September 14, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



199 



■the better, my Pelargoniums began to grow rapidly and com- 

 pletely covered the beds. During the last six or eight weeks 

 they bave produced a mass of colour so brilliant and un- 

 interrupted as to attract notice from all who have seen them. 

 J have not to record a single failure. 



A few simple facts may thus be deduced from the foregoing 

 statement. 1, The smallest possible amount of care has been 

 bestowed upon them. 2, Early planting is favourable to 

 de:velopment of bloom. 3, The stinted space allowed to each 

 plant during Its early life does not deteriorate its after-existence. 



There were from twelve to fifteen Geraniums in a pot when 

 planted out. The soil here is light, bat poor, and at an eleva- 

 ■tion of about 430 feet above the sea level ; the severity of 

 spring frosts is thus much mitigated. 



I have only now to state the varieties in the beds, which con- 

 tain from twenty to thirty plants each. It will be seen that 

 ■they are well-known kinds, and would be considered as " oTd 

 sorts." Arranging them in the order of merit as regards 

 abundance of bloom, they will stand thus. 



First. — Stella, Amy Hogg, Indian Yellow, Glow-worm. 



Second. — Cybister, Tom Thumb (or a dwarf variety from it), 

 Mrs. W. Paul, Trentham Rose, Magenta. 



Third (interior and apparently unsuitable for bedding). — 

 Madame Vaucher, Lord Palmerston, the former a delicate white, 

 the latter remarkable for its large trusses. 



The Rose season here has been abnormal ; many choice and 

 liavourite kinds have failed to show their usual beauty. The 

 number of deformed and imperfect flowers has been greatly in 

 excess of any previous season in remembrance. Would some 

 of our Rose friends kindly send their experience for the sake of 

 .comparing notes ? I shall be happy to furnish my little quota, 

 — A. H. Kent, 



AMMONIA YEKsus RED SPIDER AND MEALY 

 BUG. 



In one of Mr. Abbey's papers in a recent number of the 

 -Journal he records some valuable experience in keeping at bay 

 that little insect, but great pest, the red spider. My own ex- 

 perience of impregnating the air with ammonia exactly coin- 

 cides with Mr. Abbey's. It is in my opinion the most simple, 

 safe, and effectual means which can be adopted for keeping the 

 ■ioliage in the vinery free of this insidious pest. In damping 

 and closing the vineries in the afternoon I always use guano 

 water. I employ no other preventives, as sulphur, &c., good 

 •though they may be, and while I never syringe the Vines at 

 any time or under any circumstances, I feel quite certain a 

 single red spider has not ventured under the roof and lived for 

 the past half dozen yeiis 



Besides the ammonia being a natural and effectual antidote 

 to spider life, it has another value, as being an element of food 

 for the Vines, which seem to luxuriate in its presence and by 

 its influence. la the vinery is an Arnott stove, almost the 

 only means of heating, and the evaporating-pan contains a 

 strong solution of guano, and the foliage above and around 

 this stove is always the finest by the extra dose of ammonia 

 provided. The leaves are not much larger, but are stouter and 

 more robust, and show by their healthy aspect how much they 

 «njoy their atmospheric food. 



A much stronger volume of ammonia is necessary to kill 

 mealy bug than is required for red spider, and it must be 

 stronger still to kill thrips. I have tried this by placing in- 

 'iested plants on an inverted pot in the evaporating-pan, and 

 noting results. There need be no fear of using guano in this 

 way in the vinery in a liberal manner. I have many times 

 mixed a pound in the evaporating-pan when the water was 

 quite hot, and seen nothing but good result from it 



The air of the house when it is so used is quite pungent, yet 

 by no means disagreeably fo. In an atmosphere of this kind 

 I am satisfied that spider could not exist, and mealy bug and 

 thrips would turn up their noses in disgust. I am careful not 

 to use it nearly so strong when the Grapes are setting and for 

 some time afterwards, although even at this time I never 

 entirely withhold the use of guano. When stoning is effected 

 I use it freely, and have never yet seen any injurious results or 

 signs of such arise from it. I only regret that I cannot employ 

 it so freely in the plant stove, or I believe I should have no 

 mealy bug nor thrips to trouble me. Begonias, Ciladiums, 

 and free-growing plants of this kind relish ammonia highly, 

 but some other things, notably Ferns, may easily be overdosed. 

