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JOUBNAL OP HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ July 11, 1872. 



to hide the rim of the pots, Eigs root through and over the 

 pots into the soil, being more secure from sudden changes ; 

 whilst, if growing too freely, they are easily checked by cutting 

 the roots or replunging them the following winter. I think 

 few have any idea how many fruits a Eig thus managed will 

 produce, or how superior it is in quality. — J. E. Peaeson, 

 ChilwelL 



NOTES ON BOSES. 



My experience with regard to Eoses differs at times so much 

 irom that of your correspondent, the Bev. W. E. Eadclyffe, that 

 I hope he will pardon me asking the opinion of some other Bose- 

 growers with regard to Perfection de Lyon, Madame Chirard, and 

 Baron Chanrand, which I do not possess, and which I have 

 never seen exhibited, or, if I have, they have never attracted my 

 attention. Moreover, when last winter I asked fifteen Bose- 

 growers for their lists of the twelve and thirty-six best Boses, 

 Madame Chirard and Baron Chaurand were not mentioned at 

 all, and Perfection de Lyon only once, though I had 113 names 

 sent to me. Leopold II., Lord Herbert, and Princess Christian 

 were also not mentioned in the lists. The latter has always 

 seemed to me too loose and thin-petalled ; the other two are 

 capable of being good Boses, but uncertain. 



Surely, too, there must be something radically wrong in the 

 treatment of Boses to require their being cut over three or four 

 times to get rid of orange fungus. Nothing conduces so much 

 to orange fungus as covering over the stems too much during 

 winter for the sake of protection. Better lose a few from the 

 effects of frost than let their constitution be impaired by over- 

 protection. Moreover, it induces the roots to come up too much 

 to the surface of the ground, and then, if the mulching is re- 

 moved during the summer, the roots are burnt if hot dry 

 weather comes on, and mildew is the result, followed by an in- 

 creased dose of orange" fungus. I do not wish to find fault 

 with the system of mulching with manure in the winter, but I 

 wish to caution persons against overdoing it, and especially 

 against covering over the beds with a quantity of long manure, 

 and then heaping soil over it to make it look more tidy. 



I did not at Birmingham, when judging, see anything par- 

 ticularly good among the new Boses of 1871 and 1S72. Paul's 

 Princess Beatrice is promising. Among the newer Boses, 

 Dupuy Jamain, Marquise de Castellane, Countess of Oxford, 

 Paul Neron, Eugenie Yerdier, Henri Ledeehaux, Emihe 

 Hausburg, Louis Vau Houtte, Ferdinand de Lesseps, and 

 Louise Wood are doing best with me. Dupuy Janiaih is a 

 Bose everyone ought to have. I certainly never saw a more 

 beautiful box of twelve blooms than that shown by Mr. Cant 

 at Bh'mingham. — C. P. Peach. 



SHADING. 

 _ Ox July 4th and 5th, and the early part of the 6th, we expe- 

 rienced all the parching effects of a tropical climate without 

 the countervailing advantage of a great amount of vapour in 

 the atmosphere. I felt sure on the morning of the 6th that 

 there would be a change before night ; but as that could not 

 be depended upon, care was taken to tide all matters over until 

 Monday, July Sth, in case the sun and dry heat should con- 

 tinue as scorching. The means chiefly resorted to were water- 

 ing so far as we durst use water, shading out of doors, and 

 whitening glass to keep what was beneath it cool. Most of 

 the latter work was rendered useless by the sky suddenly be- 

 coming overcast at 2 p.m., and almost as suddenly continuous 

 thunder was followed by delightful rains, which soon cleared 

 the whitened surface from the glass. "When the whitening is 

 put on with milk instead of water it stands well, more especi- 

 ally if the glass is hot, and the whitened milk is daubed over 

 -with a dry brush after being applied in the usual way with a 

 ■soft one. A little glue and some turpentine in the whitened 

 water also stands well ; but where it can be had, a few quaits 

 of skim milk, with just enough of whitening in it to make it 

 effective, will cover a great amount of glass. 



In all plant houses the beneficial effect was felt of just a 

 spattering from the syringe of white-coloured water outside 

 the glass. It was used where the first rains would wash it off, 

 as the shade was not desired in dull weather. In other cases, 

 where a continuous slight shade was desirable, I have, on the 

 whole, found nothing better than milk and whitening, not 

 rising more of the latter than necessary to give the requisite 

 whiteness so as to shade. 



