31G 



JOtlENAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



[ October 26, 1871. 



many place?, and whicli I have grown more or less for some 

 years ; in this instance it comes in remarkably well, being just 

 the proper height to meet the flower stems of the Sedum, 

 while in point of colour, uniformity, and, above all, durability 

 (for it lasts a great part of the winter), I almost think that it 

 requires a champion as well as Sedum Fabaria. 



I can fully confirm all Mr. Keeord states respecting the hardi- 

 ness, easy culture, adaptability to all soils, and other qualities of 

 this Sedum, the only drawback being that it is late in flowering ; 

 but the orderly appearance the plant presents before that time 

 almost entitles it to be classed amongst those grown for foliage, 

 while the promise of future bloom creates an interest well 

 worth waiting a little time to realise. To those who want very 

 large heads of bloom, I would recommend planting in spring 

 young plants struck out of doors the preceding autumn, such 

 as come up with only one or two stems to each. I will not say 

 how large the corymbs may be, for I have seen so much of 

 what I call injustice in measuring leaves and flowers that I will 

 not pretend to say how large we had some of them a short 

 lime ago. In vases and beds I prefer the smaller heads which 

 old plants throw up, more especially as they are much more 

 numerous. — J. Eoeson. 



TWELVE OF THE BEST ROSES. 



I SHALL presume " D., Deal," means twelve Eoses that 

 answer to the following description — namely, that are best for 

 exhibition and also for garden purposes, varied in colour, hardy, 

 ^ood growers, free and constant bloomers. The Eoses are 

 placed in alternations or shades of colours. Perfection de Lyon 

 is the finest show Eose of them all. I had sis plants each of 

 Perfection de Lyon and Madame Chirard, and nine plants of 

 -Edward Morren to judge from. Edward Morren had no green 

 eyes, but gave a splendid and abundant first and second series 

 without one malformed bloom. 



The following is my selection— Marechal Niel (Pradel, Jan., 

 1864), golden yellow; Pierre Netting (Portemer, 1863), deep 

 ■crimson purple; Madame Chirard (1869), pale clear rose; 

 Alfred Colomb (Lacharme, 1865), fiery red ; Perfection de Lyon 

 (Dnoher, 1868), pure rose, with silvery lilac reverse of the 

 petals ; Madame Victor Verdier (Eugene Verdicr,, 1863), rich 

 led ; William Grifiilhs (Portemer, about 1854), salmon rose ; 

 Edward Morren (Granger, 1868), light silvery cerise ; Margue- 

 rite de St. Amand (Sanaal, 1864) ; Charles Lefebvre (Lacharme, 

 1861), rich dark shaded crimson; .John Hopper (Ward. 1862), 

 ctimsonish centre, with paler edges ; Maurice Bernardin (Granger 

 or Leveqne, 1861), vermilion. Mdlle. Marie Eady (Fontaine 

 J ere, 1867), is a first-rate Eose, and I regret there is no room 

 left for it in the twelve. — W. F. Badclypfe. 



HOUSING CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



I ALWAYS find my plants do better out of doors until the 

 buds show colour than when I take them in before that time. 



I do not house my plants before the 1st of November ; I 

 never find frost interferes or injures the buds before that time, 

 as they do not bloom before the middle of November, even if 

 put in a month earlier. Heavy rains and winds are more 

 Injarious than biight days and slight frost by night, as a little 

 frost renders the plants hardy, and prevents drawing and the 

 weakening of the buds. 



Liquid manure I use very sparingly ; I depend more on a 

 good top-dresEing composed of a mixture of soot and well- 

 rotted manure, as it causes the foliage to be retained and at all 

 times supplies nourishment to the plant. — P., Boehelle, Cork. 



ADHESIVE FRUIT LABELS. 

 We have received from M. Edoaard Pynaert, of Ghent, samples 

 of his new adhesive fruit labels. It is impossible to speak too 

 highly of this ingenious and very useful contrivance of Mr. 

 Pynaert, by which fruit-growers, and especially fruit-exhibitors, 

 are furnished with a means of labelling their fruit with a 

 nomenclature at once correct and neat, which obviates the 

 necessity of those large and clumsy cards we see so ofien 

 accompanying specimens of fruits, and at the same time 

 secures immunity from those stupid and sometimes laughable 

 forms of nomenclature which are too common in our fruit ex- 

 hibitions. If we were in a humorous mood we might make 

 merry over some of the names that appeared at the late great 

 fruit show at South Eeneington. Such examples as Belljband 

 for Belle et Bonne, applied to the Apple of that name, are 



N? 34 



PASSE 

 COLMAR. 



