January 13, 1SG3. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



23 



the same. When it was fully open Dr. Heuffel was very near 

 the mark in naming it iridiQorus ; and M. Gay, in the " Bulletin 

 de Ferussac," having had it from the Banat of Hungary, and 

 probably through Dr. Heuffel or Vieiani, without a name, was 

 not bo far out either in naming it banatieus ; but Parkinson had 

 it through Constantinople, so it may have a long hilly range 

 from the Banat eastwards. 



Well, the oldest Crocus is still the most striking and the most 

 singular flower of them all, and mine possessed a most singular 

 feature which has not been mentioned by any author as far as 1 

 know. All my flowers, nine or ten, had four large spreading 

 sepals, the first true irid flower I had ever seen with so many, 

 and some had four petals, and some only the usual number — 

 three. These petals are of a deeper blue than the sepals, and 

 only about one-half their size ; they Btand apart in the centre, 

 erect and not spreading, and at a short distance look very much 

 like some Iris. Two good gardeners mistook my flowers for 

 Iris. This and the Cloth of Silver of Parkinson had both been 

 long lost until they were introduced again by Dr. Herbert, 

 and many such, as it would appear, only to be lost again after 

 his own loss to scientific gardening. 



The twelve kinds I had from the far north are all growing, 

 but none of them are autumnal or winter bloomers ; and they 

 may, probably, turn out to be merely garden seedlings, for I have 

 no names yet "for them, and I am afraid the names have been lost. 

 But the old story again. I want more kinds of Crocuses, and 

 I want no seedling Crocus but Mary Queen of Scots, which 

 Mr. W. Paul exhibited the spring before last before the Floral 

 Committee, and which I booked as so much, larger than Sir 

 AValter Scott. Any kinds of Crocus to bloom from September 

 to February I want, except speciosus, odorus, byzantinus, and 

 Imperatonius, and any kind I may obtain shall not be lost 

 again for the next generation after me ; but I would give a fair 

 price for any authentic kind of the race of autumn bloomers. 



To conclude this part of the subject I would remark, that the 

 three weeks next ensuing is the best time of the whole year to 

 pot Crocuses from the open border, so as to have them without 

 much forcing a month or six weeks earlier than they will be 

 from the open ground. If the patches or rows of Crocuses have 

 been down twelve months, or a number of years, the best part of 

 their roots is made before the middle of January, and the 

 leaves are nearly on the surface by this time, in such a mild 

 season as thiB, and it is under these conditions that all the 

 difficulties of learning to force Crocuses vanish in practice. No 

 one, therefore, need wait one day longer at trying his or her 

 maiden effort at " early forcing," a subject which is music to 

 the ears of an old gardener. So much is it so in my own instance, 

 that the fire for keeping the seedlings on the move is constantly 

 referred to as " the early forcing," while the fire to keep off the 

 frost is of little or no account. But when I was in the very full 

 ■of it, and had all sorts of bulbs and of Crocuses in forcing, I 

 never missed lifting a certain number of patches about this time 

 in addition ; and with the same treatment as with forcing 

 Asparagus I could always reckon on as early a bloom and a 

 ■better one than that from potting dried bulbs after the middle 

 or end of October. A mild, moist bottom heat was maintained, 

 and the lights were slid down all day and tilted at night ; but 

 on the window-sill this style of early forcing is almost as good 

 as any. D. Beaton. 



MELON CULTURE. 



"F. B. 71 has a greenhouse and a two-light frame, the command 

 of plenty of stable manure, a good stiff loam in his kitchen 

 garden, leaf mould, and access to road-scrapings, and he asks 

 if with, these, being quite a novice, whether he can grow Melons ; 

 and, if he can, how and where he should raise the plants. 



Our reply may be useful to many similarly placed. 



