JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEK. 



[ January 5, 1S71. 



varieties of Pears in this collection. These have been gradually 

 reduced, by removing those not well adapted to the climate, to 

 nearly one-third of that number, even while including some 

 of the best varieties lately added. By a careful selection of 

 these for each season an abundant dessert may be procured for 

 almost the whole year round. I shall, therefore, for the benefit 

 of amateurs or the uninitiated, give the seasons at which each 

 variety is fit for use in the following list. 



For gardens that are not too dry for dwarf or Quince-rooted 

 Pear trees, and for Apples on the Paradise stock, I would re- 

 commend these ; they occupy half the space, came immediately 

 into bearing, and the fruit will be larger and earlier than on 

 trees of a different description. 



LIST OF FEUIT TREES ADAPTED FOR CULTURE AT ELGIX. 



PEARS FOR THE WALL. 



Doyenne d'Ete, or 1 July ancl 

 Citron des Carmes J" August. 

 .Jargonelle. August and September. 

 Summer Beurre d'Aremberg. Oct. 

 Sinclair. October. 

 Beurrc Superfin. Begin, of Nov. 

 Marie Louise. Kovember. 

 Doyenne du Cornice. December. 

 Hacon's Incomparable. December. 

 AVinter Nelis. J.anuary. 

 Josephine de Malines. February. 

 Easter Beurre. March. 

 Bergamotte Esperen. March. 



Beui-re de Banco. April. rLcms foe the wall. 



Fortunee. May and June. Pdvers'a Early Favourite. July. 



Brjanston Gage. August. 

 P.eiue Claude de Bavay, Sept. 

 Coe's Golden Drop. October. 

 The following also succeed : — Blue Impemtrice. October. 



^^ .,, , , , Jetierson. September. 



Van Mons Leon le Clerc. 



Thompson's. plums foe standaeds. 



Brown Beurrc. Belgian Purple. 



Beurre Bosc. Denniston's Superb. 



Passe Cohnar. Lawson's Golden Gage. 



The following dessert Apples have lately come into bearing, 

 on Paradise stocks, and have been much appreciated : — 



DESSEET APPLES ON PAEADISE STOCES. 



PEAES FOE STANDAEDS. 



Doyenne d'Ete. August. 

 vYilliams's Bon Chretien. Sept. 

 Beurre d'Amanlis Panache. Oct. 

 Autumn Bergamot. October. 

 Beurre Superfin. November. 

 .Iston Towi^. November. 

 Muirfowl's Egg. November. 

 Beurre d'-^remberg. Dec. and Jan. 

 Forelle. January. 

 Doyenne Defais. January. 

 Beun'e de Ranee. March. 

 Beurre Giffard. September. 



Irish Peach. August. 



Kerry Pippin. September. 



Margil. October. 



Pitmaston Pine Apple. October. 



Co.x:'s Orange Pippin. November. 



Blenheim Orange- Nov. and Dec. 



Sam Young. December. 



Ribston Pippin. Janltary. 

 Melon Apple. January. 

 Screveton Golden Pippin. Feb. 

 Duke of Devonshire. March. 

 Lodgemore Nonpareil. April. 

 Reinette du Canada. May. 

 Allen's Everlasting. June. 



All sorts of large kitchen Apples bear abundantly.- — J. 

 McCdlloch, Gardener, Diiffm, near Elgin, N.B. 



P.S. — For the present 1 withhold any report upon Peaches, 

 Apricots, Nectarines, or Cherries, all of which we grow suc- 

 cessfully. 



[You will oblige us by sending your other notes. We covet 

 all records of the results of practice. — Eds.] 



EARLY-FLOWERING PERSIAN CYCLAMEN 

 SEEDLINGS. 



As yon have invited your readers to detail their mode of 

 growing the Persian Cyclamen so as to flower early, I have 

 been induced to give my experience relative thereto. Having 

 procured a packet of seed early in the spring of the present 

 year, and having made up in readiness a hotbed of fermenting 

 materials, I sowed the seed on March Sih, and kept the young 

 plants growing in their seed pan until the middle of April, 

 when I had them potted off singly in thumb pots. I plunged 

 them in the same frame as before, and towards the end of May 

 I gave them a shift into 4 inch pots. The compost I used in 

 potting was a mixture of peat soil, a little loam, leaf mould, 

 and cow dung. They were forthwith taken to the stove, placed 

 on a shelf near the glass, and always kept pretty moist, being 

 well watered about once a-week with weak liquid manure made 

 from pigeon dung. They grew remarkably fast — so much so, 

 that from their size I thought I would require to give them a 

 larger shift ; however, I did not do this, thinking that they 

 would flower earlier if left in the same pots than they were 

 likely to do had they been shifted. To my delight and aston- 

 ishment I observed the first flowers showing in the first week 

 of September, and they came generally into flower by the end 

 of October. — Hdgh Kobe, The Gardens, Grangcmuir. 



