March 23, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICOLTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



211 



apan bouse with the glass slipping up in grooves without laps, 

 and without putty. I have had no breakage from frost, and no 

 drip. I took into the house an architect, who was incredulous 

 on the subject, when it was raining fast with gusts of wind, 

 and he could find no drip. If the slope is too flat, there will be, 

 but if it is anything over 1 in 3, then any water which finds its 

 way between the butted joints runs down inside, and the lower 

 pane ought always to be free from the woodwork at the bottom, 

 a space of one-quarter to half an inch being left for air. This 

 adds also to the health of plants in the house, by causing a 

 constant circulation of air. Breakage is caused from the laps 

 being too wide, not from the glass being wide. The wider the 

 glass the more play it has, and it benas without breaking. I 

 have had no breakage from frost in panes set 20 inches wide, 

 even though their glass is only fourths, which Mr. Pearson con- 

 demns. I would never use glass less than 21 oz. 



I have had a very practical proof this winter of the little 

 frames described by Mr. Luckhurst. Cauliflower plants pricked 

 out under them have never been in the least injured by frost, 

 while Cabbage plants sown at the same time alongside, and not 

 pricked out but left in the seed bed after thinning, are severely 

 injured. The frames, glass included, only cost 8s. a-piece, 

 10 feet long, 2 feet wide. I have had over a bed of Violets 

 another frame, which has answered thoroughly. Some earthen- 

 ware seed pans sent me by Mr. Looker, on trial, with glass 

 over them, have also efiectually kept some cuttings of Calceo- 

 larias in the open ground with very little other protection, and 

 I think they would be very valuable for small gardens. I still, 

 however, prefer wooden frames with moveable glass, as the 

 irames can be moved from one place to another without dis- 

 placing the glass, and there is not the liability to breakage. 



Can any of your readers inform me how many spikes of bloom 

 a Medinilla magnifica now in its third year, in a 10-inch pot, 

 can carry with liberal treatment? Every shoot on the plant has 

 shown ilower-buds. I counted thirty-eight oin it. I have re- 

 moved several, but many are now showing their racemes of 

 flower, and I hardly know how many it is safe to leave. I 

 have been trying the Darwinian theory of natural selection, 

 thinking the weakest would go to the wall, but it seems to me 

 as if too many are staying on. 



I can strongly recommend Thunbergia Harrisii for winter 

 blooming in the stove, and Linum trigynum for the greenhouse. 

 The latter began to open its blooms with me in October, and 

 the last are only just over now. Thunbergia Harrisii has been 

 in bloom for three months, and I have had as many as twenty- 

 «ight fully expanded blooms at once. It has more buds on it 

 now than ever, and it seems to me to be likely to be in bloom 

 for two months more. Those of your readers who may not 

 know it can best picture it to themselves by the flowers of 

 Gloxinia Madame Schmidt, but the flowers are larger than any 

 Gloxinia I have ever seen, of a soft pale blue, with a white 

 throat, the blue something of the colour of Plumbago capensis. 

 It is striking even when only four or five blooms are expanded, 

 but when from twenty to thirty are open at once, it is one of 

 the prettiest stove climbers I know. My plant is about 3 feet 

 6 inches high, and 18 to 20 inches through, and is only a little 

 more than a year old. 



I wish Mr. Pearson would give us another chapter or two 

 on horticultural fallacies ; there are plenty which are being 

 perpetuated, and many prejudices to be overcome — as, for in- 

 stance, syringing spoiling the bloom of Grapes ; damp may do 

 so in a cold house, but I syringed some bunches of Alicante 

 hard with a hydronette every day for weeks, and never saw 

 bunches with finer bloom ; and some Prince of Wales Peach 

 trees in a pot having become dusty, I syringed them as hard as 

 I could for two or three days, when they were nearly ripe, with- 

 out ever injuring the bloom. Many persons allow their PeaShes 

 and Nectarines to be infested with red spider, fearing lest the 

 use of the syringe when the fruit is ripening, should injure the 

 bloom. If only pure soft water is used no harm will be done. — 

 C. P. Peach. 



RAISING AND PLANTING-OUT SUCCESSFULLY 

 EARLY PEAS. 

 The article at page 157 gave me great pleasure, as I have 

 had my early Peas more or less injured for several seasons by 

 rats, mice, pheasants, pigeons, or the inclemency of the weather. 

 This season I have, so far, surmounted these difiiculties by 

 adopting a similar method to that recommended by Mr. Mackel- 

 lar, differing only in a few minor points, which may be of use 

 to some who cannot procure boxes. 



