40 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t July 11, 1872. 



the glass is at command, where a temperature of from 55° to 

 60° can be maintained throughout the winter, the plants will 

 keep growing a little. This winter growth should be carefully 

 managed ; for if not, the plants will get weak and drawn ; and 

 when the time comes in spring for them to make a start, then' 

 vigour is gone. About November look them aU over, giving 

 those a shift into a size larger that would suffer before the fol- 

 lowing February, replacing them in the same quarters, where 

 they may have the benefit of all the sun possible, attending to 

 them with water, but never allowing the soil to get sour. On 

 bright afternoons dew them over with the syringe, also the 

 paths of the house. SmaU stakes should be put to each to 

 train the leader up, which ought not to be stopped unless side 

 shoots are not forming freely, the result of the wood being too 

 hard when the cutting was taken. By the foUowing February 

 many wiU require larger pots, which should be weU drained, 

 laying a little moss over the crocks ; then sprinkle a little soot 

 over all, which will keep worms from entering, using good, rich, 

 mellow loam, leaf soil, with a liberal quantity of old cow dung 

 put through a half-inch sieve. At this stage, if they could be 



placed in a Peach house at work, not too far from the glass; 

 where the trees wiU shade them from the brightest of the sun, 

 they wiU grow very fast. Constant attention will be needed now 

 in watering and pinching to keep the plants in proper shape ; re- 

 pot whenever the roots have got all round the sides of the pot. 

 When 11-inch pots are reached, they will be large plants — 

 large enough for the ordinary purposes of decoration. 



When the last pinching is performed, it should be when every 

 shoot can be pinched at once, so that the plants may be in flower 

 all over at one time. Whenever the roots get to the side of the 

 pots of the last shift, begin to give manure waterings regularly 

 until flowering is past ; also syringe daily up to the time the 

 plants are removed to the greenhouse. When past flowering 

 let them be weU ripened and put away where sharp frost 

 cannot get to them. If brought out and pruned in January, 

 when a vinery is to be started, they will come in very early be- 

 fore their time of flowering the previous year. By striking 

 another lot in February, nice plants can be had in 6 and 8-inch 

 pots, a size which in autumn we find more useful than any. — 

 A. H., Thoresby (in The Gardener). 



NEW BOOK.' 



My Garden, Its Plan and Culture; together with a General Descrijjtion of Its Geology, Botany, and Natural Histcry. 

 By Alfred Shee, F.R.S., &c. London : Bell & Daldy. 



View of the River in Beddington Park. 



Explicit as is the title of this work, it conveys a very inade- 

 quate idea of what the book really contains, not because it is 

 not sufficiently specific, but because few even of those who 

 possess a garden are aware of the almost boundless interest it 

 possesses and the vast extent of subjects it offers as food for 

 the min d. When Gilbert White wrote his " Natural History 

 of Selbourne," what feelings of wonder must have risen in the 

 minds of his fellow parishioners to know that they had been 

 living aU their days surrounded by objects and occurrences, the 

 mere relation of which excited the admiration of the whole 

 community, and yet they had neither observed nor heard of 

 them. And so it is with those who call themselves gardeners. 

 They talk intelligently on rotation of crops, of selection and 

 hybridisation, fruit and vegetable culture, and bedding-out 

 and plant-growing ; but beyond the mere operations of produc- 

 tion and reproduction, we doubt much if there are many, if 

 any, who give a thought to the other constituents which go to 

 make up what we include by the term " a garden." No object 

 has eluded Mr. Smee's watchful eye. The smallest insect that 

 crawls across a flower, and stimulates with its tiny feet the 



reproductive power of some great magnate of the garden, is 

 not too small for his attention. Even the polyps and animal- 

 cules of the streams receive abundant notice; and the fish, 

 the birds, and the garden animals receive as much attention in 

 their turn as the gayest flowers or the most luscious fruits. 



Mr. Smee's garden " is situate at Wallington Bridge, in the 

 ha m let of Wallington, in the parish of Beddington, in the 

 county of Surrey." The beauty of the situation may be con- 

 ceived from the two illustrations we furnish, taken from the 

 work and placed at our disposal bv the author. The first is a 

 view of the river in Beddington Park, and the other a moon- 

 light scene looking across the lake (see page 41 1 . 



The work before us is as complete a book of the garden as 

 can possibly be imagined, and educationally it is the best book 

 we know to place in the hands of youth to cause them to 

 observe and think about the objects with which they come in 

 contact in their home life and pursuits. First of all, after 

 treating of the topography of his garden Mr. Smee enters very 

 fully into the geology of the garden ; then he describes its 

 general plan, how it is laid out, and how beautified, and he 



