98 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEH. 



[ August 1, 1672. 



growers, as the want of it is the rock upon -which so many 

 rounder. — Expebto Ceede. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 

 We are informed that prizes for collections of Economic 

 Entomology are offered for competition in 1873, and the 

 following rules relating thereto hare heen issued by the Royal 



HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY : 



i£10 for a collection of British insects injurious to some one 

 order of plants used for food, as Craciferie, Leguminosffl, or 

 Corn. The order may be selected by the competitor. 



£3 for a miscellaneous collection of British insects injurious 

 to plants used as food. 



i;5 for a collection of British beetles injurious to timber and 

 fruit trees either growing or felled. 



_ £2 for a collection of British insects injurious to some one 

 timber or fruit tree. 



The insects to be exhibited in their various stages of develop- 

 ment, accompanied by specimens, models, or drawings of the 

 injuries caused by them. 



The collections to be sent in, addressed to James Bichards, 

 Esq., Assistant Secretary, Eoyal Horticultural Society, South 

 Kensington, S.W., on or before November 1st, 1878. 



— — — We understand that Mr. Becokd, whose name is so 

 familiar to our readers by his thoroughly practical articles, 

 and who is well known as an excellent gardener, is about to quit 

 the charge of the gardens of Hatfield House, in which he has 

 effected great improvements. We feel assured that, wherever 

 his lot may be cast, whatever he may do wiE be well done. 



The valuable collection of Oechids belonging to the 



late Rev. William Ellis was sold at Stevens's rooms on 

 the 19th and 20th of July, and realised between £500 and 

 ^600. Dendrobium Falconeri brought £12; Aerides Sehroderi 

 the same; fine plants of Oncidlum sarcodes and maeranthum, 

 £5 10s. to £6 ; Angrsecum Ellisii, £6 10s. ; and Laslia Ellis- 

 iana, £7. 



CAMPANULA VIDALII. 



This little-known half-hardy plant is one of the most 

 beautiful of the numerous and ornamental family to which it 

 belongs. It is a native of the Azores, Eaving been found by 

 ■Capt. Tidal, after whom it is named, on Flores, one of that 

 group of islands. When first introduced by means of seeds by 

 Mr. Wallace two or three and twenty years ago, it was feared 

 "that, being a maritime plant, it would prove difficult of culti- 

 vation ; but experience has removed this impression, for 

 among really valuable ornamental plants there are few more 

 •easy to cultivate. 



The beauty of the flowers, their profusion and long-lasting 

 -quality, commend this Campanula powerfully for the purpose 

 of summer and autumn decoration of the cool conservatory or 

 greenhouse. The distinct type of its beauty and habit of 

 growth distinguishes it from anything at present in general 

 use -for conservatory embellishment. Well-grown plants, either 

 large or small, with their masses of creamy-white flowers in 

 sturdy yet graceful spikes or panicles, would contrast well with, 

 and relieve the masses of Pelargoniums of various kinds that 

 are to an almost exclusive extent so generally employed during 

 summer and autumn in the conservatory. The Campanula 

 will cost no more but rather less than those latter in the shape 

 of trouble and labour, while in most respects their culture, 

 after they have passed the seedling stage, is so much alike, 

 that it may be conducted in the same structure or under the 

 same conditions, whether in-doors or out-doors, during summer. 



I have seen it succeed very fairly as a bedding plant in the 

 hot dry neighbourhood of London, but thought it suffered 

 Tather from atmospheric than earth drought. I used to keep 

 up a specimen of it in its place, out of doors, in the herb- 

 aceous department at Kew, but the hot sandy soil and arid 

 atmosphere at midsummer proved rather trying to it : it lost 

 much of its foliage, though its flowers endured well. In all 

 the warmer coast localities of England, Ireland, and Scotland, 

 exeept, perhaps, the north-east coast of the latter, there is no 

 doubt it would succeed well as a bedding plant, and as a sum- 

 mer and autumn-flowering auxiliary to the mixed border. For 

 this purpose it would require different treatment to those that 

 might be grown to full-sized specimens for in-door purposes, 

 but more of that afterwards. 



The habit, it has been stated, is good, and the flowers pro- 

 fuse and beautiful ; but a little more particular description of 

 the whole plant may serve to interest my readers a little more 



deeply in this very ornamental subject. I have never grown 

 plants of a greater age than three years, and t hin k they are 

 not worth growing after two years, because the perfection of 

 the habit is reached then, and begins to decline afterwards. 

