1844.] 



THE GARDENERS^ CHRONICLE. 



357 



r. 



f'^XYt hand, and the moment the insertion is 

 water ready ai n ^^ {n {he individual plant be- 

 fore you, place the middle of the 

 bast behind the shoot at the bottom 

 of the incision, and bring the ends 

 across and across each other, back 

 and fore, covering the shoot, all but 

 the bud, which must be left peeping 

 out, unconfined. Continue the cross- 

 ing till it reaches a little above the 

 bud, and then tie the top in a knot 

 behind ; if tied in front, the knot 

 holds the rain, and keeps a drip 

 upon the bud, besides pressing upon 

 the bark, and indenting it there, 

 stopping, to a degree, the current of 

 the sap. The ligature should be as 

 light as could be borne for a short 

 space of time upon the finger. 

 A Laurel leaf may be lightly tied to the shoot at both 

 ends of the leaf, so as to form an arch over the bud, to 

 defend it from the sun and ram, both of which are as 



prejudicial as the air. 



Success.— It must be remembered, that final success 

 depends upon the entire exclusion of sun, air, and wet ; 

 the shaking of the bud from its position when once fixed 

 in it ; continuation of the sap ; and the fitness of the 

 shoot and bud to each other— which latter is known by 

 the facility with which each bark strips from its wood. 



It will be well to make a few experiments upon a 

 branch of Willow beforehand, which, from its natural 

 iucculence, will convey to the operator a distinct idea of 

 the facility he should experience in the separation of the 

 bark, of both shield and subject, subsequently under his 

 hands. 



AN AMATEUR'S MELONRY. 

 Your imprimatur having been given (page 295) to my 

 simple mode of raising Melons by the heat of stable-dung, 

 it may not be amiss to tell those of your readers, who may 

 be disposed to imitate my pit and mode of culture, how 

 they may improve upon the one and avoid the errors of 

 the other ; that is to say, the errors which amateurs fall 

 kito from want of practice, even with the best written 

 instructions before them. They who have access to, 

 and are in the vicinity of gardens where the fruit is suc- 

 cessfully cultivated, will do well to take practical lessons 

 there ; but such opportunities are by no means frequent ; 

 for, as far as my experience goes and inquiries extend, I 

 am led to believe that in proportion to the pains be- 

 stowed upon it, this department of the garden is gene- 

 rally less creditably and profitably conducted than almost 

 •ny other. 



Have a handful of fine bast soaking in ably in opinion as to its cause from anything there 1 1 state this, not so much to show the forwardness of th« 



expressed. Some.wnbe _it to cold, others toJ>ad soil, season, (having gathered a fully mature" I G^ve-eod 



and others again to the attacks of insects. Though I 

 would not assert positively what is the cause, yet I am 

 exceedingly doubtful about its arising from any of 

 these; at least with me it assuredly does not. The 

 whole of my observations during the last two seasons 

 rend to prove that it originates, not from cold, nor soil,nor 

 insects — from none of these individually or collectively— 

 but from sudden alternations of moisture and drought in 

 the soil, in combination with full exposure to the scorch- 

 ing sun. The following are the facts from which I 

 derive this opinion :— In this place we cultivate upwards 

 of 2000 Pelargoniums in pots; one house — a lean-to, 

 having a nearly due south aspect, and fitted up with an 



ordinary stage, not more than three feet from the glass 



is exclusively set apart for their culture. In this house 

 the disease is very prevalent, every plant being less or 

 more affected by it ; those on the top shelves, however, 

 are by far the worst, where they are most exposed to 

 clear sunlight and drought, and the spotting gradually 

 becoming less as the shelves descend, where, from their 

 position, the plants are somewhat cooler, and where, 

 from their having lost fewer leaves, they are of a 

 more bushy habit, and consequently afford considerable 

 protection to the pots from drought and clear sun- 

 light. In the same house, next the front glass, is a 

 horizontal trellis or table for setting plants on, two and 

 a half feet wide, and extending along the whole length, 

 and along both ends of the house. The plants on this 

 table receiving their light c'uiefly through the perpendi- 

 cular front glass, get the sun's rays much more obliquely 

 than those on the stage (the angle of which nearly corres- 

 ponds with that of the roof), and their leaves are also 

 much less spotted. The plants in this house were much 

 affected by the disease last season, up to the end of May, 

 when they began to bloom ; they were then shaded every 

 clear day, from ten o'clock a.m. to five p.m., by a light 

 canvass covering over the roof; the house was also kept 

 cooler by shading and admission of plenty of air, and the 

 disease disappeared. In a late vinery joining this house 

 there are at present about 300 Pelargonium plants; these 

 receive a good deal of shade from the Vines, and very 

 little spotting is to be found among them. The plants 

 in both houses are of the same age ; they were all shifted 

 at the same time, and in exactly the same kind of mould. 

