October 6, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



263 



come up through the ground of a character similar to those of 

 the Asparagus ; and as soon as there is a slug or a woodlouse 

 in the house, it will find its way to it, and eat away the tip of 

 the shoots. If this happens, the growth of the shoot is checked 

 directly, and it rarely if ever starts again. As soon as I per- 

 ceive a shoot coming through the soil, I place a lamp glass 

 over it, and keep it there till it has made sufficient growth to 

 be out of reach of the foes. 



I think a very pretty effect could be secured by blending the 

 white with the rose-coloured variety in the interior of the roof 

 of a suitable house. At present the former is very scarce and 

 expensive ; when it becomes cheaper, it will no doubt be grown 

 as much as the other and older form. — George Vennee, The 

 Grove Gardens, Hanwell.—(The Gardener.) 



ROYAL ASCOT GRAPE. 



Having seen in The Jouenal of Hobticcltuee that the 

 Royal Ascot Grape has taken many prizes this year at various 

 shows, and as it is again referred to at page 221, the following 

 remarks may interest some of your readers. 



Two years since I inarched Royal Ascot on Muscat de Sar- 

 belle, growing in a ground vinery. This year I allowed it to 

 bear eight bunches, which are now ripe. The ground vinery 

 is 28 feet long. This year the young leading shoot is growing 

 out beyond the vinery, and from it, for mo3t of the way up, 

 laterals have sprung, on each of which a bunch of Grapes 

 appeared ; all have been cut off but one, the berries of which 

 are swelling rapidly, and should this fine season continue, 

 I have no doubt they will ripen this autumn. The laterals 

 growing on last year's wood were stopped three leaves above 

 the bunches ; during the summer young shoots sprung from the 

 end of these laterals, on which bunches of Grapes came. They 

 were again cut down to one leaf, but had I left the Grapes to 

 ripen I should have had two bunches on the same lateral, 

 one ripe, the other unripe, at the same time. This I consider 

 one of the peculiarities of the Royal Ascot and worth record- 

 ing, because Mr. Standish called this Tine a perpetual, and so 

 it would be a perpetual if grown in Queensland or California, 

 or in any country where there is no frost. The Vine came 

 into flower a fortnight earlier than a Black Hamburgh growing 

 in the same border under another ground vinery with the same 

 aspect. 



The Royal Ascot is certainly a wonderful Vine to sprout and 

 bear, a Vine well adapted to grow in any tropical country not 

 too hot. Last year I inarched the Royal Ascot on a young 

 Black Hamburgh growing in an open border. On the shoot of 

 this year's growth there is a bunch of Grapes now (28th of 

 September), just colouring. The Vine is tied to a stake. — A. T. 



MANAGEMENT OF CUTTINGS. 



Is it right to allow cuttings to flag after they are taken from 

 the plant ? My gardener thinks so, but I think it is better not 

 to allow them to feel the change more than can be avoided. 

 — A. B. 



[This is a question of some importance, and something may 

 be said on both sides. In all milky-juiced plants and those that 

 are very succulent it is often well to allow the cuttings to lie 

 until the cut ends are dry. It is no bad plan in order to hasten 

 drying and prevent the waste of juice, to stick the ends, as 

 the cuttings are "'made, into fine charcoal dust. If allowed to 

 bleed too freely the cutting is proportionably weakened, and 

 the rooting process will be all the more languid. If such 

 cuttings were inserted at once, the exudation of juice into the 

 soil would afterwards be apt to make the bottom gangrene and 

 decay. A dry base is therefore of importance in very succulent 

 plants, but even then the drying should take place in the shade, 

 and not in the sun, as the sun might parch and dry the part 

 too much. Even in the case of succulent plants we never 

 could see any benefit accruing from allowing the stems and 

 leaves left to become weltod and flagged. We have seen whole 

 bunohes of cuttings of Geraniums made, and allowed to lie 

 nntil the leaves left were all flagging. That such cuttings 

 grow afterwards we know, because the juices and vital powers 

 stored up are pretty good proofs against the unfair treatment 

 given. In taking small side cuttings of such things we seldom 

 considered any drying of the base necessary. In taking stronger, 

 more succulent cuttings, if we deemed it advisable to let the 

 cut end at the base dry for a few hours, we took care that the 

 bulk of the cutting should not lose any of its juices, by slightly 



sprinkling with water or shading the upper part of the cutting 

 whilst the base was exposed. 



