December 8, 1888.] 



THE GAEDENEBS' CHRONICLE. 



661 



said to be 224,154 acres, a part of which belongs to 

 the State, and a part to private owners, while a much 

 smaller part is communal property. 



Now follows the plan. In exposed situations the 

 protective works consist of a wooden palisade (I 

 would also add turf walls), erected atashort distance 

 above high-water mark, and destined to promote 

 the formation of an artificial dune, with a view to 

 prevent fresh arrivals of sand from being blown over 

 the country. 



Under the shelter thus formed seeds of various 

 kinds, principally those of the maritime Pine 

 (Pinus maritima)— so far north I would sug- 

 gest Pinus austriaca and sylvestris also — Broom, 

 common Whin or Gorse, and Arundo arenaria are 

 sown, the seeds being covered with brushwood to 

 prevent the sand in which they are sown from 

 moving, and the sowing is thus continued inland in 

 successive belts, until a crop of trees is raised on 

 the entire area. 



In less exposed situations a walled fence is sub- 

 stituted for the wooden pallisades. In the Depart- 

 ments of Gironde and Landes forests of the maritime 

 Pine have been most successfully raised in this 

 manner, the trees being tapped for resin, and the 

 wood of those which have been exhausted being sold 

 for sleepers and other purposes. 



North of the Loire the maritime Pine is not sown, 

 as in that region it does not yield a sufficient quan- 

 tity of resin to repay the cost of its introduction, 

 and here it is sought merely to establish a crop of 

 grass on the ground. The French law of 1810 rela- 

 tive to the treatment of the dunes, which is still in 

 force, provides that the Goverment can order the 

 planting up of any area which in the public interest 

 requires to be so dealt with. " Surely one of the 

 pressing reforms in our own country." 



When the land or any part of it belongs to com- 

 mons or private owners who cannot or do not wish 

 to undertake the work, the State can execute it, 

 reimbursing itself with interest from the subsequent 

 yield of the forests. As soon as the money so 

 advanced has been recovered, the land is restored to 

 the owners, who are bound to maintain the works in 

 good condition, and not to fell any trees without the 

 sanction of the Forest Department. Before the De- 

 partment took over the work of re-afforesting in 

 1862, 111,787 acres had been dealt with, and the 

 entire area — more than 224,000 acres — has now 

 been completed. The works have to be carefully 

 maintained, in order to prevent a recurrence of 

 the evil. 



Referring now to p. 545, Major Bailey's remarks 

 are worth repeating. Forests are not so exhausting 

 to the soil as agricultural crops. In the case of the 

 latter the entire plant, except the roots, which also are 

 sometimes taken, is removed, whereas with a crop of 

 trees the leaves, flowers, and fruit, which are far 

 richer in nutritive elements than the wood, are 

 annually returned to the soil, and thus serve to 

 maintain its productive power, as well as by their 

 protective action to keep it in a good physical con- 

 dition. Hence forests can flourish on comparatively 

 poor soil. Wm. Clark, Carlisle. 



Cultural Memoranda. 



SPIRAEA JAPONICA. 

 This winter and spring-flowering plant Is almost 

 indispensable as a decorative subject, and no time 

 should be lost in potting up the desired number of 

 clumps. The soil used may consist of three parts 

 light sandy loam and one of leaf-mould. Stand the 

 pots on fine coal-ashes in a cold pit, whence small 

 batches can be drawn for forcing. The Spirsea is a 

 moisture-loving plant when in growth, therefore it 

 should be well watered once, and sometimes twice a 

 day. Liquid manure applied at the roots three or 

 four times a week, will also have a satisfactory result ; 

 failing this an occasional surface-dressingof Beeson's 

 manure before giving water at the roots will answer 

 the same purpose. 



Lily of the Valley. 

