464 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ December 12, 1S72. 



early summer, lasting from two to three weeks. It is best 

 adapted for growing in a hanging pan. 



D. 3IeCarthiie, the native Mayflower of Ceylon, is a most 

 desirable species, of pendulous growth, about 2 feet long ; its 

 flowers are produced in racemes, bearing three or four of its 

 lovely blooms, some 3 inches across, in shape not unlike those 

 of a Thunia. The sepals and petals are extremely pointed, 

 and of a pinkish colour ; lip light and purple veined, the 

 recess full purple. Its lasting qualities greatly enhance its 

 value. If kept free from damp it will continue in perfection 

 for five weeks, or longer. A specimen of this has been shown 

 with one hundred flowers, the appearance of which must have 

 been magnificent. 



D. Bensonice, from Moulmein, is a distinct and truly hand- 

 some species, with sub-erect growths, 1 to 2 feet in length, 

 producing from near the points its delicate blossoms — two or 

 three together, which are nearly 2 inches across, and snow 

 white ; the lip with an orange disc, and two purple spots near 

 the base. It blooms in summer, lasting about three -weeks. 

 This is certainly one of the moat splendid forms of the Moul- 

 mein Orchids, which are both numerous and glorious objects. 



D. Devonianum. — Another Moulmein production, in praise of 

 which I cannot say too much. None is more worthy of the 

 attention of all lovers of Orchids. It should be grown in a 

 hanging basket, in which manner its lovely blossoms are seen 

 to perfection; the pendulous growths often attaining the length 

 of 3 or 4 feet, flowering from the points quite half way back. 

 The flowers are of a beautiful translucent white, purple-tipped, 

 with a slight tinge of rose ; the lip shaded "with bright orange 

 yellow, and its margin delicately fringed. These are produced 

 in May and June, lasting about a fortnight in perfection. This 

 and the preceding 'will endure a considerable amount of dry- 

 ness during the resting period. — C. J. White. 



WINTER-FLOWERING GERANIUMS. 



"When John Frost pays us a visit, and by the touch of his 

 cold hand makes our out-door flowers succumb, then is the 

 time that winter-flowering Geraniums will well supply the 

 deficiency, and be highly appreciated and useful. There is no 

 season of the year at which flowers are more coveted than 

 just after the grand supply out of doors has been stopped, 

 ladies especially expecting to have all the vases filled and 

 the rooms decorated the same as usual ; then how happy it 

 makes the gardener feel when he knows that he has a " reserve 

 force," which he has been preparing during the summer, 

 and which will do him good service. There is no class of 

 plants more effective and that can be secured at so little ex- 

 pense, for you may cut from them and come again; and now 

 that we have such a number of suitable varieties, and of nearly 

 all shades of colour, they will be of great assistance to the 

 gardener. 



For the preparation of the plants for the particular purpose 

 referred to, my plan is to take off cuttings in the spring of 

 sorts that are suitable and that I find flower freely. If I were 

 to give any preference to one part of the plant over another in 

 taking off the cuttings, it would be to the tops of the plants 

 that have bloomed well and are pretty firm in the wood, as 

 I think they are not inclined to make so much gross wood as 

 a cutting full of sap. The cuttings are inserted in 5-inch 

 pots, five or six in each pot, and placed in a pit which I use 

 for propagating in the spring ; but they will strike in any ordi- 

 nary greenhouse temperature. "When rooted they are potted- 

 ofi singly in 4-inch pots in a soil that we have here, which I 

 find supplies all their wants admirably without any addition, 

 except a sprinkling of bone dust : it is a light sandy loam. For 

 potting I have the turf cut about 3 inches thick, and stacked so 

 as to keep it as dry as possible, and for the abovenamed plants 

 it seems to have all the qualities necessary for the production 

 of dwarf, compact, free-blooming plants. I am convin e 1 they 

 would not do so well in the most complicated mixture that 

 we could prepare. After potting, the plants are returned to 

 the pit or any spare frame until they become established in 

 their pots, when they are shifted into 6-inch pots, and they 

 cau then be either set out of doors or in a cold frame ; .the 

 latter I prefer, as it keeps the wet from soddening the soil in 

 the pots. Abundance of air must be given night and day, 

 attention paid to pinching the shoots and picking oft all 

 blooms that appear during the summer, and they will make 

 compact bushy plants by the autumn. 



