October 4, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GiRDENER. 



273 



well, and every bud showed several bunches, and as the Vine 

 was very vigorous two bunches were left. This Vine has been 

 allowed to grow with very little restriction, and has a thoroughly 

 ripened shoot as thick as a man's thumb, with laterals in 

 abundance. It set its berries well, and all went as before until 

 the berries began to colour, then they began to crack. So 

 soon as it was noticed that the berries were cracking, the 

 shoots which bore the bunches were cut half through to try 

 and prevent more berrieB going, still they went till the bunches 

 were good for nothing. Why was this ? If the restricting of the 

 flow of sap prevents the berries cracking, why did it not do so 

 in my case ? Certainly everything was done to lessen the flow 

 of sap into the berries, but it did not prevent them cracking. 

 This leads mo to believe that it was not the practice adopted 

 by your correspondents that prevented their Grapes cracking, 

 neither do I believe that anyone can be certain what causes 

 Grapes to crack. — W. Haeeis. 



WINDOW GARDENING. 



The possibilities of window gardening are various and great, 

 much more various and far greater than thoEe unaccustomed 

 to close observation would imagine. Even within the circuit 

 of the metropolis, smoke-begrimed and foggy though the at- 

 mosphere be, great things may be, indeed are, done — greater 

 things indeed than are to be seen in any other town in Eng- 

 land. This is in measure owing to the fact that the popu- 

 lation of London iB cosmopolitan, and immigrants from sunny 

 Italy or buoyant France not unnaturally desire to surround 

 themselves with as many mementos as possible of the flowery 

 lands they have left. Strangely enough it is not among the 

 mansions of the upper ten that the possibilities of window 

 gardening are carried out to their utmost, although here and 

 there we see an example of what might be done: such for in- 

 stance is the area of a house in Grosvenor Square, where 

 Geraniums, Fuchsias, Calceolarias, evergreens, Ferns, olimb- 

 ing plants, and even Palms are employed with such effect as to 

 convert a few feet of paved yard into a pretty garden. 



Middle-class dwellings have aa a rule the beet display of 

 window gardens, here and there the arrangement being so 

 novel and so artistic as to prove that they are the emanation 

 of personal taste, not a slavish following of a too prevalent 

 fashion. Nor do we find this only among the well-to-do. Here 

 and there amid the very poorest class of dwellings in the 

 suburbs, aye, even in the metropolis itself, there crops up a 

 palpable outburst of that universal love of the beauties of 

 nature which has been implanted in man by his Creator, and 

 whieh, crushed down and repressed by the hard necessities of 

 daily existence, never becomes wholly extinct. 



In taking our walks abroad we have lately seen several 

 noticeable features in window gardening, details of which we 

 subjoin. A terrace house with an underground parlour, the 

 front garden rising in a slope from the house, the first-floor 

 room having a projecting bay-window : from the garden up to 

 this window is a screen of octagon wire, over which are trained 

 Tropasolum canariense and Convolvulus major. These two 

 plants form a beautiful flowery screen to the window of the 

 ground-floor sitting-room, and being annuals the apartment 

 is again open to the light in winter. The restricted space of 

 the front garden is laid out to the best advantage and with 

 excellent taste, the ever-popular and brilliaot colours of red, 

 blue, and yellow of Geraniums, Lobelia, and Calceolaria being 

 toned down by a judicious admixture of less showy subjects, 

 the whole presenting a refreshing relief to the sight from the 

 preponderance of good foliage and freshly green turf, forming a 

 pleasant contrast to the generally glaring dusty appearance of 

 the white-stone- fronted houses on this, the sunny side of tho 

 Grove Road, Hammersmith. Another novel and pretty ar- 

 rangement of a miniature garden in the same neighbourhood 

 is as follows : Along the railing against the road a healthy 

 Virginia Creeper is trained, also over the dividing wall be- 

 tween this and the adjoining premises, and right up one side 

 of tbe house and along the balcony of the lower windows, from 

 which it hangs in light and graceful festoons. The green of 

 the creeper and the beautiful smooth sward of the liliputian 

 lawn form an excellent groundwork for the well-arranged 

 bedding-out plants, which are of the usual order, the special 

 feature of the garden consisting in the employment of the 

 profuse-flowering rich deep purple hardy Clematis, for covering 

 a series of low arches across the end of the garden nearest the 

 windows of the house, the growth of the climber being so 

 dense that the wire is completely hidden, and the flowers so 



numerous and closely set together that the whole forms a 

 striking mass of bloom. The introduction of some tall free- 

 flowering orange-coloured Nasturtium would make the picture 

 perfect. 



