32 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( July 13, 1876. 



health. In another Tea Roses ranged at will, and the honse 

 was filled with very fine plants. Marechal Niel had been very 

 grand, but Mr. Selwood found, as a good maDy have done, that 

 it either blooms itself out, or else that it is a short-lived Rose. 

 I have seen so many this year of what one must write that 

 their glory is departed, that I fear it will require constant 

 renewal, and its claim to be regarded as a good out-of-doors 

 Rose is become weaker every year. Among the unusual things 

 grown in another house was Musa Cavendishii, which is grown 

 in considerable quantities for the sake of its fruit for dessert. 



Leaving the garden and its varied contents, of which one 

 can give no more than a mere outline, we were brought by Mr. 

 Selwood to the Tea House as it is called, a most perfect gem, 

 Bituated in the shrubberies ; the interior has the walls covered 

 with encaustio tiles from designs by Marks, the R.A. One 

 scene, illustrating Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man, was most 

 spirited and has been greatly admired, as it well deserves to 

 be, while horticulture finds its place in some representatives 

 of real and fancied flowers, displaying great spirit in drawing 

 and much originality in colouring. Attached to it is a small 

 kitchen with range, where the young ladies of the family pre- 

 pare the meal when they use the Tea House. It is certainly 

 one of the most charming pieces of thorough artistic work that 

 I have seen for a long time. ComiEg back through the 

 shrubberies we came on to the front of the house. Here all is 

 also in a state of transition. There are a series of terraces 

 (some five or six in number) reaching down to the river Dee, and 

 these are being altered under Mr. Selwood's superintendence. 

 They had been laid out in some of Nesfield's abominations, 

 but now for American and other plants ; and when completed, 

 in the able hands of Mr. Selwood, they will doubtless form a 

 fitting accompaniment to the grand mansion now being 

 erected. In a portion of the grounds near the house there is a 

 Gothic temple, built for the reception of a Roman altar found 

 near Chester, bearing the inscription that it had been erected 

 by the twentieth legion to the fountains and rivers. Leaving 

 the house and descending to the banks of the river we come on 

 a fine iron bridge erected over it, and near it is a small lodge, 

 which has been erected by the noble proprietor for the benefit of 

 picnic parties, who can be here supplied with all the requisites 

 for their alfresco enjoyments, and noteworthy for having a re- 

 markably fine specimen of Ceanothus growing over it. 



The engraving illustrates the Hall as it was until very 

 recently. The (Jrosvenor Gate by which the demesne is entered 

 close to the city of Chester, a copy of St. Augustine's Ally Gate 

 at Canterbury, through which I have passed many a time as a 

 boy when it was used as a skittle ground, but now happily 

 turned to nobler and better uses as a missionary college, and 

 the river house above spoken of. In a few years the visitor 

 will have much to say of Eaton Hall, for after the completion 

 of the house there is little doubt that the garden will experi- 

 ence the same outlay, and will be made worthy of the noble 

 mansion to which it is attached. I have to express my thanks 

 to Mr. Selwood for the kindness with which he showed us 

 his treasures, and to the kind friend who accompanied me, and 

 to whose good offices I owe the enjoyment of a very delighful 

 day. — D., Deal. 



SYRINGING.— No. 3. 



It is not practicable to give any generally applicable direc- 

 tions for the distribution of water by the engine or syringe to 

 the foliage of plants, but a f bw hints in reference to the matter 

 may not be unprofitable. 



In the case of vineries, and especially in regard to Vines 

 which are forced early, it is usual to sprinkle the Vines several 

 times a-day until the eyes break, and with Peach trees in 

 houses a similar practice is resorted to. This practice may 

 assiBt the eyes to throw off their seales by the Boftening influ- 

 ence of the water, but that it can or does exert any influence 

 on the flow of tho sap, on which the swelling and bursting of 

 the buds depend as well as the growth of the resulting shoots, 

 is extremely doubtful. Heat is the prime instigator of aotivity ; 

