August 2, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



101 



and flower it has merits which are infinitely superior to those 

 of most other Tea-seented Roses. 



I cannot give its history, but I believe it is not at all what 

 we should term an old Rose, and yet when I turn to the 

 catalogues I can only find it in an old one of Mr. W. Paul's, 

 bearing the date of 1871-2. All of them appear to have found 

 it an incorrigible bud-bound rogue — Turner, Veitch, G. Paul, 

 Mitchell, Wood, Rivers, Lane, Standish, Fraser, Henderson, 

 Smith of Worcester ; in vain do I turn to any of them. All 

 have turned their backs upon it. Mr. Charles Wood, who 

 grows Roses by the aore and thousands of Tea Roses in pots, 

 when he saw it the other day exclaimed, " Why ! I had no 

 idea it was so fine a Rose ; we have discarded it as worthless." 

 And, as few nurserymen grow Roses on such an extensive scale 

 as Messrs. Wood, this observation affords conclusive proof 

 that everybody else has also discarded it. I would therefore ask 

 whether there has not been a little undue haste in so doing. 



Why have I at length induced its flowers to expand as freely 

 as a Cabbage Rose ? Is it because the growth has only been 

 pruned very slightly, precisely as one treats Cloth of Gold ? Is 

 it owing to the great vigour of the tree, which is now 10 feet 

 high trained to a wall facing eastwards ? Or is it owing to 

 some peculiarity of the present season ? Pray tell me, rosarians ; 

 and if you have an odd corner or a few square feet of wall 

 space to spare, just give it to a plant of Belle de Bordeaux, 

 and some day you will have a rich treat, and if that treat only 

 ■occurs in every fifth year it will be well worth waiting for. 

 Moreover, the foliage is so handsome and so superior to that of 

 most other Roses that one might well afford some space even 

 for that alone. — Edward Luckhurst. 



IN FLORA'S DOMAIN. 



There are fashions in the cultivation of plants and flowers 

 qb in everything else, and it iB often unfortunate that, when a 

 change takes place, what is good of the old style is not retained 

 and blended with the new. My thoughts were turned to this 

 subject in the autumn of last year by seeing a very fine speci- 

 men of Magnolia, in full bloom, trained up a house in the 

 Uxbridge road, opposite Holland Park, Bayswater. For some 

 years after the introduction of the Magnolia it was without doubt 

 very popular, and evidently met with due appreciation, for in 

 most suburban gardens of a certain age we are nearly sure to 

 find at least one fine specimen of this handsome evergreen, 

 while the modern villa garden containing such a plant would 

 be a remarkable exception. Indeed so little is the Magnolia 

 known to the general public that last autumn, when the tree 

 before mentioned was in bloom, I was repeatedly asked what 

 the name of the plant was. Fashion after certain intervals, 

 like history, repeats itself. We look forward to the time when 

 the Magnolia shall again flourish in unlimited numbers on 

 suburban house fronts and villa garden walls. 



Between two and three hundred years ago, about the time of 

 the Charleses, more particularly during the reign of Charles II. 

 it was evidently a very prevalent fashion to plant Mulberry 

 trees. Many living evidences of this fact exist in and around 

 4he metropolis, notably a magnificent tree in Lambeth, which 

 tradition says was planted by the merry monarch's own hands 

 and which has borne the burden of nigh upon three hundred 

 years right royally, giving each summer a most umbrageous 

 shade, and a wealth of fruit not to be equalled by younger 

 members of the same family, in situations which might be 

 supposed to be far more congenial to their healthy develop- 

 ment. In what domain or in whose grounds the tree was 

 originally planted history sayeth not ; but many changes must 

 have passed around since the time of the Cavaliers, for the 

 tree stands in a strip of garden ground surrounded by houses, 

 and its goodly proportions were some two years ago beginning 

 to fall a prey to the mischievous propensities of many juveniles 

 over whose miniature back gardens it threw its wide-spreading 

 boughs. This noble old tree flourishes on the south side of 

 the Thames in a now densely populated part of Lambeth. 

 Beyond the Mulberry tree already cited many such magnificent 

 trees are to be found in London, but they are all without 

 exception fine old trees. Gardeners of the present generation 

 have forgotten the Mulberry tree with the Magnolia. Effect 

 to be gained by gorgeous contrasts of colour as displayed in 

 bedding-out is the order of the day, not permanent interest 

 in the garden engendered by the growth of perennial plants 

 and trees, offsprings of our care and objects of our tender soli- 

 citude and our hopes year by year. 



