100 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ August 11, 1870. 



in vases on a terrace, or as a pot plant for hall decoration. All 

 who have large gardens and extensive grounds should try it 

 next season. — Q. Q. 



THE POTATO CROP. 



This season has been a very peculiar one for the Potato 

 crop in this neighbourhood (Hawkhurst) ; the severe drought 

 caused a premature ripening of the tubers, especially in the 

 second early, general, and late crops. Here we had no rain to 

 speak of for fully four months, but last week heavy showers 

 fell, which improved the condition of everything except the 

 Potatoes. These are growing and supertuberating at an 

 alarming- rate. Acting npon the experience gained the year 

 before last, when the Potatoes I left in the ground proved 

 ■worthless for eating after having grown again, I have now 

 decided on taking up all those sorts that have tubers of an 

 average size, for, although the crop is small, I feei convinced 

 that it is better to secure what I have than to run the risk of 

 spoiling the present crop for the uncertain chance of obtaining 

 a better one. I would advise others whose Potatoes are going 

 in a similar way to take them up, because I acted on the same 

 plan last year and the year before and did well. 



But, perhaps, some will Eay that such Potatoes, if taken up, 

 will not keep well. I admit that sometimes they will not keep 

 so well as a fuUy-ripened Potato, but if a little additional care 

 be bestowed upon them there will not be much to complain of 

 in that respect. I say, Do not be in a hurry to finally store 

 them, but do all that is possible to encourage ripening by keep- 

 ing them spread thinly in a dry airy shed, from which strong 

 light is excluded ; then their tendency to grow will be checked, 

 ripening will go on, and when they are finally stored in heaps 

 they- will not be so likely to heat or sweat, which would be sure 

 to induce decay. My opinion is, that all Potatoes should be 

 planted early ; even the late sorts should be planted early or 

 very late indeed. My plan is to plant for early crops as soon 

 after January as the state of the soil will allow, but I like to 

 have the late sorts in by the first week in March. — Thohas 

 Eecokd, Lillesden. 



ONIONS AT OKEFORD FITZPAINE. 



The "Wlnte Spanish are small. The Underground Onions 

 also are not their usual size. The Portugal Onions are fine 

 and still growing. The seed was sent by Messrs. Barr and 

 Sugden, as received from Her Majesty's Consul at Oporto, Mr. 

 Crawford. It was Bown in pans, and kept during the winter 

 in my vinery. The Onions were planted out in February, over 



cow dung sunk in the winter. They are not yet full grown ; 

 the largest two are respectively Hi and 11 inches in circum- 

 ference. Between the plants runners of Dr. Hogg Strawberry 

 were planted in the spring, the flowers taken off, and they are 

 now fine plants. — "W. F. Radclyffe. 



FELIX GENERO ROSE. 



I do not wish to impeach " D.," of Deal's, judgment with 

 regard to Eoses. I think, however, owing to the general vigour 

 which he describes everything to have at Okeford Fitzpaine, he 

 has seen Felix Genero through rose-coloured spectacles. Since 

 writing about it, however, I have been told by two much better 

 judges than myself that it is a good Bise, and useful for exhi- j 

 bition purposes; but the chief merit they attach to it is, that 

 owing to its being of a different shade of colour to most Koses, it 

 helps to diversify a stand of Eoses, and acts as a foil to other 

 and brighter colours. It also has the merit, which is a valuable 

 one for exhibition purposes, of keeping its shape well after it is 

 cut. My object in writing was merely to warn amateurs who 

 have only room for, perhaps, 150 to 200 Eoses, that it was not 

 worth their while to order several of Felix GeDero to the exclusion 

 of other and better sorts ; and though my friend, the Eev. S. E. 

 Hole, was one of those who told me I had put too light an 

 estimate on it, yet he himself has not so high an opinion of it 

 as Mr. Eadcljffe, if I may judge from the fact that when I was 

 at Cannton on the 6th of August he had finished budding 

 Briars to the number of 1440, and had not put in a single bud 

 of Felix Genero. It may be by way of euphemy called a violet 

 Eose, but with me it is dull red, with a lilac shade in it. 



It may seem heresy on my part to venture to differ from 

 Mr. Badcljffe, but I cannot see the wisdom of the advice which 

 he has more than once given to amateurs who have asked for 

 lists of Boses, to grow a hundred of Charles Lefebvre and a 

 hundred of Jules Margottin. Many amateurs have only room 

 for a few Eoses to begin with, and certainly, good as Charles 

 Lefebvre and Jules Margottin undoubtedly are, there are at 

 least fifteen or twenty just as well worthy of cultivation. — 

 C. P. Peach, 



" REDCARRE, A POOR FYSHER TOWNE."— No. 2. 

