November 10, 1888.] 



THE GAFDENEB8' CHRONICLE. 



545 



Sir Joseph Hooker hi the Icoues lHantamm, and was 

 figured by us on November 7, 1885. 



A. selaginoides curiously resembles Lycopodiuni 

 Selagoin appearance. Its leaves arc loosely disposed, 

 about half an inch in length, narrowly lanceolate 

 acute, and the cones are as large as a Cherry (see 

 lig. 78). In each case the seeds are provided with 

 rather deep oblong obtuse wings. The microscopical 

 structure of the leaf ana other characters have been 

 given in previous numbers, to which we may refer 

 the reader. They are trees for the gardens of the 

 plant lover and connoisseur, but not likely to be of 

 value for timber. 



Home Correspondence. 



WALL TREE BORDERS.— Fruit and its profitable 

 cultivation are in the ascendant, and certainly " hold 

 the field " in every gardening periodical. Among 

 others I beg to submit my ideas in regard to the 

 cultivation of fruit trees on walls. From time im- 

 memorial the general custom has been to make a 

 border for the roots of from 10 to 12, or 14 feet 

 wide ; and every year this land is in great measure 

 manured and dug, often twice, for the production of 

 all kinds of vegetables. Now, as it is considered a 

 barbarous practice to dig among our trees and shrubs, 

 cutting and mutilating the roots, surely it must be 

 equally so to do it to our fruit trees on the walls. 

 My experience leads me to think that if it were 

 otherwise there would be fewer dead branches 

 and less gumming, especially on Apricots, Cherries, 

 and Peaches. I have seen splendid crops, in a garden 

 in the west, of Apricots, Cherries, and Grapes when 

 the trees were planted under the roadway or path. 

 Now, my system would be this — to have a narrow- 

 border 3 or 4 feet from the wall, then a broad walk 

 or 7 feet wide, well made with brick-rubble and 

 old mortar for the foundation, well rammed. I 

 have no doubt myself of what the result would be. 

 A. J. Temple, Kostell Priory, Wakefield, 



STANHOPEA SACCATA.— I would wish to add to 

 the list of interesting and beautiful Stanhopeas men- 

 tioned at p. 480 by Mr. Douglas as growing at Low- 

 lands, Mr. Horner's residence, the name of one quite 

 worthy of being added to any collection where these 

 curious and beautiful Orchids are grown. This is S. 

 saccata. I have twice flowered this species, which 

 bears compact blooms of medium size of a clear 

 shaded primrose-yellow colour, the lip having a 

 remarkable bag or pouch of brilliant orange colour, 

 whence its name, which has the authority of Pro- 

 fessor Reichenbach, is derived. I find that it thrives 

 in a basket hung close to the roof in the stove. Any 

 g-ower of Stanhopeas would do well to secure this 

 beautiful species. J. T, Foe, Siverston. 