 All home-grown, and imported crowns and clumps 

 should now be potted. Several " crowns " may be 

 packed closely together in 4.}-inch pots, in a compost 

 consisting of about three parts light sandy loam and 

 one of leaf-mould, working it around the roots in 

 the process of potting, keeping the crowns just above 

 the surface of the soil. The same remark applies to 

 the potting of the " clumps," which should be potted 

 according to their size, into 44, 6, and 7-inch pots. 

 The great secret in the early forcing of Lily of the 

 Valley is to exclude light, and air from the crowns 

 until they have shown the flower-spikes, when they 

 should be gradually inured to light, by placing them 

 on a shelf, in the forcing-house, with an inverted 

 flower-pot placed over them for a few days. The 

 plan ot plunging the pi.ts a few inches underneath a 

 covering of leaf-soil, in the Mushroom-house, or in a 

 box of sawdust placed under the staging in a forcing- 

 house, or anywhere in a temperature not below 50° 

 or 55°, keeping the material in which the pots are 

 plunged on the moist side, is, I find from long ex- 

 perience of its use, a capital one. 



Clivea miniata 

 flowers during the winter and spring months, and 

 is easily increased by divisions of the crown being 

 potted any time after the plants have flowered. Use 

 a mixture of four parts sandy, fibry loam and one of 

 leaf-soil, with a dash of sharp sand, putting the 

 plants in a moist, warm pit or house, and giving 

 sufficient water at the roots to settle the soil. After 

 the roots have pushed well into the soil, occasional 

 applications of weak, tepid, liquid manure will prove 

 beneficial. Unless the plants are intended to be 

 flowered in small pots, they should be shifted into 

 larger pots as soon as the roots have reached the 

 side of the pots. 



AOAPANTHUS UMBELLATUS. 



This is of very easy culture. Divisions of the 

 crowns potted into 6-inch pots in any kind of mode- 

 rately rich mould, and placed in a minimum tempe- 

 rature of from 50°— 60°, and watered, will soon 

 become established, requiring frequent shifts into 

 larger pots until the desired size has been attained 

 to. They are gross feeders, and, therefore, should 

 have copious supplies of weak liquid manure during 

 the period of growth. This will aid the production 

 of flowers. Large plants stood out-of-doors have a 

 good effect. 



Chrysanthemums. 

 Cuttings for next year should be taken as soon as 

 they have made between 1 and 2 inches of growth. 

 Insert round the sides of 3-inch pots filled with any 

 kind of mould surfaced with sand, and placed in a 

 cold frame near to the glass, or, better still, a pit where 

 a little heat can be employed occasionally to dry up 

 excessive moisture, and so prevent the cuttings from 

 damping off. None but good sturdy cuttings from 

 the base of the plant should be taken. As soon as 

 the cuttings are rooted, sufficient air must be given 

 to insure a stocky growth. H. W. Ward, 



PLANTS IN FLOWER AT KEW. 



The following are the most interesting of the 

 plants now flowering in the Royal Gardens, Kew : — 



Gladiolus recurvus. — This plant commenced to 

 flower early last month. It belongs to the small- 

 bulbed Rush-leaved kinds, of which G. tristes is the 

 best known representative. The former has leaves 

 a foot long, a scape 18 inches long, bearing two or 

 three flowers which have spreading recurved seg- 

 ments 1 inch long, and coloured yellow, thickly 

 spotted with brown. The flowers are dull in colour, 

 but very powerfully fragrant, and they remain fresh 

 a fortnight or more. This species was the first 

 Gladiolus to flower last winter, as it is this. 



Hifmanthi/s Baurii flowered for the first time at 

 Kew in 1883, and it has been in bloom every year 

 since. The plant now flowering has two short broad 



recurved leaves, and a short erect scape projecting 

 from the centre. The broad, petal-like spathe- 

 valves are pure white, margined with emerald-green, 

 and enclose the cluster of white erect flowers. This 

 species bears some resemblance to H. albiflos, but 

 the latter has longer scapes, shorter spathe-valves, 

 and usually three or four leaves. H. Baurii is 

 figured in Bot. Mac/., t. 6875. 