 J tried it in a house containing several Ferns, hut finding they 

 did not approve of it relinquished the practice. I am not so 



sanguine as to suppose that the mere removal of the Ferns for 

 a single night, and giving the rest of the plants a strong dosr 

 of ammonia, would have been satisfactorily effective. I prefee 

 a steady continued use of guano over a long period to keep 

 the pests at bay. The removal of Ferns, too, in spring is 

 in many places no easy matter, from the simple reason o£ 

 having nowhere to remove them to. In such places it is the 

 other plants which must be removed and separately picked 

 and doctored. 



All sorts of panaceas are now offered for mealy-bug exter- 

 mination, and one would think, when we read of their wonderful 

 efficacy, that it was a gardener's fault if he allowed such an 

 insect to remain on the premises. All these preparations may 

 be good in their way, but it is a question of watching, and 

 picking, and catching, work and perseverance to eradicate the 

 ubiquitous and tenacious nuisance. But it is well known that 

 many gardeners really have not time to examine and turn up 

 every leaf, and peer into the numerous axils, and pick out 

 separately. To such, a rainy day is a true friend. I recollect 

 calling one day on a sadly overworked gardener, a most able 

 and estimable man. It was a dripping day in summer. All 

 his infested stove plants were out of doors, and had been there 

 for three days. Slost of them, he told me, would have three 

 days more, and there would be little bug left. The rain, or the 

 air, or the rather cold nights caused the bug to quite disappear. 

 Turning a plant out of doors for a week under such circum- 

 stances has certainly a wonderfully good effect in destroying the 

 insect, and the plants receive little or no sensible injury in 

 other ways by the change, providing they are under a watchful 

 eye and properly tended. " Mealy bug cannot withstand 

 water," Mr. Abbey says. A rainy day is proof of the correct- 

 ness of his remark. No water is so effectual as the water from 

 the clouds, and no syringe can equal the steady continued dis- 

 tribution of the showers, either in checking the mealy bug or in 

 nourishing ^he plants. — J. W. 



[In support of the statements relative to ammonia being a 

 vanquisher of red spider, we recently were informed by A. A. 

 GroU, Eeq., Roehampton, that the ammoniacal liquor of the 

 gas works placed in saucers where red spider occurs overcomes 

 the pest. That liquor emits fumes of cyanate of ammonia, an 

 effective poison. — Eds.] 



WHAT IS A HARDY FERN? 

 At the summer show of the Preston Floral Society, a prize 

 was given for twelve hardy Ferns. I competed for it, and I 

 staged amongst the number — Onychium japonicum, Lastrea 

 intermedia, Gyrtomium falcatum, Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, 

 and Pteris scaberuia. Imagine my surprise, when the judging 

 was over and I obtained admission, to find my twelve dis- 

 qualified, a card being affixed to my plant of Pteris soaberula, 

 on which was written by Mr. Petch, the Judge, " not hardy." 

 Now, I believe that my name as a most enthusiastic devotee to 

 all Ferns is well known. I carried off first honours at Notting- 

 ham this year for twelve exotic Ferns, for twelve Adiantums, 

 and I was second for six hardy exotic Ferns, among which was 

 the identical pan of Pteris scaberuia which fell into disgrace at 

 Preston. If it was properly disqualified, Onychium japonicum, 

 the Lastrea, and Gyrtomium should have shared the same fate. 

 They were spared. I shall feel much obliged if you will admit 

 these few lines into your Journal, and at the same time give 

 your views on the subject. Mr. Fetch's judging was from first 

 to last really faultless, and it gave the greatest satisfaction to 

 everybody, an occurrence by no means usual. — T. M. Shutile- 



WOKTH. 



[We believe Mr. Petch was right. Pteris scaberuia is in- 

 cluded among " stove and greenhouse Ferns " in all catalogues, 

 and the good authority we relied upon when preparing our 

 " Fern Manual," not only stated it to be a greenhouse Fern 

 but added, " It should be grown near the glass in the green- 

 house, but by no means exposed to cutting draughts of air." 

 Have you ever succeeded in wintering it without protection ? 

 Any plant that will not usually endure our winters without pro- 

 tection in considerable portions of the British Islands, we do 

 not consider entitled to be -classed as hardy. — Eds.] 



Cinchona Culture at Reunion, Bouebon. — A paper com- 

 municated to the Academy of Sciences, and recently published 

 in the " Comptes Rendus," gives an account of the progress o£ 

 Cinchona culture in the French colony of Reunion. The first 

 seeds were introduced in the island in 1866, at the suggestion 



