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JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 17, 1871 



indeed burst into growth as freely as the others, but they have 

 not the requisite strength to produce rootlets so fast as the larger 

 Yines, and consequently, after growing a few inches in length, 

 the shoots, not being supplied with sap nearly so fast as they 

 require it, and yet being subjected to the lively temperature so 

 suitable to their stouter neighbours, grow slowly and so weakly 

 that the delicate foliage is destroyed by the first hour or two of 

 bright sunshine. Thus the Vines sustain a shock so severe 

 that they take all the season to recover from its effects. It is, 

 therefore, very certain that such weak Vines ought to have a 

 house to themselves, where they can be kept at a temperature 

 suited to their strength, so that, growing slowly at first, they 

 may pass unscathed through the critical period of the forma- 

 tion of the first young roots, and produce canes of tolerable 

 size, though altogether inferior to the more robust Vines. 



One other point in the culture of young Vines is bo important 

 that it cannot be too often reiterated — it is that those having 

 the care of them should keep themselves as thoroughly and 

 constantly acquainted with the condition and progress of the 

 roots as they do of the shoots, so that the Vines, being freely 

 supplied with water when they need it, may be kept in full 

 vigour throughout the growing season. — Editakd Luckhubst. 



DENDROBIUM CHRYSANTHUM. 



In the rich collection of Orchids at Eerniehurst, Baildon, 

 near Leeds, several plants of the above-named Dendrobium 

 are now clothed with their magnificent golden yellow flowers ; 

 but most worthy of our notice are two exceedingly sturdy 

 growths, one of which measures 4 feet in length, bearing 

 seventy flowers, the other 5 feet 6 inches, and bearing eighty 

 flowers, forming two splendid strings of bloom. This is a 

 plant which deserves more attention than it generally receives, 

 newer introductions having put it a little in the shade ; but 

 although it has been in the country for upwards of forty years, 

 it is still one of the most lovely and attractive Dendrobiums 

 ■we have. The plants referred to are rendered still more at- 

 tractive than they otherwise would be from their retaining the 

 foliage, which greatly improves the appearance of the flowers. 



Dendrobium chrysanthum is a plant of easy culture, which 

 should be in every collection. It succeeds best when grown in 

 a hanging pan or basket filled with peat and moss, good drain- 

 age being provided. It requires a moderate amount of heat 

 and moisture during the growing season, after which it may be 

 removed to a cooler house, where it will amply repay the culti- 

 vator by producing a profusion of its rich flowers. 



At Ferniehurst, in another house, there are a few pans of 

 Disa grandiflora superba in excellent condition. In one pan I 

 noticed thirteen spikes. The plants are growing close to the 

 glass, by which means the fiowers, which are bright scarlet and 

 crimson, veined with pink, are brought to perfection. There 

 are not many, I think, who meet with great success in the 

 cultivation of this lovely Orchid ; but in the Odontoglossum 

 house it seems quite at home, and better health could not be 

 attained. Close to it are some good specimens of Oucidium 

 macranthum ; on five plants I counted one hundred of its rich 

 flowers, forming quite a mass. Two or three are excellent va- 

 rieties ; one of the plants flowered some time ago, and had, I 

 was told, a spike 12 feet in length bearing forty-four flowers. 

 Of all Oncidiums yet known I think this the most lovely and 

 interesting. It was introduced into this country by Messrs. 

 Backhouse & Sons, of York. — N. G. S. 



PROTECTING FRUIT TREES. 

 Theee was an interesting article at page 29 about the pro- 

 tection of fruit trees from frost, and I can entirely endorse 

 the opinions therein expressed. My garden is unfavourably 

 situated in a county where neither soil nor climate is adapted 

 for high-class wall fruit. It is at a considerable elevation, and 

 near mountains, the mists from which give us too much mois- 

 ture, and hide the sunlight. We have very cold spring winds 

 and frosts. Pew in this neighbourhood are so adventurous as 

 to attempt Peach-growing on open walls, but owing to my 

 having a warm, well-sheltered, snug corner, I planted on the 

 south wall a Malta Peach, which had become a fine healthy 

 tree, and blossoms well yearly, but had never set a fruit. This 

 spring my gardener, seeing it covered with splendid bloom, 

 suggested, as our Cherry netting was then lying idle, that we 

 should hang a couple of the nets, so as to be double, from the 

 wall coping, which projects 4 or 5 inches, and support the double 

 thickness at a little distance from the wall on a few rough 



sticks over the tree. The netting is of a large mesh, and seemed 

 so very transparent and so slight a protection when put up that 

 I had no hope it would effect the end in view, but the event 

 proved otherwise ; for I need not tell you that the late spring, 

 from its cold and damp, was particularly unfavourable for fruit- 

 setting, but the result is that my Malta Peach tree was so 

 covered with fruit that we have been obliged to thin it heavily 

 more than once, and its present crop is, I think, thicker than 

 it strictly ought to be. — C. R. 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