"Where neatness and durability are desired, attention should 

 be paid to having the glass dry and warm from the sun. A 



damp brush is used to lay on the white mixture, and as soon 

 as covered — that is, daubed with the points of a stiff, dry 

 brush, it looks as if it were painted or ground glass, and 

 greatly, but gently, shades what is beneath it. Frequently we 

 have thus done the outside of glass in May, and had to wash 

 it off in October, as no ordinary rains would interfere with it. 

 For instance, there is part of a corridor which has the front 

 glass thus clouded nearly half way down from the top, leaving 

 the lower part open, out of which one can look out and look 

 in without obstruction ; and more than one visitor has re- 

 marked, " How careful your workmen must be to bring the 

 white blinds down in such a straight, uniform line all the way 

 along ; it is so satisfactory to the eye, instead of seeing them 

 dangling at all heights." Of course, there was no blind, but 

 at a short distance the appearance quite justified the surmise. 



I have nothing to say against proper blinds and proper 

 shading, only I know of no shading that can be so quickly 

 applied as whitened water laid on with a syringe. Of course, 

 that will be washed off by rains, and therefore I rarely use it 

 for these temporary purposes where future rains would wash 

 it off into a tank used for syringing, though when there is a 

 filter it rarely tells the least on the colour of the rain water. 

 Still, for a continuous slight shading it is well to fix the 

 whitening in the way proposed, by using milk or size in various 

 ways. To take this off in the autumn merely requires a good 

 syringing, a rubbing with a cloth, another syringing, and all 

 disappears. Mark ! whitening or chalk, not lime, must be used 

 for such pur-poses ; the latter will damage the paint and putty, 

 the whitening is harmless to both. — B. Fish. 



ME. AYBTON AND DB. HOOEEE. 

 It has been well known for some time past in certain circles, 

 that a feud has existed between Mi-. Ayrton, the Chief Com- 

 missioner of Works, and Dr. Hooker, the Director of the 

 Boyal Gardens at Eew ; the object of the former being to dis- 

 place the latter from a position he has so long held and filled 

 with so much ability and satisfaction to the nation at large, 

 and in particular to scientific men throughout the whole 

 world. That Dr. Hooker should retire and that Mr. Ayrton 

 should take his place, is a proposition too absurd for anybody 

 else than Mr. Ayrton to entertain, but that is really what it 

 would have come to, if Dr. Hooker had not resisted with all the 

 force that is necessary in an encounter with such an antagonist. 

 The matter has now become so notorious that the Times has 

 alluded to the subject in the following leading article of Mon- 

 day last : — 



The scientific world has for some time been greatly disturbed 

 by the difference which has arisen between Mr. Ayrton and Dr. 

 Hooker, the Director of the Boyal Gardens at Eew, and the 

 public are concerned in anything which would interfere with 

 the successful management of the gardens. The establishment 

 at Eew is at once a source of great popular enjoyment and of in- 

 valuable service to science. The gardens are the finest of their 

 kind in Europe, and the establishment is unrivalled alike in the 

 extent, the importance, and the scientific results of its opera- 

 tions. The beautiful collection of plants renders Kew one of 

 the most favoured holiday resorts in the neighbourhood of 

 London. Last Whit Monday as many as 37,795 visitors entered 

 the gardens ; and it says much for the healthy and refining in- 

 fluence of such enjoyments that not a single ease of drunken- 

 ness, riot, or mischief of any kind was reported. When the gar- 

 dens were first opened to the public, 'in 1841, the total number 

 of visitors during the year was 9000 ; but the number has now 

 reached an average of nearly 600,000 a year. For any public 

 money that may be spent at Kew the people receive, therefore, 

 a rich return in the mere pleasure the gardens afford them ; but 

 this is really the least of the advantages derived from the 

 establishment. Its museum and herbarium contain elaborate 

 collections of the floras of all countries, and offer opportunities 

 for the scientific and practical study of botany which can no - 

 where else be found. Eew is also of great practical service in 

 promoting the distribution and proper cultivation of valuable 

 vegetable productions. Eight or nine thousand living plants 

 and about seven thousand seeds are annually sent thence to 

 various parts of the world. The precious Quinine plant has 

 thus been introduced into India, Ceylon, and Jamaica, and the 

 commercial success of the experiment has been established. 

 More than thirty gardeners trained at Kew are now employed 

 in forestry, Cotton, Tea, and Cinchona plantations, and govern- 

 ment gardens, and a far larger number are usefully employed in 

 other parts of the world. In fact, there is not a horticultural 

 establishment at home or abroad which would not acknowledge 

 its obligations to Eew. 



There is obviously only one means by which an establishment 

 of this character can be maintained in full efficiency. It must be 