PLANTING SANDHILLS.— I have noted with some 

 interest the correspondence on the above subject, 

 and I am sure that, generally speaking, one point is 

 overlooked by many planters, and that is the fact 

 that although grasses have succeeded in holding the 

 sand, it yet takes some years before such sands 

 become converted into soil sufficiently good to sup- 

 port the free growth of other plant3, and unless 

 means are taken to provide the necessary pabulum for 

 the growth of trees, &c, time must be allowed for 

 natural causes to provide the material for such 

 growth. To expect plants to grow freely where they 

 can obtain no real nourishment is not a sensible 

 thing, and therefore some method must be adopted 

 to secure the end in view. In the natural course of 

 events, if we have grass which is suitable for the food 

 of animals, they could be grazed on the sandhills, and 

 by adding such things as corn or oilcake to their 

 dietary, the soil would be enriched, and a greater 

 quantity of forage would be produced, while the en- 

 richment of the newly-forming soil would in time give 

 facility for the employment of a wider variety of 

 forage plants, which again would tend to make the 

 pasturage more valuable, and while making it more 

 valuable, would be also rendering it increasingly 

 more suitable to the growth of plants of larger 

 growth. Time would of course be necessary, and 

 this is just what is not allowed as a rule, and there- 

 fore after the sands are once bound, some method of 

 enriching them other than by natural causes must be 

 adopted. In the artificial enrichment of the soil, 

 dressings of clay, river mud, and other heavy materials 

 may be used if obtainable, as well as thoroughly- 



rotted seaweed, animal matter of all kinds, and in 

 fact anything which will tend to bind and enrich the 

 sand ; while deep-rooting plants, such as Seakale, may 

 be used in moderation on the bound sands, all these 

 items being serviceable in forming a soil in which 

 trees will grow. However, before having large trees, 

 bushes of Tamarisk or other subjects should be 

 planted to afford some break or shelter for the trees ; 

 and these latter should not be too large specimens 

 when first set out. Time and perseverance are the 

 chief things in reclaiming sands, and given these, the 

 work of reclamation will proceed vigorously after the 

 sands are once rendered stable and free from shifting 

 by the initial process of binding with grass and other 

 plants. Walter J. May, Waltun-on -Thames. 



PRESERVING MELONS.— As the Melon season has 

 been a very bad one, owing to our continuous sunless 

 skies, a note on preserving them, I think, will not be 

 out of place. Melons in frames set their fruit well with 

 me this year, but they did not ripen well ; in fact, they 

 would not finish on the Vine, but decayed at the 

 stalk ; and therefore to preserve them I took them to 

 a dry vinery, laid them on a shelf for a few days till 

 they were perfectly dry, thence to a cupboard be- 

 side the fireplace in my room, where they were placed, 



(9.— ATHEOTAXIS SELAGIXOlt 



enveloped in wadding about six times thick. In 

 the middle of September I put in one which was 

 quite green ; and on October 20 on examining it I 

 found it quite ripe and of a fine flavour. Another 

 method for preserving very late fruits is to cut them 

 when not over-ripe, with a clean cloth wipe them, 

 then lay them for twenty-four hours in a dry place, 

 afterwards burying them in sifted ashdustand inclose 

 them in a cask or a perfectly air-tight box, where they 

 may be kept sound until December, or even January. 

 G. Howes, Merton. 



ASTER HYBRIDS.— Under this head, on p. 515, 

 my friend, Mr. E. J. Lowe, mentions two new seed- 

 ling Michaelmas Daisies, which he supposes to be 

 hybrids. As I have long been collecting all the 

 best forms of this flower I may be allowed to say 

 that any one who raises or calls attention to an 

 improved variety of Michaelmas Daisy deserves the 

 thanks of all growers of hardy herbaceous plants. 

 The merits of Michaelmas Daisies for garden deco- 

 ration were never more conspicuous than this 

 autumn, when most of us had nearly all our flowers 

 prematurely killed on October 1. Since that date 

 to the present time these late flowering perennial 

 Asters have made such a display witli me in all my 

 borders that the lost flowers were hardly missed. 

 From time to time I come across new or improved 

 forms, and I feel convinced that many exist which 

 have not yet found their way to nurseries, and that 

 others might easily be raised. It makes little dif- 

 ference to the gardener whether botanists consider 



these varieties to be hybrids, or garden developments 

 of a species, provided they are good. I have little 

 doubt that there are many hybrid Asters in cultiva- 

 tion ; three years ago I retained the services 

 of a trained botanist to name my Asters, 

 taking the Kew herbarium as the standard, and 

 several of my best he gave up as coming 

 under no name or description. One which Max 

 Leichtlin sent me a few years ago as his " best 

 Michaelmas Daisy," has been sent to two or three 

 experts, none of whom ventured to assign it a name 

 or a parentage. In early seasons many Michaelmas 

 Daisies ripen seed, and brushing them when they 

 first flower witli pollen from the best kinds, would 

 be likely to produce good developments, whether of 

 the same species or of hybribs. As for a cross 

 between Aster and Erigeron, which Mr. Lowe men- 

 tions, there is no reason why it should not succeed. 

