1843.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 773 
theory of excrementitious secretion. At the time the above 
letter was written it did not occur to me; if it had I 
should have stated that I considered it completely dis- 
proved, for the following reasons. I think the difficulty 
of growing Clover in many soils at less intervals than six 
Or seven years offers an argument against it, for it is unlikely 
to suppose that vegetable secretions will remain undecom- 
posed in the soil for that length of time, and if they 
are decomposed, they no doubt return to something 
Similar to what they were before they were taken up by 
the plant. Again, an intelligent American gentleman 
told a friend of mine that his father had a farm, (I think 
in Illinois), where they grew good crops of Wheat for 
Many years in succession; and if this is to be set down as 
Yankee boasting, (which I don’t believe, ) there is the fact 
communicated tomeby Dr. Lyon Playfair of landsomewhere 
in the West of England,(I believe near Bridgewater,) where 
800d crops of Wheat have been grown for twenty years in 
Succession : if the theory of excrementitious secretion is 
true, and if one crop always poisons the land for a suc- 
Ceeding crop of the same kind, how are we to account for 
twenty good crops of Wheat from the same soil in as 
many years? But if the theory which I have assumed in 
the above experiments is true, that the deterioration of 
the soil is owing to the abstraction of matters from it, we 
have only to ascertain what these substances are, and to 
Teplace them, to ensure constant fertility. Withoutassenting 
entirely to Liebig’s opinion, that plants obtain ail their 
carbon from the atmosphere, I think there is great reason 
to Suppose that much of it may be derived from that source, 
and it is a subject well worth investigating by those whose 
Scientific knowledge will enable them to arrive at satisfac- 
tory conclusions.— 7. G., Clitheroe. 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN.—No. XLIV. 
Ar this time, when those who intend to extend their 
Collection of Roses will begin to think of giving their 
Orders, it may perhaps not be out of place to offer a few 
Temarks on their management, and also give a list of 
those kinds which may be considered the most beautiful. 
uy July last 1 in company with my employer went to 
Sawbridgeworth, to see Mr. Rivers’ collection in bloom, 
and the list which I subjoin are what we purchased to add 
to an already tolerably good collection. Our object was 
Not to select a great number of varieties, but rather to 
choose those which are really excellent, and to take several 
Plants of the best, in preference to having a number of 
Varieties, so that those who select from this list may make 
certain of having good kinds, if not the most modern 
Varieties ; and in Roses, as in almost every other popular 
tribe of plants, it is to be regretted that the rage for 
Novelties and collections has led to the introduction of 
Many new kinds which are very inferior to our old esta- 
dlished favourites. The ‘Cloth of Gold ’’ Noisette Rose, 
Which I noticed some weeks back, is an exception to the 
Bbove rule, for a correspondent at Sawbridgeworth who 
Saw it in bloom says: ‘* The Cloth of Gold has flowered, 
and most beautifully; it is very large, very double; and 
as yellow as Rosa Harrisonii.” This I think will be good 
news to the Rose Amateurs, at least I consider myself 
fortunate in being a purchaser, 
f matter of taste Standard Roses are certainly 
objectionable, and ought never to be admitted into dressed 
Scenery except their naked stems are hidden by some 
Means or other, such as planting dwarf kinds in the front 
of them, or training the branches pendantly, so as to hide 
the stem and form the heads into fine expansive baloon- 
like forms, ‘Trained in this manner they are admissible 
on lawns either in groups or as single specimens, but with 
I naked stems they are in my estimation an intolerable 
deformity, That they should have been tolerated so long 
18 a proof of the bad taste of the age. Iam, however, 
glad to find the demand for them is decreasing, so that 
alter a few years I hope to see them extirpated from 
garden scenery, 
Piliar Roses, that is, dwarf plants trained to iron rods 
OY strong poles, varying from six to twenty feet high, make 
Splendid objects for the lawn, and when three or four dis- 
