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JOUEXAL OF HOETICULTUKB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ llarch 9, 1871. 



ECribers to the Eobson Testimonial. Mr. Eobson, who seemed 

 much afiected by the kindly feeling evinced towards him by all 

 present, returned warm thanks to all, dwelling on his own un- 

 deservedness of such a mark of esteem as he had just received. 



A GiEDEXEE, ONE OF THE G05I1IIIIEE OF THE SOCIETY. 



CULTR'ATION OF THE JONQUIL— RAISING 



CONIFEE^ FROM SEED. 

 Fashiox is a great power, rnling the gardener as well as the 

 mi l l i n er. At the present time spring flowers are as mnch th3 

 rage as bedding plants were a short time ago, and it might, 

 therefore, have been expected that the Jonquil would have re- 

 sumed the place it occupied among onr floricultural forefathers ; 

 yet it is but seldom seen now-a-days in English gardens or 

 English forcing houses, and, judging from my own experience, 

 I beheve the reason to be that its proper mode of cultivation 

 is very generally unknown. After many years of failure I have 

 at last met with sueeess, and it may interest some of your 

 readers to learn how it is to be attained. 



The largest and best Jonquil bulbs, offered by seedsmen with 

 other bulbs in September and October, cannot be made to flower 

 decently in the following spring, either in-doors or out, by any 

 method I have seen tried, and my gardener has tried every- 

 thing he or I could think of. If planted in the open ground 

 they wiU produce their leaves in the following spring, and a 

 spindly flower here and there early in the summer, but if the 

 bed has been deeply dug and well manured, and the Jonquils 

 are left untouched for a couple of years to establish themselves 

 in it, they will throw up their leaves in the autumn, and when 

 they do this they will bloom profusely in the following month 

 of April, and scent the whole garden. The leaves should be- 

 some yellow in the month of June or July and die off ; roots 

 then transplanted will produce leaves and flowers in due 

 season. The leaves show sis months before the flowers, but 

 they are perfectly hardy, and remain untouched by the winter's 

 frost. 



For forcing, the larger bulbs should be potted as soon as the 

 leaves have faded, and the pots should be plunged in a cold 

 frame fill November, when the young leaves wOl be 6 or S inches 

 high. Brought into the forcing house in suecesBion they can 

 be bloomed throughout February and March. I have no doubt 

 that a similar mode of treatment would answer admirably 

 with Polyanthus Narcissus, and though I have not yet tried the 

 experiment, 1 mean to do so next' season. 



I want the advice of some one of experience in the following 

 matter. In the ease of Cedars and other large-seeded Conifers 

 the number of plants I raise, as compared with the number of 

 seeds I sow, is exceedingly small. Of course there is always a 

 certain proportion of bad seed that does not sprout at all, but 

 where the seed does germinate it seems a mere toss-up whether 

 the extension of the stem forces the rootlets or the cotyledons 

 out of the ground, while even when the cotyledons come up 

 properly they are often strangled by the hard seed shell, from 

 ■which they are unable to disengage themselves. I usually sow 

 on the surface of a prepared bed, and cover with a light 

 sprinkling of leaf mould, but I have tried deeper sowing with- 

 out any lessening of these freaks of Nature, while there was, 

 of coarse, a smaller per-centage of germination. A word from 

 the wise in this matter would be much esteemed by — A. B. C. 



ICE vTSKscs GLASS, AND OTHEE THINGS. 



Me. Peaeso?; advocates narrow glass. I am sure he is wrong. 

 This winter has been a trial, if there ever was one — fierce frost, 

 fiercer snow, fiercest wind, and yet I have not lost a single 

 pane of either the 25 inches or 20 inches wide, but several of 

 the 9 inches. The reason is evident; the wide panes spring, 

 and the freezing at the laps does no harm. Then, the snow 

 slides off the wide glass, whilst the rafters keep hold in the 

 ease of narrow panes. 



Then about leaving potted trees out of doors in winter, I do 

 not think it is a matter of any consequence, provided the soil 

 in the pots has been kept dry during the autumn, and is also 

 safe from frost. I have at present two long walls of piled 

 seedling Peaches, and they seem to be perfectly safe ; but two 

 or three strong old trees left out through neglect have been 

 cut to pieces, ripe brown two-year-old wood looking as if it had 

 been boUed. 



Then some one advises a correspondent to empty his hot- 

 water pipes frequently in order to avoid " furring." Now, if 

 there is lime in the water, the beat driTea off the carbonic acid 



ths.t held the carbonate of lime in solution, and down goes the- 

 lime, leaving the water so much purer ; therefore, in such case,. 

 as little fresh water as possible should be put into the pipes. 

