244 



JOtTRXAL OF HORTICCTLTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEK. 



[ Miroi 38i 1365. 



think the cause is much the same. There is no more cer- 

 tain cure for mildew on Boses in summer than a thorough 

 soaking of water at a temperature of SO" or i'O''. " Upwakds 

 AND Onwards," I think, speaks of liquid manure heated to 

 140°. This seems a severe measure, but if the plants do not 

 suffer from their bath I have no doubt it would elfectually 

 check the mildew. In either case, however, the remedy 

 is owing to the roots being excited so as to give a more 

 abundant supply of sap to the plant. 



When a mildewed leaf is examined under a microscope a 

 fine reticulated white substance like inspissated sap is seen 

 to stand fu hair-like tubes quite above the leaf; it can be 

 scraped otf with the point of a knife, leaving the cells of the 

 sap-vessels of the leaf flattened. I cannot trace any cellular 

 formation in the mildew, the white substanee seeming more 

 like sap which had escaped from the leaf, owing to the leaf 

 beinar punctured by the root of the fungus. I should like 

 to know whether any of your readers who have a microscope 

 with very high powers have ever been able to trace the 

 different parts of the fungus. 



Any check to the sap predisposes, I think, the leaf to the 

 attack of mildew, and the best way to avoid it in winter on 

 Verbenas and other plants is to keep them steadily but con- 

 stantly growing, and to have a thorough circulation of air 

 round the plants. Wooden stages, with plenty of air between 

 the bars, and hot-water pipes or flues underneath, with 

 the outer air coming directly on the heated pipes through 

 openings in the front wall, so as to create a thorough circu- 

 lation and yet to have the air heated before it ascends, is 

 about the best way to succeed with Verbenas ; and it is 

 much better to put the plants into a hotbed for a fortnight 

 in the spring and let them make young wood before taking 

 their cuttings, rather than to try and strike the tops which 

 have been on all the winter ; no time is lost in the end, as 

 there is as much difference between striking fresh quick- 

 grown cuttings and old ones as there is between striking 

 the old wood of Calceolarias and young shoots. — X. Y. Z. 



THE LATE ME. F. CHITTY. 



Many readers of The Journal of HoKTictrLTUEE, who 

 have, in common with myself, read the interesting and 

 thoroughly practical articles on general gardening, written 

 by tie late Mr. Chitty, will feel that his loss to the lovers of 

 horticulture will not easdy be replaced, and all must feel 

 deep sympathy for the bereaved widow and helpless children 

 of such an estimable man. 



The letter from his employer in last week's Number of 

 The Journal of Hokticulture, proves how well he was 

 beloved by his personal friends, and how much ho was re- 

 spected and esteemed by his employer. 



What a lesson this teaches both to employers and era- 

 ployed ! and how forcibly does it illustrate the advantages 

 to be gained by both, when there is such a reciprocity of 

 feeling as this existing between an employer and his gar- 

 dener. What a large amount of pleasiu'o it would bring to 

 the employers of labour in all its various branches, and 

 what a degree of happiness and contentment it would bring 

 to the hearts of those whose bread is gained by the labour 

 of their bands, if this feeling of reciprocity was more widely 

 extended. On the part of the employer of labour, the 

 feeling would be one of confidence instead of suspicion 

 and mistrust, and on the part of thrso employed content, 

 happiness, and a keen appreciation of their master's worth. 

 This would lighten the burden of their daily toil, and the 

 constant wishing for the time to leave off work, thus pro- 

 longing the day, and the habit of leaving many tilings 

 undone, and doing that which is done in a careless and 

 slovenly way : this would be removed by the desire to do all 

 in their power to make a suitable return for the respect and 

 confidence reposed in them. The mind would thus be so in- 

 tent upon, and absorbed by the duties of the day, that tlu; 

 fast-fleeting time would not be noticed. Man would, there- 

 fore, return u> liis home at the cUm- of his day's toil, in the 

 happy Cf>n^f.■iousne88 of having done his duty to his employer, 

 and with the satisfaction of having omitted nothing neces- 

 sary for the attuinment of the object of his labour. 



