March 2, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



1 



The Value of Limestone as a Fertiliser. 



— On p. 76 Mr. John Smith unreservedly recom- 

 mends limestone in preference to burnt lime. 

 The statement that 1 cwt. of limestone (car- 

 bonate of lime) is worth 2 cwte. of burnt lime is 

 a peculiar one to make, because the latter is re- 

 converted into carbonate of lime before it has 

 been very long in the soil, and it can be dis- 

 tributed throughout the soil as well, if 

 not better than limestone. My teaching 

 regarding the effects of lime in the soil 

 is contained in the following general state- 

 ment : — (1) Lime is an essential plant food, and 

 of special value to leguminous and root crops 

 (Potatos excepted). Burnt lime is no better for 

 this purpose than carbonate of lime (ground 

 linu-tone, chalk, waste lime, &c). (2) Lime 

 neutralises acids, and therefore sweetens the soil 

 as well as forming useful lime salts with the soil 

 acids. Here, again, the carbonate of lime is as 

 useful as the burnt lime, because any acid will 

 drive out the carbon-dioxide of the limestone 

 and take its place. (3) Lime is necessary for the 

 formation of nitrate of lime in the soil, which is 

 the chief natural nitrogenous food of plants. The 

 carbonate is better for this purpose than the 

 burnt lime, as the nitrifying bacteria, unlike 

 most others, obtain their carbon from mineral 

 carbonates, instead of from organic matter. 

 Sulphate of ammonia is slow in its conversion to 

 nitrate of lime unless carbonate of lime is 

 present. Of course, burnt lime soon becomes 

 carbonate again in the soil. (4) Lime sets potash 

 free for plant use, only burnt lime being able to 

 do this. Burnt lime is a rapid breaker up of 

 organic matter, and is therefore very profitable 

 to use on newly-broken up turf, or on peaty 

 soils, or in old gardens that have been heavilv 

 manured for many years. It should not, of 

 course, be applied to light sandy soil, because 

 the object with such soils should" be to accumu- 

 late organic matter, so as to make them more 

 retentive. (6) Burnt lime can liberate phosphate 

 of alumina or iron, and bring it back again into 

 the phosphate of lime condition. This frequently 

 happens on heavy land. (7) Lime is a preven- 

 tion of " finger and toe " which revels in sour 

 land. The carbonate will sweeten the land as 

 well as, although much more slowly, than burnt 

 lime. No doubt the latter will "also kill the 

 spores of the disease if these are brought into 

 contact with it in the caustic state. (8) Burnt 

 lime makes clay less adhesive or sticky by flos- 

 culating it. ground limestone will not do this. 

 (9) Burnt lime should not in its fresh state be 

 brought into contact with living and growing 

 vegetation, such as pastures, because it retards 

 growth, as carbonate, or in compost, it is most 

 valuable. In summing up these' considerations, 

 1 conclude that the use of ground limestone is 

 to be preferred to burnt lime on light land or 

 poor land that contains very little accumulated 

 organic matter. On the other hand, burnt lime 

 is preferable for use on strong land that has 

 been well farmed or gardened, or on peaty soils, 

 in this district ground limestone is about twice 

 the price per ton of burnt lime, and this is a 

 very important thing to consider. If burnt 

 lime is allowed to slake and stored in the drv it 

 will be reconverted into carbonate, and will then 

 of course answer the same puroose as ground 

 limestone. W. B. Little, Carlisle. 



SOCIETIE 



ROYAL HORTICULTUEAL. 



Scientific Committee. 



February 20.— Present: Mr. E. A. Bowles, 

 M.A., F.L.S. (in the Chair) ; Sir John Llewelyn, 

 Sir Everard im Thurn, Dr. Rendle, Messrs. J. 

 O'Brien, W. Hales, C. E. Shea, G. Ma&see, G. 

 Gordon, W. Cuthbertson, and F. J. Chittenden 

 (hon. sec). 



Onroba JRoutledgei. — Mr. Shea remarked with 

 reference to seedlings of this plant, that of 17 

 raised by him from one fruit 15 were spiny and 

 two quite without spines (see Gard. Chron., figs. 

 145. 146 and Supplementary Illustration, May 27, 



lyii). 



Ccelogyne, venusta — Sir Frederick Moore 

 Glasnevin, sent an inflorescence of this interest- 

 ing species. It is a native of Yunnan. On 

 the motion of Mr. O'Brien, seconded by Mr. 

 Shea, it was unanimously resolved to recommend 

 the award of a Botanical Certificate. 