When the cold nights and mornings indicate that frost is 

 approaching I consider it time to put our reserve force in 



readiness. I then have all the plants placed on the potting- 

 bench ; a little of the surface soil is removed, and a top-dress- 

 ing of some fresh loam, with a little well-decomposed manure, 

 is applied. The plants are then removed to the greenhouse, 

 and air is given every day if possible. If the weather is very dull 

 and damp, a little fire heat will be necessary to keep the air of 

 the house circulating, and to dry up the damp. In a tempera- 

 ture not lower than 45°, nor higher than 50°, they will bloom 

 to perfection. They must be carefully watered now, so as to 

 make as little damp in the house as possible. Some guano in 

 the water twice a-week will be very beneficial, and considerably 

 increase the size of the blooms and the brightness of the 

 colours. 



I have found the following varieties very suitable — viz., 

 Duchess, Duchess of Sutherland, Excellent, Faust, Highgate 

 Bival, Diadem, International, Mdlle. Nillson, Madame Le- 

 mome, Mrs. William Paul, Madame Eudersdorf, Vivid, Lucius, 

 Jean Sisley, Lizzie, Le Grand, Eebecea, and Leonidas. These, 

 with others, are at the present time covered with bloom. It 

 would be interesting to many of your readers if some of your 

 correspondents would name a few sorts which they have proved 

 to be useful flowering varieties for winter. — J. Anderson, The 

 Gardens, Sill Grove, Kidderminster. 



THE HOME OF THE APPLE TREE. 



Wheke did our eating Apples come from? I am not 

 Darwinite enough to believe our Kibston Pippin ever came 

 from the Crab of our hedges, any more than I believe our 

 Editors ever had monkeys for their ancestors. I was much 

 struck with a passage in a work of George Chaworth Musters' 

 " Travels in Patagonia," where he mentions large woods of 

 Apple trees which the Indians visited every year to gather the 

 fruit. These are spoken of as far distant from any settlements 

 of the Europeans. Then, again, Adams, in his " Wanderings 

 of a Naturalist in India," writes of the Apples, Apricots, Wal- 

 nuts, ifcc, of Cashmere as if he had found them at home. 



In spite of the antiquity of cultivated Apples, one often sees 

 writers take it for granted the hedge Crab improved is the 

 source of all our varieties of this useful fruit. Why do they 

 not talk of the time when our cats were tigexs ? What is the 

 history, as far as known, of the cultivated Apples ? — J. E. 

 Pearson, Chilwell. 



STORING SOILS. 



Being often obliged to resort to numerous schemes to pro- 

 cure the required quantity and quality of soils for the various 

 uses in the garden, it struck me, on reading the recent article 

 by "E. F.," that a few additional hints, the results of consider- 

 able experience and observation, might not be uninteresting to 

 many. It must not be understood that I wish to detract in 

 any way from the instructive way in which "E. F." has put 

 the matter before the public, but rather to endorse more fully 

 all he has said in regard to the stacking of soils, believing that 

 by every additional ray of light that can be thrown on the 

 subject we discharge a duty which may be of importance in 

 guiding young cultivators, at least, to right conclusions. 



The practice of stacking soils in huge heaps cannot be too 

 strongly condemned ; it matters not whether it be loam of a 

 strong clayey nature, a light sandy loam, or even peat, the 

 practice is equally objectionable in all, and the longer soils 

 remain in such heaps the worse they become, in my opinion. 

 Look, for example, at a heap of strong loam where a quantity 

 has been cut down for use, and the face of the remaining heap 

 left undisturbed for, say, three weeks or a month, and not 

 exposed to the direct rays of the sun ; such a heap will inva- 

 riably be found to produce a green scum over the entire sur- 

 face, showing unmistakeably the stagnancy of the mass, and 

 how unfit it is to use for potting either Cucumbers or Melons, 

 or for. Vine-growing. Eetterto procure and char supplies as re- 

 quired from the trimmings of lanes and wayside commons ; or if 

 light loam be subjected to the huge-mass treatment, the chances 

 are the whole of the fibre becomes speedily decomposed, or, 

 maybe worse, it may be taken possession of by some dele- 

 terious fungus spawn. To attempt anything like high cul- 

 tivation with such soil is subjecting the cultivator to great 

 disappointment and discomfiture, as the plants or trees, or 

 whatever may be planted in it, refuse to grow, and can only be 

 induced by a great amount of coaxing to drag out a miserable 

 existence. Not long ago I was requested to give an opinion as 

 to the suitability of such a heap for Vine-growing purposes. 



