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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 25, 1877. 



when once you have it nothing will induce you to give it up. 

 Its lovely Eoft, delicate, creamy-coloured buds render it a per- 

 fect button-hole flower. I have never found lady or gentle- 

 man that would not always have it before any Rose that I 

 could give them, and most strange it seems, it was new to most 

 if not all of them. 



A gentleman said to me one day early in the summer, " Ah ! 

 how much I should like a house to grow such exquisite Rose 

 buds as you always have." This very bud was plucked from 

 an old standard some eight or ten years old, and had been 

 replanted last autumn. This same old standard Narcisse has 

 produced more Roses than any half-dozen Rose trees in the 

 place. This says not a little for its hardiness. Its beautiful, 

 clean, bright foliage stands out most conspicuous amongst all 

 others in this most trying season of blights of all sorts. 

 Never before did I see mildew and rust so bad as this season. 

 Plant Narcisse in a sheltered situation, worked on the Briar, 

 prune but little, feed it well, and you will have Roses early 

 and late from it ; in fact, it is difficult to go for a bud and 

 be disappointed. I daresay I have had not less than four 

 dozen buds off this same old tree this summer. No Rose is 

 equal to it for bouquets. It is simply lovely so used ; it is fine 

 for ladies' hair as well as for placing in rooms, &c. May I not 

 ask, Why is this good Rose not often met with ? — J. Taylor, 

 Hardwicke Grange. 



GRAPES CRACKING. 



At page 272 Mr. Harris seems to be of opinion that it is not 

 within the compass of man to solve the mystery of Grapes 

 cracking, and Mr. Inglis at page 285 is of opinion that atmo- 

 spheric humidity is the cause. My theory to some extent 

 clashes with both, still I hope to be able to bring forward facts 

 which will substantiate my theory. 



I believe there are varieties which are more liable to crack 

 under certain conditions than others. Much, I believe, depends 

 on the constitution of the variety. 



Many will remember the humid Btate of the atmosphere 

 last autumn, and how badly Grapes kept. I had a house with 

 a few Black Hamburghs and White Frontignan still hanging 

 in it. The Hamburghs were totally destroyed with crack and 

 mould, but not one berry of the Frontignan was affected; and 

 I believe that its firm Muscat flesh and dwarf habit just saved 

 it, while the soft sappy berries of the Hamburghs had a greater 

 affinity for the damp which brought their ruin. This result 

 I believe rests entirely in the difference between the two Vines. 



Cracking arises generally from two causes brought about by 

 the same thing — the want of moisture at the root and in the 

 house. After a spell of dry weather we generally have a spell 

 of wet weather, whioh not only saturates the border but creates 

 much moisture in the house. If the Tines have not been 

 sufficiently supplied with water during the drought they will 

 now gorge themselves at both roots and foliag9. The Bkins of 

 the berries having become hard and brittle from want of mois- 

 ture will not expand suddenly, hence they crack. This applies 

 more particularly to those varieties having a voracious nature, 

 such as Madresfield Court, White Tokay, Lady Downe's, &c. 

 Last season I had a clear proof of this. In a vinery I had a 

 few Muscat Hamburgh and Lady Downe's ; the former is 

 characteristic of being very moderate in its demands for feed- 

 ing — so moderate, it is often not able to perfect more than 

 half a crop; and although the border was deluged with rain, 

 and the atmosphere at the point of saturation, not a single 

 berry of this Grape either moulded or cracked, while, on the 

 other hand, nearly all the Lady Downe's did. I believe the 

 reason they cracked so badly was, they were kept too dry out- 

 side and in. 



I have Madresfield Court grafted on Black Hamburgh in an 

 early house, where it gets lots of moisture, and I have little 

 or no cracked berries. I know it was sparingly supplied with 

 sap, as it never coloured right till after Eome of the Hamburghs 

 were cut from the Vine ; then it coloured, as if by magic, jet 

 black. — B. G., Co. Down. 



bristle-like leaves and stems, and their carpet of lovely flowers 

 in the sunny days of spriDg. I have proved their meritB under 

 a variety of circumstances. For indoor decoration in pots in 

 early spring they are invaluable ; and on sunny slopes, on the 

 rockwork, or in the border, they are highly attractive. They 

 are worthy of a place also on the exhibition table. 