 The temperature of the vinery, up to the present time, 

 has not been higher than that of the Pelargonium-house ; 

 the only point of difference is the shading by the Vine- 

 leaves, and to this I attribute the almost total absence of 

 the disease among the plants in the former house. I am 

 farther confirmed in this opinion by the state of the Pe- 

 largoniums in another house — a large circular conserva- 

 tory, where they have considerable shade from other 



The pit I have described has been in existence some iarge plants, and also from the structure of 

 years, and answers my purpose, but if it were now to be ~~ 

 constructed, I would (as I before said) put it down in a 

 quadrangular shape, for the better concentration of 

 warmth. I would also make the beds at least seven feet 

 wide ; five is much too narrow for strong and healthy 

 plants of the grosser growing kinds ; more than seven 

 would make the lights too unwieldly for an amateur's 

 cjmivetisn, unless with a strong labourer at his elbow, 

 inere should be about as many cubic feet of dung in the 

 lining spaces as there are cubic feet of frame ; but less 

 will do if a fresh supply of material is always at hand. 

 #t ^,^ rl y sta g es of growth the bottom-heat should not 

 exceed 75 . In consequence of the almost uninterrupted 

 Eunshme of the April just past, I was obliged to have 

 my linings partially removed (a thing never before done) 



■hJn P ?"? the bottom - h eat; this is better than 

 tim? -f\k ! S n0t necessar y to u se the mats in the day- 

 nin! ' 11 P S are inured t0 sunshine from the begin- 



»Xu m have t0 ° much of that aftf r the y are 



wen-rooted, air being at the same time freely admitted ; 



rtrht J? ree 7 Ith Mi U«, that it is well to cover up well at 

 aight from first to last. 



beiniw. * h °A M be liberall y supplied, but not without 

 of the hJd xt UP t0 ° r near the temperature of the earth 



of Persia o A° •' the W&terS ° f the rivers and lakes 

 much n rt u F ? U Minor ar e in the Melon season never 



which thi \t 7 Cn led off for irrigation than the soil in 



Whe th r are grown - 

 ■uuhin* X ,i ,S 8ettin S» the bottom-heat, assisted by 



*> it adianeeT ?„ 1% Vl 8 °° degrees and 85 ° ; and 

 fcinK «f en w! I gr °* th ' n0 sun - hea * (plenty of air 

 the linin« iif i a , t0 ° much ' If sunshine is wanting, 



fo, -the defictnc tUrnCd aDd freshened ' to make "P 



*M TC l°rdt PPiD £ and P runing ' ! — — 

 <*anot have rZT 7 - d,rections given in books. „ 

 fo »age, and th f * wlthout active growth and strong 



and still f iin« ?u J e you must P rune earl y and freely, 



»ow the directions of « the Bard," and 



th 



e house. 



have nothing to 



You 



waterproof 



1 i»we raised M^ SpaCe and room enou ° n -" 

 with wax and li V 01 ? 8 under calico, made waicrp™ 



t°e quick growtT^f • '" ^ ut tbe S reat annoyance w 

 coders. If thi s ? . m °uld on the under surface of sucn 



Position, I anDriaii\ n0t obviated b y Whitney's Com- 

 k «t the m„L A e "I 1 ^elon-growers that they had better 



as 



uch 



expense of gl ass at 



once. — P. P. 



