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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Augnat 10, 1876. 



duos a grand effect when they have room to develops them- 

 selves. A good loam mixed with coarse grit well broken up is 

 a good medium for them to grow in. They should be supplied 

 with water when they need it. The taller-growing kinds re- 

 quire staking to prevent the wind from beating them about, 

 for if left to themselves they soon become unsightly objects. 

 They are readily increased by seed and division after growth 

 has commenced. 



Phlomis gigantea is one of the strongest growers of the 

 family, and is a fine plant for the third or fourth row in a 

 large border. P. tuberosa is another tall-growing kind, under 

 favourable circumstances attaining the height of from 3 to 

 4 feet. P. Russelliana with its wrinkled downy leaves and 

 purple flowers is a very effective border plant. P. laciniata 

 should also have a place in our borders. Then there is 

 P. pungens, P. herba venti, P. simplex and others that might 

 be named. Perhaps the one most commonly met with is 

 Phlomis fruticosa, or as it is called, Jerusalem Sage, but it be- 

 longs to the Bhrubbery department, as does P. lanata. — Vebiias. 



AUTUMN PRUNING. 



Year by year the importance of early pruning becomes more 

 and more admitted, and the benefits resulting therefrom more 

 acknowledged when the work is skilfully done ; but still in 

 large establishments I believe there is always some pruning 

 left later than it Bhould be, and in many smaller places it is 

 not even thought about till long after it ought to be finished. 

 No one can be more thoroughly convinced than I am that not 

 a tree in the garden or orchard ought to be touched with the 

 knife a day later than Christmas, and yet with all my efforts 

 it has so far always been three weeks at least later than that 

 time before all has been finished. This season at any rats I 

 hope to have all dons by the stipulatsd tims, for certainly the 

 fruit will not interfere with us much either by being in the 

 way or taking up time in gathering, and I have already com- 

 menced operations. 



Do not 1st my readers be startled and think I am going to 

 cut all the foliage off my trees by shortening all wood back to 

 •two or three eyes. I never prune so hard a3 that even in late 

 autumn if it can be avoided, being convinced from experience, 

 although for a long time I was very stubborn about it, that the 

 most perfect fruit is produced on plants which are allowed to 

 increase in size annually to a reasonable extent. Call it the 

 extension system if you will, although I do not hold with a 

 system which would produce the greatest quantity of timber 

 in our gardens in the shortest possible time. The object is to 

 produce a fair quantity of fruit of the best possible quality. 

 Where quantity alone is considered I do not hesitate to say 

 that staudard trees produce in a given number of years the 

 most when allowed to grow without any pruning whatever, 

 and there are varieties in each class of fruits which from their 

 habit of bearing only moderate crops would also produce fruit 

 of good quality if uutouchsd with ths knife ; but as a rule the 

 best quality and the most regular cropping is to be found in 

 well-managed gardens or orchards attached to them where the 

 trees are moderately pruned. Mind, I say moderately, for I 

 believe there is more harm than good done by pruning in the 

 prsssnt day, hsnce the outcry in some quarters against pruning 

 altogether ; but if sheep-shearing were done by unskilful men 

 who took some of the skin as well as the wool off the animal's 

 back, it would not prove conclusively it was wrong practice to 

 shear sheep. 



Nothing is commoner to hear than that an orchard which is 

 left to grow its own way fruits every other year. The reason 

 is that the trees generally fruit too freely when they do bear, 

 and exhaust themselves, while at the same time the fruit pro- 

 duced is comparatively small and only of medium quality. In 

 well-managed gardens, on the other hand, we do not recognise 

 such an event as a fruitful season or an unfruitful one — I mean 

 such results do not recur regularly ; of course, if we have the 

 weather in May which properly belonged to January nothing 

 short of ample protection will insure us a crop of fruit. The 

 fruit buds were there this season, bad as the preceding sum- 

 mer was, and a sufficient number of the flowers were perfect, 

 and could have been saved by protection, as was proved by the 

 abundant crop of Peaches saved only by broad coping-boards 

 and a comploto covering of frigi domo almost every night from 

 the beginning of March to the beginning of June. I will not 

 say that it pays to grow even Peaches in this way, but as long 

 as I am expected to grow the trees on the open walls I shall 

 endeavour to have fruit on them. But to the pruning. 