Except in such cases, we should never think of drying the 

 base of a cutting. Even in these cases we would secure the 

 bulk of the cutting feeling as little as possible its severance 

 from the parent plant. We know that many act differently, 

 and allow the cuttings to lie a long time after being made, as 

 if there were some virtue in this welting and withering. They 

 tell you that the cuttings strike root, and so they wi!l in the 

 case of things not easily killed, but it is in despite of, rather 

 than as a general consequence of, the system adopted. In the 

 summer and early autumn months you may plant a Geranium 

 cutting, the stronger the better, full in the sun, and though the 

 leaves will flag, the cutting will ultimately form roots and fresh 

 leaves ; but such a cutting will strike more quickly if put in a 

 pot and placed under glass, and so top-sprinkled and shaded 

 from strong sun that the leaves are never permitted to flag. 

 It is true this coaxing and nursing plan may easily be carried 

 too far ; too much closeness and too much shade will encourage 

 the cutting to lengthen upwards, instead of rooting freely 

 downwards, and hence the rough-and-ready system of planting 

 at once out of doors is often as successful as when there is the 

 above care carried to an excess of coddling. In all general 

 cases we hold with you, that the cuttings cannot be too soon 

 inserted when taken from their parent plant, and the less they 

 feel the severance afterwardsjthe sooner will they strike roots.] 



ABOUT POTATOES. 



" Maky of them of good size, but very coarse," was the 

 critical judgment lately passed upon a large collection of some 

 fifty kinds of Potatoes that were staged at one of the meetings 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society at Sonth Kensington. This 

 critique was just, but not sufficiently severe; for if it had pro- 

 ceeded to denounce in strong terms the far too prevalent 

 practice of growing, and especially of staging for exhibition, 

 the huge, ungainly, sunken-eyed, and altogether " coarse " 

 samples of our noble tuber that some people seem to think the 

 ne plus ultra of Potato culture, then would a service have been 

 rendered to horticultural taste, and possibly our eyes might 

 soon be rid of the sight of those ugly monstrosities yclept 

 "exhibition" Potatoes. I do protest against the Potato being 

 put on a level with Mangold Wurzel as a show-root, making 

 size the criterion by which to judge of its merits. Nay, even 

 in judging Mangolds some respect is paid to shape and outline ; 

 but a Mangold be it big, or little, is but a Mangold still ; whilst 

 there are Potatoes and Potatoes, the difference being jnst this, 

 that whilst some are fit to go upon the table of an epicure, 

 others are only fit diet for the pigs. The difference may be 

 but trifling, but it is enough that it exists. If I were philoso- 

 phically inclined, I might profitably moralise over the strange 

 taste for mere size that seems to prevail among horticulturists. 

 We have nearly gone mad in the pursuit of it in some things, 

 and now find we have committed a huge blunder. 



Big plants have had their day, and are now rather pooh- 

 poohed ; big Cucumbers, also, are now looked upon as so much 

 cattle-food by judges of taste ; big Melons or other fruit must 

 pass through the sharp ordeal of the flavour test ; and so it is 

 all through the piece. And now we have but to get rid of the 

 strange anomaly of big Potatoes from our exhibition tables, and 

 then we may well hope for the display in the future of such 

 cultural results as shall both please the eye and delight the 

 taste ; and that such a reformation is near I have good reason 

 to believe. Business pursuits took me a short time since to 

 the classic regions of Oxford; and whilst there, how could I 

 resist the temptation, so strong to me a " potato-ologist " ('?), to 

 drop in npon that celebrated cultivator Mr. Robert Fenn of 

 Woodstock, and get a look at what he was doing in the way of 

 raising new varieties, as well as note the results of his mode of 

 cultivation? 



Mr. Fenn is a strong advocate for what is known as the 

 "ridge and trench system" of culture; which system, how- 

 ever, simply means that the ground, having been well pre- 

 pared and manured during the previous winter, the line is laid 

 down at intervals of 3 feet apart, the sets are then placed in a 

 row alongside of the line, and about 15 inches distant from 

 each other in the rows, and then the soil is thrown up over 

 the sets with the spade, burying them to the depth of about 

 6 inches. Of course no earthing-up is needed, and the trenches 

 in between are at any time available for the planting-out of 

 winter crops. I have tried this mode of planting myself, on a 