On the 13th of January I had a lot of tough slightly decayed 

 sods cut about 2* feet in length and 6 inches in width, and 

 placed closely together on a vinery border where the tempera- 

 ture was about 65^. After having a sufficient quantity conveyed 

 to the vinery, I had the inverted turves raked with a sharp- 

 toothed rake to loosen and prepare the surface for the seed. 

 After the Peas were sown on the turf, I had the whole covered 

 with suitable soil and lightly pressed with a spade. In about 

 ten days the young Peas were through the soil, and when about 

 2 inches high (January 30 tb), I had them removed to a turf 

 pit, where they were kept close for a few days, and then gradu- 

 ally inured to the cold. On the loth of February I had them 

 planted on a well-prepared south border, and staked, at the 

 same time having a few twigs of Silver Fir outside the stakes 

 to protect the Peas. They now seem quite out of danger, and 

 are looking remarkably well. The variety is Dickson's First 

 and Best. I think where narrow boards can be procured, they 

 are preferable to boxes. — W. Osbokne, Fota Island, Co. Cork. 



A FLORIST'S NOTES AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. 



Maech 15th. 

 No such show of Hvacinths as we have been accustomed to 

 see ; the Society's prizes were not so liberal as in former years, 

 and the Dutch growers had not offered any this season, so, as a 

 necessary consequence, the display was by no means so great, 

 and had it not been for the very extensive collection beautifully 

 staged by Mr. William Paul, would have been very small in- 

 deed. But the quality was admirable ; it was something to see 

 Mr. Catbush, who has won his laurels so very often, thoroughly 

 and well beaten by a new competitor, Messrs. Veitch & Sons, 

 of Chelsea. Anything finer or more beautifully finished than 

 their group of eighteen I have never seen. Garibaldi was mag- 

 nificent, as were also La Grande Resemblance, Koh-i-Noor, and 

 Grand Lilas. Messrs. Cntbush had a beautifully-grown group, 

 but certainly not equal to the preceding. Macaulay was the 

 finest specimen I have ever seen of this variety, so apt often to 

 throw its head on one side ; but this was exceptionally grand. 

 The class for eighteen white Hyacinths failed, as I thought 

 it would ; in both collections were flowers which were certainly 

 not white, while I believe it would have been impossible to 

 have shown the difference between some of the varieties, so 

 exactly alike were they. Of new varieties there was nothing 

 to my mind at aU worthy of notice, though several of them 

 received first-class certificates ; why, I cannot say. It seems 

 to be somewhat absurd to " decorate " flowers which are inferior 

 to those already in cultivation, and which, moreover, pass away 

 from notice for many long years to come. My friend, Mr. 

 Douglas, came forward as an exhibitor of Hyacinths, and took 

 the place he invariably does when he essays anything, carrying 

 off the first prize. I had thought of competing, bat the trouble 

 of bringing the plants up to London would have been so great, 

 that I abandoned it, and I certainly should have been beaten. 



I believe I have already somewhere mentioned Marquise de 

 Castellane as one of the best Hybrid Perpetuals of last year ; 

 any doubt as to the correctness of such an opinion would have 

 been dissipated by the sight of a beautiful set of plants of it ex- 

 hibited by Mr. H. Bennett, Manor Farm Nursery, Salisbury. I 

 should, probably, best describe it as a pink Baronne de 

 Eothschild, a little fuller than that variety. It is very free 

 flowering, and of a capital constitution. It was amusing to 

 see growers asking one another how their stocks of it were, so 

 much did it strike every one as a variety of sterling merit. 



It can hardly be said that the Amaryllis is a florists' flower, 

 yet it was as a florist that I regarded a fine seedling exhibited by 

 Messrs. Veitch & Sons. It is called Chelsoni, a most brilliant 

 crimson, shaded with scarlet, and with petals of the very finest 

 form and substance. It received deservedly a first-class cer- 

 tificate. — D., Deal, 



Messrs. Cutbush's Show of Spring-flowering Plaots. — We 

 have again to direct attention to one of those pretty exhibitions of 

 spring-flowering plants with which Messrs. Cntbnah annually gratify 

 the visitors to the Crystal Palace. This year the arrangement is 

 different from that of previous years, less formal, and more pleasing. 

 The Hyacinths and Tnlips, which are the leading feature, are inter- 

 spersed among plants of suitable height, the whole forming a sloping 

 bank on both sides of the middle of the tables, of which there are two, 

 each 50 feet long, with a circle between them, making a neat cen're. 

 The middle of the oblong stages is occupied with a row of pyramidal 

 Ivies, Azaleas, and taller-growing subjects, and the interval between 

 these and the front ia filled up with Epacrises, Sphaea japonica. 