Dec. Jan. 



N?35 

 NOUVELLE 

 FULVIE. 



Jan. 



enough to make us long for a deliverance from such a system ; 



and if fruit-exhibitors will adopt Mr. Pynaert's excellent 

 tickets they will avoid the remarks which, 

 though not uncalled for, are far from 

 complimentary. 



We give specimens of these adhesive 

 tickets, and merely remark that they are 

 on sheets, which are perforated like 

 postage stamps, and the various tickets 

 can easily be separated. Being gummed 

 on the back they are always ready for 

 use, and can be applied to the fruit with 

 all the facility of postage labels. The 

 cost of these tickets is small, only 2s. 

 a-thonsand for the general sheets, con- 

 taining an assortment of names, and 

 2s. (>d. per thousand for special sheets 



containing a single variety. Orders for England accompanied 



by postage stamps will be sent free. 

 For labelling in the fruit-room, for sending in fruit for 



dessert, or for exhibition purposes, these simple and elegant 



tickets are a real boon. They were deservedly awarded a 



special certificate at the late International Fruit Show at South 



Kensington. 



THE PRESERVATION OF ICE. 



A PRIME necessary of life in the sultry and feverish East is 

 congealed water, that most exhilarating and tonic of human 

 beverages. In old times, the Anglo-Indian exile was solely 

 dependent on the troublesome and expensive cooling prepara- 

 tions known as " freezing powders," of which saltpetre and 

 sulphate of soda were the chief components, entailing the ser- 

 vice of a special attendant called an abdar, or " water-cooler," 

 with one or more assistants. This was generally the rule in 

 the humid province of Bengal, and at the small out-stations 

 throughout the country where ice could not be manufactured 

 for want of frost, or funds. Now-a-days, our American cousins 

 with special ships supply the seaboard, and our increasing net- 

 work of railways carry up the superb blocks of Wenham Lake 

 at a selling price of Sd. to 9i. per lb., more or less, according 

 to the distance of transit. But there is a limit to all things, 

 and ice will waste so much in travelling that it could not be 

 sold at a remunerative rate, or meet with purchasers. Hence, 

 machines on a large scale have been introduced into the more 

 populous garrison towns, and do a large amount of business in 

 the very hot months. Natives, especially those of rank, have 

 taken to the luxury as a great improvement on their old luke- 

 warm element ; while in all the British hospitals Government 

 sanction a certain outlay in this highly-valued therapeutic of 

 Nature ; undoubtedly it will save life in all those irritable and 

 congested conditions of the brain and other organs, while as a 

 styptic it is (next to electricity) unequalled. Could this great 

 article of consumption be produced at a sufiioiently low cost for 

 issue as a daily ration to European soldiers, I have long ago 

 been convinced that a large amount of mortality would be 

 reduced. 



As soon as we reach the N.W. provinces and the Punjaub 

 we attain a climate with a winter and frosty nights in a long 

 continuation, the soil and air as dry as any in the whole world. 

 Here by the nocturnal radiations of heat we attain the most 

 profitable results in congelation by the exposure of shallow 

 saucers on plains strewed with straw. I remember one un- 

 commonly sharp winter at Lahore more than twenty years ago, 

 when our newly-built ice pits were crammed to the brim in ten 

 or twelve days for the long hot season's supply of the un- 

 usually large garrison. Soon after sunset congelation began, 

 and before sunrise a small army of coolies, man, woman, and 

 child, were collecting and carrying off the glistening product, 

 almost an inch thick — a most unusual circumstance, as the ice 

 so made is seldom more than half an inch to a quarter of an inch 

 in substance, and when thrown into the pits there consolidate^ 

 into masses. The cold was such in that memorable season that 

 dogs and mendicants were found dead on the exposed plains, 

 and the troops, British and native, went out to exercise at mid- 

 day, their fingers being too stifi' to cap their fire-arms at an 

 earlier hour, while oflicers and men off duty would be met in 

 the sheepskin pelisses and camel-hair robes of far Afghanistan, 

 with gloves and stockings of the latter dense material. 



The so-called "ice-houses" of Northern India are more pro- 

 perly ice wells, and I will at once explain their very economical 

 and efficient construction in these hot and dry climates, where, 

 during most of the twelve months, the earth's surface is oven- 



