April 6, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICDLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAitDENEE. 



251 



able. I planted my first Vine of this sort in one of my hedge 

 orchard houses. The climate was too cool, and it did not ripen, 

 but its berries and bunches were enormous. It is only within 

 these few years that its good qualities have been discovered. 

 I tasted it last autumn in the vineries of Mr. Jliller at Bishop 

 Stortford, and found it of high excellence. I have also heard 

 of it from several growers as being very large and very good, 

 like all fine Grapes it requires a little heat. — Thos. Eitees. 



WILD GERANIUMS. 



Thb wild Geraniums of England are a very interesting family 

 of plants, particularly in respect to their foliage. Such species 

 as Geranium molle, lucidum, and columbiuum, from their neat- 

 ness of growth and extreme hardiness, are well calculated for 

 winter and spring gardening. What we want in these Gera- 

 niums are decided and striking forms of variegation which will 

 come true from seed ; and these Geraniums are very prolific 

 in seeds, every one of which will vegetate. These species are 

 of the easiest cultivation ; the seeds may be sown in July or 

 August, and the seedlings pricked out where they are to remain, 

 or potted singly in small pots and repotted as they may require. 

 They are charming plants for the cold frame or greenhouse. 



Of Geranium molle I have found several very distinct varie- 

 ties, but the best is Geranium moUe aureum, It delights in a 

 rich sandy soil, and looks well during the whole of the winter 

 and spring. This plant was sent to a London nursery of note, 

 but owing to my moving here I have been unable to inquire 

 how it has been treated ; however, it is a fine edging plant 

 when managed as it ought to be. 



I have not yet discovered any variegated forms of Geranium 

 lucidam through not having met with it in any quantity in a 

 wild state. I have no doubt but numerous variegated varieties 

 might reward some careful observer in the head quarters of 

 Oeraninm lucidum. The whole family seem to me inclined to 

 sport into variegation repeatedly. I shall never forget first 

 meeting with Geranium molle aureum ; a nice little colony in 

 the middle of a pasture field in Kent, amongst a host of the 

 plain green-leaved variety, no doubt the progeny of a single 

 plant growing there the previous season. I have had six dis- 

 tinct varieties of Geranium molle, which I may call aureum, 

 albo-reticulatum, striatum, luteo-striatum, marginatum, and 

 one with a clouded or spotted foliage. Striatum only comes 

 occasionally from seeds ; the others seem to reproduce them- 

 selves freely from seeds, but by far the best of aU is G. molle 

 aureum. 



Geranium columbinum I have also had with an irregular 

 variegation, and it likewise comes occasionally true from seed. 



The only variation I have as yet noticed in the flowers of 

 Oerauium molle is a variety with white flowers. I must look 

 out for one with larger petals than usual to breed from, for I 

 find as yet I am only at the beginning of the wild Geraniums 

 of England. — "W. E., Cromwell House. 



DINNEK-TABLE DECORATION. 



The decoration of the dinner-table with beautiful plants is 

 an art now receiving increased attention. It is my lot to have 

 much of this kind of work at present. I have both on tables 

 and elsewhere in-doors a fine display of showy Tulips, Crocuses, 

 Cinerarias, Primulas, Azaleas, white Lilacs — which are very 

 useful, and of which I have had a succession in small pots since 

 about Christmas, in plants about 18 inches high and half that 

 in diameter, and in full flower — Lily of the Valley, Epaorises, 

 and Boses. Of the last I have a beautiful lot of little specimens 

 of Tea varieties in 6-inch pots, and nothing can be finer for vases 

 or most decorative purposes than their beautiful fresh foliage 

 and ever-pleasing flowers. I put these plants into a pit with a 

 little bottom heat a little more than six weeks ago, giving them 

 something like an average summer temperature, and as they 

 advanced I kept them free of green fly by fumigating as soon 

 as the insect appeared, and they have well repaid the trouble. 

 "When the larger plants were put into the different vases I 

 usually decked their surfaces with the best green moss that 

 could be gathered in the woods ; but lately I have introduced 

 with benefit into that material a lot of the smaller bulbous 

 plants in flower, such as Snowdrops, Crocuses, fee, and carrying 

 out the same plan in plant stands for the other rooms has also 

 been of advantage. Bound the edges of the stands, where we 

 could not put in a pot plant, a pot of Tulips, for instance, was 

 taken, the bulbs singled out, and these put in all round amongst 

 the damp moss. 



