November 9, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETXCULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDESEK. 



353 



flowering plant. It is perfectly hardy at this place, though we 

 lift it in spring and divide it for redistribntion in other mix- 

 tures. It would remain in one place for several years like any 

 other herbaceous plant. It is essentially an amateurs' plant, 

 and is well suited for those who have limited accommodation 

 under glass for rearing the more tender flowers. Where bed- 

 ding-out, as it ia here, is looked upon more in autumn than 

 summer, the value of this Sedum is even greater than elsewhere. 

 I join Mr. Eeoord and Mr. Kobson in recommending such a 

 good and useful plant to public notice. — H. Knight, Floors 

 Gardens. 



FORCING VEGETABLES— No. 2. 



THE KIDNEY BEAN. 



This delicious vegetable may be very sueeessfnlly forced in 

 hothouses, and on hotbeds under pits and frames. In some 

 large establishments the supply is kept up all the year round 

 by following the out-door crops with those grown in pits and 

 frames, and then by succeeding crops grown in pots and boxes, 

 so that at Christmas and the New Tear dishes of it can be 

 placed upon the table. The Kidney Beau, however, is not so 

 easily forced as the Potato, although a crop may be depended 

 on when proper attention is paid to its culture. To keep 

 a regular supply of several dishes a-week during winter, con- 

 siderable space ought to be set apart for the culture of Kidney 

 Beans, and if they can be allowed a house to themselves fo 

 much the better. When cultivated among other things, as 

 very many gardeners are compelled to grow it, the Kidney 

 Bean becomes an agent for the breeding of red spider, its 

 greatest enemy, which attacks at once every other plant associ- 

 ated with it. Unwearied attention, therefore, must at all 

 times be directed to check the appearance of that great pest ; 

 and, again, the treatment necessary for the successful culture 

 of the Kidney Bean is not of such a kind that other plants 

 may be submitted to it for any length of time without injury. 



Taking first late forcing, which continues from September 

 up to Christmas, beginning when it is no longer safe to plant 

 them out-doors, the protection of a frame or pit with glass and 

 without bottom heat will answer very well for the first two or 

 three crops. In other respects the treatment given to these 

 crops is so similar to that of those out-doors, that very little 

 need be said about them, beyond reminding those who intend to 

 cultivate the Kidney Bean at this season, that it enjoys a good, 

 rich, open soil with plenty of drainage and moisture, requiring 

 at the same time a 1 the heat the svn affords at this time of 

 the year. For the crops planted in October, November, and 

 onwards, bottom heat will be needed in some form or other, 

 and I believe it has been a subject of discussion among gar- 

 deners whether it is better to provide that bottom heat by 

 making-up a hotbed of manure and planting the Beans upon 

 it, or by growing the plants in pots and placing them in some 

 highly-heated structure, such as a Pine stove. For my own 

 part I would give the preierence to pot culture both for late- 

 autnmn and early- forced crops, but circumstances will often be 

 found to limit the practice of one rule alone, and both have 

 to be tried. 



1 think there is not a doubt that for a series of sowings the 

 planting-out system would yield the most produce, and the 

 Beans would be well grown out. Pot culture, I believe, is 

 mostly practised in the winter months, being more convenient, 

 since at that time of year, as light ia deficient, they can be 

 elevated, and if heat should decline the pots are moveable. 

 The plants have a less vigorous growth, but the crop is often 

 quite as heavy as when planted out. However, if grown on the 

 planting-out system, I should advise a bottom heat of 60°, a 

 top heat of from 70° to 80°, and a so.l made up of equal pro- 

 portions of loam and manure, but not laid on the bed more 

 than 9 inches deep. Instead of planting the Beans in the bed 

 at first, they ought to be raised in pans or boxes and afterwards 

 planted out ; this checks a too-vigorous growth, and does not 

 injure the crops, but I believe it promotes an earlier maturity. 

 There is one advantage that a planted-out crop has over one 

 grown in pots— it is not so liable to the attacks of red spider 

 from having a more uninterrupted rooting space ; but, when 

 in bloom, the setting of the crop is a more difficult opera- 

 tion ; it not being possible to give the Beans a free circulation 

 of air, for, generally speaking, the places used for this sort 

 of forcing are very small and are planted closely, the usual 

 distance being 3 inches in the row, and 1 foot between each 

 row. A circulation of air through the whole, therefore, is 

 a thing to be accomplished it possible when the Beans are 

 first planted out. No water should be given them at first, and 



not much at any time until they show figns of growing, other- 

 wise whole rows of the plants will damp-off at the collar, but 

 afterwards water of the same temperature as that of the house 

 must be given in plenty, more especially after the crop is set ; 

 they should not then be allowed to become dry either at root 

 or branch. 