A certain phase of gardening, much in vogue some years ago, 



was the growth of semi-hardy evergreens in tubs : a relic may 

 be seen in the fine specimens of Orange trees placed in the 

 gardens of Kensington Palace every summer. At the present 

 time when the "exigencies of space and the wants of a rapidly 

 increasing population are compelling us to build towns on a 

 uniform plan of straight fronts and backs, with no gardens, 

 or rather only square air-spaces dignified by that name, with 

 forecourts or areas of damp-proof uncompromising concrete 

 which cannot of course by any possible means be made into 

 a garden, it would be an exoellent thing were householders to 

 turn their attention to the cultivation of evergreens, flowering 

 shrubs not necessarily evergreen, and creepers, in tubs and pots. 



Among the modern features of town gardening the very 

 general cultivation of the Virginian Creeper is much to be com- 

 mended ; but unfortunately a run has been made upon this 

 plant to the almost total exclusion of other plants quite as 

 suitable and handsomer, in this respect that they are as re- 

 markable for beauty of bloom as for gracefulness of growth. 



The Passion-Flower is not exacting in its requirements, and 

 there is no valid reason against its flourishing on the same 

 house front and festooning the same baloony as its American 

 rival. It is not only of a free graceful habit, but it puts forth 

 its particularly conspicuous flowers in positive profusion ; and 

 in autumn, when vegetation all around is subsiding into its 

 winter sleep, the Passion-Flower is gay with numbers of bright 

 golden fruits. Then also there is the unique Wistaria, with 

 its graceful racemes of pale lavender blooms and its elegant 

 foliage, which unfolds of an exquisite delicate brown and gra- 

 dually becomes green. Ivy needs no comment. Those who 

 appreciate its dense foliage and rapid growth will be sure to 

 grow it, while some persons cannot endure the plant from an 

 objeotion to the strong smell of the leaves when bruised, or 

 its almost inseparable connection with scenes of ruin and 

 decay, as exemplified by the late Charles Dickens's ever-popular 

 poem " The Ivy Green." Although less rapid and rampant 

 in growth than the plants already mentioned, the Japanese 

 Honeysuckle with its small variegated foliage is invaluable for 

 training around windows and along balconies. We might 

 enumerate many other suitable subjects, but for the present 

 let the foregoing suffice as a hint at what may be done even 

 in towns by those who will observe and think for themselves. 

 — T. S. J. 



STAMPING OUT INJURIOUS INSECTS. 

 Mt position with regard to the proposal brought forward by 

 Mr. Andrew Murray for the extirpation of injurious insects is 

 rather a neutral one, and there is much that might be stated 

 which would give his theories a somewhat different aspect. 

 Like the old lady, who when charged with stealing a saucepan 

 proved conclusively to the jury that she could not have stolen 

 the article if she would, and then appended the statement that 

 she would not have thought it worth taking if she could have 

 got it, I am not sure that such a thing as stamping out a 

 species belonging to the fauna of a country, and of general 

 distribution, could be done, nor that a very positive benefit 

 would result if it were feasible. A strictly local insect may be 

 snuffed out, as witness the disappearance of the Large Copper 

 Butterfly, so also might a newly arrived visitor which has 

 not succeeded in establishing itself. But the destruction of 

 one pest may be followed by a large accession of numbers in 

 the case of another pest, and arresting the increase of insect 

 enemies has now and then apparently favoured the growth of 

 fungoid or other parasites belonging to the vegetable kingdom. 

 Nor are we always able to answer the question conclusively as 

 to what is or what is not an insect gardeners should view as a 

 foe, for our opinions undergo a change as our knowledge of 

 entomology increases. For instance, there are certain flies 

 of the Dipterous order which frequent flowers, and which had 

 some years ago an evil repute because it was supposed they 

 disfigured the blossoms by biting them. This they may occa- 

 sionally do ; but then we now find that they prey upon smaller 

 species, which, breeding in the leaves or roots of plants, also 

 resort to flowers, but which are kept in check by their parti- 

 cular foes. Other flies, again, long esteemed useless, are of 

 much service in horticulture by their activity in the work of 

 pollen-distribution. The excellent remarks of "A. N. G." in 

 a recent number are deserving of general attention. Preven- 

 tion is far better than remedial measures, and in the instance 

 of the great bulk of moderately sized plants there is little 

 doubt they are only insect-infested when they have been neg- 

 lected or are in an unhealthy condition. One unavoidable evil 



