December 26, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
485 
the produce tough. Good roots always force quickly in mode- 
rate heat. 
Lomatoes.—A portion of our supply for Christmas were cut 
green from plants against the open walls during October, hung 
up in a cool airy vinery, and allowed to ripen at their leisure. 
This is a cheap and good way of securing a late autumn supply 
of fruit ; but in case of failure we have several young plants 
which came into fruit in October bringing many clusters of 
fruit forward in a Pine house. Vigorous young plants when 
Kept clean fruit as well in winter as in summer. Ours never 
hhave more heat than 65° and some nights as low as 40°. 
Broccoli.—lIf ever I said anything good about Snow’s Winter 
Broccoli in the Jowrnal ef Horticulture I now beg to with- 
draw the statement. For the last two years it has not come 
in with me for two or three months after the time it was 
represented to come in. December is its time, and I have 
had it come in well at that time, hence my once favourable 
impression of it; but last year it turned in early in March. 
From many other kitchen gardeners I hear it is very shifty 
in this respect. Veitch’s Self-Protecting Broccoli is our best 
Christmas variety this year, and a capital one it is. We have 
‘been cutting it since September, and I think with a little 
scheming in having a good batch of successional plants of it 
the supply would be unbroken from September until April. I 
advise all to grow it largely for winter supply. 
Brussels Sprouts. — Another season’s experience confirms 
previous impressions that to do this crop full justice the seed 
should be sown on or before February Ist. Our best were 
sown on that date in a cold frame and planted out in their 
permanent quarters early in April. 
Celery is plentiful and fine, although planted on a heavy 
piece of ground; but when the trenches were made dung and 
loam chopped up and mixed together was placed 6 inches 
thick at the bottom of the trenches, and it has answered the 
purpose well. Although the summer was excessively dry 
water was never applied, and out of two thousand plants not 
one has “ bolted.” 
Lettuce and Endive are lifted and placed in a dark dry shed 
to blanch about a fortnight before they are wanted in the 
‘pantry. Besides blanching them this is a good plan to have 
them convenientin stormy weather. Small boxfuls of Mustard 
and Cress are sown twice a week to keep the supply going. 
It grows rapidly in a heat between 50° and 60°. The Radishes 
we are using now were sown during September in spent Melon 
and Cucumber frames. Chicory is lifted, the leaves cut off, 
six or eight roots potted in an 8-inch pot, and then set in the 
Mushroom house to make tender young leaves, which are a 
capital addition to the salad bowl. 
Cucumbers.—We have grown many varieties during 1878, 
‘but as yet we have found none to equal Telegraph. It is the 
only one we have in fruit now. 
Peas.—These and new Potatoes would have been added to 
our Christmas vegetables, but through some alterations in our 
culture we have none this season. However, they are of easy 
eulture when space can be spared to grow them. The best 
way we have tried of haying Peas now is to sow the seed like 
French Beans in 8-inch pots about the end of July, placing 
the pots in the open air and subsequently in a cold frame 
until cold weather sets in, when they may be placed in a 
cool vinery or Peach house fully exposed to sun and freely 
ventilated. Those of the Little Gem type are the best for pot 
culture, as they can be supported with small twigs like French 
Beans. Frost must never be allowed to touch them, and 
throughout they must be carefully attended in the way of 
watering. Not less than a hundred potfuls should be grown 
and as many more as possible. 
Potatoes may be grown in pots under the same conditions as 
Peas. Three or four tubers should be placedin a 12-inch pot, 
using good soil, and covering the sets about 3 inches deep. 
‘They may also be grown in frames in the same way as they 
are in spring, only when planted in July they require no 
‘bottom heat to start them ; but during October they must be 
protected from wet, and in November and December from all 
bad weather. We have planted Potatoes in March, lifted them 
in June, planted again in July, and lifted at Christmas.— 
A KITCHEN GARDENER. 
LONDON NURSERIES AT CHRISTMAS. 
Last week Mr. Luckhurst remarked on the importance of the 
resources of the garden as affording indispensable Christmas 
cheer for British homes. Of the fruit and vegetables “in season”’ 
others have written, and as to plants and flowers nowhere can 
they be seen in such variety as in the leading nurseries ; hence 
the following brief—too brief notes and observations recently 
gathered at a few of the metropolitan establishments. First may 
appropriately be noticed the head quarters of the great firm of 
Messrs. JAMES VEITCH & SONS, CHELSEA.—At this estab- 
lishment no attempt is made to arrange the various plants for 
spectacular effect, and the visitor to see all that is to be seen 
must traverse about a hundred houses and pits. He will first be 
taken to the Orchids—a collection remarkable for its excellence, 
its numbers, and its novelty, seeing that it stands alone as con- 
taining so many hybrids, which now and again startle by their 
value and beauty. A firm that can in the same year produce a 
Cattleya Veitchiana and a Calanthe Sedeni have much to be 
proud of; but it is not of the past but of the present that we will 
now refer. Many Orchids are flowering now ; perhaps the most 
really beautiful is Cattleya exoniensis, but striking by its chaste- 
ness, grotesqueness, and purity is Angrecum challianum. 
