June 2, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE ASD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



399 



brick walls, and no doubt these walls answer well for Pears ; but 

 if I had my work to do again, the money which I Bpent on biick 

 and mortar would be laid out on glass. 



I have asked my gardener to put down on paper how he 

 manages the orchard-houses, and 1 enclose his statement. At 

 the present time all my orchard-house trees are loaded with fruit 

 — Apricots only excepted. In my judgment the only way to 

 secure a crop of Apricots in these northern parts is to have a 

 heated wall, and this I believe to be a certain way. 



I have hot-water pipes in the orchard-houses, but these are 

 only used to guard against frost, and sometimes to ripen the 

 wood in the autumn. — W. H., North Lancashire. 



[The writer of the foregoing is a clergyman of high character, 

 and the notes of his gardener are the following : — 



" The trees are repotted immediately after the fruit is gathered> 

 when all the soil is taken from the top of the pots and from the 

 sides as deep as can well be got. The pots are then filled in 

 with two-thirds of good soil and one-third of rotten manure, 

 which is generally taken from an old Mushroom-bed. The soil 

 is well beaten into the pots, and one good watering is given. 

 Nothing more is required during winter, unless the wood seems 

 to shrivel, when a little water is given. In the spring the trees 

 are dressed with sulphur, soft soap, and clay, and the syringe is 

 used twice a-day a short time before the buds begin to break. 

 The syringe is not used during blooming. Just before the trees 

 bloom the house is fumigated with tobacco-paper (and if it is 

 fumigated twice, all the better), in order to keep the aphis away. 

 Watering is a most important matter at the time of blooming. 

 Water should be given rather sparingly ; for if the soil becomes 

 saturated with wet, the buds are sure to fall. The roots are 

 confined to the pots; and after the fruit is set one heavy top- 

 dressing of good rotten manure is given. If the green By ap- 

 pears, the house must be fumigated without the loss of a day."] 



MTTSA CAVENDISHII. 



There are certainly few more really noble occupants of the 

 stove than a good plant of the Musa Cavendishii. There are 

 others of the genus of much larger growth ; but taking fruit- 

 bearing qualities and other points into consideration, this is 

 evidently the best for general purposes, and it produces as large 

 an amount of fruit as any plant I knosv of that occupies the 

 same space. 



A bunch of fruit ripened here during the past winter which 

 weighed on the whole 27 lbs. Sozs. avoirdupois, and consisted 

 of 136 fruits, which, with the exception of one or two, were 

 fully ripened and perfect. The barren end of the epike was cut 

 off long before the fruit attained maturity, and, consequently, 

 was not included in the weight named above. 



The plant grew in a small corner of the plant-stove, which is 

 much too low for it, all its leaves being broken at half their 

 length. At the time the fruit was ripe the plant was about 

 eighteen months old, it being a sucker from a plant that ripened 

 fruit in the summer of 1861. In fact, the predecessor of the 

 plant has occupied the same place with very little renovation of 

 the soil for several years. 



Perhaps some of your readers will record the weight and 

 number of fruits that have been ripened elsewhere, as the above 

 may have been exceeded. 



I may add that, although the fruit ripened in February and 

 early part of March, the flavour was good, and those who ad- 

 mire it consider it as good as any ripened in summer. This 

 certainly is not the case with other fruits, and, of course, forms 

 a recommendation of some consequence to this. — J. Bobson, 

 Linton Park. 



TETEATHECA ERIC.EFOLIA. 

 (Heath-leaved Teteatheca.) 



Hat. ord., Tremandracese. Linn., Octandria Monogynia. 

 In 1S05, Mr. Budge published in the "Linnaean Transactions" 

 a description, with drawings, of seven New Holland plants, 

 among them is Tetratheca ericasfolia. Before that description 

 was published in 1S07, Sir J. E. Smith had described and pour- 

 trayed the same species in his " Exotic Botany," t. 20. The 

 specimens in both instances had been brought from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Port Jackson. 



Living plants of this greenhouse shrub were originally intro- 

 duced in 1820, but long since lost, and it was reintroduced by 



the agency of Mr. Drummond, in 1852. It is an evergreen sub- 

 shrub, with erect branches, bearing linear heath-like leaves, which, 

 on the more perfectly developed portions of the plant grow five 

 or six in a whorl, but are sometimes scattered ; they are revolute, 

 with scabrous margins. From the axils of the leaves towards 

 the end of the branches the nodding flowers are produced, so as 



to form leafy spikes of blossom ; they consist of a calyx of four 

 ovate aeutish sepals, and a corolla of an equal number of oblong, 

 obtuse, pinkish-lilac petals ; the anthers are dark-coloured, 

 tipped with yellow, and open by a tubular orifice at the apex. 

 The flowers have a very agreeable scent, resembling that of 

 Cyclamen persicum ; and, altogether, this is a greenhouse shrub 

 deserving of extensive culture. 



SOWING SOXLE 



PEEENNIAL-ELOWEES' 

 SEEDS. 



A coeeespojtdeut asks us to state when the seeds of the 

 plants named below should be sown, in order to have strong 

 plants for bedding-out next summer — viz., Heliotropes, Tro- 

 pseolum, Gazania, Lobelia, Petunia, Cerastium tomentosuin, 

 Phlox, Cuphea, Gnaphalium, Mentha variegata, Perilla, Stachys 

 lanata, Aretotis grandiflora, and Centaurea argentea. 



Commencing with the first of them, we may say, Sow the Helio- 

 trope at once ; and when cuttings can be had from the plants, 

 propagate from the seedlings, as cutting plants flower better 

 than seedlings. Sow Gazania, Lobelia, Petunia, Cerastium, 

 Phlox Drummondii, and Cuphea, in a hotbed as early in the 

 spring as you can — say by the middle of February, and encourage 

 their growth by pricking out the young plants early into pans, 

 and subsequently into separate pots if you have room for them. 

 The Tropaeolum and Perilla need not be sown so early — say by 

 the end of May, as they grow quicker; and if you could winter 

 an old plant of Gnaphaliuni lanatum you might obtain any 

 number of cuttings in the spring, and they grow fast enough 

 A few old plants of Mint are also better than Beeds, as the latter 