Lot ua all, then, try to emulate the good examples set 

 before as by him who hag gone from amongst us, and by his 



worthy employer, who still lives to do justice to his late 

 servant, and to be a comfort and help to his widow and 

 fatherless children ; and let us hope he may long live, and 

 be the means of inducing many employers of labour, with 

 whom he may come in contact, to follow the example he has 

 so nobly set. 



I enclose a small sum, from myself, foreman, young men, 

 &.C., employed in the gardens at Oulton Park, for Mrs. Chitty, 

 and hope all gardeners will respond to the appeal so kindly 

 made by Mr. Webley, in behalf of Mrs. Chitty and her bereaved 

 famil}', and show that they are, as a class of men, not in- 

 sensible to the cause of the widow, and the cry of the help- 

 less. — J. Wills, Oulton Park. 



[A list of subscriptions received since our last issue will 

 be found among the advertisements on our sixth page. We 

 have more which we will acknowledge next week.] 



ME. BATEMAN AND THE CHISWICK GARDEN. 



All of us interested iu gardening must feel a high re- 

 spect for the name of the gentleman at the head of this 

 article, so well known is he as a patron of the science. In 

 botany in the path he takes he is an authority, and in gar- 

 dening with the same qualification he is to be looked up to ; 

 but an experienced general horticulturist, after his remark- 

 able speech at South Kensington, we cannot consider him. 



Alas ! that we are not likely again to see at the head of 

 the horticultural world a man like our once revered President 

 T. A. Knight. "We ne'er shall look upon his like again !" 

 I have been led into this train of thought by carefully read- 

 ing the assertions of Mr. Bateman iu his speech of February 

 14th, so very carefully reported in the " Proceedings of the 

 lioyid Horticultural Society." 



Mi. Bateman commences by saying that " Chiswick is in 

 a most efficient state," " making due allowance for the change 

 of circumstances in the horticultural world." I am most 

 willing to allow that Chiswick in its limited way of doing 

 things is in good order ; not a shadow of blame can be cast on 

 the superintendents, but, then, how poor and trifling as a 

 grand national experimental garden is everything there. 

 I am often compelled to tell my foreign friends who make 

 inquiry for our public gai-den where horticultural experi- 

 ments are carried out, that we have no such garden ; for 

 Chiswick with its small and inefficient houses, except that 

 extravagant folly, the conservatory, now a vinery, has 

 nothing in it worthy of the notice of gardeners either foreign 

 or English. 



The " changes in the horticultural world " are all changes 

 for progress, and not the mere keeping in good order an 

 effete garden. I remember in old times, some thii'ty or forty 

 years ago, the keen enjoyment 1 used to feel at Chiswick, 

 only because it was then in advance of the age — it ought to 

 be equally so now ; and when we look at the enormous sums 

 that have been squandered in the last few years by our 

 Society one cannot help feeling deep chagrin that we as 

 gardeners have nothing to show but a poor gaudy place 

 all brick and stone, and an experimental garden without 

 experiments. 



There are no "impossibilities" in the way, as stated by 

 Mr. Bateman. " The change which is taking place in the 

 aspects of horticulture" calls for a change, and a great one, 

 in our should-be national garden, so as to make it worthy 

 of the present day. T)ie changes in it ought to have ad- 

 vanced step by stop with the gardening knowledge of the 

 times, BO that at this moment we might bo able to showthe 

 whole world how much wo are iu advance of all the nations 

 ujiou earth. 



After enumerating three points in which Chiswick is emi- 

 nently useful, commencing with, " first of all an experimental 

 giirden," Mr. Bateman passes to his fourth consideration — 

 the Chiswick Shows. We all well remember their_ great 

 |io]nd.u-ity ; their decadence was not owing to " rivalry, 

 (•iiiiilation, and competition," but solely to bad management 

 —a hick of tlie suifvUer in modo—a lack of skill in arrange- 

 ment—a lack of that active superintendence which an effi- 

 cient Council ought to have given; but there seemed no 

 activiliy in it ; all was left to one or two, who were over- 

 worked, and required the guidance of good and wise men. 



