Jdly 21, 1888.] 



TEE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



73 



Looking through my Wheat crop to-day, I noticed, 

 say 1 or 2 per cent, of the heads black or smutty. 

 This is generated by the fungus Ustilago, and as it 

 will immediately be washed or blown away it is not so 

 injurious to the quality of the grain, or, subsequently 

 of the flour, as that produced inside the head later 

 on, and now not easily discerned. This latter fungus 

 is. the Uredo— and it is against this primarily the 

 various preventative dips — those dips, are, I believe, 

 s rlphide of sodium or potassium — chiefly are used. 

 I should like, with your permission, to ask as to the 

 life-history of the spores of these parasitic fungi, 

 especially the first — When scattered what becomes 

 of the spores, no Wheat being sown in the same 

 fields for four or five years ; and no seed scattered 

 without being first dipped, and then dried out in 

 slaked lime ? W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. [See Mr. W. G. 

 S nith's Diseases of Field and Garden Crops. (Mac- 

 millan). Ed.] 



BLIND NARCISSUS POETICUS — There is no 

 doubt that the blindness of this valuable variety- 

 is this year very general, as shown by recent 

 communications on the subject. It is not easy, 

 however, to trace the cause of this general failure, 

 and the various opinions advanced do not tend 

 to smooth over the — to many — serious difficulty. 

 A market grower near by, whose stock of this has 

 been five years planted, estimates his loss of buds at 

 about 10 per cent. The whole of his stock is 

 planted in lines between the Apples and Plums in 

 his orchard ; they rarely, if ever, get manure, and the 

 soil, though trenched prior to the original planting, 

 could hardly benefit the bulbs to any great extent, 

 by reason of the traffic to the trees in the fruit 

 season. The soil, too, consequent upon the thick 

 manner in which the trees are planted, must be fairly 

 full of root-fibre, and this upon a soil naturally light 

 with a deep gravelly subsoil would not unnaturally 

 point to a dry and impoverished soil. My friend attri- 

 butes the blindness to wind frosts. In this I cannot 

 •agree, inasmuch as we had no wind frost in this locality 

 at the time these went blind this year, therefore, we 

 mast look elsewhere for the cause. For myself I had 

 imagined that the excessive drought of the past year 

 or two had not allowed the bulbs to properly mature 

 themselves and this being a late variety strengthened 

 my belief in this direction for the time. This 

 theory, however, is also set aside, for, upon examina- 

 tion at the time, I found mine were exactly like 

 those decribed at p. 807 by the Rev. G. Wolley Dod ; 

 the miniature petais forming a rosette within the 

 scape brown and dead. The flower-stems internally 

 bore every evidence of health so far as my experience 

 would admit my judging. I am now under the im- 

 pression that heat has something to do with this 

 blindness during the nascent period. I am led to this 

 conclusion by the fact of some of the common Pseudo- 

 Narcissus going blind a year or two since, by an 

 attempt to force them into flower very early in the 

 year. Only a few emerged from the soil while in 

 heat, some of which expanded, but the majority 

 turned brown. The whole batch were eventually 

 turned out-of-doors as worthless, and notwithstand- 

 ing the weather which followed, a great many flowered 

 at their usual time. The double yellow Daffodils, 

 when subjected to much heat in the early part of the 

 year will also go blind — the blindness in each case 

 "becoming apparent when the buds are in the same 

 stage ; those that go blind continue erect and never 

 assume the horizontal turn, which is a sure indication 

 of proper expansion. Mr. Burbidge gives preference 

 to annual lifting and a comparatively poor soil, while 

 the soil in Mr. Dod's garden is apparently what Mr, 

 Burbidge would avoid. Our soil and attendant 

 circumstances are distinct again, manure being em- 

 ployed when originally planted, and manure-water 

 applied twice during the past winter ; the result being 

 a decided increase in the number of flowers compared 

 with that of last year. Should this blindness be 

 traceable to excessive heat, the difficulty will be over- 

 come' by planting in partial shade where possible, or 

 of affording some protection when planted in beds. 

