September 7, 1871. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAJRDENEE. 



179 



various growers to contribute at this (autumn) season of tlie year, 

 when they can be so much more conveniently looked out and dis- 

 ;patched, such kinds as they can spare of those already sent out. To 

 further this object it was also suggested that catalogues should be 

 sent to Mr. Barron for him to mark in them the names of those kinds 

 which the Society already possesses. Mr. Barron is quite prepared to 

 carry out this suggestion with a view to making the nest season's 

 trials as complete as possible, and would be glad to receive at once 

 any varieties of the under-named flowers which are not already at 

 Chiswick. In addition to the bedding Pelargoniums, which always 

 form the principal group of trial plants, it is proposed to form also as 

 complete sets as possible of Phloxes, Pentstemons, bedding Lobelias, 

 and bedding Violas for out-door culture, and of Fuchsias for culture 

 in pots. Address, Mr. A. F. Barron, Superintendent, Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, Chiswick, W. 



GKAVEL WALKS— INSECTS— SEASONS. 



Owing to the wet summer my garden walks (Steevie says 

 they are half a mile in length — facta are sometimes figures) 

 have been very grassy and weedy. I have used boiling water 

 with vitriol and salt, and at present the weeds look dead ; at 

 any rate, the walks look well. A weedy walk looks as if the 

 owner is dead or bankrupt. It is only an experiment. 



Insects are innumerable. The ants I have killed with boil- 

 ing water and by hand. Bluebottle flies, moths, wasps, and 

 hornets I have caught in glass jars, such as pickles are sold in. 

 I use treacle, cider, and hot water. I have twenty-four jars 

 down at the base of the trees. They are full of the above 

 enemies. Had I not done this they would have ruined my 

 capital crop of Peaches and Nectarines. The trees are in fine 

 condition for another year, with plenty of triple buds. I have 

 ■out in half a good deal of foliage in order to let in sun and air. 



We shall have, I think, an early and hyperborean winter. 

 I like a hot summer, genial autumn, and hyperborean winter, 

 •Jo be followed by an early spring. — W. F. B.u)CLT;rrE. 



MEALY BUG IN A VINERY. 



About seven years since one of my vineries became infested 

 with mealy bug through the introduction of a new Grape cou- 

 'taining the eggs of this vermin. In the course of two years 

 the whole of this vinery, 110 feet by 20, had become attacked. 

 AU the common remedies with the exception of guano, lately re- 

 •commeuded by Mr. Abbey, were made use of without effect ; and 

 i believe that when once this pest has fully established itself no 

 remedy but one will eradicate it. We determined last year to 

 try this remedy — i.e., starvation. We cut down all the Vines, 

 fifteen years old, to within a few inches of the ground, taking 

 care to clean the stems. When the warm weather came the 

 eggs of the insects left in the house hatched, but soon died 

 from want of food. None have been observed since, and the 

 <lrapes this year are magnificent.- — Obsekvek. 



RUBUS DELICIOSUS. 



In a foreign catalogue I notice Kubus deliciosus. Upon re- 

 iecring to Dun, vol. ii., page 539, I find it is a native of the 

 iKocky Mountains, but he does not say a word about its fruit, 

 though I presume its specific name must have been given in 

 consequence of some real or supposed excellence. Do you 

 feuow whether any English pomologist has endorsed its Ameri- 

 can reputation ?—G. S. 



[We know nothing of this beyond the description given by 

 Don, and that it is stated in Loudon's " Encyclopsedia of Trees 

 and Shrubs " to have purple flowers, succeeded by a very deli- 

 «ions frnit, and to be a shrubby Bramble 5 or 6 feet high. — Eds.] 



COMMON SALT A SOLVENT OF SILICA. 

 Common salt is a compound of chlorine and sodium. When 

 mixed with the soil the sodium, by oxidation, becomes soda, 

 and the chlorine, by combination with hydrogen — evolved from 

 the decay of organic matter and from other sources — is con- 

 verted into hydrochloric acid, which is one of the most power- 

 ful solvents of silica known in chemistry. This hydrochloric 

 acid acting on the sand grains dissolves the silica, and insures 

 the greater percentage of this element, which analysis of the 

 ash has shown to exist in the straw of grains grown on salted, 

 sandy land, as compared with that from land with like character 

 oot manured with salt. A fine practical illustration of the 

 eolvent action of hydrochloric acid, which is obtained in im- 



mense quantities as an incidental product in the manufacture 

 of soda ash from common salt, is furnished in the preparation 

 of paper stock from East Indian cane. The cane, crushed 

 between rollers, is steeped in the acid diluted with water, by 

 which means the silicious outer coating is dissolved away. 

