1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
693 
1842, the plant presented a beautiful and interesting’ 16 or 12 sized pot, place three 
instance of their application, in the uniform development 
of nearly 500 clusters of flower, Had the specimen 
been encouraged to continue its accumulating vigour 
throughout the season of 1842, it might ultimately have 
formed a still more striking example; but the present 
result proved most satisfactorily the possibility of attain- 
ing a perfect formation of bloom from a partial extent 
of growth. 
There are, perhaps, no plants in cultivation to which 
the treatment here adverted to is more applicable than to 
Stephanotis floribunda and Mandevilla suaveolens, two 
most desirable exotic climbers, each remarkable for the 
slow and rare development of leaf-buds, owing to a con 
Stitutionally free and exuberant habit of growth ; and 
the inevitable result, in these and all similar instances, 
when allowed to extend themselves without having recourse 
to the occasional operation of removing the fore-shoots, 
and thereby aiding the development of side branches, is an 
attenuated and useless length of growth, which, when it 
has attained its ultimate vigour, seldom produces more 
ie afew scattered bunches of flowers from the extrem- 
ities. 
The rules from which the foregoing remarks are derived, 
or on which they are founded, may be stated as follows :— 
Ist. As the secreted matter (peculiar to all plants) in 
conjunction with an accumulated sap, is essential to the 
primary formation of flower-bude, and as this secreted 
matter is in strict proportion to the quantity of leaves,* 
it may be inferred that an equal formation of leaf-buds is 
essential to a uniform development of bloom. 
Qnd. In accordance with a previously stated principle, 
“that the laws which operate in the arrangement © 
branches, act simultaneously with respect to the arrange- 
ment of flowers,” it may be inferred that a system of 
cultivation which is the most favourable to the production 
of branches (or axillary growth) will be found the most 
conducive to a liberal development of blossoms. 
8rd. As an excessive vigour is (as a general rule) 
unfavourable to the formation of flower-buds, in prevent- 
ing an aceumulation of sap, it may be inferred that the 
most perfect system of cultivation will be that which 
is best calculated to attain a regular development of bloom 
from any proportionate extent of matured growth. 
It appears from the evidence of general practice, that 
those principles upon which the growth of plants depends, 
are generally better understood than those which relate to 
the uniform development of bloom ; a fact which is not 
Surprising, when we consider that the causes of the 
former are such as may be successfully applied apart 
from a knowledge of those reciprocal as well as counter- 
acting influences which operate (independently of mecha- 
nical means) upon the organs of plants, under every 
modification of treatment or situation to which they are 
Subjected. But a reason still more obvious remains to be 
assigned for this difference—namely, that the agencies 
which lead to a higher and ultimate effect in the attain- 
ment of exuberant growth, are invariably found to exert, 
through the same medium, an opposing tendency upon the 
predisposing causes of fertility. 
It is, however, in proportion to the attainment of a 
system of cultivation which embodies a progressive and 
accumulated maturity of growth, that an equally progres- 
sive step can be made towards the ultimate object of all 
ornamental cultivation: viz., bloom. The present modes 
of culture combine more than at any previous period the 
investigations of science with the deductions of practice, 
though time-rooted prejudices have hitherto proved 
obstacles to gaining a knowledge of first principles, and to 
their application to professional experience. In testimony 
of the approximation of the present age to a compara- 
tively perfect system of cultivation, there is perhaps no 
instance of higher interest than that which involves a 
mode of culture, having for its ultimate object a constifu- 
tional maturity of growth, by dispensing with the attend- 
ant risk, and restrictive influence of intermediate shifts 
from smaller to larger pots. 
The principle upon which such a practice is founded is 
Now successfully applied by the most eminent cultivators, 
and the same principle, so easily adapted to stronger- 
Yooting ornamental plants, has also been rendered appli- 
cable to those dhe most difficult to rear. 
It is well known that growers of plants for public com- 
Petition have often urged the difficulties and disadvantages 
attending the purchase of plants, which may have received 
@ treatment in some respects opposite to that which they 
are desirous to adopt ; and in many instances they have 
Considered it essential. to the accomplishment of their 
object, that the plants should have been subject to their 
System of management from the first, or initiatory, state 
Gf growth. ‘These disadvantages are, however, now being 
Overcome by a mode of potting (subject to a corresponding 
treatment) which, not unexpectedly, has been a subject of 
Surprise to some, and a stumbling-block to others, who in 
asserting its impracticability, because contrary to the 
Ordinary method, have failed to apprehend the principles 
Upon which such a course of practice is founded. 
* First Principles of Horticulture, 141, 
inches of bottom 
drainage, and fill up with pieces of peat from one to four 
inches square ; fill the interstices with the fibrous siftings 
of peat, and pieces of crocks, till the pot is quite full ; 
then plant a seedling or struck cutting of Heath of similar 
habit, give very little water till the little plant shoots 
freely ; and in this treatment is contained the only secret 
in growing fine specimens.” 
