: are to be found the rarest plants. 
13.—1846.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
203 
ORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.—| 
Notice is hereby given, that the EXHIBITIONS of 
FLOWERS and FRUIT, in the Society’s Garden, in the pre- 
sent season, will take place on the following SATURDAYS, 
viz., May 9, June 13, and July 11; and that Tuesday, April 21, 
is the last day on which the usual Privileged Tickets are issued 
to Fellows of the Society. 
NEW AND SUPERB CINERARIAS. 
Woodlands Nursery, Maresfield, Uckfield, Sussex. 
M. WOOD and SON have an extensive Stock 
of the above desirable Spring Flowering Plants, well 
established, and now coming into bloom, which they beg to 
offer as under :— 
12 fine varieties, for exa eS ow 
os 68. 
12 superior ditto m E e a» 12s, 
12 superb new ditto petra fov F 
25 extra fine ditto m m oe .. Ls. 
25 superb ditto a ore ë v. e 253. 
issuing their new and much enlarged 
IOUSE, STOVE, AND HERBACEOUS 
Fuchsias, Verbena: i i 
W. 
Catal 
PLANTS; Came 
f 
as, 
Copies of the above will be sent, GRATIS, on application ; and 
those friends who have hitherto favoured W. W. & S, with 
their commands will receive the same in due course. 
The Gardeners’ Chronici 
SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1846. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
1—Socii ASE RS ee iced ^ Bera 
Wepxespax,April ety of Ari 
Fray, | — 3=Botanical —. 
MoxDAY, 6—Entomological : 
Toxar,  — 7j Herteultura 3 
e Linnean 1 
Sarurpay, — — li—Royal Botanic À 
We have very great pleasure in announcing that 
Sir Rosert Pret has granted Mrs. LouDon a 
pension of one hundred pounds for her life, “in 
consideration of the merits and services of her late 
husband." We are sure that the publie will agree 
with us in thinking that pensions thus worthily 
bestowed reflect great honour upon the government 
from which they proceed. 
Ovn readers will be glad to know that, notwith- 
standing the evils produced by the most deplorable 
of local governments, their friends in New ZEALAND 
have leisure to attend to the amenities as weil as 
necessities of life. In a letter, dated Wellington, 
Sept. 13, 1845, we learn that flower-gardens are 
forming, flower-seeds, bulbs, and roots of all kinds, 
in request, and that even a botanie garden is con- 
templated by Mr. Swainson, who is well known in 
this country as a distinguished naturalist. 
It would seem as if the supplies of seeds to New 
Zealand had hitherto been confined to esculents or 
merely useful plants, for our commonest flowers 
are asked for; as, for instance, Crocuses, Irises, 
Salvias, Foxgloves, Lilies, Syringas, Heliotropes, 
and all sorts of Cape and European bulbs. The 
only tree requested, in a list of desiderata now be- 
before us, is the Abele, or other Poplars. To those 
who have connections in New Zealand, this informa- 
tion may be useful. 
Tuose who are debarred from the enjoyment of 
a Garpen by sickness, residence, or fortune, should 
take a leaf out of the book of the French and Bel- 
gian ladies, who succeed, by means of double- 
glazed windows and other contrivances, in pro- 
viding themselves with an ample supply of fresh 
flowers at all seasons of the year. With us, the 
first object of the dwellers in towns is to buy plants, 
the next is to provide for them. Elsewhere it is 
thought more advantageous in the first instance to 
secure the means of keeping a plant in health, and 
that being accomplished, to obtain it. We will not 
be so uncivil as to reproach our fair countrywomen 
With herein indulging in that sort of caprice which 
is vulgarly called putting a cart before a horse ; but 
we shall confine ourselves to an explanation of the 
manner in which other persons proceed, leaving all 
Who are concerned to form their own judgment in 
the matter. 
“In Belgium," says M. Vicror Paguerr,* 
* wherever you go, you see spaces between double- 
Sashed windows filled in the winter time with. the 
Most charming flowers, Elsewhere the balconies 
are turned into greenhouses, and you. may find on 
the fifth or sixth floor a miniature stove gay with the 
brightest flowers and the greenestifoliage. In Paris 
there are many such contrivances; especially two on 
the fourth floor ofa house in the Boulevard dela Ma- 
deleine, at the corner of the Rue Caumartin. Here 
Camellias grow 
In the open ground. Passionflowers cling to the 
Columns; the creeping Fig forms a carpet upon the 
Walls, and water-plants start up from tiny basins 
Curiously contrived in the solid brickwork. By 
turning a screw a stream of limpid water flows 
Own a rock, from whose crevices start up Ferns 
and Lycopods and such things. And what is it 
that adjoins this little paradise but a bed-room! 