 I have not noticed any sign of the disease till the 

 stems have attained their full height, as they emerge 

 from the ground all equally healthy-looking, while 

 those that fail appear to do so quite suddenly and at 

 one particular stage of their existence. If any 

 readers of the Gardeners' Chronicle have well-flowered 

 batches of this variety this year, they will confer a 

 boon to many besides the writer by giving particulars 

 respecting them. R Jenkins. 



NON-WARRANTY CLAUSE.— I see a notice of the 

 Scotch meeting against the non-warranty clause, 

 reported in the Gardeners' Chronicle of last week, 

 and I strongly urge that a similar agitation among 



retail-seedsmen and market gardeners be com- 

 menced without delay in England. It is contrary to 

 the interests of the public generally that any class 

 should be allowed to set themselves above the law, 

 as the London wholesale trade and certain of 

 their provincial brethren are now doing. It is all 

 very well to say they will meet us in a fair and 

 liberal spirit in case of error, but hitherto most of 

 those who have had occasion to complain — myself 

 included — have been met with the reply, " We state 

 on our invoicesVe will not hold ourselves responsible in 

 case of failure [of the crop from any cause whatever." 

 The only alternative left to us under the circum- 

 stances appears to be to buyour seeds of Scotch houses 

 if English ones cannot and will not recommend 

 [guarantee] their seeds. Market Gardener, Evesham. 



BROWNEA GRANDICEPS.— This handsome tree, 

 alluded to in your number for June 16, flowered in the 

 public gardens here a year ago. The heads of flowers 

 were bright red, measured 1 foot across, and attracted 

 the attention of all horticulturists. LctcUier <$- Son, 

 Ca ». 



Tig. 7.— j.i w cui 



SSEVIERA G0ISTEBXSIS. 



cutting, showii 



1, Portion of leaf inserted 



plants growing out from base, natural size; 2, 3, 4, ^ lews 

 of same cutting, showing the manner of development of 

 the young plants. 



THE BERMUDA LILY, LILIUM LONGIFLORUM 

 HARRISII.— As a window plant this has often been 

 commended in the Gardeners' Ch ran icle ; but really too 

 much cannot be urged in its favour. I have two potfuls 

 in my sitting-room windows now expanding into 

 bloom. The height is about 2 feet, and each stem has 

 two immense trumpet-shaped flowers of the purest 

 white, and the scent is most delicious, something like a 

 combination of Musk and Tea Rose. Those Lilies 

 were wintered in y.l-inch pots in a cold frame, and 

 must have often been frozen, and have had no 

 forcing since, beyond a little guano-water on a few 

 occasions. Owing to their great substance these 

 flowers will remain perfect, when shaded from hot 

 sun, for a month. W. J. Murphy, Clonmcl. 



WHAT IS A "HERBACEOUS" PLANT?— After 



repeated endeavours to answer this inquiry for 

 myself, I am led to seek assistance in the matter. 

 Some years ago I thought that I knew what are 

 herbaceous plants, but to-day I am compelled to 

 confess that the matter is much too complicated for 

 me to attempt to draw the line. In places where 

 one would least expect to find it— as, for example, 

 at the recent shows of the Royal Botanic Society 

 and the Royal Horticultural Society at the Inner 

 Temple — the confusion was heightened beyond 

 measure by the very subjects which did service 

 for herbaceous plants. Naturally enough visitors 

 would imagine when viewing the collections of hardy 



plants, that as the schedule provided distinct classes 

 for alpines and herbaceous plants, they were inspect- 

 ing the one or the other, and not a mixture of 

 both, coupled with " foreigners " which had no right 

 there at all. But while the question may, in 

 many cases, be a somewhat thorny one to decide, 

 there are some points which do not require a 

 moment to decide. When we find our leading hardy 

 plant nurserymen staging such things as bedding 

 Tulips, Polyanthuses, bedding Pansies, Myosotis 

 dissitiflora, Harrison's Musk, Saxifraga pyramidalis. 

