not to be the best seedling, and so far as their 

 foresight can go the best is called Madame so-and- 

 so, as the name may be. 



