Jane 6, 186S. ] 



JOUENAIi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



433 



FIGS FALLING PEEMATUEELY. 



A Fig tree, the White Caxrington, against the back wall 

 of a vinery, planted about four years, has had good crops 

 during the past three years, but the Figs, after arriving at 

 the size of a large marble, have in each year turned yeUow, 

 and eventually dropped off unmatured. The tree is confined 

 to its own border of 2 or 3 feet square, the soil being well 

 mixed with broken brick and lime rubbish, and has been 

 well watered, but aU to no purpose. The same has also 

 happened to Figs in pots. — TV. H. R. 



[It is not confinement of the roots that is the cause of the 

 Figs dropping ; stagnant moisture will do it, and dryness of 

 the soil will do it, and either will tell prejudicially most when 

 the Figs, like yours, are about half swelled. From the time 

 Figs are the size of large Peas the soil should never be dry, 

 and the moisture should never be stagnant. There are two 

 ideas more : first, the Fig tree is on the back wall of a vinery. 

 Do you give it enough light ? If not, the young fruit will 

 be apt to fall, from the immaturity of the wood last season. 

 Again : Is the tree very lusoriant ? Sometimes when that 

 is the ease the very free flow of sap throws the fruit off, and 

 ■we have in such a case helped them by cutting rings of bark 

 off the shoots one-eighth of an inch in width. We think if 

 the wood have enough light, and the roots are confined, that 

 something in the watering may be the cause. A year or two 

 ago we had a little pot half plunged in the soil, and most of 

 the fruit dropped. On examining the pot we found the 

 drainage was stopped, and the lower half of the pot was in 

 a morass. Stagnant water at any time is their abomination.] 



I which is very brilliant in colour, a large trusser, and one of 

 ' the most useful for general purposes, Mrs. John Waterer, 

 a very fine rosy crimson, Valasques, Admiration, Eegificum, 

 and Giorgione. lago is a good rosy purple, and Joseph 

 Whitworth, a new large-flowered dark purplish lake. Among 

 whites the best are Album grandiflorum, of which there are 

 many fine plants. La Vivandiere, Minnie, a free-blooming 

 blush white, with a large blotch of yellow spots, and Lady 

 Godiva. Butlerianum, white tinged with pink, is also good. 

 To the new kinds (vol. 6, page 430) — viz., Mrs. John Pena, 

 Lady EmUy Peel, Princess Mary of Cambridge, &c , have to 

 be added Sidney Herbert, a lai-ge bright carmine flower. 

 Earl of Shannon, a showy dark crimson, of great substance, 

 j Consolator, and Wan-ior, bright scarlet crimson, and Sir 

 I Robert Peel, a brilliant rosy crimson with strongly-marked 

 dark spots, besides which there are this yeai' many seed- 

 lings as yet unnamed. One of these is a veiy striking 

 variety, ha\'ing a very pale pink or white centre, edged with 

 the brightest rose. Another is very remarkable for the 

 great size of its blooms. The exhibition will continue for 

 several days, but we would advise all who intend visiting it 

 to go at once. 



GLOIRE DE DIJON EOSE OjN" A BOUESAULT 

 STOCE. 

 I PEEL it a sort of duty to report to you the very success- 

 ful result of an experiment tried upon a Gloire de Dijon 

 Rose budded on a Boursault stock, the stock being a bad 

 bloomer, although it had the advantage of a southern aspect 

 outside a lofty old greenhouse with low windows. To turn 

 it to ornament we planned many things, and at last resolved 

 to bud it and treat it like a Vine, leaving the root outside 

 and pulling the stem in. We nailed the budded branches 

 upon the end wall inside, and the very first season had 

 about seventy Roses from the middle of April on to May ; 

 but this second season the produce has been quite mar- 

 vellous. It began to bloom in the last week of April, and 

 in the course of ten days, or within the fortnight to about 

 the 12th of May, we had upwards of two hundred splendid 

 full-blown Roses from the plant. The only peculiarity in 

 the treatment besides the Vine system was the quality of 

 manure with which the roots were bountifully supplied — 

 namely, a barrowful of old stuff collected from a shed in a 

 field, the resort of horses, cows, and sheep for shelter. — An 

 Amateur Rose-gkoweb, Belgard, Tallaght, County Ouhlin. 