 and tree Peonies in the middle of May, as repre- 

 senting herbaceous plants, I think one might fairly 

 assume, that if all these are admissible, what might 

 not be included? Surely if tree P;eonies are 

 allowed to figure as herbaceous, what law can dis- 

 allow the introduction of a few pot Roses, for ex- 

 ample ? — or of Azalea mollis, or, in fact, of any plant 

 which is so purely a deciduous shrub, even as are 

 the tree P;eonies ? The word " herbaceous " is de- 

 fined by Dr. Cooke in his Manual of Botanical 'J'cr„is 

 as " producing an annual stem from a perennial 

 root;" in Don's Gardeners' Dictionary it is given 

 thus — " a plant, the stem of which perishes annually ; " 

 and by Chambers the botanical definition runs thus— 

 '■ having a soft stem that dies to the root annually." 

 By a comparison of these — all agreeing in the 

 main — there would not appear much room for 

 question, if the meaning which it is obviously 

 intended to convey were only carried out in practice. 

 But I very much doubt whether such a plant 

 as Harrison's Musk or Saxifraga pyramidalis could 

 perform the functions set forth by the authorities I 

 have cited. The plant of Saxifraga pyramidalis 

 which flowers this year never flowers again, there- 

 fore it cannot be regarded as " producing annual 

 flowering-stems from a perennial root." In this 

 case offsets are produced, which in course of time 

 flower and perish likewise. Were I asked to define 

 this particular plant, I would do so in the words 

 "perennial alpine." Bedding Tulips are quite in 

 their proper place, and fulfil the office of "her- 

 baceous." If a nurseryman were required to supply 

 one hundred herbaceous plants, at, say, the low price 

 of 25f., he most assuredly would not include Harri- 

 son's Musk, common Forget-me-Nots, Polyanthus, 

 Tansies, or bedding Tulips, much less Tree Pajonies ; 

 therefore I contend that to exhibit all these things 

 in a group provided for herbaceous plants is likely to 

 mislead. In large collections of hardy plants there 

 is no dearth of good things in the month of May, 

 and growers of hardy plants generally, who desire 

 to extend the growing taste for these plants, cannot 

 do better than make their exhibits of them as full 

 as possible of really good, genuine, and useful sub- 

 jects, at the same time illustrating the value of many 

 of them in the decoration of the conservatory. One 

 word more : very confusing are such things as her- 

 baceous Calceolarias and Erica berbacea, the former 

 little more than a half-hardy annual, while in the 

 latter we find a dwarf evergreen shrub. Is it pos- 

 sible to classify such as these with what we 

 generally understand as herbaceous plants ? — I think 

 not. E. Jenkins. 



THE POTATO DISEASE. — Have you seen any- 

 thing of the Potato disease yet? "is the anxious 

 query put from day to day by Potato growers. The 

 weather with its Very low temperature and daily 

 downpour of rain — sometimes perfect floods of rain 

 —naturally gives ample reason for this anxiety. 

 Rarely has the soil been more thoroughly saturated 

 than it is at the present moment of writing ; and the 

 surface is impacted beyond previous summer expe- 

 rience. If there is any virtue in washed air and in 

 cleansed soil, then should both air and soil abound 

 in virtues, and impurities be few in either. But in 

 spite of the cool temperature and the excessive rain- 

 fall the Potato haulm looks wonderfully healthy — 

 perhaps never appeared better, for the past three 

 weeks have filled the gaps in the rows caused by the 

 cold which checked leaf growth. The moment 

 sunshine shall rewarm the soil, root develop- 

 ment will take place with hasty strides, and the 

 grower will exult in the prospect of a heavy yield. 

 In view of the probability of disease, it would be 

 interesting to know if the earthing system of pro- 

 tection against disease (Jensen's) will be followed by 

 any one this year. It is, perhaps, not too late even 

 now, to put the plan into operation with later kinds, 

 providing the requisite space between the rows has 

 been allowed. As I looked at the cleanly washed 

 ridges of soil about the plants, and the ditch-like 

 appearance of the furrow, I thought that if ever 

 conditions were favourable for a thorough testing of 

 the value of protective earthing they are so at present. 