Similar colours are brought together on one pillar, they 
are certainly superlatively beautiful. t Sir John 
Broughton’s, at Kingston, the Pillar Roses in July are 
Worth walking 50 miles to see, and I am not aware of any 
other garden near the Metropolis where they are so well 
Managed. Indeed, by this method of training the best 
of the Hybrid, China, and French Roses, Mr. Redding 
has imparted quite a new feature to the Rose-garden, and 
the Amateur has only to picture to\himself a pillar ten feet 
high, covered with the beautiful flowers of Coupe d'Hebe, 
Nlomphe de Laquear, or Great Western, to see how 
much more beautiful they must be than standards of the 
Same varieties, 
Tn Rose culture itis scarcely necessary to offer a re- 
mark ; for though there are certain soils better suited to 
their growth than others, they will grow in any well- 
enriched soil, if it be only removed from clay, and is not 
too Sandy. A deep mellow loam trenched two spades 
ep, and manured with decomposed hot-bed dung, is the 
bests but asa general guide, wherever the Wild Briar 
Stows freely, there also will flourish the cultivated 
Varieties, As a manure for established plants, Mr. Rivers 
te ommends night-soil, to be applied twice in the winter, 
Oo the extent, when diluted with pond-water, of three 
Ballons to each plant. For top-dressing Bourbon, China, 
oy Tea Roses in beds, Mr. R. uses with great advantage 
pee 8 Guano ; and for top-dressing pots, Lance's Car- 
Tee Humus, used with a very sparing hand, is excel- 
Toil in giving them colour, though when mixed with the 
Mt in potting it destroys the roots. The present is the 
est month in the year for planting hardy Roses, and it 
is a good plan to mulch them with a little strong litter 
after the operation of planting is completed. 
Hybrid Perpetual. 
Coquette de Montmorency 
Gallica, or French Roses. 
L’ Enfant 
William Jesse Nelly!! F 
Due d’Aumal: Orpheleine de Juillet !! 
Madame Laffay Aspasie !! 
! 
Duchess of Sutherland !!! 
Prudence Reeser 
‘ulgorie 
Aubernon. 
Clementine Daval!! 
Tybrid Bourbon. 
Assemblage des Beautés ! !! 
Kean!!! 
nash. 
La Ville de Bruxelles!!! 
ainte: 
Déesse de Flore!!! 
‘alie 
Dap! 
Miss Chauncey !! Penelope!!! 
Charles Duval!!! Hybrid Provence. 
Brillante Blanchefleur!!! 
Coupe @HévE!!!! Emeraud !!! 
Great Western !!!! New Globe Hip!! 
Hybrid China, Belle Adéle 
Chenédolé}!!! Melanie 
La Grande Dame !!!! Moss. 
Hippocrate! 1!!! Crested !! 
Louig Fries! ! Blush !! 
Parigot!! Eclatante ! ! 
Beauty of Billiard !! Luxembourg ! ! 
Comtesse de Lacépéde !! Unique!!! 
Kleber !! Old White! ! 
Ne plus Ultra!! Provence. 
Charles Louis, No. 2. Syivain!! 
De Candolle!! 
Princess Augusta ! 
Triomphe de Laquear | !! 
Superb Striped Unique! ! 
Damusk Perpetual. 
Crimson! !! 
La Meéteore !!! Bernard !! 
Alba. ‘ourbon. 
La Séduisante !!! Emile Courtier 
Sophie de Marsilly!!! ween!!! 1 
Félicité !! Proserpine! ! 
Queen of Denmark !! Austrian Briar, 
Princesse de Lamballe!! Harrison’s!!!! 
osephine Beauharnois 
All the Roses in this list are excellent, but those marked 
with notes of exclamation are the best, and the notes are 
increased in number in proportion to their superior 
claims.— W. P. Ayres, Brooklands. 
HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 
Turtle Doves.—A short time since a beautiful pair of 
Turtle-Doves was given to me. The feathered travellers 
came in a basket by the railroad on a cold day; to which, 
I conclude, may be imputed a disease with which the hen 
has been afflicted, and for which I now seek a cure. 
think there can be no doubt it is asthma, as described in 
Bechstein’s Work on Cage-birds ; or rather, what in the 
human species we should designate spasmodic asthma ; 
the poor little sufferer under the attacks, which last about 
an hour and recur frequently, keeps her beak open and 
pants audibly ; her tongue and throat are nearly black with 
inflammation; her feathers are ruffled, and she appears 
dying from exhaustion; but after a time she partially ral- 
lies and takes her food. If by means of your paper, I 
can receive any hints for the diet and treatment of my 
little pet (whose death will involve the loss of its mate,) 
they will much oblige. Fright sometimes causes the 
asthma in birds: that could scarcely be the case with my 
inyalid, who is so familiar as to prefer perching on a 
finger.— Maria W——. 