 A more annoying example is frequently experienced in analyses 

 in which hydrochloric acid is an agent, and in which, from the 

 solvent properties of the acid, the process is hindered and the 

 accuracy of the results made doubtful by the presence of 

 gelatinous silica. — {American Journal.) 



ANNUALS FOR AUTUMN SOWING. 



We very rarely see the cause of hardy annuals advocated in 

 our periodicals. Now and again we see a notice of one or two 

 new introductions, with a few passing comments on their 

 merits, but the tone of these comments unmistakeably shows 

 that annuals are subjects of only second-rate importance in 

 fashionable flower gardening. Their inexpensiveness, and the 

 ease with which they may be cultivated generally, have pre- 

 vented them from being so utterly neglected as hardy perennials 

 have been ; but for many years amateurs have been their chief 

 patrons, and they have received very little favour, especially in 

 the better class of gardens, from professionals generally. Now, 

 however, that there are signs of a turn in the tide in favour of 

 introducing more variety in form and colour, as well as subjects 

 likely to prove attractive on other accounts than colour simply, 

 we may fairly hope hardy annuals will come in for a fair share 

 of attention. It would be superfluous to insist on their beauty ; 

 no one that has ever seen hardy anhuals really well grown can 

 have any other opinion than that in their ranks are to be found 

 a goodly array of Flora's choicest gems. In general, light 

 graceful beauty is their characteristic ; they lack the boldness 

 and sustained brilliancy of the favourite types of bedding 

 plants ; bul this fact should be all in their favour in the view 

 of those that desire to make some reform in their flower 

 gardening. As a class they can never vie with bedding plants 

 for the purpose of massing ; a very few, perhaps, may be useful 

 in that way, in cases where it is difficult or impossible with the 

 available means to rear full complements of tender plants. 

 They are only suitable for planting in the mixed style in which 

 density of general effect must give place to individual attrac- 

 tions. They may be best employed in filling up blanks in 

 herbaceous borders, and in ornamenting the edges of beds of 

 shrubs, and some few are very beautiful rockwork plants. 

 Many of them bloom very early, and may be had in flower a few 

 weeks after sowing; and a very important group — the " Cali- 

 fornian Annuals" — by means of autumn sowings, can be 

 brought into flower so early in many of the favourable districts, 

 that they may be made available in spring flower gardening ; 

 and even in the least mild parts, if a cold frame may be de- 

 voted to them during winter, they will serve, along with other 

 hardy plants, to make beds and borders gay long before bedding 

 plants can be turned out into summer quarters. 



While the writer thinks it desirable that hardy annuals 

 generally should receive a greater amount of attention, he baa 

 personally more favour for the Californians than for those 

 other hardy annuals which, hailing from many countries 

 superior in respect of climate to our own, can only be culti- 

 vated during summer with us; and it is to this group that the 

 remainder of the present paper will be devoted. The different 

 species comprised in the group are not all natives of California, 

 but a large proportion of them are so. All submit to the same 

 general treatment, and the term Californian annuals is therefore 

 sufficiently applicable and convenient in a general sense. The 

 beauty and profusion of the flowers of many of them are re- 

 markable when they are well cultivated and attended to. The 

 names of a few of the most popular among them, such as 

 Limnanthes, Nemophila, Clarkia, Godetia, Eutoca, and W'hit- 

 lavia need only be mentioned in proof of their first-rate or- 

 namental qualities. These contain some of the most choice 

 and brilliant of hardy annuals, but they by no means mono- 

 polise the beauty of either the group to which they belocg, or 

 the whole class of hardy annuals. 



The Californians succeed best when sown in autumn in most 

 parts of the country. I have often had splendid plants from 

 self-sown stock of Limnanthes, Nemophila, Collinsia, and others 

 in bloom in April in Scotland ; and with careful attention to 

 the removal of decaying flowers along with the seed vessels 

 as they formed, they have lasted in ornamental condition till 

 July and August, when late spring-sown plants coxae in to 

 take their place, and keep up the display to the close of the 