 Asa Gray tells us that there is no natural line of 

 division between them, and that the separation of 

 these two species is purely arbitrary. I hope, 

 therefore, that Mr. Lowe and others will not be 

 discouraged because their attempts to make this 

 cross have not yet been successful. C. Wolley Sod. 



DISEASE-RESISTING POTATOS.— I should like to 

 supplement the remarks of Mr. Murphy of Clonmel, 

 in a recent issue of this journal upon the subject of 

 disease-resisting Potato, by stating that in this neigh- 

 bourhood every kind of Potato has this season been 

 more or less affected by disease. There are consider- 

 able differences, however, as to the extent of the 

 ravages, some varieties having escaped with about 1 

 per cent, of bad, while others are from 75 to 80 per 

 cent, diseased. And in some cases labour is not being 

 spent to lift and remove the tubers from the ground, 

 which is certainly a mistake, [a crime rather], if 

 it is intended to grow another crop of Potatos in tha 

 immediate vicinity next year. The advantages of 

 early varieties and of early-lifting have been clearly 

 demonstrated in the present season, Ashleaf Kidneys, 

 Myatt's Improved, Early Rose, and the like, that 

 harvested at the beginning of August are keeping 

 capitally ; it being quite an exception to find a bad 

 tuber during sorting. Hut in gardens where these 

 varieties have been left in the ground until Septem- 

 ber, they too have become diseased. From many 

 inquiries that I have made in this district, where 

 the soil is of a moderately heavy loam rest- 

 ing upon clay and chalk, I find that of the 

 late varieties and those left in the ground the 

 longest, nothing this year approaches Beauty of 

 Hebron and Magnum Bonum for disease resistance. 

 In my own garden I had a plot of Dakota Reds 

 which are a very late variety, and were not lifted 

 until the haulms had been completely cut down by 

 the frosts of September. In these but few were 

 diseased, while a plot of Prime Minister grown by 

 their side were three-quarters bad. In one of Sir J. 

 B. Lawes' experimental fields at Rothamsted, where 

 Scotch Champion has now been grown for nine 

 years in succession on the same land, and for four 

 years previous to that the Rock variety was grown, 

 and with the same description of manure applied to 

 each plot of ground year after year, we find this year 

 a smaller crop per acre than usual, and no kind of arti- 

 ficial manure that has been used appears to preserve 

 the tubers from disease, although great differences are 

 manifest in the quantities of bad developed, ranging 

 from a few pounds to nearly a ton of diseased per 

 acre. Potash salts seem to be a powerful pre- 

 servative, but when these are applied together with 

 large quantities of stimulating nitrogenous manures 

 then the good effect of these salts appears to be neutral- 

 ized. Peat-moss manure has been found in this neigh- 

 bourhood a capital dressing for the growth of Potatos, 

 keeping the tubers beautifully clean and bright- 

 skinned, and by keeping the soil open and assisting 

 drainage, helps to promote disease-resistance. J. 

 Willis, Harpenden. 



LONG-LIVED CUCUMBERS.— Having for many 

 years taken a deep interest in Cucumber growing, 

 and with a large share of success— cultivators manage 

 then in various ways both from seeds and cuttings — I 

 quite agree with vour correspondent, Mr. Froud, at 

 p. 447, that there is very little difficulty in keeping 

 Cucumber plants in good health for two years, pro- 

 vided they are grown in a properly constructed and 

 well-heated houses. Twenty years ago I had the 

 good fortune to raise a variety named Blue Gown, 

 and in order to keep it true all the other seedlings 

 were destroyed. It soon spread and filled the whole 

 house, 16 feet by 10, producing some of the finest 

 Cucumbers I have ever seen, and continued to bear 

 for two years. Of course a little fresh soil and 



