330 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



■ [ October 12, 18)S. 



any plant stove where the summer temperature ranges from 

 60° to 90°, and the winter temperature 55° to 60°. 



SCUTELLARIA MOCINIANA. 



Ik late summer and autumn few plants in the stove are more 

 attractive than this, and none are of easier culture. It is an 

 erect-stemmed herb, with deep green, lanceolate acuminate, in- 

 distinctly toothed leaves, and numerous large, erect, slightly 

 curved, tubular flowers in terminal crowded racemes of a 

 bright scarlet colour, with the inside of the lip yellow, and, 

 enduring several days, is very useful for cutting and decorative 

 purposes. The plant attains to a height of 12 to 15 inches, 

 or rather is best kept as dwarf as possible, as, like many 

 others, it is spoiled when its lower leaves are lost. To keep it 

 dwarf it requires to be kept in a light position and at a mode- 

 rate distance from the glass, though my plants are 3 or more 

 feet from it. 



Cuttings of the young growths — two joints and the growing 

 point — inserted around the sides of a 4-inch pot, three or five 

 in a pot, in early April, strike root freely in bottom heat and a 

 close, moist, shaded atmosphere, using sandy soil. When 

 rooted they may be inured to light and air by degrees and 

 withdrawn from the bottom heat, removing to the stove when 

 hardened off. When the pots are filled with roots shift into 

 6 or 7-inch pots if three in a pot, or if five to 8-inch pots, 

 draining moderately but efficiently, using a compost of turfy 

 loam three parts and one-third leaf soil, with a free admixture 

 of silver sand. They require to be well supplied with water, with 

 a moiBt but well- ventilated atmosphere, being sprinkled over- 

 head morning and evening. After the middle of June they will 

 do as well or better in a cold pit, kept of course at a stove 

 temperature by early closing, and in this position they are the 

 better if slightly shaded in the hottest part of the day in very 

 bright hot weather. The plants may be removed to the stove 

 early in September. Each shoot will give a terminal head of 

 bloom, very effective as bright scarlet flowers are in artificial 

 light. 



After flowering the plants should be kept rather dry over 

 the winter, but the dryness is to be that of an herbaceous 

 plant, and not the dryness accorded bulbs and deciduous lig- 

 neous plants, as compared with which they require to be moist. 

 In March the shoots may be cut down to two joints, and the 

 plants be kept rather dry until fresh shoots are made an inch 

 or two long, and then repottiDg and some disrooting must be 

 done, removing the old Boil, repotting in the same Bize of pot, 

 and in June transferring to a larger pot or kept in the same, 

 feeding with weak liquid manure. It requires no Btakes, being 

 stiff in growth, and yet in too much heat it grows leggy, and 

 may then require Btakes. The shoots should not be stopped, 

 at least not after May, as the flowers are produced by the 

 points of the shoots. 



Of such decorative value and so easy of culture is this plant 

 that it should be grown by everybody having a cool stove or 

 warm greenhouse, succeeding admirably in an intermediate 

 house. — G. A. 



GREASY COAT APPLE. 

 I am inclined to think that the Apple described by " J., 

 Lincolnshire," on page 298, and known by him as Transparent 

 Codlin, is identical with my Greasy Coat. I believe it is as he 

 describes, conical, and I think somewhat five-sided, but it is 

 seven years since I Baw any, so my view is rather a distant one. 

 The principal difference between us is in the colour ; I never 

 saw it flushed, but occasionally striped with red. By the way, 

 I have only seen it in Lincolnshire. If not known generally I 

 can only say it ought to be. Could not " J., Lincolnshire" 

 supply grafts at the proper season ? — J. J., Lancashire. 



HORTICULTURAL CLUB. 



Thebe was a very full meeting of the members of the Club 

 at their usual monthly dinner on Wednesday the 5th inst. 

 After dinner an interesting discussion took place on the plan 

 proposed by Mr. George F. Wilson, of adding a large number 

 of guinea subscribers to the Royal Horticultural Society when 

 the separation takes place between it and the Commissioners 

 of 1851. 



Bunches of Venn's Black Muscat and Standish's Ascot 

 Citronelle were submitted to the members. The former was 

 pronounced not to be the same as Muscat Hamburgh, as has 



been asserted ; and the latter pronounced a most delicious 

 Grap9, especially deserving of cultivation, as it can be grown 

 where the Black Hamburgh succeeds. 