John Dory.—I observe it stated in your Naturalist’s 
Corner of last week, that “ our common name of John 
Dory is clearly nothing more than a corrupt pronuncia- 
tion of the French term for the colour of the lighter parts 
of the fish, which is yellow with metallic reflections when 
jt is alive, and therefore styled jawne dorée, or gold and 
yellow.’” As remember that many years ago I read a 
very different version of the parentage of the common 
name of this fish, I turned to the passage, and send youa 
copy of it, and should be glad if you or any of your readers 
would be kind enough to decide this point, upon which 
Doctors thus disagree. The passage occurs in the ‘‘ Quar- 
terly Review” for July, 1813, and will be found at p. 
269 of vol. ix., in an article upon ‘ Tracts on the British 
Fisheries,’ and is as follows :-—“ Haddocks assemble in 
yast shoals during the winter months in every part of the 
Northern Ocean, and bend their course generally to the 
southward, proceeding beyond the limits of the cod and 
the herring ; but it is remarked that they neither enter 
the Baltic nor the Mediterranean. The two dark spots a 
little behind its head are supposed to have gained the 
haddock, in days of superstition, the credit of being the 
fish which St. Peter caught with the tribute-money in its 
mouth; in proof of which the impression of the Saint’s 
finger and thumb has been entailed upon the whole race 
of haddocks ever since. Unfortunately, however, for the 
tradition, the haddock is not a Mediterranean fish, nor 
can we suppose it to have belonged to the Lake of 
Tiberias. ‘The truth is, the Italians consider a very dif- 
ferent fish as that which was sanctified by the Apostle, 
and which after him they honour with the name of i/ Giani- 
tore, 2 name which we have converted into Johnny Dory, 
with the same happy ingenuity that has twisted the gira- 
sole, or turnsol, into a Jerusalem Artichoke.”—J. Bi. LL. 
Enormous Egg.—An egg was this week laid by a goose 
at a farm in Quermore, near Lancaster, whose weight 
was 10 ounces, its circumference longitudinally was 103 
inches, and it measured 84 inches round.—Facile, 
toe 
—Facile. 
Verbenas.—The scarlet and pink Verbenas survived 
last winter ina dry situation not far from the southern 
coast, by being left in a mass where they had grown the 
previous summer, and being covered with a hand-glass in 
severe frost. They likewise lived in cutting-pans in the 
same way.—H, : 
John Dory.—This fish, the Chalcis of the Greeks and 
Faber of the Romans, is now known in the Mediterranean, 
where it is sufficiently common, as the Pesce di San 
Pietro, and Pennant says :—‘‘ The Doree is the rival of the 
Haddock for the honour of having been the fish out of 
whose mouth St. Peter took the tribute-money, leaving on 
its side the incontestible proofs of the identity of the fish, 
the marks of his finger and thumb.’”’ I have heard, as 
well as most of your readers probably, the origin of its 
English name, John Dory, ascribed to a corruption of 
Janitor—in the Italian, Gianitoré, which is one of the 
honourable appellations of St. Peter, the keeper of the 
portals of Heaven—in virtue of which office we always 
see him represented with his keys— 
“The Pilot of the Galilean lake— 
Two mighty keys he bore of metal twain, 
The golden opes—the iron shuts amain.”* 
—FElectra. 
Pine Apples.—Having seen stated in the Chronicle at 
p. 759, an account of Queen Pines which had been grown 
to the great weight of six pounds some ounces, will the 
cultivator of these Pines have the goodness to say what 
sort of Queen’s they were—and whether the treatment, 
which brought them to that state of great perfection, was 
different from that which is usually practised? By an- 
swering these questions, through the Chronicle, be will 
oblige —Doumhuil. [Another correspondent denies that 
the Pines were of the weight represented. 
