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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 12, 1872. 



ten times worse. You -will never get all these things to thrive 

 in company.' Well, for a time I did, but ere long the man of 

 more experience proved correct, and I had to cut out first this, 

 and then that, and ultimately devote the little house to one or 

 two, instead of half a dozen kinds of plants. 



"Tour house is 15J by 11 feet, and has a hipped roof ; the 

 long roof facing the east 8 feet, the short roof facing the west 

 4 feet. Tou propose devoting the last to Vines, and the former to 

 Cucumbers, from May to September, with the help of a dung 

 bed. I may state that the height of the house in front is 

 5J feet, height to angle of roof 10 feet. Now, as you wish to 

 combine these with flowers in winter — Primulas, Cinerarias, 

 Camellias, &c. — I say that you would command greater suc- 

 cess if you had some means of heating the houses. With 

 your large panes of glass you will grow Cucumbers well, and 

 also hardy Grapes ; but what will you do with your plants in 

 winter if there be a sudden frost. 



" Secondly, Though you gain in warmth with a hipped-roofed 

 house, you would be more successful, if you had heat, if 

 your house were span-roofed and faced east and west, as on 

 the whole, with unobstructed sunlight, that is the most favour- 

 able position for a house, for then the midday sun strikes 

 the house so as not to greatly interfere with the comfort of the 

 inmates. 



" Thirdly, I have grown Vines and Cucumbers successfully 

 under worse conditions, but I do not approve of mingling 

 them too much in one house. I seldom smoke Cucumbers, 

 but beginners will sometimes have to do so, and the smoke 

 does not at all times suit the Vines or Grapes. The two can 

 be well grown with experience and care. 



"Fourthly, As I can hardly see the state of your Vines re- 

 ferred to, I would advise you to purchase strong fruiting canes 

 from such nurserymen as advertise in these columns, and after 

 cracking the pot to pieces plunge it in good soil, and take what 

 you can get from it for a couple of years. As you are anxious 

 for fruit I would do so, if I paid from 7s. 6d. to 10s. for 

 strong plants unpruned. At the same time I would plant 

 carefully young plants at from 3s. Gd. to 5s., and cut them 

 back so as to be permanent Vines. The sorts I would recom 

 mend would be one Royal Muscadine (white) and one Black 

 Hamburgh. 



" Fifthly, The only place where I see in the circumstances 

 you could grow a Peach and Nectarine would be upon the 

 back wall that abuts against the hipped roof ; but you could 

 only succeed there by having an open space in the roof to give 

 light to the trees. With the east front covered with Cucum- 

 bers, and the west hipped roof with Vines, where is the light 

 to come from ? You might have some half a dozen or more 

 Peaches and Nectarines iu a fruiting condition in pots, and 

 could fruit thern before the glass is covered with foliage. 



" Although you set the fruit in spring, if the roof be covered 

 with the foliage of Vines and Cucumbers, there will be little 

 colour or flavour in the fruit. 



" In one word, I feel for you. I tried more than you 

 speak of, and failed as the permanent plants grew ; and one 

 word more, if you wish your little house to yield you pleasure 

 in winter, resort to some simple mode of heating. — R. F." 



PORTRAITS OP PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 

 FRUITS. 



Odontoglossum pardixum. Nat. ord., Orchidaceae. Linn, 

 arr., Gynandria Monogynia. — Discovered by Dr. Jameson in 

 the Andes of Ecuador. Panicle 2 to 3 feet long, spreading, 

 many-flowered. Flowers 2 inches in diameter, pale golden 

 yellow, with a few orange-red ocellated spots on the petals and 

 lip. Crest of two lateral wings with an erect spine. — (Bot. 

 Mag., 5993.) 



Cienkowskia Kiekii. Nat. ord., Scitaminea?. — Roots, tuber- 

 ous fibres. Stem formed of the sheathing petioles of the 

 leaves. Leaves large, with narrow translucent margins. Flow- 

 ers 2 inches broad across the lip, with a double perianth. 

 Inner perianth in two series ; three outer connate, sub-equal, 

 connate into a short tube at the base, white ; three inner con- 

 nate into a broad, round, expanded, three-lobed lip, split to 

 the base next the axis, pale rose-purple, with a bifid golden 

 spot opposite the anther. — (Bot. Mag., 5994.) 