Samples of Comte de Lamy, a fine but not sufficiently known 

 October Pear, were submitted, and it, too, was pronounced 

 worthy of more general cultivation, the tree being a most cer- 

 tain bearer and the fruit of delicious flavour. 



Messrs. G. F. Wilson of Heatherbank, Weybridge, F. Bell 

 of Norwich, and George Jackman of Woking, were admitted 

 members. 



MR. PEARSON'S GERANIUMS. 



In answer to " J. H." on page 298. I have not yet tried 

 Brutus or Mulberry. Mrs. W. Brown has been too coarse in 

 growth with me this year, but I think most of the plants 

 were spring-struck instead of being struck in the autumn, and 

 consequently were not well matured or pinched-back ; for one 

 great merit which properly prepared plants have over the 

 ordinary run of bedding-out plants wintered in cold frames or 

 hastily struck in the spring, is that the growth is so much 

 better ripened and matured, that instead of merely making 

 growth when first put out they immediately begin flowering, 

 and this habit of blooming once established they seldom make 

 coarse or rank growth afterwards. I have noticed also that 

 many kinds of Geraniums grow less rampant year by year. 

 The more recently a plant has been raised from seed the more 

 likely it is to run into coarse growth. But this is a digression. 



Charles Smith is a very fine crimson scarlet, and is one 

 which I was going to mention as very promising, but I had not 

 enough plants of it this year to bed it, and it seems to me to 

 be almost identical with the Rev. J. F. Atkinson, just as Edward 

 Sutton and Sir James Outram are so nearly alike that for all 

 practical purposes they might be planted in the same bed to- 

 gether. I have not very much more to add about bedding 

 plants for this year. In a trial bed of twelve sorts, planted 

 round the outside of a large oval bed, there are some which are 

 likely to be very good. Mrs. Huish is of the Lord Palmerston 

 type of colour, with very large trusseB and a free bloomer, a 

 magenta crimson with a violet tinge on the petals. Lady 

 Stanhope is somewhat of the colour of the old Trentham Rose, 

 alias Lady Middleton, but deeper, with large trusses and erect 

 growth of flower stems. This has also made a first-rate pot 

 plant, one which I exhibited when only a year and a half old, 

 having made a very fine exhibition plant. Lucy Bosworth, a 

 beautiful shade of soft pink, will do better as a pot plant than 

 in beds, where it is very good in fine weather, but will not 

 stand rain, but it is beautiful in pots. The same may be said, 

 too, of Lady Byron, another pink, a rather deeper shade. Sir 

 H. Stanhope, a fiery dark crimson (somewhat like Rev. J. F. 

 Atkinson and Charles Smith), has done very well indeed ; the 

 form of the flower and the size would quite enlist for it the 

 sympathies of the florist. The above are all of them raised 

 by the late Mr. Pearson, as indeed I may say, with but few ex- 

 ceptions, are all the best Geraniums I have now in my garden. 



Many of the more recent introductions, as John Gibbons, 

 MiBS Strachan (salmon), and many others, while preserving 

 their Nosegay type in size of trusses and profusion of flowers, 

 have all the qualities of florist flowers in shape, size, and 

 smoothness of pips, and possess the great advantage over the 

 true florist type that the petals do not drop, like those of Jean 

 Sisley and others, from hot sun. 1 noticed, especially one 

 week during the very hot weather at the commencement of 

 August, that the whole of the ground round the edge of the 

 bed of Jean Sisley was covered with petals whioh had fallen 

 from the flowers, while none hardly had fallen from the 

 Hybrid Nosegays. 



I will now conclude these remarks with again recommend- 

 ing Ageratum Countess of Stair as one of the best bedding 

 plants I have yet seen, and a great improvement upon any 

 other Ageratum; and also a Lobelia called Alpha, whioh I 

 had Bent to me on trial, and which has been exceedingly good. 

 I believe it to be a cross between Little Gem and Speciosa, 

 combining the habit of the two, making good foliage and 

 growth as well as bloom. The colour is a bright deep blue, 

 not so dark as Lustrous. — 0. P. Peach. 



GOLDEN CHAMPION GRAPE. 



This finest of all Grapes has been a puzzle ever since Mr. 

 Thomson first introduced it. I have been more fortunate than 

 others ; but this year proper precautions were not taken in 