 I told in my previous notes of the superlative sands which 

 here margin the sea, and I have now traversed the whole, from 

 the mouth of the Tees near Middlesbrough to Saltburn — full 

 seven miles. Between the sands and the main land is an 

 almost unbroken series of huge sandbanks, bound down by the 

 roots of Carex arenaria, Phleum arenarium, Triticum littorale, 

 and other species of the maritime Gramineas. They and Ononis 

 arvensis (Best-harrow), Erodium moschatum, Cakile maritima, 

 and Oalium cruciatum form almost the entire flora of these 

 rabbit-tenanted sandbanks. But the ledges of rocks called the 

 Scars abound in what are called, with wrongful depreciation, 

 Sea-weede. 



" Ah ! call us not weeds, but flowers of the sea, 

 For lovely, and gay, and bright-tinted are we ; 

 And quite independent of culture or showers : 

 Then call us not weeds, we are ocean's gay flowers." 



Though^" independent of culture,*' yet they may be made 

 tenants of that marine flower border the aquarium. I have 

 my hand upon a charming little volume, the author of which, 

 Mr. D. Ferguson, a schoolmaster, is resident here, and an ac- 

 complished naturalist. He says : — ■ 



"The red weeds are the most beautiful, and we have succeeded in 

 growing them very successfully, but some of them are so delicate that 

 they seldom endure confinement for a very lengthened period ; yet 

 there are others of the more hardy kinds, as the Ceraniium rubrum, 

 Rhodymenia, Iridtea, Polysiphonia, and Ptilota, which answer re- 

 markably well ; and the pretty little chain-like Chylocladia also thrives, 

 and gives the miniature rocks an interesting appearance. To the green 

 weeds we must resort for oxygisers. The Sea Lettuce, the Purple 

 Laver, and the Enteromorpha, are under some circumstances the best. 

 Then we have the feathery Bryopsis growing freely in the still waters 

 of the tank ; and one of darker shade in the rock-inhabiting Clado- 

 phora. Many of these are plants of annual growth ; all are composed 

 entirely of cellular tissue, those parts that approach most nearly to 

 wood being only compressed cellular tissue, and destitute of fibre. 

 Being always immersed, or at least covered with water during the 

 greater part of their existence, they have no need, like terrestrial plants, 

 of organs specially adapted to absorb fluids, but their whole surface 

 acts the part which the roots alone pei-f orm in land plants ; they have, 

 therefore, no true roots and the pedicel or footstalk by which the plant 

 is fixed to the rock, is simply an organ of prehension, from which it 

 receives, not sustenance, but merely snpport. "We find many of the 

 microscopic Algse very beneficial in commencing a tank, though not so 

 effective in the appearance of the tank as the more highly developed 

 plants, yet they yield a large supply of oxygen, and stud the rocks with 

 beautiful crystal bubbles ; such plants are the Lyngbya, Oscillatoria, 

 Bangia, and Conferva. "Whatever be the selection of plant, care must 

 be taken that each is adherent to a piece of rock : and always choose 

 the hardest rock ; the soft blue lias is very apt to thicken the water by 

 giving off the alumina which it contains, when in contact with the sea 

 water. 



"In many of the pools, growing very luxuriantly, you will find the 

 Gigartina mamillosa, a very peculiar-looking plant, nearly resembling 

 the Chondrus crispus so very common on "West Scar, but easily dis- 

 tinguished from it by its warty appearance. The only time we have 

 ever seen the Desmarestia aculeata in a growing state was upon this 

 rock, in such a condition very different in its appearance from the 

 hard beach-worn specimens ; when young, each branch is beset with 

 the finest pencilled filaments of pea green, these are succeeded by stiff 

 spines of dark olive, hard and woody in their texture ; but when you 

 first gather the plant, it is impossible to conceive a more lovely object 

 waving its delicately feathered fronds in your vase of water. Attached 

 to the roots of Laminaria digitata, Tangle, may be found the pretty 

 Nitopbyllum laceratum, whose prescribed locality seems to be the 

 strong stems of Laminaria, rocks or stones, but rarely within tide-mark, 

 but here, as the rock projects so far into the sea we reach the Lamina- 

 rian region, and are thus enabled to find, in a growing state, many of 

 the delicate Rhodosperms, or red-seeded Algie. 



You will find on the north side of the rock a good supply of Deles- 

 seria alata, "Winged Lelesseria, the extreme beauty of which makes it 

 much sought after; and notwithstanding the common occurrence of it 

 on our shores, is never seen without attracting admiration. "With 

 equal beauty, in rock pools near low-water mark, the Esculent Irideea 

 (L-idasa edulis) presents its red feathery leaves, many of which grow 

 together from the same root ; and from its jagged and eaten appear- 

 ance we should imagine it the favourite food of many of the denizens 

 of the deep. Another of the red sea weeds adorns the sides of eTery 

 pool, tie Laurencia pinnatifida, though one of the most common, it is 

 certainly the most variable of our marine Alg«. 