* Almanach Horticole pour Pan 1846, p. 53, a clever and 
awata book, lorticole pour l'an 1846, p. 58, a clever and 
bed of the owner the shadows of Palm-leaves and 
Bananas, or of garlands of Passionflowers." 
This sort of garden, though on the fourth floor, 
is, however, rather too ambitious for everybody's 
taste, and therefore we agree with M. Paquer that 
the little Belgian window-gardens are upon the 
whole more likély to meet the means, if not the fancy 
of the mass of mankind. We therefore borrow from 
him the following figure and description of one of 
them, which has now become extremely common. 
Let Figure 1 represent the outside of this window- 
garden, and 2; a section of it, together with the 
window to which it belongs. A sloping roof of 
glass is carried outwards from the middle cross bars 
of the sash in sucha way that the upper sash allows 
light to enter the room freely. The lower sashes 
open as usual by a pair of folding leaves as wide as 
the window frame. A pair of brackets carries the 
floor which projects beyond the walls of the house 
Shelves are fixed to uprights next the window-leaves, 
and the sloping roof is raised or depressed by means 
of arack, which is easily reached from the- inside.” 
It is obvious that this contrivancé possesses all 
the advantages of a Warp’s case, without its incon- 
veniences. Being placed on the outside of a house, 
it occupies no space that is otherwise required. As 
the glass next the room will always be warm, there 
will be no condensation upon it to conceal the plants 
which the window-garden contains. The folding 
eaves render it easy to get at the interior, and in 
towns water could be readily laid on for the pur- 
pose of moistening the plants when it is required. 
Such little contrivances would suggest themselves 
to any ingenious mechanic. A place of this kind 
might even be heated in severe weather by a pan 
of boiling water, or protected by a woollen covering 
thrown over it at night. In short, it seems to be of 
all things the best adapted to the purposes, as well 
as means, of those to whom window gardens would 
be acceptable. In such a place it would be perfectly 
practicable: to have ali sorts of forced flowers in 
spring and winter; Roses in summer, Pelargoniums 
in autumn. A thousand pretty plants might be se- 
lected for variety, and the whole would be a most 
agreeable amusement for those who are neat, care- 
ful, and skilful. To this, however, we must return 
hereafter. 
Tuose of our readers who are growers of Or» 
CHIDS will be glad to have their attention called to 
a very large collection from. Guatemala, which is 
advertised for sale in another column. The speci- 
mens are, in general, in excellentcondition. Leelia 
superbiens, Celia. macrostachya, and various species 
of Odontoglossum; Oncidium, Brassia; Barkeria; 
Cattleya, and Lycaste; are there in perfect health: 
But the cream of the collection consists of two 
kinds of the curious genus Arpophyllum. These 
plants, which are of the greatest rarity in this coun- 
try, and have never flowered, form large tufts of 
slender stems, each of which is terminated by one 
long leathery curved leaf, from the bosom of which 
rises a spike. of charming rose-coloured or purple 
flowers, not very ualike along row of Dendrobium 
secundum. One of them appears to be Arpophyl- 
lum giganteum, the other A. squarrosum. 
" Since our. last, despatches from Bermuda have 
reached the Colonial Office, the contents of which 
are so important. with respect to the Porato Crop, 
that, with permission of Government, we hasten to 
give them immediate publicity. 
Colonel Rex, the Governor of Bermuda, reports 
that the disease has reached that station, although 
it has extended itself in a very small degree ; and 
The first beams of the morning sun throw upon the , he adds that in every case in which it has occurred 
it has been from imported seed Potatoes from some 
part or other of North America. The evidence on 
which this opinion is founded is concained in the 
following extracts from returns obtained trou, va- 
rious cultivators in the island :— 
1. In 1844, an imported American Blue Potato was 
much infected with disease when landed, which began 
to appear when the crop was about half grown.— 
James M*Gall. 
