224 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 24, 1863. 



I tried white hellebore powder last summer as a remedy 

 against the gooseberry caterpillar, and found it very efficaoious. 

 As soon as 1 perceived symptoms of the marauders on a tree, I 

 lightly dusted it over with a little of the powder through a 

 muslin bag. One dressing Beemed to destroy all the caterpillars 

 in existence at the time of its application. 



N.B. — I was careful to obtain hellebore of the previous year'B 

 growth, and which had been quite recently powdered. Several 

 persons tried it at my instigation, and it was always perfectly 

 successful. — J. E. B. 



HEATING A GREENHOUSE FROM A KITCHEN 

 BOILER. 



I HATE just built a small greenhouse 9 by 6 feet. It is warmed 

 by a four- inch pipe running round three sideBand an inch pipe in 

 front. I have connected these by inch pipes with the kitchen 

 boiler about 20 feet off. The whole apparatus works properly, 

 except that I cannot get heat enough — only about 14° — and 

 that only by a most extravagant amount of firing. The boiler 

 is an ordinary kitchen boiler, with a flue underneath and at the 

 back, which, however, is of very little use, as it ie difficult to 

 clean-out. To increase the power of the boiler, a few bricks, or 

 something of the sort, may be put inside to diminish the body 

 of water in the boiler. — A Constant Reader. 



[The diminishing the body of water in the boiler will he an 

 advantage, and then enlarging the connecting-pipes a short 

 distance might be managed with one-inch pipes, but in 20 feet 

 much of the heat is lost before the house is reached. Were the 

 pipes 3 inches, or tven 2, it would be better. The pipes then 

 should be packed either in sawdust or surrounded with a trough 

 of wood and the end open into the house, bo that the heat given 

 off should have a free inlet there. If at the end near the boiler 

 there were an opening to the external air, you would have a 

 continuous supply of fresh heated air in the house. The flue at 

 the back of the boiler should be kept clean.] 



RHODODENDRON CULTURE. 



We have received the following letter from a correspondent, 

 which, being of great interest to others similarly circumstanced, 

 we insert, together with the remarks upon it by one of our 

 regular contributors ; but the subject is one which cannot be" 

 answered so ably as by those who have the good fortune to have 

 ground, either natural or artificial, so well suited to the well- 

 being of the Rhododendron as that of which our correspondent 

 His communication runs thus : — 



" I should be very glad if you, or any of your readers, could 

 give me any information on the following points with regard to 

 Rhododendrons : — The soil in the neighbourhood of my house is 

 peculiarly favourable to the growth of these plants, which, 

 indeed, sow themselves like weeds all about the place. For the 

 last two or three years I have been raising a number of hybrids 

 between some of the best-coloured of the ordinary crimson 

 varieties, between Barclayanum, for instance (of which I have a 

 magnificent specimen 20 feet high and as many through), Mrs. 

 J. Waterer, Concessum, J. Waterer, and the like, with the idea 

 of planting them in clumps along the road leading to my house. 

 They are now growing bo large and so numerous that I am 

 anxious to place some of them at once in their destined 

 positions, and with that idea to know whether, as a general 

 rule, Rhododendron hybrids turn out well. I do not mean turn 

 out new varieties, but handsome bloomers— superior, for instance, 

 to the common ponticum or catawbiense. Hardihood, I believe, 

 most of them possess. Breeding from hybrid varieties is, I am 

 aware, often condemned ; but more, I fancy, as producing weakly 

 constitutions than deterioration of bloom. Mr. Standish re- 

 marks that nearly all his Gladiolus Beedlings have produced 

 handsome flowerB. Is this the case with Rhododendrons ? 



"Two years ago I tried to produce a hybrid between Rhodo- 

 dendron javanicum and a white catawbiense variety, but failed. 



"I read last month in your pages with great interest Mr. 

 Anderson Henry's letter regarding R. Nuttalli. I have several 

 plants of that variety about 1£ foot high. How soon may they 

 be expected to blossom ? 1 fear they are not hardy, although 

 with me the Azalea indica alba thrives and blooms magnificently 

 out of doors, and as well as ever after the winter of 1860, 



" I scarcelv venture to put another question, which is this : 



Are the Rhododendrons from the Neilgherries, near Madras, of 

 the same kind as the ordinary Rhododendron arboreum from 

 the Himalayas, and are they moderately hard) ? My brother, 

 who sent me the seed BOine three years ago, was fully per- 

 suaded that they would prove hardy in favourable positions. 