Such is the most ingenious and easy mode of potting 
yet offered to the aitention of the cultivator ; and though 
the plan of dispensing with intermediate shifts has been 
recognised nearly fourteen years ago, yet, for this most 
successful application of the system, the profession is 
indebted to Mr. D. Beaton, the gardener at Shrubland 
Park, near Ipswich, one of the most eminent Horticultu- 
| rists of the present day. 
This novel and original mode of attaining mature 
growth in the cultivation of plants may not inappro- 
priately be termed the accumulative system, and involves, 
by its mechanical application of soil, one of the most 
important and essential desiderata in all systems of cultiv- 
ation, without which all efforts to obtain constitutional 
vigour and fertility must prove abortive—namely, @ 
uniform circulation of moisture. —From Paxton’s Maga- 
zine of Botany. 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN.—No. XL 
Onx of the greatest difficulties which the Amateur has 
to encounter, after he has procured a stock of plants for 
bedding out, is to keep them through the winter; and 
though the construction of pits for this purpose has 
been explained in previous Numbers, it may not be alto- 
gether out of place to advert to the subject again, now 
that every one begins to) think of getting his plants 
into their winter quarters. The great requisite of winter 
management is to have the plants well hardened before 
severe weather sets in, to get them into a perfectly 
dormant state, that is, without any .sign of growth, 
and to keep them as dry as is consistent with their 
not suffering from the want of water. To effect this with- 
out the use of fire is rather a difficult matter, but never- 
theless it can be plished by proper g t 
In the first place, the site chosen for the pit or Hyberna- 
tory must be on a perfectly dry subsoil, and the more 
deeply it is sunk in the ground, the more warm it will be, 
from the circumstance of its sides not being exposed to the 
action of the weather, and from the interruption of the 
radiant caloric of the earth, which is ever escaping into 
space, so long as the superincumbent atmosphere is less 
heated, and its escape is not interrupted by the “Ice 
King’? or some other equally impenetrable covering. Thus 
wild as the idea may seem, it is probable that if our green- 
houses were connected with a series of dee underground 
drains, with the power of forcing the air contained in them 
into the houses, we should obtain sufficient terrestrial 
heat for all purposes of protection, if not for the cultiva- 
tion of half-hardy plants. 
Inthe construction of the pits, the ground must be | 
excavated to the depth of two feet, and the mould placed 
ag an embankment round the sides—taking care to make it 
solid as you proceed, and to give it a good slope, so as to 
throw off the wet. It has been recommended to have the 
Hibernatory fronting northwards : and for the purpose of 
keeping the plants in a dormant state, this is an excellent 
plan; but as the plants frequently suffer more from damp 
than any other cause, it is as well to have the pit fronting 
poth north and south—that is, with a span roof; so that, 
by exposing the south side, advantage may be taken of a} 
dry sunny day, to dry the plants in case of need. At this | 
place, our plant-pit is built with hollow walls, and covered 
with a span roof, one side of which is covered with glazed 
sashes, and the other with sashes covered with strong | 
painted canvass. These sashes are adapted for either | 
side of the pit; so that we have a command of either light 
or shade, whichever may be most advantageous. The 
sashes are hung on centres near the idge of the roof, and 
are adjusted by an iron support, with a thumb-screw in 
the front rail of the sash ; so that we can admit a thorough 
current of air among our plants, and yet be protected 
against sudden showers of rain. 
When the pit is formed, the bottom, to the depth of a | 
foot or eighteen inches, should be filled in with perfectly 
dry brick-rubbish—if fresh from the kiln all the better— 
and covered with dry cinder-ashes, in which the pots may 
be plunged. This brick-rubbish will prevent all escape 
of moisture from below, and at the same time allow of the 
terrestrial heat escaping without much hindrance. 
Where it is inconvenient to sink the pit, as in wet sub- 
soils, the side-walls must be built of dry peat turves, ten | 
or twelve inches wide; and where these cannot be obtained, 
take dry adhesive turves from any bank orcommon. Letit 
be remembered it is of the utmost importance that every | 
part of the pit be kept as dry as possible, and that one 
shower of rain on the plants will do them more harm than 
three or four degrees of frost. I lay particular stress on 
this point, as it would be far better that the plants should 
suffer for the want of water, than that the atmosphere of | 
the pit should become saturated with moisture.—JV. P. 
Ayres, Brooklands. 
fi sen ees ae 
TOME CORRESPONDENCE. 
