Notes and Gleanings. 167 



Gesnera zebrina and splendidissima. — The dry, parched atrhosphere 

 of dwelling-rooms is very injurious to plants, particularly during the autumn and 

 winter months, when strong fires are kept up. Valuable plants that would suffer 

 by being kept a few days in such an atmosphere should on no account be used 

 for this purpose. Plants that do not suff"er by this treatment should be, as much 

 as possible, employed for in-door decoration. There are numerous plants well 

 adapted for this purpose : I find these Gesneras very useful. The roots are all 

 fresh potted in April, and then placed in one of the vineries at work. I put one 

 root into a small pot, three into larger pots, five into larger still, and as many as 

 a dozen roots into very large pots. By this plan, I have plants of all sizes. I 

 have the pots well drained ; and I use a compost of nearly equal portions of loam, 

 peat, and leaf-mould, mixed up with plenty of coarse river-sand. 



The plants soon begin to grow when put into heat. As soon as they are a 

 few inches high, they should be tied up neatly to stakes, and kept tied up, from 

 time to time, as they advance in growth. I never shift them after they are potted. 

 Gesnera splendidlssima comes soonest into flower, — generally in September, 

 and lasts till December. G. zebrina begins to flower in October, and lasts till 

 January. They both withstand the dry atmosphere of rooms for weeks ; and, 

 as the roots are generally full grown by the time they are in flower, they can be 

 dried off", when they are out of bloom, on any shelf in the coolest part of the 

 stove, and can remain there until the time for potting, in April, comes round 

 again. — M. San!, in Florist. 



The Coloring of Grapes. — Gardeners have both heard of and seen grapes 

 badly colored, especially Black Hamburgs. Some ascribe the fault to bad sup- 

 plies from the roots, others to the want of sufficient sunshine or light and air : 

 but neither seems to be the chief cause ; for large berries, badly colored, maybe 

 seen upon very strong vines, and the reverse on weak ones. In former days, 

 when vines were not so highly cultivated, and grown under green or dark glass, 

 there were fewer complaints of grapes being red instead of black. 



I have been long of opinion that the chief cause is to be traced to injured 

 leaves and unripe wood. In such cases, the supply of crude sap from the roots 

 is not properly elaborated in the unhealthy leaves, nor, in its way through the 

 immature vessels, in the green wood, on which the bunches hang. When this 

 happens, I leave the laterals or young shoots bej'ond the bunches, instead of 

 pinching them off", in order to encourage the vines to gather or produce more 

 nourishment for the fruit. I have observed that there need be no fear of both 

 the fruit and wood not ripening under the shade. For instance, the blackest 

 cherries are found under the shade of leaves ; and, without a proper supply of 

 such, the young fruit on trees and vines may remain green until blackened by 

 frost. I should remark, that neither extra heat nor sunshine has much influence 

 on the unripe wood of vines after the proper time of their growth is past. Hence 

 the inutility of placing vines in pots out of doors, in the full sunshine, after the 

 crop is over, with the view of ripening the wood. Instead of this, the leaves 

 are scorched, and thus all chance of their influence on the wood is gone ; and 

 on the condition of this the success of the next season's crop greatly depends. 