1 tolets with branched peduncles.— Miss 

 Dalton sent from Sway. Hants., a number of 

 Violets bearing branched pedum les, and ap- 

 parently more or less fasciated. They had been 

 cultivated in the ordinary way. but in some two 

 or three specimens double flowers were produced 

 at the apex of the common pt dunele ; in other 

 the peduncles separated lower down. Seven] 



examples of a similar nature have been sent to 



the Committee during the pr ent season from 

 widely-separated localities, otherwise it appears 

 that Violets are but rarelv fasciated. 



New Orange.— Mr. H. S. Rivers sent a 

 variety of Orange newly introduced, known as 

 "Ooushin." Satsuma," and 4 * Ku Seedless." 



It is a Japanese variety somewhat like a Man- 

 darin. The somewhat flat fruits shown wire 

 from maidens, and the variety is said to be 

 almost hardy, ripening its fruit very early. The 

 skin is thin and deep yellow ; the flesh juicy, 



sweet, and well-flavoured; quite seedless. One 



of the calyx lobes in one fruit was somewh.it 

 foliose, an unusual character in the Orange. 



Pyronia x.— Messrs. J. Veitch & S«xs .* nt a 

 fruit raised from Quince x Pear Bergamotte 

 Esperen." A fruit from this cross has already 

 been shown under the name Pyronia X " John 

 Seden." The present example was borne on a 

 second seedling from the same parent fruit. It 

 was highly aromatic and much more rounded 

 than the fruit previously shown. The flesh was 

 firm and cream in colour, the eye sunken and 

 the cells open, one containing an apparently 

 well-developed seed. 



Diseased Tulips. 



Lowe 



sent some Tulips having poorly developed and 



brown blotched leaves, the v ular tissue being 

 marked with brownish streaks. They were re- 

 ferred to Mr. Massee for further examination. 



Fumigation with hydrocyanic arid gas. — Mr. 

 Hai.es referred to some results obtained at 

 Chelsea Physic Harden lately in fumigating with 

 hydrocyanic acid gas. The fum stion had been 

 done on a very dull day, and tin* house had not 

 been damped down for two days previous to the 



operation. The fumigation was with material of 



ordinary strength, hut it had failed to destroy 

 all the mealy bug. and had caused considerable 

 injury to many plants, especially those with 

 somewhat succulent leaves, such as Clivias. 



LECTURE ON SWEET PEAS. 



The following are extracts from the paper on 

 " New Sweet Peas," read by Mr. \Y. Cuthbertson 

 at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, on the 20th ult. : — 



By New Sweet Peas I mean the Waved or 

 Spencer type, first shown by the raiser, Mr. 

 Silas Cole, at that time gardener to Earl Spencer, 

 at the exhibition of the National Sweet Pea 

 Society in London in 1901. The first of this new 

 race was named "Countess Spencer/' 



Writing to me in January of last year, Mr. 

 Cole stated : — 



''With respect to the origin of 'Countess 

 Spencer,' I will tell you what happened. Being 

 always very fond of Sweet Peas, I turned my 



attention specially to them in 1898. That 

 summer I crossed the variety Lovely with 

 Triumph, saved the seed, and the following year, 

 1899, there were two or three promising seed- 

 lings, the rest being rubbish. 



" The good ones I crossed with Prima Donna, 

 and the next season, that was 1900, there was 

 one plant among the seedlings much stronger 

 than any of the others, and it flower*- d much later 

 than the other varieties. That proved to be the 

 original ' Countess Spencer.' I just managed to 

 save five seeds— «>ne pod only. The following 

 spring, after sowing them. I lost three of them in 

 one night through mice. The stock was thus re- 

 duced to two plants, but from them I saved 90 

 seeds. It was from these plants I exhibited the 

 flowers at the old Royal Aquarium for the first 

 time. In 1902 I sowed all the seeds, every one 

 came true, but, owing to it being a wet summer, 

 I only managed to save about 3,000 seeds ; 2,200 

 of these were sent, in 1903, to America to be 

 grown for stock by Mr. Sydenham. ^ Those that 

 came back from America were a mixture of all 

 sorts, no more like my true ' Countess Spencer ' 

 than night is like day. With me ' Countess 

 Spencer' has never sported to this day. It has 

 hrown reversions : that is. it has reverted to its 

 parents, such as Lovely and Triumph, and on 

 rare occasions to Prima Donna, but nothing else. 



» v me colour is yen to the theory, held by 

 some, that the variety Countess Spencer was a 

 simple mutation by the fact that Mr. Eckford 

 had in his grounds at WVra a flower of the same 



form and colour, though he had never shown it. 