These are gardens of the well-to-do, and to keep them up a 

 certain if not very large amount of expenditure is necessary. 

 A flat-fronted one-storeyed shop in a little back street off 

 Hammersmith Broadway scarcely seems an eligible place for 

 a gardeB, yet one has been made of such a spot. As before 

 stated, the front of the house is perfectly flat, but above tho 

 shop-front a wooden stage has been hung; on this are placed 

 as many Fuchsias and Geraniums, Calceolarias, <fec, as can be 

 crowded in a miscellaneous but no less pleasing collection. 

 The plants are full of flower, and the blooms of the Fuchsias 

 hanging in such clusters that stage and pots are both entirely 

 masked. On either side of the stage are pots of blue Lobelia- 

 and Creeping Jenny. A string fastened below the rim of the 

 pot and tied to a nail holds them in place ; and this hanging 

 garden is, it is almost needless to say, a delightful picture in a 

 poor neighbourhood. 



Before leaving the subject, the employment of virgin cork, 

 now becoming so general for window decoration, deserves a 

 word. No one can deny how readily and beautifully this sub- 

 stance lends itself to garden decoration, but it must be in suit- 

 able situations. The effect of its employment for facing window 

 balconies to stuccoed or flat-brick houses is incongruous and 

 inartistic in the extreme. For conservatories and picturesque 

 country cottages it is invaluable. Those who would see how 

 well it may be used under cover should pay a visit io the 

 "Grotto," Villiers Street, Strand, where an entire ground 

 floor has been converted into a perfect cavern of coolness and 

 beeuty, fresh green feathery Ferns and other plants growing 

 freely from the fissures of the cork. — T. S. J. 



FUCHSIA PROCUMBENS. 



" This curious little plant," states the "Botanical Magazine," 

 t. 6139, " so unlike a Fuchsia in habit and colour of the flower, 

 was discovered in 1834 by Richard CunniDgham in the northern 

 island of New Zealand, on the shores of the east coast, oppo- 

 site the Cavalhos Islands, growing on the Bandy beach, where 

 it has since been gathered by Colenso. It has also been found 

 on the Great Barrier Island by Mr. Kirk in two localities both 

 near the Eea." 



The above extract shows it to be a seaside plant, yet, like* 

 our Asparagus, it thrives wonderfully well inland without any 

 application of saline matter beyond that found in turfy loam 

 and leaf soil. 



Its habit is prostrate or trailing, having small wiry stems, 

 alternate small leaves bearing some resemblance to the Fuchsia, 

 but very much smaller ; its habit reminding of Linaria Cymba- 

 laria rather than a Fuchsia, running along the ground scarcely 

 an inch in height, covering it with a close carpet of green, 

 though the yonDg leaves have a reddish tint when young, also 

 the stems, which latter change to reddish purple. It is about 

 as much like a Fuchsia as Fieus repens is like a Fig or India- 

 rubber Plant. Unlike Ficus repens and some other trailers, 

 it does not emit, so far as I have noticed, roots at the joints; 

 therefore it is not disposed to climb, but grows straight away. 

 I had a few cuttings in spring — it being very readily increased 

 that way — which grew so rapidly and hung down the sides o£ 

 the pot so gracefully as to suggest, What an admirable basket 

 plant it would make ! We put three small plants in a basket, 

 and suspended it about 8 feet from the floor. It grew so fast 

 that in August depending all around were shoots and foliage 

 3 to 4 feet, and they would evidently have grown had it been 

 allowed until they had reached the floor. Ciearly it is a good 

 addition to the very few really good basket plants we possess 

 for the greenhouse. 



The flowers are produced at the axils of the leaves, and 

 unlike a Fuchsia, have the tubes upright — no drooping in this 

 case, for if the shoots depend the flowers are reared directly 

 upward, and very curious and pretty they are — green, yellow, 

 and purple — having the form of a Fuchsia. The flowera of 

 this Fuchsia being inconspicuous, it may be aeked, What is 

 there about the plant to recommend it? Well, the flowers are 

 followed by berries, oblong or elliptical in shape, about an iueh 

 long and two-thirds that in diameter in the middle, which at 

 first are greenish-yellow or whitish, changing to rosy-purple, 

 whieh render the plant attractive. Eggs, indeed, they would 

 be; and is it not stated in the "Gardener's Dictionary" 

 (Johnson's), that "when gardeners discover the way to im- 