I sowed a packet of Cyclamen persicnm seed on March 3rd, 

 1870, and some of the earlier plants bloomed in October. I 

 have now corms about 2 inches in diameter with many flowers 



fully out, and with from twenty to thirty more buds to come 

 out. Of cjurse these are the most forward and best amongst 

 the seedlings. The seeds were sown in pans in a lorcing pit. 

 I pricked out the seedlings as soon as they had two leaves, 

 and constantly repotted them, some being now in 36-pots. As 

 soon as the heat seemed to draw them they were moved into a 

 cooler place, and some have been put back for a week or so into 

 the forcing pit to bring on the flowers. I cannot quite decide 

 whether the corms do best covered with soil or entirely raised 

 above it. 



The seedlings had no special soil, excepting a good aflowance 

 of silver sand and plenty of drainage. The great point is that 

 they have never been forgotten for a day. Some of my corms 

 showed bloom when very small. — A Lady Amateue. 



Although we have not plants like Mr. Clarke's " fit for 

 exhibition," we have a few dozen plants in 5-inch pots, many 

 of them in bloom, and all showing abundance of flower buds, 

 from seed sown at the beginning of last March. The corms 

 are from 1 to It inch in diameter, each supporting erect about 

 thirty fioely variegated leaves varying from 2 to 4 inches across. 



The seed was sown during the first week of March in small 

 seed pans, well dr.ained, and filled to within an inch of the top 

 with a mixture of loam and leaf mould, with a little silver sand ; 

 the soil patted down to keep the seed at the desired dupth, and 

 watered through a fine rose ; then the seeds were sown as quickly 

 as possible, and finally covered with about an eighth of an inch 

 of silver sand. If sowing is performed quiskly the moisture 

 will penetrate through the sand and render another watering 

 (which is very liable to wash the seed bare) unnecessary. 



The pans were then placed in the stove with a pane of glass 

 over them, and a piece of white paper laid loosely over the 

 glass for shading. They were frequently examined, and when 

 found dry were gently dipped in the tank, so that sufiicient 

 water should flow over the rim to moisten the whole surface. 



The glass was gradually raised as the seedlings touched it, 

 and when they had formed two leaves they were carefully 

 pricked off 3 inches apart in boxes drained and filled with the 

 following compost — dried cow dung two parts, leaf mould one 

 part, turfy loam one part, and a little silver sand. The cow 

 dung is collected from a pasture after it has been well baked iu 

 the sun. It is a good plan after it has been sifted to water it 

 with boiling water, which kills a great number of vermin liable 

 to be injurious to the plants. The loam is used quite dry, and 

 rubbed through a half-inch sieve. 



The boxes were next placed in a low span-roofed house, where 

 Camellias and other plants were making their growth. The 

 young plants were allowed to remain in the boxes for about 

 two months, when they were lifted with balls and lightly potted 

 in 60-sized pots, with the same compost, which I may here 

 mention is used with good results for all our Cyclamens. They 

 were then plunged in bottom heat iu the same house, and re- 

 potted, as the roots reached the sides of the pots, in 4-inch, 

 and finally in 5-inch pots, always returning them to their 

 quarters iu the bottom heat as quickly as possible. — J. Beaith- 

 WAiTE, Tlte Gardens, Verulam. 



PRIZES FOR TENDER PLANTS. 



We Lave a village show, a very healthy baby two years old, 

 and growing fast ; we want to offer .-ElO for six stove plants, 

 open to the world it we can get any competition. Our idea is 

 to have an annual £10 prize — viz., £5, .£3, and £2, for first, 

 second, and third prizes for a varying article. This year we 

 say six stove plants ; but some suggested it should be for stove 

 and greenhouse, others think that the six should be stove only, 

 not mixed with greenhouse plants — they might come in their 

 turn in future years. How say you ? 



Is the £10 better divided into three prizes or given all iu 

 one ? We have three good growers near here, but we must 

 induce strangers to compete. How can we best do so ? — C. E. 

 Ellison, Bracchridije, Lincoln. 



[It is quite certain that you will do wisely to divide the .-£li) 

 into three prizes as you propose, and we recommend them to bo 

 offered for " Six stove and greenhouse plants. N.B. — Either 

 six stove or six greenhouse plants, or a combination, not more 

 than six altogether, of stove and greenhouse plants, may be 

 exhibited in this class." — Ens.] 



Intense Cold. — It may be interesting to some to know how 

 vre faro at Prestwich with the frost. Commencing with Decern- 



