100 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ August S, 1876. 



met with. There is a white kind called Monarda Russelliana, 

 a very desirable plant of much less habit than the foregoing, 

 but when cared for and well established is a very attractive 

 plant, continuing in bloom for a long time. Monarda gracilis 

 is the least of the race ; its purple flowers prove attractive in 

 our borders. 



There are other kinds equally ornamental, but I fear that 

 some of them only exist on paper. They do not require the 

 attention that some of our border flowers do. They thrive in 

 ordinary garden soil, but they are the better for a little liberal 

 treatment in the way of fresh loam and well-decomposed mannre 

 when replanted, which is best done in spring when growth has 

 commenced. When the flower stems lUe they are the better 

 fnr being thinned ; they show themselves to greater advantage. 

 They are the better for being neatly staked to prevent them 

 being broken by the wind. Increased by division in the spring. 

 When in good condition they are useful for exhibition, and 

 will repay any extra labour they may entail on the cultivator. 

 — Veritas. 



TODEA SUPERBA AS A ROOM FERN. 



There is a pretty general impression that it is difficult if 

 not impossible to grow this exquisitely lovely Fern in the sit- 

 ting-room. It may interest some of your readers to know how 

 it may, by very simple means, be reared to the greatest beauty 

 — and, I am satisfied, if this were necessary or desirable, to 

 exhibition size — with much less trouble or difficulty than any 

 one of the Adiantum type. 



Four years ago our plant was a tiny seedling with a couple 

 of fronds barely an inch long, and we were warned by everyone 

 that it would be dead in a month. The first object was to 

 secure it bo far as could be done in a sitting-room constantly 

 occupied, and the greater part of the year with both gaslight 

 and fire heat — its natural conditions — a damp atmosphere, very 

 moderate light, and complete exclusion from direct sunrays. 

 With this view the thumb-pot containing it was suDk to rather 

 over its brim in a shallow seed-pan filled with live Hypnum 

 moss, and a bell-glass placed over the whole. A 3-inch one 

 was at first sufficient. We chose Hypnum in preference to 

 either sphagnum or any of the dwarf Selaginellas, in the hope 

 that it would keep always fresh and green under these con- 

 ditions — a Lupe which has been amply fulfilled. At varying 

 times — from once in ten days to once a-month according to 

 the weather — Todea and moss alike were dewed well over with 

 tepid water through a fine rose, the glass being at once re- 

 placed. 



This treatment has been ever since continued, the containing 

 vessel and the bell-glasses being enlarged as required. It now 

 more than fills a 24-inch glass, the largest I have been able to 

 procure. There are upwards of fifty fronds, from 8 to 15 inches 

 long, and 6 to 9 broad ; and were a larger glass procurable, or 

 greater size manageable, it could be easily grown to rival the 

 largest exhibition specimen. The persistence of the fronds is 

 extraordinary. Only three have ever been cut away, and these 

 were so because they had been partially scorched by the gun 

 having accidentally struck on them where they touched the 

 glass. 



Its position has always been on the floor, at a north bow- 

 window, under a large Wardian case, which to a great extent 

 shades it. In these circumstances a certain degree of blanching 

 might have been expected. On the contrary, the depth of the 

 green far surpasses all I have seen in any specimen grown in 

 the ordinary way ; the fronds are always gemmed over with 

 myriads of tiny diamonds, and their delicate transparency is 

 such that on holding a sheet of white paper behind one of 

 them its whole interior structure comes into view. Direct 

 Bunlight is never allowed to strike on it. It has only once 

 been repotted, a few months after we got it, and then only into 

 a 3-inch pot, in which it still remains. On that occasion we 

 found that nearly all the curious filmy roots had left the pot, 

 striking over its surface and rambling all through the Hypnum. 

 It has never since shown the least sign of being straitened for 

 pot room, or failing to find in the moss all the sustenance it 

 needs. The mosB, again, was supplied with no soil "whatever, 

 and has all along maintained the most vigorous health, and a 

 delicacy of beauty almost rivalling that of the Todea, apparently 

 from the slow decay of the lower portions of it. 