I believe autumn forcing of the Kidney Bean is not often 

 practised, at any rate it is not thought so much of as early 

 forcing by some. A dish of Beans for Christmas or New Tear's- 

 day is generally what gardeners are called upon to do, and to 

 that I will direct my remarks. For Christmas the Beans should 

 be planted six weeks before the time, or even more than that, 

 for while approaching the shortest day everything grows very 

 slowly. I cannot advise any better plan than that of planting 

 the Beans in pans or boxes laid in so that they do not touch 

 each other. When they are about 3 inches high, or just before 

 they begin to make a shoot from the seed leaves, they should 

 be transferred to the pets, using 12-Bized pots, and putting 

 five plants in a pot — that is, four round the sides and one in 

 the centre. The same sort of soil should be used as for those 

 planted out, only it should be warmed in the house before 

 use, and in potting should not be pressed too firm, nor should 

 the pots be filled full. My plan, and I have found it answer 

 well, is to top-drefs the Beans with rotten manure after they 

 have been staked, which should be done as soon as they are 

 started well in the pots. For this purpose I lay by all the 

 worn-out birch brooms, and every twig of birch makes an 

 excellent stake for each plant, doing without being tied if 

 placed outside of the plant; and the only thing required to be 

 attended to afterwards is plenty of light and heat — the same as 

 for those planted out. They should be kept dry overhead 

 when in bloom, but well syringed and watered at the roots, not 

 allowing them to become too dry at any time during their 

 growth. After the first crop is well established in pots the 

 second crop should be sown ; when the first crop is fit to gather 

 the second should be just coming into bloom, and other crops 

 should be coming on in proper succession. 



The sorts often grown for forcing — all good in their way, 

 such as Palmer's Forcing and Newingtcn Wonder — bear well, 

 and are of a dwarf habit, but the pods are very small. I have 

 tried most of those suitable for forcing, and have fixed upon 

 the China or Robin's Egg as the best of all. It is certainly a 

 better cropper than any other I know, and a very sure one, as 

 it is not at all delicate in constitution. 



With regard to the seed, I advise the use of that one year old 

 in preference to that grown during the present year. The 

 former is well matured and ripened by time, and, consequently, 

 does not grow so vigorously, which makes it more suitable for 

 pot culture, but the latter when sown in pans rots very much 

 instead of coming up, and the plants I find also damp off after 

 being potted much more than the others ; this, I think, is 

 purely from the want of age. For pot culture the plants 

 should be placed as near the glass as possible, and in the 

 hottest part of the house if grown among plants ; and if grown 

 in a structure by themselves, it is hardly possible to give them 

 too much heat provided it is associated with plenty of moisture 

 Thomas Eecoeb. 



THE LAMB FERN. 

 The history of the Lamb Fern (Cibotium Baromefz) is 

 curious, as affording a striking instance of how our unquestion- 

 ing forefathers accounted scarcely anything too marvellous for 

 belief, provided it came to them from the ends of the earth, 

 and of the way in which travellers' tales, in course of time, 

 came to be proverbial for the unsubstantial nature of their 

 foundations. In those days — two hundred years ago — some- 

 thing of a sensation was created in this country by the dis- 

 coveries of certain travellers in Eastern Tartary. What they 

 discovered was not a mare's nest, but whole flocks of sheep 

 growing in the plains, rooted to the ground by their four legs, 

 instead of roaming about at their own sweet will. So far they 

 were vegetables, otherwise they were clothed with the finest 

 Thibetan wool of a cream-white colour, and their mutton was 

 made up of flesh and blood, and, we may suppose, of suet, like 

 other civilised sheep. Like Sam Weller's vision, however, their 

 range of pasture being limited, except in the case of some well- 

 situated, long-necked individuals, the proportion of suet to skin 

 and bone would of necessity be but small. So long as the 

 herbage within their reach lasted they grew and fattened ; when it 

 was all done, they died and withered away. Then the Tartars 

 gathered the wool, left the carcase for the wolves, sowed another 