I HEAR of this from all quarters, but hope that the extent of 

 the evil as yet is greatly exaggerated. It manifested its pre- 

 sence here (aear Luton) a few days ago by the withering of 

 some of the leaves when they ought to have been very green, 

 but very few of the tubers are as yet afiected. Still, I am 

 never sure of those which have been taken up and housed in a 

 seemingly clean and healthy state without a speck or flaw, as 

 in former years I have found the apparently sound Potatoes 

 have been tainted, and the taint spread in the store heap how- 

 ever dry the earth with which they were covered. The crops 

 seem to be unusually heavy, and if only a few tubers become 

 diseased the loss will not be much felt, and the price will not 

 be much raised. I have been looking for the visitation for 

 weeks after such dull showery weather, and more especially as 

 my rows were closer together than they ought to have been, 

 and often planted as intermediate crops, and therefore having 

 the least instead of the greatest amount of sun and air. 



Judging from what has come under my own observation, I 

 think there is nothing very alarming as jet, though the reports 

 that reach us rather behe such hopes. I am unable to do more 

 in the way of advice than to give a hint, and that founded on 

 two experiments in former years, and therefore too few to 

 enable one to say surely whether the result might be cause and 

 effect, or merely a fortunate coincidence. 



In almost all cases I believe that the disease first attacks the 

 stems and leaves, and it will do this all the sooner in propor- 

 tion to the vigour and luxuriance of the plant, the richness of 

 the soil, and the continued extra moisture and decreased direct 

 sunlight in the atmosphere. After plants have been slightly 

 attacked I have known them throw ofi the disease, and put 

 out fresh foliage it there was a sudden change in the weather 

 from close, moist, and dull to the breezy, bright, and warm. 

 In the majority of cases, however, when once the evil com- 

 mences it goes on less or more even as respects the tops, and 

 ere long begins to affect the roots. The great object then is 

 to limit its action on the roots, and the two cases I have re- 

 ferred to seemed to show that by removing the tops as soon as 

 they were tainted the tubers beneath suffered less. The sooner 

 this is done the better, so that the disease should not pass as 

 far down the stem as the surface of the ground. Of course 

 all action in the tops being thus taken away, the tubers will 

 grow little or nothing afterwards, but they will ripen and 

 mellow a little more after the tops are withdrawn. Late Po- 

 tatoes, where the tubers have scarcely become even waxy when 

 attacked, will scarcely ever, if even the tubers are not seized 

 with the disease, be tit for the tables of any but those who 

 delight in a waxy Potato. It is strange what different tastes 

 exist on this subject. I like a mealy Potato, not a bit of the 

 outside boiled away, and soft and mellow to the heart when 

 cooked. A friend of mine, a lady, and a good general cook too, 

 cannot bear a Potato unless it is juicy and waxy, and has what 

 she calls something of a stone at the heart or centre when 

 cooked. Now as regards removing the haulm as soon as it is 

 much affected. On a nice piece of Potatoes, seemingly as 

 much alike as possible, I let one part remain, as the tubers 

 were not ripe ; the second part I cut down close to the ground ; 

 and the third part I treated in the same way : but having some 

 quicklime and a heap of burned and charred refuse a little 

 warm, and containing a considerable quantity of ashes from 

 weeds, &c., I had a number of barrowloads mixed together, 

 and threw the mixture on the top of the stems thus cut down. 

 On taking the Potatoes up, the part left to itself had fully one- 

 fourth of the tubers diseased, and after housing and covering 

 with dry soil, charcoal refuse, &o., more than another fourth 

 turned out unfit for use. In the part cut down, one-twelfth of 

 the crop was bad, and about one-tenth of those stored went 

 wrong in the heap. Of those cut down and roughly dressed 

 with what is an enemy to all fungi, about one-thirtieth was 

 spotted with the disease, and of those stored hardly one was 

 afiected. 