The Daisy, a Guard aga 4 Wireworm.—In order to 
have fine plants and blooms, fresh soil obtained by paring 
the turf from a pasture is of such importance, as to be 
constantly recommended by writers on Gardening. Ama- 
teurs, in following specific directions, are often defeated in 
their object, by not knowing some little sequence involved 
jn even the plainest directions. Such was my lot, for I 
took fresh soil obtained from a meadow, but although I 
cut and beat it about and turned it several times, the 
Wireworm has always been so numerous, that my Pinks, 
Carnations, and Picatees, are always more or less injured, 
often destroyed; and it is only after two and three years 
constantly picking out the vermin (when, of course, the 
fresh soil has become rather stale), that I have been able to 
free the beds of this most troublesome annoyance—to be 
rid of which I have unsuccessfully tried salt, lime, soot, 
rape-dust, mustard-dust, traps of sliced potatoes and 
carrots, &c. &c.; and in my exertions to destroy the 
Worm by such means, I have, perhaps, often as much 
injured the objects of my solicitude as the Wireworm. 
However, I am gratified by having at last stumbled upon 
a method for controlling, and indeed preventing, the 
ce is worth a 
An ounce of pract 
choicest flower-beds (and even amongst § 
with edgings of double Daisy, but I no know his object 
in so doing was, not merely to do honour to the almost 
domestic Daisy, but that it was to entice the Wireworms, 
which always concentrate their attacks on the rows of 
Daisies, and thus leave the beds untouched. Indeed they 
appear so greedy of this little plant, that he assures me 
that he has from one row, 300 feet long, planted as an 
edging, in one day this summer, taken the extracrdinary 
number of 2,000. T should mention, that his soil is 
quite fresh ; an immense turf and weedy surface has 
been turned in, so that the ground swarmed with the 
Worm. The free habit of growth of the Daisy enables it, 
by stocking out or tillering, to survive with 
any but a close observer the “ Worm i’ the bud.” 
year I have lost an entire bed of the choicest Carnations 
and Picotees—not a plant has escaped: had I known-that 
the Daisy was so good a protector, I should most cheerfully 
have sought its humble but effectual aid ungrudgingly, 
even at a greater price than I have given for galvanic 
protectors—which I by no means deprecate, but they do 
not keep off the Wireworm.—S. Oram, Winchmore Vaie, 
Edmonton. 
Heating with Earthenware Pipes.—All will agree that 
economy in the application of artifi Heat has of late 
deeply engaged the attention and study of scientific Hor- 
ticulturists, and that highly important advantages have 
already accrued from the labours of those who e thus 
distinguished themselves. It is now no longer necessary 
that the erection of structures containing the apparatus 
for top and bottom heat should, as formerly, imply an 
immense outlay of capital; and probably, ere long, we 
shall have a beautiful apparatus complete for the same or 
less outlay than the “‘ old-fine ” system. I saw yesterday 
at the gardens of J. Greenall, Esq., a pit erected under 
the superintendence of his gardener, Mr. Calderbank, 
which combines extreme simplicity and economy. The pit 
is between 30 and 40 feet long, with front and back lights ; 
and heated by one of the modern-constructed boilers, 
with circular earthenware pipes of large calibre. A por- 
tion of these pipes passes into ‘avault for moist bottom-heat, 
rate size, at certain distances, 
are continued all round the pit betwee 
bed, and from the above contrivance afford moist or dry 
heat as occasion may require. Thus we have a complete 
apparatus, answering admirably every purpose, at a very 
moderate cost. T have been informed by Mr. Spencer, 
the maker of the pipes, that he would warrant them to 
stand any Jength of time, provided they were not inten- 
Uonally injured. If this be true, we may expect-from 
the way in which they fulfil the desired end, their che 
ness and durability—that they will ultimately supe 
the use of iron.—/V”. Hunt, Warrington. 
Budding Rhododendrons.—Mr. Beaton, in his ‘* Calen- 
dar of Operations” for Sept. 50, mentions the success of 
an experiment jin budding Rhedodendrons in the open air, 
and also that a young English lady hes outstripped the 
very best of gardeners in this operation ; but i beg to 
inform him that it has been practised here with great 
success for many years, and we have now standards with 
large fine heads from buds; also a quantity of buds 
which have been jnserted this season, that have taken 
well. It will, without doubt, be a great acquisition to 
gardening, as flower-bads are generally formed on the 
first season’s growth.—/7. G. ¥., Dorking. 
Verbena Seeds.—Yerbaps there has been no season in 
which Verbenes have been more prolific in seeds t the 
present, in consequence of the very fine weather we had 
in September. Those who are fond of new varieti 
only to save seeds from beds where plants of diffe 
coloured flowers are growing close to each other, to 
secure seedlings of innumerable ‘shades of colour. So 
long as seeds were saved from different species apart from 
cross-breeding, either artificially or naturally, so long were 
the seedlings typical of the parent plant. But “if the 
selt-fecundating organs be displaced, and others substi- 
tuted in their stead, there will be no end to the variety 
produced, especially if the seed happens to have been 
saved from hybr Tf Tam correct in these remarks, 
they will’ ia some measure explain how Petunias, (p. 678, 
“BE. J.,”) should be of such various shades of colour. 
at I have noticed in this cross-breeding is, that when 
two distinct species are brought together by art, the habit 
of growth of the species from which the seeds have been 
sayed is pretty much shadowed out in the seedlings, 