Mr. Unwin obtained the variety Gladys Unwin 



about the same time. It came as a variation in 

 Prima Donna, one of the parents of Count. m 

 Spencer, according to Mr. (Sole. I have asked 

 Mr. Eckford if he will throw light on the sub- 

 ject by making public the origin of his stock of 

 Countess Spei. r. 



Mr. Sydenham sent the stock of Countess 

 Spencer to America to be grown for seed pur- 

 poses, and when these m Is were crown in this 



country the following year they produced, besides 



the true var . a multitude of sorts entirely 

 different from Countess Spencer. Out of the 

 seed Mr. Sydenham distributed came direct l\ 

 and indirectly many of the wa\< d varieties, which 

 were introduced during the ne few years. 



Immediately Countess Spencer was availahl. ^ 



a parent, cross- fertilisation with it began, 

 but the progeny took time bo fix. and it 

 was not until 1907 and 1908 that many varieties, 

 the result of crossing, found their way on to the 



market. All others were sel tions from the 



original stock. 



It is a simple operation to u - t Peas, 



but it is by no means an easy task to follow 

 it up. In 1907 I made a number of crosses, in- 

 cluding The King x Primrose Seedling. I got 

 seven seeds in ihe pod. These seven seeds were 

 sown in the spring of 1908. It was a good 

 summer, and from the seven plants I got 

 17i ounces of seed — over 5,000 seeds. 1909 was 

 a bad season for Sweet Peas, and my seedlings 

 and sell tions were redu I by 90 or 95 per cent. 



In the continuous raising of Sweet I as there 



is a constant renewal of varieties — re invigorated 



no doubt, but urad ally th< same as the named 

 varieties already on the market. It is from this 

 fact that all the trouble about naming arises. 

 Take lavender-coloured Sv t Peas as an 

 instance: — Mr. Breadmore is identified v th 

 Lavender George I: rbert, Mr. Bolton with R. F. 

 Felton, Messrs. Dobbie with .Masterpiece. Mr. 

 Burpee with Florence Nightingale, Mr. M <rse 

 with Asta Ohn. Mr. Unwin with Nettie Jenkins. 

 Messrs. Bakers with Mrs. Charles Foster, and 

 Miss I (emus with Lavender Paradise. 



Rev. J. Bernard Hall said not long ago that 

 11 At present, apart from the National Sweet Pea 

 Society's list, all seems chaos in Sweet Peas to 

 the amateur." Let me remind vou that there is 

 another list — a very good one, too — the list issued 

 by the Floral Committee of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society last summer, after a very excellent 

 trial had been made at Wislev. There the flowers 

 were not judged from an exhibitor's standpoint, 

 but as they appeared growing naturally in clumps 

 in the border. They were commended " on 

 account of their strong growth, and because of 

 their non-burning qualities which add so im- 

 mensely to their value for garden decoration.'' 



The Spencer or Waved varieties recommended 

 are Asta Ohn, lavender ; Aurora Spencer, cream 

 ground, flaked salmon-pink; Colleen, rose and 

 white bicolor; Countess Spencer, pink ; Bobbie's 

 Sunproof Crimson; Elfrida Pearson, large pale 

 pink or blush ; Elsie Herbert, white, edged with 

 rose ; Etta Dyke, pure white ; Gladys Unwin, 

 pale rosy-pink ; Ivanhoe, mauve ; Isobel Mal- 

 colm, ivory; Lady Althorp, white, tinged with 

 pale peach; Princess Victoria, clear blush pink; 

 and Tennant Spencer, mauve. 



If 14 be considered too many, the best six will 

 include Etta Dyke (white). Dobbie's Sunproof 

 Crimson, Elfrida Pearson, Elsie Herbert, Asta 

 Ohn (lavender), and Nubian. 



The Sweet Pea is goin^ through a transforma- 

 tion similar to that which many other flowers 

 have gone. From the old hooded or erect- 

 standard type we have moved to the Wavy or 

 Spencer types, and the next movement is in the 

 direction of flowers with double standards. People 

 who have not seen these double varieties imagine 

 they are lumpy and ugly — quite the opposite is 

 the case; the double standards give the flower a 

 richness and intensity which for many purposes 

 adds immensely to its value. 



It is the practice of the best growers to sow 

 the seeds in boxes or pots during January. 

 February, or early March, and plant out the 

 plants, in well-prepared land, in April, giving 

 them plenty of room — never closer than 12 

 inches, often 18, 24, sometimes 30 inches apart 

 if land is in specially good condition. 