Reinivardtia tetragyna is a most valuable winter 

 flowering plant, much superior to R. trigyna (Linum) 

 both in the manner of flowering, in the shade of 

 yellow, and in the length of time it lasts. There are 

 several groups of it in flower in the Begonia-house. 

 For warm conservatories this plant deserves a very 

 strong recommendation. 



Thnnhcrgia laurifolia. — This is an old stove flower- 

 ing climber, which produces its large handsome 

 lilac-and-white flowers at various seasons. A fine 

 example of it is in bloom in the Victoria-house. 

 Its neighbour is Ipomcea Briggsii, a very pretty and 

 floriferous form of I. Horsfalli;c. 



PBfts pterophora, better known as V. gongylodes 

 is also in this house, and is interesting just now on 

 account of the swollen bulb-like character of the 

 terminal internodes or joints of the principal shoots. 

 These, [when ripe, dehisce naturally, and falling to 

 the ground, soon develope into plants. They are a 

 near approach to propagation by cuttings on the 

 part of Nature herself. 



Bronicliads. — The most attractive of these plants 

 now are Billbergia vittata Bakeri, a hybrid, also 

 known as B. Cappei and B. Brenteana. It is a 

 handsome plant, 18 inches high, with semi-erect 

 leaves, and an arching branched panicle of blue 

 flowers, subtended by large boat-shaped bracts of 

 brilliant crimson. ^Ecbmea calyculata is a dense- 

 growing plant with erect dark green leaves, about a 

 foot long, and compact heads of yellow flowers on 

 peduncles a little longer than the leaves. M, 

 Barlei has stout leaves arranged in a vasiform 

 manner, and margined with large spinous teeth. 

 The inflorescence is a long, arching, branched 

 panicle, with small flowers and large crimson bracts. 

 M. mexicana is a strong grower, nearly a yard 

 across, with grey-green leaves and a stout panicle of 

 flowers, the small blue petals just protruding beyond 

 the grey nut-like calyx. 



Luculia gratissima is annually an attraction in the 

 greenhouse (No. 4). It is very good this year, the 

 heads of bloom being large and full. A second 

 plant, with smaller leaves, looser flower-heads, and 

 the corolla smaller, is called variety glabra. It is 

 what is cultivated in some gardens — as, for instance, 

 Birmingham Botanic Gardens — as L. Pinciana, but 

 it is not that plant. Is true L. Pinciana in cultiva- 

 tion anywhere ? It has white flowers, larger than 

 those of L. gratissima, and with a raised callus, 

 almost a corona, about the base of the lobes of the 

 corolla. 



Plcroina macrantlta (Lasiandra). — A first-class 

 winter-flowering plant, if grown in a sunny position 

 in a warm greenhouse ; indeed, it is rarely out of 

 flower. Two plants in the greenhouse (No. 4; arc 

 now covered with large purple-blue flowers. 



Callistciium rigidus. — The large bush of this hand- 

 some Australian plant is now flowering freely in the 

 south octagon of the Temperate- house. What 

 beautiful flowers it bears ! Exactly the form of a 

 bottle-brush, the bristle-like stamens bright crimson, 

 and each one tipped with a golden anther. It will 

 continue to flower for some weeks yet. These 

 plants, and the equally handsome Beaufortias, are 

 rarely seen in English gardens now. There were 

 some pretty examples of them exhibited at Ghent 

 this year. 



Lilium nilghcrrcnsc. — A little group of this large- 

 flowered Indian Lily is flowering in the Temperate- 

 house. It is an interesting species, not so pure a 

 white as L. longiflorum, but well worth growing for 

 the sake of its flowers at this season. It is almost 

 hardy. The flowers are 8 inches long, narrow in the 

 tube, 5 inches across the limb, segments recurved, 

 the three inner ones 2 inches across. Colour creamy- 