 for with cold, though we have water in the soil to its full power 

 of retention, and moisture in the atmosphere to the point of 

 saturation, growth does not take place. And that actual wet- 

 ting of the rods and spurs of Vines, the branohes, shoots, and 

 buds of Peaches, facilitates growth — a more even swelling of 

 the eyes or buds — is extremely uncertain. In fact I have tried 

 both practices— i.e., syringing overhead and omitting it, but 

 affording moisture to the roots and atmosphere, and am bound 

 to say that the results have been invariably in favour of the 



practice of non-syringing. It may make a difference when the 

 border and atmosphere has during the resting period been 

 kept dry as dust. Sprinklings may in such cases be necessary 

 to enable the shoots and branches to absorb moisture, and 

 the hardened scales or envelopes of the buds and eyes to be 

 softened so as to admit of their free expansion ; but with the 

 soil in a proper state of moisture, which Nature amply pro- 

 vides for, the necessity for repairing any errors of the resting 

 period does not arise, and beyond a few light sprinklings over- 

 head I do not consider any benefit accrues from syringing 

 after the buds or eyes commence swelling. I had this year a 

 vinery and Peach house which were not sprinkled at all , or the 

 evaporating troughs filled with water, until the blossom of the 

 Peaches was showing colour and the eyes of the Vines had 

 broken, and the result is that I shall avoid the drowning 

 practice of starting these subjects in future. In the case of 

 both Vines and Peaches atmospheric moisture is required for 

 growth, but only in the case of artificially heated structures 

 does the necessity arise for sprinklings at an early stage. Cool 

 houses when the borders are in a proper state will give out 

 sufficient moisture to maintain a suitable atmosphere for 

 Peaches until the blossom is set, and for Vines until they are 

 broken, but when leaveB are formed we must keep up a moist 

 atmosphere by sprinkling two or three times a-day — morning, 

 noon, and afternoon, wetting every available surface, and in 

 the case of Peaches syringing morning and evening, but not 

 applying water to the foliage at noon, though the house is to 

 be damped. Even in damping considerable judgment needs 

 to be exercised. If the surfaces are moist there is no use in 

 wetting, but if at all dry they should be moistened, and in the 

 case of syringing the leaves ought to be dry before they are 

 again made wet. When artificial heat is employed the evapo- 

 rating troughs ought never to be empty of water. Artificially 

 heated structures require considerably more moisture than 

 those dependant upon solar heat, except in hot weather, when 

 the difference will not be material. 



There is a difference in opinion as to whether any variation 

 ought to be made in the moisture at the time of flowering of 

 the Vines and Peaches. I do not perceive why any deviation 

 should be made. Nature makes none. It certainly is not 

 advisable to syringe Vines, for Nature would never have pro- 

 tected them with leaves above had the inflorescence required 

 wetting ; but as to Peaches the blossom is disposed so as to 

 receive descending dew and rain, and yet under glass and even 

 outdoors I have seldom noticed a case of non-setting from a 

 too-dry atmosphere, the border being in a proper state of 

 moisture. Atmospheric moisture is unquestionably necessary 

 to the maintenance in health of the blossom of the Peach and 

 flower of the Vine, an overdry atmosphere causing the drying- 

 up of the stamens and early fall of the petals. In the case of 

 Vines overdryness causes the hood (corolla) to be retained too 

 long ; the stamens from their weakness not throwing, the 

 anthers being mostly sterile or too feeble to cast the hood, and 

 united with a pale sickly small ovary and corresponding stigma. 

 Set such blossom and fruit may, but in the case of a Peaoh it 

 will not swell, and in the case of a Vine the berry will be 

 stoneless. I am not going to the extent of advocating syring- 

 ing, though that is better than a parching atmosphere, but I 

 do submit that the best set is had in Peaches with a congenial 

 well-aired atmosphere, and with Vines a moist atmosphere is 

 necessary. 



I have known instances of both Peach and Vine pollen being 

 as it were bound up by a dry atmosphere which upon the 

 application of moisture has caused its liberation. Syringing 

 in the case of a high temperature and dry atmosphere would 

 ensure the liberation of the pollen, whilst the current of air 

 produced by the passage of the water would tend to distribute 

 the pollen. Still, when a due regard is had to the maintenance 

 of a congenial atmosphere the necessity of syringing in the 

 flowering period does not arise, and, as I accept the term, syring- 

 ing is likely to be more hurtful than conduolve of fertility. 



Of the necessity of a congenial atmosphere, but at the same 

 time free from accumulation of moisture, we have abundant 

 testimony in the Melon. Let the roots be dry and cold and 

 the air parched, and the sterility of the plants will be as marked 

 as in a close moist atmosphere. Due moisture for the roots and 

 atmosphere, with free ventilation — the flowera well nourished 

 and the pollen well aired — we need not apprehend any difficulty 

 in the setting of fruit, for in a wet season we may have exube- 

 rant growth without a corresponding yield of seed, but in a 

 comparatively dry season we have moderate growth yielding 

 seed abundantly. 