First, ro» Moderately Early Melons. — Begin now, and 

 having obtained two good cartloads of stable manure, throw it 

 together into a heap, mixing the short and the long regularly 

 together, and watering if the straw part is very dry, and beating 

 it down if there is much straw matter in it. Make the heap in 

 a square shape in preference to a cone. When finished, throw 

 a barrowload or two of long litter over it, to cause it to heat 

 sooner and more regularly. In ten days or so you will see the 

 heat steaming nicely. Remove the straw covering and lay it 

 carefully aside, and turn the whole heap over carefully, placing 

 .the top at the bottom, and the outsides in the middle, shaking 



it all regularly, and watering only with the rose of a pot where 

 the manure seems dried and parched, and cover all over again 

 with the long litter. In about the same time, less or more 

 according to the weather, turn the heap again and cover as 

 before, and most likely, in a week or so, the manure will be 

 sweet and fit for your bed. Whilst these preparations are 

 being made, take half a dozen barrowloads of your garden loam, 

 a spit below the surface would be best, and put it in any place 

 where it can be well aired and dried. Place also along with 

 it a barrowload of road-scrapings, if free from weeds and very 

 fresh leaves ; and one barrowload of well-rotted sweet leaf 

 mould. These will be quite sufficient for forming a ridge or 

 two mounds in the centre of your bed. Whilst this is going 

 on, the dung from the stables will have accumulated to a load 

 or two — say two loads. Then fix upon a Bite for your two-light 

 frame, and choose one where moisture will not accumulate, and 

 mark out a piece of ground, at least IS inches longer and 

 18 inches wider than the size of your frame. Shake on thiB the 

 long unsweetened dung from the stables, keeping the sides and 

 ends plumb or perpendicular, and then build upon that the fine 

 sweetened dung you have been preparing. If your frame is 

 rather shallow, you may make the sides in which the frame 

 stands higher than the interior of the bed by 6 to 12 inches, 

 and that will give you more room for soil, for the top of the soil 

 should not be nearer the glaBs than from 1 5 to 18 inches. The 

 soil should not be less in depth than from 15 to 18 inches. Put 

 on the frame as soon as the bed has been made. If the bed hae 

 been equally beaten it will sink equally ; but it is as well to wait 

 a few days to see, and let the heat rise nicely and regularly. 

 Then you may put in your aired soil, either as a ridge along 

 the middle of the bed, or as a mound of two or three barrow- 

 loads in the centre of each light. As soon as this soil is warm, 

 and from the clear condensed drops of water on the sash-bare 

 and the sweet smell of the bed you can reckon that all is safe, 

 you turn out your plants, either along the bed or two or three 

 in the centre of each light. These plants we are supposing that 

 you beg or borrow from some neighbouring gardener ; if not, 

 then sow as soon as the bed is up, pot-off, and plant-out as 

 above ; but thus you will lose much time. By the above mode, 

 and using the stable manure for linings when the heat declines, 

 you may have two crops of Melons from that frame before the 

 nights become very cold in the autumn. 



As soon as the roots fill the ridge or hills, the frame may be 

 partly or wholly filled with mould, using well-aired soil round 

 the hills, and the rather stiff soil of your garden trodden firm 

 for the rest, and putting no manure with it unless it is very 

 poor indeed. In the directions in late Numbers to which you 

 allude, we do not agree either in the mode of stopping detailed, 

 or in the rich soil stated to have been used. But the reasons 

 for this have been repeatedly given, and you must exercise your 

 own judgment. 



You seem anxious to do everything for your plants yourself,, 

 and therefore we may state that you may raise your own plants 

 in the greenhouse, and sow now, if you would make a small 

 wooden hot-water box for yourself — say 2 feet square and 

 18 inches deep, or, better still, 15 inches in front and 20 inches 

 at back. Fasten a tin, or plate-iron bottom across the box, 

 6 inches above the lower bottom, and on that plate place some 

 rough sand, &c, for the pots to stand upon. The six-inch 

 space below to be filled with a box, or drawer of zinc, tin, or 

 plate-iron, which you can empty or fill at pleasure. From 

 3 to 4 inches of hot water — Bay twice in the twenty-four hours, 

 would, with a covering of the glass lid at night, give plenty of 

 heat for the Melons, and interfere nothing with the plants in 

 the greenhouse, as a little more air could easily be given just 

 opposite the box. The temperature of the box should range 

 from 65° to 70°, with a rise of from 10°, 15°, or 20° in sunshine. . 



The bottom temperature of the dung-bed should average 80°, 

 the atmospheric temperature of the bed at night may range 

 from 60° to 65° ; if as much as 70° leave a little air on. In 

 favourable weather give air early in the morning, and then, if 

 the sun raises the atmospheric heat to 80° or 85°, it will be all 

 the better. Shading should not be resorted to unless in sudden 

 changes. Much has lately been said as to watering. 



A Second Mode eoe Securing one Good Crop with 

 Little Trouble. — Secure plants by the second or third week 

 in May, either by begging, buying, or raising them in the 

 greenhouse as above described, sowing the seeds in the box in 

 the first week of April. Choose an open place for the box, 

 excavate the earth some 9 inches deep, placing the earth round c 