For two or three years it has been seeding freely ; and it is 

 not easy to give an idea, to those who have not seen it in this 

 state, how the tiny, jet-black gleaming sporangia add to the 

 beauty of the frondB. Unlike any genera I oan at present 



recall, these fertile fronds remain persistent and do not decay. 

 Last year one or two seedlings were discovered struggling up 

 through the moss, one of which was safely potted-off, and is 

 now being brought up, with every prospect of success, exactly 

 like its parent. ThiB year there is the appearance of a large 

 crop of this, though of course it is doubtful whether they will 

 not be overpowered in their first conferve-looking stage by the 

 Hypnum. 



The plant was one of a large batch of seedlings raised by 

 Mr. Patterson, Millbank, near Edinburgh. Whether it has to 

 some extent "sported," or whether one or two peculiarities 

 are due to the way in which it has been grown, I cannot say. 

 These peculiarities are, that the stipe is longer than in the 

 normal form; the fronds are more triangular in form; and 

 they are also more " fuzzy," as my daughter, whose pet it is, 

 calls it. I incline, however, to think there has been a slight 

 degree of sportiDg, as our seedling, so far as we can yet judge, 

 though under the very same treatment, approaches much more 

 closely the normal type. 



Any of your Fern-loving readers who may be induced to try 

 the experiment will, I am satisfied, find this exquisite Bpecies, 

 once started, give less trouble to grow to full beauty in fire- 

 heated, gas-lighted rooms than attends our own Lady Fern, 

 by following out this mode of culture, or Buch modification of 

 it as may occur to them. The essentia! points are — a con- 

 stantly damp atmosphere around the plant ; a considerable 

 degree of shade and careful exclusion of direct sunrays from 

 it ; and any free loose medium, such as Hypnum or other 

 dwarf moss, through which the roots may ramble. — M. (in The 

 Gardener). 



NEW EDITION. 



The Tree-Lifter, or a Neiv Method of Transplanting Forest 

 Trees By Col. George Greenwood. Third Edition. Lon- 

 don : Longmans & Co. 



We have mentioned favourably the previous editions, and it 

 is for the information of new readers that we quote the follow- 

 ing passage from the volume : — 



" Among the advantages of transplanting with ' the tree- 

 lifter ' may be reckoned its cheapness. Its simplicity is such 

 that the whole may be performed, and even siDgle-handed, by 

 a eommon day labourer. One man may plant one tree per 

 day of from 25 to 30 feet in height. To transplant trees with- 

 out the ball of earth requires great skill, care, labour, and 

 expense in tracing out the small fibres of the roots, whose 

 extreme points, with their supposed spongioles, could by no 

 delicacy of operation be retained, and which after all are 

 nearly valueless. All transplanted trees are the better for 

 being watered, but with the ball of earth thi3 is by no means 

 necessary. To transplant without the ball of earth, and not 

 to water for at least two summers, is hopeless." 



WARDIAN CASES AND FERNERIES. 



[From the Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.] 



Plant cases as we know them are classed under two heads — ■ 

 first the Wardian case, in which are grown foliage plants, 

 Ferns, &c. ; plants too large or too coarse to look well in a 

 small case. Although the first Ward's case was only a bottle, 

 in which by accident Mr. Ward discovered that plant life 

 could be sustained, from some cause or other we seem to have 

 adopted the name Fernery for cases that are covered with a 

 glass shade, in which only the more delicate or smaller varie- 

 ties of Ferns are cultivated. The schedule of this Society 

 limits the size of the Fern case to 15 inches in diameter. 



In drawing a line between the Wardian case and fernery, 

 the Flower Committee ruled out a case put up for competition 

 that was filled mostly with foliage plants, deciding that such 

 plants were not admissible to a fernery except when they 

 were of such size and character as would not interfere with the 

 general beauty and harmony of the whole, and then only in a 

 small proportion to the number of plants used. 



In this article I will endeavour to give some experience I 

 have had with cases varying in size from 4 to 15 inches in 

 diameter. 



The case may be made of tin, earthenware, or wood ; it 

 matters not which, bo long as proper regard is had to drainage. 

 This, as in Wardian cases, is of vital importance to the health- 

 ful growth of plants under the Fern shade. I say this is of 

 the first importance, as many persons who have the manage- 

 ment of ferneries U6e so little judgment in their care, that 