^ 0n l e Correspondence. 



a P r «tty extensif* i7 ° n,Mm '~~ I am a & reat admirer and 

 ^th others am m«v°* er ° f this P lant » and in common 

 ▼ention of the srmt*- lnt f ested about the cause and pre- 

 to have become ,n g , the Ieaves » whicb latterly seems 

 ff>* •Ppe«^W? Umt \ After a careful perusal of 



*» ***«Coiv *oh. y - Ca S Chronicle > in reference to 



"• ™Y observations lead me <o differ consider- 



There is little spotting among the plants here, and on the 

 dark side, where the greatest shade prevails, there is no 

 spotting at all. The soil in this case is the same as in 

 the others, but the temperature is much lower than in 

 either of the other houses. Again, in a flat leaden and, con- 

 sequently, perfectly dark-roofed orangery, the only light 

 of which is derived from ten large upright windows, five 

 on each side, I have never seen any spotting on the leaves 

 of the Pelargoniums, which are entirely shaded by other 

 large plants. The light, indeed, in this house is far too 

 little for the health of almost any plant, if allowed to 

 stand long in it ; at the same time the temperature is 

 greatly cooler than in the three last mentioned houses ; 

 nevertheless, Pelargoniums immediately begin to recover 

 when placed in this house, from the spotting on the leaves, 

 though much injured by it at the time of their being 

 brought to it. Last June I had between 600 and 700 young 

 Pelargonium plants,chiefly cuttings of the previous August, 

 which, being unable to accommodate in any house, pit, or 

 frame, I was obliged to put out in the open air. They 

 were shifted into larger pots, and plunged up to the rims 

 in two beds of sawdust, in a sheltered situation. One of 

 these beds was fully exposed to the sun from morning to 

 night ; the other, being situated on the east side of a high 

 wall, was shaded in the afternoon. The plants in both 

 beds grew luxuriantly till their roots filled the pots, and 

 although they were plunged, the mould in the pots fre- 

 quently got very dry. About the middle of July the 

 leaves of the greater number of the plants became spot- 

 ted ; those occupying the bed fully exposed to the sun 

 were, however, much worse than those in the other, 

 which was partially shaded by the wall. The soil and 

 every other condition (excepting the shading) was, in 

 both cases, exactly alike. When I cut down my plants 

 after they have flowered, I generally put them into a 

 spare melon-frame to start them again. In this case the 

 disease has always been worst, so much so that many 

 plants have died. I have not observed any spotting on 

 the leaves of some hundreds of Pelargoniums planted in 

 the flower-beds and borders. What, then, is the inevi- 

 table conclusion deducible from these facts? Clearly 

 that cold does not produce the spotting of the leaves, for 

 my warmest houses are the worst, and the coolest have 

 none at all. Neither can it be soil alone, for in every 

 case the soil with me was the same. If it is insects, it 

 would appear they can do mischief only in clear sunshine, 

 and shading will banish them. From what I have ob- 

 served in reference to this disease, I imagine that it must 

 be caused in some way or other from the roots of the 

 plants, and the soil in the pots being powerfully affected 

 by drought and moisture in alternation, through exposure 

 to the strong sun-heat. — A Connaught Gardener. 



Strawberries.— On the 26th inst. I gathered from the 

 open ground a perfectly ripe Strawberry, (a Grove-end 

 Scarlet,) and the day following a rine.Keen's Seedling. 





Scarlet on the 19th of May, in a year not long past), as 

 to induce Strawberry-growers, in different parts of the 

 country, to name the time of gathering their first ripe 

 fruit, and thus furnish data for judging how far the 

 climate of one locality differs from that of another. I 

 must not neglect, however, to say that the Scarlet was 

 from a low steep bank, faced with rubble stone, and the 

 Keen's Seedling from a higher bank, faced with the same 

 material; but, being intended for the branches of fruit- 

 trees only, there is only subsoil beneath the stone surface, 

 the joints of which were dashed with mortar, to prevent 

 weeds from springing up, but not so effectually, it ap- 

 pears, as to prevent Strawberry-runners from rooting. I 

 may add that both berries were of the average size of 

 their respective kinds. Runners of the British Queen 

 did not take root in my garden last year, and I observe 

 that some of the two-year-old plants are dead. It is te 

 be feared that this variety must be classed with Wilmofs 

 Superb and Myatt's Pine, neither of which are profitable 

 Strawberries. Swainston's Seedling has proved itself a 

 valuable sort, being hardy, prolific, of good flavour, and 

 ripening its fruit after Keen's Seedling, but before the 

 "lton, another valuable kind.— Richard Tongue, For ton 

 Cottage, near Lancaster. 