Such trees as ars liable to bleed or emit gum suffer the 

 most from late pruning. Figs, Peaches, and Plums should all 

 be finished so soon as there is no more chance of ripening, 

 say by the end of November, and thinning as far as possible 

 to admit light to the permanent branches without taking off 

 too much foliage should be commenced on all fruit trees as 

 soon after midsummer as the pressure of other work will allow. 

 Do not be afraid to cut into the old wood to remove naked 

 branches or weak unfruitful spurs. Wounds never heal so 

 well or so quickly as when the tree is full of healthy partly 

 matured foliage. 



Black Currants have had all the pruning that will be neces- 

 sary for them — that is, all the weak and as much of the old 

 wood as can be spared has been cut clean away. Raspberries 

 are having all the canes which have done duty this season cut 

 clean out and the young canes thinned to about half a dozen ; 

 shortening of these will be deferred till growth has nearly 

 ceased. Pear trees on walls are having all weak spurs cut 

 close off, and the green growth of the remaining shoots pinched 

 a second time. Standard trees of all sorts will have branches 

 cut out where they are too thick or cross each other, and the 

 Bmaller trees will have ths weak useless growth removed so as 

 to admit light and air to that whicb is intended to remain, 

 thereby lessening the work for November, for unfortunately 

 that is not only the month for pruning, but also for planting 

 and clearing away leaves. — War. Tayloe. 



FLOWERS WITHIN OUR DWELLINGS. 



Flowers in the humblest apartments have a delightful effect. 

 Even luxuriously appointed saloons are rendered more enjoy- 

 abls, and their elegance is increased by a judicious introduc- 

 tion of flowers and foliage. Ths odour of the flowers, the 

 dark green leaves of some species, and the beautiful tints and 

 varied forms of others, are singularly gratifying and refreshing. 

 Plants of the commonest kindB offer lines of beauty which the 

 eye delights in following and loves to rest upon. So we must 

 have flowsrs upon our tables if they are ever so common ; even 

 a handful of Daisies, Buttercups, or a bunch of Clover, or a 

 few tesselled spikes of feathery Grasses. Have a nosegay if 

 you can morning, noon, and night, for flowsrs in the morning 

 ars especially suitable, they look like the happy waking of 

 creation ; in fact, they are always in season, and to arrange 

 them artistically i3 an elegant attainment. The growing taste 

 for cut flowers for indoor decorations, with nosegays and 

 bouquets as floral ornaments, adds greatly to the charm of 

 both public and private assemblies, for there is no ornament 

 to equal well-arranged flowers. 



A growing taste for plants and flowers is doing much for the 

 community both in town and country. Most of the principal 

 towns now have their flower marts, and the flower markets 

 ars well stocked with the choicest specimens. The principal 

 one, Covent Garden, is a glorious sight of a spring morning — 

 vanloads coming in from ths country, and vanloads going out 

 to furnish the dwellings of the metropolis. Of these flowers 

 bo tastefully spread many are tempted to take home a plant or 

 a bunch of flowers, and so the taste for flowers spreads, and 

 spreading, benefits. There is something so alluring in the way 

 in which those floral gems are arranged that they become 

 refreshing objects of admiration, and one of the moBt pleasing 

 features in the " taste of the times " is the increasing desire 

 for " flowers within our dwellings." — N. Cole. 



NOTES OF A SCOTTISH TOUR.— No. 2. 



CASTLE KENNEDY— LOUGH INCH CASTLE, THE SEAT OF THE 

 EAEL OF STAIB, WIGTONSHEBE. 



It is necessary to place these two names together for this 

 reason — Castle Kennedy is so much better known by name, 

 yet it is in ruins and has been so for many years ; while 

 Lough Inch is the modern residence, separated from Castle 

 Kennedy by the pinetum, and deriving its name from the lough 

 which lies at the foot of the hill on which it is built. Every- 

 one has heard of Castle Kennedy and its able and intslligent 

 gardsner Mr. Archibald Fowler, but few know of Lough Inch, 

 the very flue baronial rssidence of the Earl of Stair. 



Castle Kennedy, like many of the estates of other families, 

 came to the Dalrymples by marriage. It was formerly in the 

 possession of the Kennedys, whose stronghold was on an island 

 in the other lake (called the White Loch) in ths demesne, and, 

 like many of the heads of families in those semi-civilised times, 

 were a terror to their neighbours and defiers of the laws. At 