MR. JOHX WATEREE'S AMEEICAN PLANTS. 



The Knap Hill plants at the Regent's Park are now 

 at their best, and a maftnificent spectacle do they pre- 

 sent. An area of about 100 yards in length and the same in 

 breadth, with an undulating surface and winding walksj is 

 covered in with canvass, and planted with many hundreds 

 of Rhododendrons and Azaleas in gorgeous bloom, and espe- 

 ciaBy striking is the effect when viewed from an elevated 

 bank which commands a view of the whole. The ai-range- 

 ment too is most excellent for effect, the colours being 

 judiciously intermixed, and advantage taken of a Plane, 

 Laburnum, and some other trees which exist in the ground, 

 as well as of the foliage of the Rhododendrons themselves, 

 to relieve the brilliant rose and crimson flowers by green 

 leaves ; and yellow and orange Azaleas introduced here and 

 there serve to give a variety of form and colour which would 

 not otherwise exist. 



Among the lai-ge plants there is one of Lady Eleanor 

 Cathcart planted on a mound — a standard having a head 

 probably not less than 25 feet in cu'cumference ; of Roseum 

 elegans there is one little less in size, and many more 

 individual plants might be cited. Among scarlet and 

 crimson-flowered varieties the finest are John Waterer, 



FEEN HAEITS. 



Having been for some years much interested in the 

 management of a small Pern-house, some curious facts 

 have come under my observation which, I think, may not 

 make an uninteresting article in your Jom'ual. 



I have a plant of the KUlarney Fern (Trichomanes ra- 

 dicans), growing under a glass shade in a large porous 

 saucer, set in one not porous, with water under it, but 

 raised so that the bottom of the porous saucer does not 

 quite touch the top of the water. About it were put several 

 stones, and among them a piece of brain coral, about 3 inches 

 in diameter, which had previously been in a case with Asple- 

 nium marinum. At the top of the glass shade is a hole for 

 ventilation, through which Ferns that hang in baskets 

 above it often seed themselves. After some time the piece 

 of brain coral became covered with young vegetation, which, 

 about two years ago, developed into plants of Asplenium 

 eapillus-Yeneris, A. marinum, and A. trichomanes. They 

 grew fast, though no soil was on the coral except what 

 might accidentally have dropped into the interstices. The 

 capillus-Veneris soon became so large as to interfere with 

 the KiUarney Fern, so, last year, I moved them into a 

 smaller case by themselves, filled the bottom of it with, 

 water, and put a large piece of perfectly clean white coral 

 to stand in the middle of the water, like an island, with 

 the bit of brain coral and Ferns on the top of it. Soon a 

 slight green vegetation appeared on the lower piece of coral 

 stretching like a cobweb from point to point; the little 

 roots from the Ferns have gradually crept down to it, and 

 they have completely fastened the two pieces of coral 

 together, and are forming a soil on the lower piece, which 

 promises shortly to be covered also with plants to the level 

 of the water. It is a curious instance of Ferns forming a 

 soil for themselves unassisted by anything but nature. 



The KiUarney Fern grew very lazily for some years till 

 the spring of 1854, when some petrified moss was put into 

 the case near the roots above the soil, and immediately they 

 touched it they began to push themselves above the soO, 

 and on to the petrified moss, and grew upon it so vigorously 

 that it has completely fUled the case, and is going to be 

 moved into a larger one, when I intend putting the coral 

 and Ferns into the one it is now in, with more coral and 

 water under, but no soil, so that I can ascertain how large 

 they wiU grow on the porous substance with only moisture 

 t-o nourish them. — E. B. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING. 



The May meeting of this Society was held on the 1st inst., 

 the chair being occupied, in the absence abroad of the Pre- 

 sident, by H. T. Stainton, Esq., F.L.S., Vice-President. 



The Secretary read an article recently published by the 

 Society of Arts on a new American Silkworm, or rather on 

 the successful attempts recently made to unwind the silk 

 from the cocoons of Saturnia Polyphemus in North America, 