Auriculas.— I have been for many years a successful 

 cultivator of Auriculas, and as this is the season of seeding, 

 I beg to mention a method 1 have adopted of procuring 

 seed, without the least injury to the most valuable plants. 

 While the flowers are in high bloom, I remove and ex- 

 change the pollen through all the trusses of blossom on 

 the stage, with the point of a penknife. I leave them 

 until they begin to decline, then I cut off the stalks. 

 Having ready some fine sea-sand, in a vessel that will not 

 admit of leakage, I stick down those stalks rather low, 

 and keep the sand always moist. I leave my vessel of 

 stalks on the stage until the seed is ripe. I always have 

 sowed Auricula seed in September, and never had a failure. 

 If any of your readers will try my method I imagine 

 that they will find it succeed. lam sure the cutting 

 off the trusses before they are decayed benefits the plant*, 

 and does not in the least injure the seed, which ripens 

 quite as well in the moist sea-sand as on the plant ; it 

 was finding this plan succeed so well with Pansies that 

 induced me to try it with Auriculas. I have had some 

 very fine green- edged seedlings blow this season that 

 have sprung from seed saved in the above manner. I 

 should be glad to learn if my plan has been used by other 

 Auricula growers. — Elizabeth. 



Root Excretions. — In a late Chronicle there are some 

 observations of Liebig on the Chemistry of Cultivation; 

 (extracted from the M Chemist"), which have suggested 

 to me a question on the subject of the Excretions of 

 Plants, which I do not think has met with much atten- 

 tion hitherto. It is, I believe, a well-ascertained fact 

 that the composition of all plants of the same speCISS is 

 nearly the same, even though they may have been pro- 

 duced by soils differing in constitution and quality. It 

 is also ascertained that plants have not the power of 

 refusing any substance that may be presented to them in. 

 such a state of solution as to be absorbable by their 

 roots. If these premises are correct, it follows that 

 plants must, in some manner, get rid of those absorbed 

 matters which do not enter into their natural composi- 

 tion. The question I would ask, therefore is, How is 

 this effected ? Any organic substances, not required by 

 a plant, may perhaps be disposed of by evaporation, but 

 how are the inorganic ones got rid of ? To explain this, 

 it appears to me necessary to adopt the theory of excre- 

 tion by the roots. Perhaps some of the readers of the 

 Chronicle will favour us with their views on this subject, 

 to which I have thus briefly endeavoured to direct their 

 attention. — Dendrophilus, Roxburghshire. [The best 

 answer to this is, that the most carefully conducted ex- 

 periments show that the excretions in question do not 

 take place.] 



Swans.— In a late Number, Mr. Forsyth, speaking of 

 swans, seems to imagine that they will keep lakes and 

 rivers free from weeds, toads, and frogs. When the lakes, 

 &c. are small, that opinion may be correct ; bat when 

 they are large, and the water shallow, weeds will grow, 

 and toads and frogs will enjoy many a quiet corner 

 amongst them, independently of the swans. There is 

 proof of this where I reside. Mr. F. complains of 

 pinioning swans' wings ; but, without doing this, how are 

 the swans to be kept, especially in small ponds — would thej 

 not "take the wings of the morning?" When that 

 operation is well performed, the noble bird is not much, 

 disfigured; and with regard to cruelty, the same may be 

 said of many other operations that are performed for use- 

 ful ends. Mr. F. quotes from Langton the story of 

 St. Patrick banishing snakes and toads from Ireland, 

 which is a very popular notion. As the story goes, the 

 frogs were spared, but toads shared the fate of snakes, 

 because they were venomous. Toads are, however, as harm- 

 less as frogs, and perhaps more useful, for they frequent 

 cultivated lands more than their yellow neighbours, and 

 destroy more insects that are injurious to vegetation. 

 Lately, I was told by a friend that he once accidentally 

 trod upon a toad on a path in a Corn-field, and that he 

 found 16 fresh beetles in its stomach. These, probably, 

 the patient toad had snapped up while they attempted to 

 cross the path. Respecting toads being introduced into 

 Ireland, it has been said that they would not live; also, 

 that there is something in the soil injurious to tnem. 

 But I question if ever the thing was properly tested, , ror 

 there is such a near connection between toads and irogs, 

 that what would '« Injurious to the one, must i in a great 

 degree, be injurious to the other. In this country, toad* 