 — J.N.M." 



[It is no easy matter to give advice in a case like the above, 

 where the inquirer is evidently well qualified by experience to 

 speak on many subjects himself; and favoured as he is by a 

 situation so well adapted for the .Rhododendron, and doubtless 

 many other things, it almost excites one's envy to hear of these 

 successes. However, we may say that our correspondent need 

 not be in any fear from breeding from hybrids, for he is quite 

 as likely to obtain good, ,useful, flowering varieties as if he 

 confined himself to distinct species, and in all likelihood the 

 progeny will be better than if the parents were widely dissimilar. 

 The great object to be aimed at in such matters is to avoid the 

 early-flowering ones, which rarely do well, and there are some 

 varieties shy in flowering. These had better be omitted, unless 

 they possess qualities of a kind worthy of being transmitted to 

 some other plant. In regard to making new plantations of 

 seedlings, it would in a general way be better to take them up 

 and have them in a nursery for a year or two ; but, assuming 

 this to be done, there is no reason why your bed of hybrids 

 shoidd not be planted out at once into their permanent quarters. 

 You must not expect them to flower in bo small a state as plants 

 raised from layer or grafting. Seedlings of all kinds are more 

 robust than plants from cuttings, layers, or grafting, but they will 

 flower all the stronger when they commence. Your soil must 

 be very favourable for them, and the kinds you mention are 

 good. It ia not an easy matter to decide by appearances before 

 flowering which are likely to turn out well ; but, in a general 

 way, those having small leaves like B. ponticum are rejected ; 

 while those with large and partly -reflexed foliage commonly re- 

 present the pale-coloured varieties ; those favouring the scarlet 

 breeds resembling, more or less, B. arboreum. These observa- 

 tions do not, however, hold good in every case, and it is only 

 alluded to here as being likely to do so. Practice alone enables 

 those daily amongst them to tell with tolerable certainty which 

 are likely to turn out inferior, and these are, of course, rejected. 

 Rhododendrons have, however, so much improved of late years 

 in all the large nurseries that most of the Beedlings sent out for 

 the commonest purpose, as R. ponticum, have imbibed a tinge 

 of the larger kinds and present larger and more varied hues, 

 some being really very good. 



In regard to the progeny of hybrids being delicate, there are 

 certainly many exceptions ; and, so far as I can give an opinion, 

 it is only where the dissimilarity of the parents was very great 

 that the offspring is sickly ; and it is not to be wondered at 

 that R. javanicum and B. catawbiense refused to breed, and, 

 if they had, most likely the issue would have been sickly — much 

 more so than the next generation from the said hybrid. 



A good example of this was exhibited in Fuchsia Venus 

 Victrix, the first white variety of Fuchsia Bent out. It was a 

 weak grower, but subsequent seedlings from it possessed a 

 stronger constitution, until the white ones of the present day 

 are as robust as their darker brethren. It is, therefore, an error 

 to suppose that hybrid seedlings are more delicate than their 

 forerunners. Delicacy in constitution is only attained when the 

 object aimed at by the hybridlser is the encouragement of the 

 growth of a particular part of the plant that engenders disease. 

 Thus, for instance, a variegated plant ia in general more tender 

 than a green one, and the improved vegetables of the Cabbage 

 and other tribes are much less hardy than the weeds from which 

 they originated. 



It is very much to be feared that the widely different forms 

 of the Sikkim Rhododendron will add but little to our shrub- 

 beries, excepting as objects of novelly, and many of their 

 qualities are not desirable for out-door decoration. Mr. Cox, at 

 Redleaf, has, we believe, established the hardihood of two or 

 three species, but their appearance is not inviting. We shall, 

 however, be glad to hear how you succeed with R. Nuttalli. 

 To the be6t of our recollection, R. ciliatum, Bussellianum, and 

 another were the kindB that had been out of doors at Redleaf 

 for a year or two, but they fell far short of the healthy and gay 

 appearance the older varieties possessed. It is, however, possible, 

 when then; management becomes better known, that they may 

 be turned to better account out of doors than they have yet 

 been, and in favoured situations they are certainly worth the 

 trial ; and as the Indian Azaleas do so well out of doors with 