It is of too frequent occurrence that stands which have to be 

 filled with plants for the rooms have but very little space for 

 good-sized pots with plants in them, and under these circum- 

 stances I have at a former time frequently put in flowering 

 spikes of Tritomas, Gladiolus, and heads of Eucharis amazonica 

 in bottles of water hidden amongst the moss, so as to make the 

 best arrangement with the other things. 



In carrying out the work of decorating the dinner table in a 

 satisfactory manner it is indispensable to have a good collection 

 of growing plants to choose from. This, of course, will be 

 regulated according to the different seasons in which they are 

 required. Our last season, so to speak, began with, and has 

 continued since, the beginning cf winter. Our best plants then 

 were Weatherill's Solanums, Gesnera exoniensis and G. ma- 

 crantha, which were really beautiful. Soon after these I had 

 Azalea amcena, a flne-coloured species, and although its flowers 

 are not large, they are produced in great numbers. It is a flrst- 

 rate plant for general decoration, and forces weU. All the 

 winter we had nice pots of Iresine, which, with its transparent 

 red colour, has a beautiful effect at night. We had also a 

 collection of Ferns to choose from, though flowering plants 

 were most in demand, and the best of these we found to be the 

 common stove Maiden-hair, Adiantnm cuneatum, Nephrolepis 

 pectinata, and Lomaria gibba. As soon as the new year came 

 in I had pots of Lily of the Valley. Shortly afterwards came 

 in a host of the other spring-flowering bulbs. Towards 

 February I was using pretty little plants of bright Ehododen- 

 drons with large heads of flower, Thyrsaeanthus, Dielytras, 

 successions of LDy of the Valley, and some of the other plants 

 already named. Now we are using good-looking little plants of 

 the common Hydrangea with large heads of rosy flowers. We 

 have also in vases young specimens of fancy Pelargoniums well 

 flowered, plants of the native Primrose procured from the 

 woods, Violets lifted from the open border, and, as I always do, 

 I try to make the best of the materials around me. Much can 

 be done in this way — more than most people imagine. 



In making up glasses of cut flowers, some of which have 

 always been on our table, I have lately, in the case of some 

 of the spring-flowering bulbs, been putting in perfect speci- 

 mens — that is to say, with their leaves as well as flowers, 

 and it gives a much better appearance than when the glasses 

 are filled with flowers in the ordinary way. There is some- 

 thing in the leaves of a plant accompanying its flower which can- 

 not be well described. A Bose, for example, never looks so well 

 as when accompanied with Eose leaves. — Eobekt Mackellae. 



TWO HINTS FOR FRUIT-GROWERS. 



I A3I not a fruit-grower, have no waU, and the only thing to 

 which I can lay any pretension in the shape of fruit culture 

 is a miniature fruit garden, for which I am indebted to my 

 friend Mr. Eivers; but "nihil horticulturanum a me alienum 

 puto," which freely translated means, " I never turn up my 

 nose at anything connected with gardening," and as I generally 

 walk about with my eyes open, I occasionally light upon some- 

 thing which not only interests me but may be found useful to 

 others. 



I was the other day at Petworth, Lord Leconfield's noble seat 

 in Susses, and had a leisurely walk through the garden with 

 my good friend Mr. Jones, than whom I know not a better 

 specimen of what a thoroughly good English gardener ought to 

 be. Well, it is not much of a time to be gardenising, but in an 

 establishment like this there is always something to be seen ; 

 and I can safely say that I have never seen two such houses as 

 the early Peach and Grape house. The Peach trees are trained 

 over an arched trellis, and others are trained against the back 

 wall ; all the trees were evenly cropped with fruit about the 

 size of a pigeon's egg, and would be ready in May — not a red 

 spider to be seen, notwithstanding the vast amount of fire heat 

 required in such a winter as the past to bring trees so forward. 

 Mr. Jones attributed this result in a great measure to a plan 

 I have seen nowhere else. Hurdles were placed over the pipes 

 which run round the house, and of course underneath the Peach 

 trees which cover the trellis ; on these hurdles was laid a good 

 thick layer of short hotbed dung, and this was watered two or 

 three times a-day ; the heat from the pipes passed up through 

 it, a gentle moisture charged with ammonia was produced, and 

 as a consequence red spider could not exist. Now I do not 

 mean to say this was the sole reason of the fine appearance of 

 the trees, but I beheve it had something to do with it, and may 

 be worth recording by those who have similar work. 



In regard to out-door fruit, the protection of walls from earl 