A. sesquipedale will shortly be in splendid condition, one of the 
plants having five spikes showing nineteen flowers, six flowers 
on one spike—a very unusual occurrence. Calanthes, as may 
be expected, are both numerous and fine. Odontoglossums 
Roezlii, a fine variety, andits pure white variety very chaste; 
also Alexandre, preenitens, Hallii, Insleayi, leopardinum, cirrho- 
sum, luteo-purpureum, membranaceum, Rossii majus, and Wars- 
cewiczii; Cattleya Skinneri, and the pure waxy white Skinneri 
alba; Vandas insignis, suavis, and tricolor; Cypripediums 
Schlimii, a fine variety, insigne, and insigne Maulei, Harrisianum, 
and the almost ever-flowering Sedeni. C. Laurenceanum is 
attractive by its large and richly-marked foliage apart from its 
flowers, and so also is ©. marmarophyllum. Flowering now 
also are many varieties of Lelia albida, and the larger L. a. 
Bella; also L. autumnalis and L. anceps, and the more rare 
L. acuminata. Amongst Dendrobes we noticed D. superbiens, 
D. heterocarpum, with its primrose colour and perfume, and 
D. inocharis ; and striking, although not yet in flower, are the 
splendid growths of D. crassinode, the plants being grown in 
shallow saucers. Cologyne cristata is showing fifty spikes and 
will shortly be a charming sight. Oncidiums Forbesi, very fine, 
and crispum ; Sophronites grandiflora, a brilliant mass; Vandas, 
Masdeyallia toyerensis, and Cattleya Loddigesii superba, Phali- 
mopsis grandiflora, Epidendrum dichrosmum, Pilumnea fragrans, 
and Cymbidium Mastersii also share in the aggregate display. 
In other houses several plants, beautifully variegated, of the 
useful and hardy Aspidistra lurida variegata attract notice; as 
also does a remarkable collection of Daphne indica rubra in 
4-inch pots, the plants only being a few inches high, clothed with 
green foliage and studded with fragrant flowers. Another frazrant 
plant that will shortly be in flower is Boronia megastigma, of 
which there are many hundreds in various sizes. A houseful of 
Tree Carnations in all the best varieties show how valuable these 
plants are for winter decoration. LEricas Lambertiana, hyemalis 
superba, and others are effective, not forgetting the bright scarlet 
cerinthioides coronata. Monochetum ensiferum, flowering 
freely, has been injured by the fogs; but M. sericeum multiflorum 
equally fine, is perfectly fresh. Ipomea Horsfalliz, flowering in 
small pots; Cyclamens a fine strain; Primulas single and 
double, Justicias, Eranthemums, Plumbagos, &c., are also. repre- 
sented, and early Camellias are just expanding. The plants of 
these both planted out and in tubs are splendid and will eyentu- 
ally produce a fine effect. Many other plants are necessarily 
assed. 
E Alterations and improvements are being continually made in 
this nursery, the latest and greatest being the new seed stores 
just completed to meet the ever-growing demands of this impor- 
tant department of a business, the magnitude of which few 
visitors can fully appreciate. 
Mr. BuLuL’s Nursery AT CHELSEA.—Passing through an 
avenue of lofty Tree Ferns and imposing Cycads remarkable 
for their stately and sober beauty, the visitor is conducted to 
arich display of Orchids, their colours perhaps appearing the 
more bright in contrast with the great mass of greenery of the 
plants above noticed. The Orchids are effectively grouped, 
and produce an unquestionably beautiful Christmas show. 
Most prominent by its stately growth and fine spikes of rosy 
purple flowers, many of the petals wired with white, is the 
valuable Australian Dendrobe, D. superbiens. The Bamboo- 
like growths of this Orchid, 3 to 4 feet long, bearing near their 
summits fine spikes of partially drooping flowers, command, 
and justly so, the admiration of all visitors. Several plants 
are flowering, producing a mass of nearly twenty spikes. Not 
only is this Orchid intrinsically beautiful, but it can be easily 