 A well-grown two-year-old plant will be furnished with several 

 tiers of stout branches arranged in the fashion of a many- 

 branched candelabrum, and extending in all directions from 

 the stem about 18 inches outwards, but somewhat graduated 

 in length, the lower tiers being longest, the upper ones shorter, 

 and the plant will be about S feet high. The leaves are thick, 

 softly leathery, dark and shining green, about 5 inches long, 

 half an inch wide at the point, and diminishing slightly to- 

 wards the base, and arranged in a loosely roseolate fashion at 

 the extremities of the branches. The flower-stems terminate 

 the branches, and are from 1 to li foot in length, bearing 

 numerous creamy-white pendulous flowers in open spikes or 

 panicles. The flowers are about three-quarters of an inch in 

 length, and nearly as wide at the base, but narrower at the 

 mouth or opening of the corolla, the extreme edge of which is 

 slightly recurved. Like the leaves, they are thick and of a 

 shining waxy appearance, and retain their freshness for a long 

 time after opening. 



As to cultivation, it has already been stated that the plant 

 is perennial, but is liable to decrease in beauty after the 

 second year, if it has been well grown and freely flowered. This 

 is owing to the fact that the branches after flowering die off, 

 and are not reproduced, but merely succeeded by new tiers 

 higher on the stem, thus causing annually increasing legginess. 

 This being the case, it is requisite to treat the plant after the 

 manner of biennials, so as to have an annual succession of 

 young vigorous stock. 



Plants may be flowered the first season from, seed if desired, 

 but will be small, though no doubt useful in many ways, 

 coming into flower as they do in the months of August and 

 September. Li order to flower them the first season, the seed 

 should be sown in a propagating house or hotbed in February ; 

 if not to be flowered the first season, sowing may be deferred 

 till the end of March or beginning of April. The seedlings 

 should appear in ten or fourteen days after sowing, and when 

 they can be handled, should be pricked off into small 60-pots^ 

 singly, and placed in a rnild hotbed. When they are weE 

 established in these, let them have anothe. - shift, and be 

 established in the larger pot before taking them out of heat. 

 They may be grown either in the open air or in a cold frame 

 during summer, the latter being preferable, because they are 

 then subject to fewer alternations. Shifting on as they increase 

 in size. wiE require to be carefully attended to ; but if they are 

 to be flowered the same season there must be no shifting after 

 the end of June tiU the flower-sterns begin to make their ap- 

 pearance, when they may receive a small shift. Those that 

 are not to be flowered till next year may receive their last shift 

 for the season so late as the middle of August. A cool rather 

 dry greenhouse temperature is the best to winter them in ; if 

 frost is kept from them, that is all the protection they require 

 from cold, but they are impatient of damp. 



In pot culture, a compost of turfy loam two parts, with one 

 part old well-decomposed manure, and a very liberal dash of 

 gritty sand, and nodules of charcoal or old lime rubbish with 

 the dust sifted out, will grow the plant to perfection. It re- 

 quires to be well drained, but also to be well supplied with 

 water when making growth, and is benefited by occasional 

 waterings with Equid manure. In large specimens the branches 

 may require the support of stakes as they begin to increase in 

 weight before flowering, but they acquire their natural sym- 

 iii' rv best when left alone tiE then; and unless the speci- 

 men happens to be deformed from any cause, any artfulness 

 in training is neither needful nor tasteful. 



Plants for the flower garden should not be raised till June ; 

 they will not flower early enough to be of any use in the open 

 air the first season, no matter how early they may be raised. 

 Three-inch pots will be large enough to winter them in, and 

 early in the following March they should be shifted into pots 

 two sizes larger, which, if space cannot be allowed for larger 

 plants than these are capable of sustaining, wiE be sufficient 

 for them till they can be placed in the open ground. About 

 the middle or end of July they will begin to unfold their 

 flowers, and will continue to do so to the end of the season. 

 The trouble and labour of tending seedlings of this descrip- 

 tion for nearly a whole season will present a serious objection 

 to the adoption of this fine plant as a bedding subject, especi- 

 ally where labour is at a premium ; but stock cannot be kept 

 i up satisfactorily in any easier way. 





