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The Weekly Florisis* Review* skp^mbeb i4. imb. 



I!"-V. 



restrict his stock, but I believe this 

 would be a mistake. There is one thing 

 — that is, it will require rather different 

 cultural treatment to what some have 

 been giving it. I have a plant before me 

 in my room which has been here fully 

 two months, and it looks as well now as 

 the day 1 brought it home. This had 

 been grown fully exposed, forming* a 

 bushy plant with rather short, nearly 

 erect fronds. It is surprising how well 

 theee apparently tender ferns stand when 

 fully exposed to sunshine. It was not 

 until N. exaltata was grown su&pended to 

 the roof, where it had the full benefit of 

 the light, that it became a favorite; now 

 there is no more popular fern comes into 

 the market. While about nephrolepis I 

 may say that Westoni, the crested va- 

 riety of ensifolia (often seen under the 

 name acuta) may be regarded as a use- 

 ful fern, especially in a small state. 

 There is one fault, that is, it produces 

 spores freely, and when grown on into 

 larger plants, it has a dusty brown 

 appearance. — Horticultural Advertiser. 



SCALE ON NEPHROLEPIS. 



I herewith enclose fronds of Nephro- 

 lepis Scottii attacked by some kind of 

 scales, of which I cannot g3t rid, al- 

 though I am using tobacco dust freely. 

 As I have maidenhair in the same house 

 I dare not smoke. Kindly tell me how I 

 can fight this pest successfully. 



E. F. W. 



This scale is giving much trouble to 

 growers of nephrolepis, and is equally 

 troubhsome on many other ferns if al- 

 lowed to get ahead. Tobacco dust has 

 little effect upon the scale and a better 

 plan would be to cut off the worst fronds 

 and burn them, then give the plants a 

 dipping in solution of tobacco extract, 

 using one part of Eose Leaf Extract of 

 Tobacco to forty parts of water. This 

 solution may injure the tender young 

 tips of the growing fronds to some ex- 

 tent, but this injury would be much less 

 serious than the total ruination of the 

 plants by the insects. W. H. Taplin. 



CARNATION NOTES.-EAST. 



Supports. 



Some years ago, when the trade called 

 for carnations with practically no stem, 

 very little thought was given to the ques- 

 tion of support, but now that the de- 

 mand is for blooms with stems from 

 eighteen to thirty inches in length, we 

 must needs give the matter serious con- 

 sideration, for not only is it necessary 

 to take the plants' natural inclination 

 into account, but the labor and expense 

 of putting up and maintaining a sys- 

 tem of supports is an item of consider- 

 able size in the cost of production. 



The carnation by nature is anything 

 but desirable in its habit of growth, 

 presenting, as it does, a very sprawly 

 appearance, beautiful, no doubt, to the 

 HBsthetic mind but not so to the commer- 

 cial grower, who has a habit of viewing 

 things from the bread and butter stand- 

 point. Varieties differ somewhat in 

 their general make-up but all can be 

 said to possess the let-me-Iay-down tend- 

 ency in some degree. 



From the time the cutting leaves the 

 sand until lifted from the field we have 

 in mind to build a shapely plant, a com- 

 paratively easy task when the plants are 

 small and low in stature but under glass, 

 as the plants increase in size, and shoots 

 are allowed to run to flower, means must 

 be provided to maintain straight growth 

 of stem, also to keep the lower branches 

 off the soil, and in general to prevent 

 sprawliness. 



Now, to do this with a plant so im- 

 patient of restricted quarters requires 

 more than a passing thought lest we 

 infringe too much on nature. Space for- 

 bids a description of the many differ- 

 ent styles of supports in use, or refer- 

 ence to the shortcomings of each. Suf- 

 fice it to say that the ideal has not as 

 yet appeared and in all probability 

 never will. The two systems most in use 



are the Model Extension, a patented ar- 

 ticle, and the home-made plan of stretch- 

 ing wires lengthwise of the bench be- 

 tween rows and along the outer ones, 

 strings being run crossways of the 

 bench, knotting at each wire, thus form- 

 ing a square around each plant. These 

 wires and strings are put up in tiers as 

 growth demands. Some growers do away 

 with the lower section, employing wire 

 netting bent in shape of an inverted 

 "V." 



