110 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ August 8, 1872. 



give us" the results of their experience. Should they be per- 

 manent or otherwise ? Should they be of wood or of stone ? 

 "What should be the width ? How should they be fixed ? 

 Should they have netting attached to them or not ? These are 

 questions which I for one should lite to see discussed. — E. 

 JijLRTRV^i'jBerkliampsted, Herts. 



ADVICE TO BEULAH— VARIEGATED 

 GERANIUMS. 



I ah glad that the sisters of Beulah agree so well together in 

 •Jheir gardening ideas. If they think that anything can be 

 good except from Chilwell, let them try May Queen ; they will 

 find it a good match for Pearl with even a better flower. But, 

 me judice, I do not think the flower ought to have anything 

 to do with the merits of a variegated-leaved Geranium. I take 

 off all the flowers from my variegated-leaved beds as I want 

 them either to be white, if of the white-edged section, or gold, 

 if of ithe tricolor, and the flowers prevent their harmonising 

 with other beds. Either pink or scarlet flowers on the top of 

 a white variegated bed interfere very much with the effect it 

 -ought to produce. Now, take off the flowers from Pearl and it 

 is no better than Miss Kingsbury, if so good, because there is 

 a dark zone in Pearl which is apt to get very dingy. 



I quite grant that for an independent bed, say a set of 

 circular beds on grass, where each bed is sufficiently separate 

 so as not to depend on any other beds, nor any other beds on 

 it, then'Pearl with its flowers on is veiy effective. But for a 

 white bed in combination I prefer Castlemilk, Mrs. Lennox, 

 and Mountain of Light, though the latter two do not grow 

 sufficiently in some places ; and for a cream-coloured bed 

 Elower of Spring, which has the best habit of any variegated- 

 leaved Geranium that has yet been sent out ; and I think, as 

 a rule, all variegated-leaved Geraniums of the white section 

 ought to be sports from varieties with pure green leaves "with- 

 out anv zone. — C. P. P. 



THE ORANGE FUNGUS ON ROSE LEAVES. 



Vte victis ! Tes, beaten I am, and not even did the Germans 

 •exact a heavier tribute than that which has been demanded 

 of me. I mentioned last year that I had had a very violent 

 invasion of orange fungus amongst my Eoses, and that I feared 

 my bloom for this season was spoiled ; but I had no idea then 

 of what I was to be subjected to. "Whether the ungenial spring 

 did it, whether soil has anything to do with it, or what has 

 been the cause, I know not ; but the fungus again appeared, 

 and half my Eoses are dead. Can anyone tell me what is the 

 cause or suggest a remedy ? Let me state the case. My 

 garden is open ; there is but little foliage near where the 

 Eoses are, certainly not enough to confine the currents of air ; 

 the soil is a light, rich, vegetable mould, some 3 feet deep, in 

 which anything ought to grow, and for two years nothing could 

 be finer than their growth. Last year, as I have said, the 

 orange fungus appeared. At first I was inclined to think the 

 soil might be too rich, but on looking over my beds I found 

 some plants growing vigorously, and others close to them dying 

 and dead. Most of the Eoses are on the Manetti stock, some 

 on their own roots. As if to make the matter still more per- 

 plexing, fine healthy plants which I received from Mr. Keynes 

 and Mr. George Paul are just as bad as those which I had 

 grown for years. It is very disheartening, and I should be 

 very thankful for any advice on the subject. — D., Deal. 



[We shall be obliged by communications relative to this 

 scourge of the Rose, for it is every year becoming more severe 

 and destructive. — Eds.] 



Death or Me. James Ivery. — We regret to have to announce 

 "the death of Mr. James Every, of Dorking, which took place on 

 the 2nd inst., in the forty-ninth year of his age. For many 

 years Mr. Ivery took a prominent place among floral nursery- 

 men as a successful raiser and cultivator of Azalea indica and 

 its varieties. To him our gardeners owe many varieties which 

 will long hold a prominent place among these highly popular 

 flowers. Among these we may mention Iveryana and Crite- 

 rion, though now old, yet ever new ; Admiration, Barclayanum, 

 Beauty of Dorking, Carnation, Flower of the Day, Gem, Fasci- 

 nation, Emma Ivery, <fec. Our correspondent "D., Deal," 

 adds — " No one has more encouraged the taste for our beauti- 

 ful British Ferns than he has done, and his wonderful col- 

 lections exhibited at many of our metropolitan shows have 



excited the admiration and wonder of the many who had been 

 previously unaware of the beauty that they possessed. As a 

 man he was singularly modest and unobtrusive, and one of 

 those to whom his collections were not only objects of interest 

 as to then.' money value, but for their own beauty, and as 

 evidences of Divine wisdom and power. He was a simply 

 religious and godly man." 



A CHEAP RAT TRAP. 



Foe the benefit of "J. C. J. B.," and others, I send you 

 a very simple and inexpensive mode of catching rats. The 

 trap consists of a hooked stick (fig. 1), a piece of straight 

 stick about 4 inches long, with one end chisel-pointed and a 

 slit in the other end, and a bender, or rod, about 4 feet long, 

 not too stiff. A bit of string is tied to one end of the bender, 

 and a piece of fine wire with a noose is attached to the string 

 and made fast to the chisel-pointed stick about an inch from 

 the slit end. 



To set the trap, the hooked stick is driven firmly into the 



ground about 9 inches from the rats' run, or hole, and the 

 bender is driven into the ground about 3 feet from it on the 

 same side of the run, or hole. The bender is then drawn down 

 to the hooked stick, and the chisel-pointed stick is put under 

 the hook and fixed in the notch, as shown in fig. 2. The wire 

 snare is put in the slit and adjusted in the run about 1 inch 

 from the ground. There may be several traps set on the 

 same run. Fig. 2 shows the trap when set. "When the rat is 

 caught he pulls the stick out of the hook and is immediately 

 suspended in the air, and is soon dead and out of the way of 

 the next comer, which passes on to the next trap, and is very 

 soon suspended likewise. There is no fear of catching game, 

 poultry, or cats in such traps, as is the case with iron ones. — 

 W. Graves, Great Lodge Gardens, Colebrook Park, Tonbridge 



HEATING BY HOT WATER AND HOT AIR. 



I am obliged by the willingness of the Editors of this Journal 

 to allow me to challenge discussion on the subject of the best 

 modes of heating under varying circumstances. The writer of 

 the remarks on the horticultural appliances at Birruinghain 

 has, I think, thrown down the first glove, and I beg pel-mission 

 to take it up. 



It is now some ten years and more since I read a paper by 

 Mr. Eobson (vol. i., new series, page 14S), which ended with 

 these words — " I must conclude with again requesting our 

 scientific friends in the firestove line to come forward and 

 give us a helping hand, for so long as we waste so much heat 

 in brickwork not wanting it, and in other ways allowing it to 

 go up the chimney, so long is our heating apparatus imperfect, 

 and the sooner it is improved the better, for it must be con- 

 fessed nothing in the garden line has made so little progress 

 for thirty years or more." I am not in the firestove line, 

 nor can I lay claim to being scientific, but I may without con- 

 ceit claim to be a friend to all of the gardening craft. For 

 years past I have worked iu the direction indicated by Mr. 

 Eobson ; and I must say that the plan submitted to inspec- 