 But why not say at once. Use rain water invariably for filling 

 the pipes? 



I see we are likely to have a good deal of aphis this year, for 

 in spite of thorough washing as soon as the leaves fell, and 

 again beforg starting, I have had beginnings on almost every 

 tree ; but, of course, I do not allow a day to pass without snuffing 

 out any such visitors as may appear ; last year I hardly ever 

 saw one, certainly none till they came in from the outside. — 

 Vf. EixGSLET, South Kilvington. 



Thaxks to "E.F." (page 49), and to Mr. Pearson (page 63), 

 for their excellent remarks on the subject of an evil at ail 

 times annoying to the gardener, and especially in winter. 

 The breakage of glass is never agreeable, attended as it is with 

 a considerable amount of drip, to say nothing of the trouble, 

 annoyance, and cost of repairs. 



Of the causes of glass cracking from frost, I consider " a 

 wide lap " the chief, and I think sole one. Size of pane has 

 no influence whatever on the liability to breakage by frost, the 

 breakage being entirely dependant on the capacity of the lap 

 for holding water, which in severe weather is converted into 

 ice. The greater the lap the more water wiU lodge between 

 the panes where the one overlaps the other, and the greater 

 will be the quantity of ice, and consequent liability to breakage. 

 This has never been better exemplified than in the present year. 

 We have two Peach houses glazed with 26-oz. sheet glass, in 

 panes 40 inches by 17i inches, and the lap is one-eighth to three- 

 sixteenths of an inch, in no case exceeding a quarter of an inch, 

 and not one pane has cracked ; but in some pits with the 

 panes 15 inches by 11 inches there are several panes cracked 

 from frost, because the laps are more than double the breadth 

 of those in the Peach houses. Again, in a greenhouse, with 

 panes measuring from 24 to 30 inches by 12 inches, there is 

 none cracked by frost, for the lap is as nearly as possible a 

 quarter of an inch ; but in some vineries with panes which 

 may be 12 inches by 9 inches, the breakage is very great, for 

 the laps are not less than half an inch, and some three-quarters- 

 of an inch. 



Thick glass, as Mr. Pearson says, is no safeguard, for it will 

 break just as quickly as thin, if the lap is so great that water 

 lodges in any considerable quantity. I have known quarter- 

 of-an-inch rough plate broken by frost quite as extensively as 

 15-oz. sheet glass. 



Of glass annealing I known next to nothing. It is, no 

 doubt, a very important part of glass manufacture. Some 

 glass I know is very inferior ; but is not inferior glass, pre- 

 suming it is properly annealed, more suitable for horticultural 

 purposes than the best ? For instance : Is not 3rds quality, 

 21-oz. British sheet at 4J(Z., superior to the best quality at lOd. 

 per superficial foot ? The liability of the best quality of glass 

 to scorch the foliage beneath it is said to be so great, and the 

 expense so much more, that it is rarely tried, and where it has 

 been tried it is considered disadvantageous. This being the 

 case, is it not folly to glaze with more than 3rdi quality glass ? 

 If the 3rds or 4ths qualities are so badly annealed as to be very 

 liable to crack, or must all crack, as Mr. Pearson says, would 

 it not be better, instead of using a better quality of sheet, 

 to use rough plate three-eighths or even half an inch thick, 

 which for squares containing 9 feet will not cost more per foot 

 than the best quality 26-oz. sheet? Cheap glass is, in my 

 opinion, a great evil, and especially thin glass, which I consider 

 occasions a great loss of heat. The object of all glass is the 

 retention of heat accompanied with the transmission of light 

 to the plants, fruit trees, &c., enclosed ; and the cooling of the 

 enclosed atmosphere is dependant in a greater measure than 

 many of us suppose on the thickness of the glass. Bough 

 plate three-eighths to half an inch think, I find, makes a very 

 considerable difference in the temperature as compared to a 

 house glazed with 21-cz. sheet — fully 5° in favour of the rough 

 plate, to say nothing of the more equable temperature. Thick 

 glass does not reflect nor refract more of the sun's lijiht and 

 heat than thin, but only causes its diffusion, and on that 

 account prevents scorching, which is dependant more on the 

 what we call the clearness, but in reality smoothness of the 

 surfaces of the glass, than on its mere thickness or thinness. 

 Polished plate a quarter of an inch thick will scorch quite as 

 much as the best quality of sheet glass. We have in use 

 polished plate a quarter of an inch thick, rough plate (ground 

 on one side) three- eighths and half an inch thick, rough plate 