Whatever style is used, one important 

 point is to put them on, or at least that 

 part which is to serve in preventing the 

 lower branches from contact with the 

 soil, before the plants have increased 

 much in size. The complete support to 

 the plant proper is preferably in place 

 directly all dead foliage has been re- 

 moved, the surface soil a few times 

 broken up and all weeds destroyed. Un- 

 der no circumstances should the sup- 

 port be of such nature, or so applied, as 

 to interfere with free circulation of air 

 through and around all parts of the 

 plant, not only when first applied, but 

 allowance must be made for material in- 

 crease in the number of shoots as the 

 season advances. 



Any attempt at crowding the plant 

 into too small space is only to invite 

 trouble. The flower shoots will become 

 drawn and probably never reach ma- 

 turity, the lower foliage will suffer and 

 water applied in showering cannot prop- 

 erly dry out. 



In this connection it is hoped that 

 plants were not too thickly set at plant- 

 ing time. If such be the case it would 

 pay to thin them, using caution and not 

 doing it on a wholesale plan. Setting 

 plants, too thickly will not cause two 

 carnations to grow where one grew be- 

 fore. Geo. S. Osborn. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



Air and 'Water. 



Now is the time to exercise reason 

 and good judgment, combined with care- 



ful watchfulness, in watering and syring- 

 ing the carnations, for it is presumed 

 that all are housed before this. The 

 plants are forming new roots under new 

 conditions, very different to those which 

 existed while the plants were growing in 

 the field. It will be well to remember 

 that the conditions of the greenhouse are 

 entirely artificial and the aim of the 

 grower should be to make them as nat- 

 ural as possible by giving the plants a 

 constant supply of pure air. By a sup- 

 ply of pure air I do not mean a draught 

 of air at a speed of thirty to forty mUes 

 per hour. Get the air by raising the 

 ventilators enough to secure a free cir- 

 culation and give water when needed. 



Syringe only on bright days and early 

 in the day, to the end that the foliage 

 may be dry before night. Examine the 

 soil in several places on the benches, 

 especially about the sides, for the sides 

 always dry out more quickly than the 

 middle of the bench, and in watering go 

 over these dry places some time before 

 with the hose and then follow up later 

 .with an even watering over the whole 

 bench, but bear in mind that the days 

 are getting shorter and the sun lower, 

 so the beds will not dry out as fast as 

 thoy did a month ago. 



We must harden up the growth a lit- 

 tle for the time when there will not be 

 so much root action; therefore it is well 

 to be sure the benches are in condition 

 to need water. If so, try to apply it 

 with judgment. If you are in doubt as 

 to whether the plants need water, better 

 put off the watering until the next day 

 at this time of the year. Eag. 



THE CARNATION RUST. 



I wish you would inform me as to the 

 cause and remedy for the spots you will 

 see on the carnation leaves I send. The 

 variety is Enchantress and out of 1,000 

 plants only six show these spots on the 

 leaves. The bench was planted last 

 March, so that the stock has been inside 

 all summer. What causes Enchantress to 

 be sleepy or burst its calyx? W. L. K. 



The spots on the leaves you enclosed 

 are the common carnation rust. As most 

 growers will remember, about twelve or 

 thirteen years ago this disease caused 

 the greatest fear among carnation grow- 

 ers, lest it would destroy the race, and 

 many remedies were suggested and tried. 

 But after a time it was discovered that 

 by proper, everyday treatment the car- 

 nation can be kept comparatively free 

 from this disease, and the present-day 

 grower does not become alarmed at sight 

 of a speck here and there in his houses. 



When looking for the cause of these 

 eruptions on the leaves you must go back 

 farther than you might suppose. These 

 brown spots and the powdery-looking 

 substance is merely the fruiting or the 

 spores which perpetuate a fungus which 

 has been working inside the leaf for 

 some time. These plants may have had 

 this disease ever since they were cuttings, 

 but conditions were not favorable for its 

 development until just lately, when it be- 

 came active and produced this crop of 

 spores. Why did it break out on these 

 few plants and not in all the others, do 

 you askf Why does one person in a 

 crowd or community contract a case of 

 small-pox when hundreds of others live 

 and work all around them without taking 

 it? These plants most likely had it in 

 them and they happened to get into 

 proper condition for its development and 