They are a very accommodating race of plants, and are of 

 easy culture. They succeed well in any ordinary garden soil, 

 but they are impatient of much moisture. For lines and 

 edgings in the spring garden and for beds and patches they 

 scarcely have an equal. They are quite at home on the lime- 

 stone, and I think in such situations their flowers are particu- 

 larly deep in colour. They are readily increased by division 

 after flowering, or by cuttings during summer and autumn in 

 well-drained pots in sandy soil, in a cold pit, or under hand- 

 lights in a shady situation. They must be kept free from 

 damp. I have never been able to increase them by seed — i.e., 

 those dwarf spring-flowering varieties. I am not now alluding 

 to the splendid kinds that belong to the florist-flower depart- 

 ment, of which there are so many magnificent varieties in cul- 

 tivation, but to our little spring gems. 



One of their greatest recommendations is that they are 

 cheap and within the reach of all who have any pretensions to 

 spring gardening or border decoration. A bed of Phlox verna, 

 known also by the names of P. reptans and P. stolonifera, rooting 

 from the runner-joints like the Strawberry, is one of the most 

 beautiful. Phlox subulata, with its white variety known as 

 P. Nelaoni, make a charming pair. Phlox frondosa when in good 

 trim gives us sheets of lovely pink flowers, lasting a long time 

 in bloom ; it is one of the very best rock plants we possess. 

 P. canadensis is a useful plant ; it is one of the tallest of the 

 dwarf kinds, and deserves more attention than it is at present 

 receiving. P. procumbens, P. ovata, and P. suaveolens are all 

 worthy of extensive cultivation. P. setacea is one of the 

 dwarfeBt growers of the family ; there is a white variety of 

 this species, but it is of delicate constitution, and is seldom 

 met with in cultivation. — Veritas. 



OUR BORDER FLOWERS— PHLOXWORTS. 

 This is one of the choicest of all the numerous families of 

 our hardy border flowers. I believe we are indebted to the 

 North American continent for the choioest of these our spring 

 beauties. They are deserving of every attention that can be 

 afforded them, and when well grown they cannot fail to give 

 satisfaction. They attract attention by their compact habit, 



RAISING TREES FROM LEAVES. 

 The first who made this art known was Agostino Mandirola, 

 Doctor of Theology, an Italian minorite of the Franciscan 

 order. In a small work upon gardening, printed for the first 

 time at Vicenza, in duodecimo, in the year 1652, and which 

 was reprinted afterwards in various places, he gave an account 

 of his having produced trees from the leaves of the Cedar and 

 Lemon, but he does not relate this circumstance as if he con- 

 sidered it to be a great discovery ; on the contrary, he appears 

 rather to think it a matter of very little importance. His book 

 was soon translated into German, and his account copied by 

 other writers, such as Bockler and Hohberg, who were at that- 

 time much read. A gardener of Augsburg, as we are told by 

 Agricola, was the first who imitated this experiment, and 

 proved the possibility of it to others. He is said to have tried 

 it with good Buccess in the garden of Count de Wratislau, 

 Ambassador at Ratisbon from the Elector of Bohemia. But 

 never was this experiment so often and so successfully repeated 

 as in the garden of Baron de Munchausen at S wobbler. A 

 young tree was obtained there from a leaf of the Limona rivo, 

 which produced fruit the second year. It was sent to Mr. 

 Volkamer at Nuremberg, who caused a drawing to ha made 

 from it, which was afterwards engraved , in order that it might- 

 be published in the third volume of his " HeBperides ; " but as 

 the author died shortly afterwards it was not printed. The 

 exact drawing as it was then executed at Nuremberg, and an 

 account of the whole process employed in the experiment at 

 Swobbler, were published by the Baron de Munchausen him- 

 self from authentic papers in his grandfather's own hand- 

 writing. No one, however, attracted so much attention to this 

 circumstance as the well-known George Andrew Agricola, 

 physician at Ratisbon, who, with that confidence and prolixity 

 which were peculiar to him, ventured to assert that trees could 

 be propagated in the speediest manner by planting the leaves, 

 after being steeped in a liquor he had invented ; and for the 

 truth of the assertion he referred to his own experience. 

 Among the naturalists of that period none took more trouble 

 to examine the possibility of this effect than Thunning, who 

 endeavoured to prove that not only leaves with eyes left in 

 them could in well-moistened earth throw out roots which 

 would produce a stem, but that leaves also without eyes would 

 grow up to be trees. Baron Munchausen, on the other hand, 

 assures us that, according to the many experiments made in 