Tulip-root in Oats.—In the ‘“ Gardeners’ Magazine” 
I find the following paragraph :—“ Much of the Corn 
crops in the Lothians are drilled ; but Oats have suffered 
severely this season by what is there called the ‘Tolip- 
root,’ a Gisease the cause of which is not hitherto properly 
understood.” Will any one be so good as to give Ruricola 
some information upon the subject? particularly the cha- 
racter of the disease, its appearance, and the way in which 
it affects the Oat-crops ; also, if there be any published 
account of it.—J. C. 
Strawberries.—I beg to inform Mr. Godwin that there 
is nothing new or uncommon in the mode stated at p. 71], 
for obtaining a crop of Strawberries late in the season, as 
I have seen it practised by others as well as by myself for 
upwards of 20 years past with good success. I am now 
gathering excellent fruit from plants that were forced in 
spring, and will no doubt continue to do so until the end 
of next January. These plants were taken ont of 32-sized 
pots, disrocted, and repotted into 24-sized ones. The 
were then placed in a shady situation, where they remained 
until the weather caused them to be removed to a Pine- 
stove.—Scrutator. 
Standard Pelargoniums.—1 have about 40 Standard 
Pelargoniums ; the wet weather last May killed about 20 
of the largest and best sorts. I have one three years old, 
named Prince Regent, the girth of its stem is 5% inches, 
and is 30 inches in length ; from the top of the stem to 
the top ofits head is 42 inches, and the circumference of 
the head is 103 feet. In my opinion these are much more 
handsome.than Standard Roses, when they are, like these, 
planted. out on the lawn. Fuchsia fulgens and other 
Fuchsias ‘have also a fine appearance when grown as 
standards.— J. Waldron, Harrow Weald. 
A pple-irees.—In the garden of Joseph Boultbee, Esq., 
Springfield Hall, Warwickshire, there is a Peach Apple- 
tree in full bloom; the late frost and snow do not seem 
to have had any effect on the blossoms. 
Seedling Pelargoniums.—In your columns I observe 
advertisements of Pelargoniums by Mr. Rendle, of Piy~ 
mouth (all of which appear to have been raised by Mr. 
Lyne, of that neighbourhood). These, he says, have 
obtained prizes in London, Exeter, Torquay, Plymouth, 
Truro, and Falmouth. I as well as many more of your 
readers would feel obliged to Mr. Rendle if he would 
explain which sorts got the various prizes at the different 
places named inhis advertisements, when and at what shows, 
and what the prizes were which each sort won? This in- 
formation from the advertiser would no doubt give great 
satisfaction to many of his customers, and to the public 
generally, and persons disposed to purchase would be 
enabled to judge better of their respective merits.—A 
Friend to Truth. Lee 
Lobelia gracilis.—I beg to state that striking from cut. 
tings is not the only or best way of propagating Lobelia 
gracilis, as stated in a Chronicle some time back. The 
mode I find to succeed best, is to take up the seedlings, 
quantities of which will be found in the autumn under 
the old plants. The seedlings may be put into pots as 
thickly as possible, and then placed in a greenhouse for 
the winter; in the spring these will be found to be 
stronger than from cuttings, at least they were so in my 
case.— A, B. ‘ 
Potter's Guano.—In the report of Sir R. Peel’s speech 
at the Tamworth Dinner there is an account of an inter~ 
esting and important experiment made by his direction 
upon Potatoes, in which Guano, Potter’s Manure, and 
Stable Manure appear in competition. Itis said that this 
experiment was conducted with great care and perfect 
fairness. That such was the intention of the distinguished 
experimentalist, I entertain no doubt; but I shall make it 
appear that an error has been committed, which, as this 
speech will be circulated through the length and breadth of 
the land, is calculated to do me very considerable injury. 
The error I allude to is, that the Guano (a bushel of which 
was found to weigh 85 1bs.) and my manure are assumed 
to have the same weight in the same bulk, but this is far 
from being the case. -A 4-bushel sack of my manure, 
when quite full, contains only 2 cwt.;a bushel therefore 
weighs 56lbs. Now as the experiment was made by 
taking equal measures, not weights, of the two manures, 
it is evident that for cvery 85 lbs. of the Guano, only 56 lbs. 
of my manure were really applied to the crop, If we 
reetily this mistake by equalising the weights (for both 
these manures are sold by weight), we shall find, by the 