Litanthus pusillus. Nat. ord. , Liliacea?. Linn, arr., Hex- 

 andria Monogynia. — A very small Liliaceous plant, with leaves 

 like green threads, and white nodding flowers. It is a native 

 of Southern Africa. Leaves 2 to 4 inches long, in pairs, erect. 

 Siape erect, rigid, about half the length of the leaves. Flow- 



ers solitary or in pairs, from one-sixth to one-quarter of an. 

 inch long. — (Bot. Mag., 5995.) 



Pelargonium oblongatum. Nat ord., Geraniacea?. Linn, 

 arr. , Monadelphia Pentandria. — A native of South Africa. Re- 

 markable for having a thick fleshy rootstoek, which is about 

 the size of a Carrot, being of a rich brown colour, and possess- 

 ing a kind of flaking bark. Flowers umbelled, numerous, pale 

 yellow.— (Bot. Mag., 5996.) 



Chrysanthemum (Pyrethrum) Mawii. Nat. ord., Composites. 

 Linn, arr., Syngenesia Superflua. — This plant is in certain 

 respects allied to the Myconia Chrysanthemum of the Medi- 

 terranean region. It is a native of the Greater Atlas, on the 

 lower range of which it is generally found. Heads about 1 to 

 1 J inch in diameter, solitary, long-peduncled ; peduncle gradu- 

 ally swelling upwards. Ray flowers about twenty ; ligule ob- 

 tusely three-toothed, white, rose-coloured at the back. Disk 

 flowers brown, tubular. — (Bot. Mag., 5997.) 



Waltham Cross Grape. — " This fine Grape is one of many 

 seedlings exhibited before the Fruit Committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society in the autumn of last year, and was 

 awarded a first-class certificate. The largest berries on the 

 bunch then shown were from 1J to li inch long. It is a late 

 variety, hanging on the Vine till spring. The constitution is 

 hardy, the Vine bears abundantly, and the berries set freely. 

 Although the berry resembles the Muscat of Alexandria in size 

 and form, the flavour and other characters are akin to the 

 Black Hamburgh. It will be sent out by Mr. William Paul in 

 the spring of 1S73. It may be expected to prove a fine late- 

 keeping white Grape. The bunches are very large, tapering, 

 and well-shouldered. The berries also are very large, oblong- 

 oval in shape, of a pale and very pure and clear amber colour ; 

 the skin membranous, enclosing a firm solid flesh, with a sweet 

 and pleasant flavour. It will be a desirable companion for 

 Lady Downe's Seedling." — (Florist and Pomologist, 3 s.,vol. v., 

 p. 217.) 



WEED EXTIRPATOR, 



Messes. Dick Radclyffe & Co., of 129- 

 High Holborn, London, have sent us a 

 weed extirpator, of which the accompany- 

 ing is an engraving, and which, we believe, 

 will be found useful for the purpose of 

 extirpating what are known to gardeners 

 as " root weeds." It is, as they state, very 

 light, and can be used without seriously dis- 

 turbing the surface. They recommend it 

 as being specially adapted for use on lawns 

 and croquet grounds, and give the follow- 

 ing directions for use : — Open the points 

 slightly, and insert them into the ground, 

 under the plant to be extirpated, raising 

 it by pressing on the fulcrum of the im- 

 plement. Remove the tool from the ground, 

 and pick out the weed with the points, 

 when it will be found to come away with 

 the roots unbroken, and little or no soil ad- 

 hering to them. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 

 The crop of Apricots at Coleshill Gardens, Berkshire, 

 an unusually heavy one, was entirely spoiled by mildew last 

 year. The fruit which ripened was small and flavourless, and 

 the trees seem to have received a great shock, for this year 

 they have produced but little blossom, borne no fruit, and 

 made but small growth, notwithstanding the continual mild 

 open weather. Such instances strengthen the opinion that 

 Apricots, Peaches, and Nectarines will soon require to be culti- 

 vated under glass shelters only. 



A French farmer has discovered that the use of tan is 



an efficient preventive against Potato disease. For three 

 years he has introduced a small quantity of the residue of the 

 bark used for tanning into each hole on planting his Potato 

 crop, and each time he has been completely successful in pre- 

 serving his fields free from the annoying disease. 



The prospects of splendid crops in the Agra district 



have been destroyed by locusts, which are, however, beirig 

 turned to account by other bipeds than birds, as they are said 

 to " make capital curry, very similar in flavour to prawns." 



We learn from a foreign paper that nuts of the " Tagua 



Tree " are being exported in great quantities from New 