2. I had 5 bushels of Black Kidney Potatoes sent 
me last year from New York, for trial. On opening 
them they were found much decayed, and were supposed 
to have been from a diseased crop. The parts which 
appeared sound were eut off and planted, but many of 
them failed. Those which made their appearance 
above ground came to maturity, were good, and kept 
well.— Francis Peniston. 
3. Last year, a part of my Potatoes were attacked 
by a disease, whieh eaused the tree to die off when 
about two-thirds grown. The seed came from Prince 
Edward’s Island.—John A. Skinner. 
4. The Potatoes (Pink-eyes) were imported from the 
United States, December, 1844, being then in a per- 
fectly sound state. They sprung quickly, and from 
their flourishing condition an unusually large crop was 
expected. About 60 days after being planted, began 
to be diseased, &e. &c., until the whole were decayed. 
—Jas. W. Tudor Boyle. 
5. A gentleman imported from New York 27 bushels 
for seed. They appeared to flourish beautifully for 
eight weeks, when they suddenly began to droop, &e. 
&c. He only reaped 6 or 7 bushels, the remainder 
being of good size, but perfectly soft and rotten.— 
Augustus Wm. Harvey. 
We can hardly overrate the importance of these 
very precise details, which require no comment. 
It also appears that in Bermuda the disease is 
ascribed to damp weather, and has been worst in 
marshy ground, where Arrowroot also decays. One 
planter is reported to have lost about 3000 lbs., 
which he attributed to unseasonable rains. 
We have also been favoured with a sight of de- 
spatehes from the Governor of New Brunswick, 
from which we gather the valuable information that 
in no case has a. crop following diseased Potatoes 
presented any symptom of suffering in consequence. 
The disease has been known in New Brunswick, 
more or less, forsome years, though never to such 
an extent as last year. Dryness, and dryness only, 
is supposed to be the remedy. The least injury 
has been experienced in dry light soil, recently 
cleared of forest by burning. 
ROOT GRAFTING. 
Tuts operation is performed in two ways, either by 
grafting on the already established roots of young 
plants, or on pieces taken from the roots of older ones ; 
but much depends upon circumstances the kinds of 
plants to be operated upon, as to which 
suitable plan. The former is the easiest method for 
obtaining strong plants, and is best suited for Conifers 
and such-like plants, in which the stem or trunk isan 
object. 
In grafting upon already established roots of a young 
plant, first clear the soil away from the collar or neck 
of the plant intended for the stock, and cut the head off 
as much below the surface of the soil as possible, but 
at the same time observing that a sufficient length of 
the neck or collar must be left to. receive the graft. 
The graft should be cut wedge-shaped, and inserted in 
the slit or erown-graft method, tied tightly with a soft 
worsted thread, and afterwards covered with the soil, 
leaving only a portion of the graft exposed to light 
and air, It will greatly increase the chances of suc- 
cess if the worked plants can be kept close, and in 
a rather. moist atmosphere for a few days, until they 
commence growiog, but much depends upon the opera- 
tion being performed at a proper time and Season, 
which in most cases is just before a new growth com- 
mences. 
In grafting on pieces of roots taken from an older plant, 
such pieces should be selected as are of sufficient size 
0 receive the scion, and also such as have some small 
fibres attached to them. In grafting, the roots may 
either be at once worked and afterwards potted or 
planted, or the roots may be potted a short time previous 
to being worked, and afterwards worked like those of 
the preceding ones, and then treated according to 
the nature of the plants to which they belong, whether 
stove, greenhouse, or hardy ; but even plants belongin 
to the latter class are the better for a gentle moist heat 
for a few days to start them. . 
In this way many kinds of plants may be increased, 
Clematis, Berberis, Roses, Combretums, Moutan 
&e., where the roots of the more common 
are easily procured, and where suitable accom- 
on ean be afforded ; but under ordinary cireum- 
stanees the chances are very great against the success 
the system, and it should only be resorted to by the 
nateur in the case of very rare and curious plants, 
—G. G. 
THE AMATEUR GARDENER. 
Teur CULTIVATION OF AsPARAGUS.—From my former 
no one will suspect me of thinking that the finest 
E] 
ap t " P H 
production of the garden is a Cauliflower, since I have 
not yet even alluded to vegetables, and have almost 
