158 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 23, 1864. 









VEGETABLES. 

















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TEADE CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 



William Paul, Paul's Nurseries, Waltham Cross. — Select 

 IAst of Hyacinths, Early Tulips, Gladioli, Src. 



Cutbusli & Son, Highgate. — Bulb Catalogue for 1864. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*#* We request that no one will write privately to the de- 

 partmental writers of the " Journal of Horticulture, 

 Cottage Gardener, and Country Gentleman." By so 

 doing they are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and 

 expense. All communications should therefore be ad- 

 dressed solely to The Editors of the Journal of Hoiiticul- 

 twre, Sec, 171, Fleet Street, London. B.C. 



We also request that correspondents will not mix up on the 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those 

 on Poultry and Bee subjects, if they expect to get them 

 answered promptly and conveniently, but write them 

 on separate communications. Also never to send more 

 than two or three questions at once. 



N.B. — Many questions must remain unanswered until next 

 week. 



Geraniums (A Subscriber).— From the state in which, the petals were 

 when the blooms arrived the deter ruination of the names was impossible. 



Aphis Destroying (iV. ir. M.).— The leaves are infested with' a kind of 

 aphis, which is very prolifi c, and equally difficult to destroy, and which 

 does most injury on the under side of the leaf. Smoking the house with 

 tobacco is of little use unless the house be filled with smoke to the floor, for 

 immediately the least smoke is felt they drop on the floor and are then, out 

 of harm's way. Tobacco smoke will certainly kill all it touches; but the 

 most effectual remedy is to syringe the plants with quassia water made by 

 toiling' 4 ozs. of quassia chips in a gallon of water for ten minutes, and while 

 cooling dissolve in it 4 ozs. of soap. The plants syringed with this, or the 

 leaves and shoots dipped in it, will soon be cleared of the pest. It may be 

 necessary to repeat the operation. Probably the roots are in too rich soil 

 and too deep, and this would cause an imperfect ripening of the wood. We 

 do not feel in a position to express an opinion on the border unless we had 

 details as to its depth and width, and the situation of the roots in it, with the 

 age of the trees. If the trees are young and the border not deeper than 

 2 feet, we should wait another year and see what effect a season like this will 

 have on maturing the wood. 



Coltsfoot Eradicating (Ignoramus). — If you persist in digging up the 

 roots of every plant as it appears, and never allow a leaf to remain a 

 day without the root belonging to it being dug up, you will find your per- 

 severance will enable you to completely overcome this weed, and a 

 thorough drainage of the land will also assist in doing so. Yon will find 

 directions for keeping Geraniums, Verbenas, and Calceolarias without heat 

 in Vol. VI., page 447. 



■Wire Plant-stand for Window (.E i).).-We fear you have again 

 allowed another error to creep in. Should it not be 3 feet 11 inches long, 

 1 foot deep, by 1 foot wide? If so, you will have room for two rows of 

 24 or six-inch pots,, and by cnnsultinga wireworker he will suggest many 

 designs without the carpenter being at the trouble and you the expense of 

 his carving one in wood. You may have the bottom of zinc, and have wire- 

 work for the pots to fit. into. The wireworker will tell you what will be 

 suitable, and make the stand according to your directions. 



Fruit-houses (6?. W. P.). — We would call a house for Fig trees a Fig- 

 house, one for Orange trees an orangery; but figery would be equally 

 proper 1 hough not customary. 



Dittany of Crete (De Foix). — Any nurseryman who has a good stock 

 of herbaceous plants could supply it. 



Elephant's Foot [An Under- Gardener).— From your description we 

 have no doubt that your plant is Testudinaria elephant! pes, which is known 

 as Elephant's Foot or Hottentot's Bread, It iB a deciduous climber attain- 

 ing a height of 8 feet, and a native of the Cape of Good Hope. The leaves 

 are reniform and entire ; and the rootstock is a large fleshy mass covered 

 with a rough cracked bark, and iBused by the Hottentots in times of scurcifty 

 as a sort of Yam, It is mentioned in the *' Cott ag* Gardeners' Dictionary " 

 under the head of Testudinaria. The genus Elephantopus is also known as 

 Elephant's Foot. Little David Geranium belongs to the Zonale class. 



Evergreen shrub for Porch (Yorkshire). — What reason have your 

 friends for obtaining their K.ose3 from Antwerp, and Pears, Apples, &c., 

 from France ? We are quite sure that you will be quite as well served by 

 any of the English nurserymen, taking correct nomenclature and quality 

 into consideration. We know of no evergreen plant better suited for a 

 porch than the evergreen Thorn, Crataegus pyracantha. Crataegus crenn- 

 lata is, if anything, more handsome, and produces larger fruit in mid- 

 winter. There are red and white berried varieties'. 



Moss on Floor of Stove ( Toby) . — Sprinkle the floor with sand, after 

 thoroughly wetting it, and then brush it heavily with a brush three-parts 

 worn. Continue to scrub it, adding more sand and water, until the whole 

 is thoroughly clean. It. will take some time to clean it. Salt made into a 

 strong brine by the addition of water will kill the moss, bat will also kill 

 the roots of everything it comes in contact with, and has the disadvantage 

 of making the floor appear always damp. We know of no safe cure except 

 scrubbing at frequent intervals. 



Veebascuk blattaria— Csnoglossum (T. Theohold).r-Yom' plant will 

 doubtless, flower next year. Any of the large nurserymen near York 

 could, we imagine, supply you with a plant of the common Hound's Tongue. 

 Tacsonia manicata and Bignonia jasminoides not Blooming (J. J'.). 

 — We think neither of the plants named have had their wood sufficiently 

 ripened in the preceding summer to allow of their blooming in the succeed- 

 ing year. Pot them in a compost of turfy loam one-half, leaf mould and 

 sandy peat the other half, with a free admixture of silver sand, providing 

 good drainage to at least one-fourth the depth of the pots. Place the pots 

 as near to the frant of the greenhouse -ie practicable, and train the shoots 

 to wires, fixed so as to be about 9 inches from the glass. Keep well supplied 

 with water whilst the plants are growing, but towards autumn gradually 

 diminish the supply, and keep the soil moderately dry during the winter, 

 aad the shoots moderately thin. Your plants ought, to bloom in the follow- 

 ing year. Now is a good time to sow Fern spores.. 



Cucumber-pit or House (An Amateur).— For the mode of connecting 

 small pipes with large ones, we refer you to the admirable letter of " An Ama- 

 teur Mechanic." We- have several times recommended the same plan, hut 

 the experience of our correspondent is none the less- interesting. Had you 

 stated the particulars of your failures with your tank, we might have been able 

 to have helped you. A tank IS feet long, 2 feet 9 inches wide, and 5 inches 

 deep, formed of wood and covered with slate, ought to have grown first-rate 

 Cucumbers in a low house or pit, if care were taken that the roots were 

 not burned, and also tint from the surface of ike tank a dry or a moist 

 heat at will could be carried into the atmosphere of the house. If there were 

 no means of top heat except through the soil, then we can easily imagine 

 how the soil mig':t be too hot and the air too cold. We have several times 

 eriven plans for pits for Cucumber-growing. A very good one on a small scale 

 would be, height at back 8 feet, iu front 4 feet, width 7 feet, bed 4 feet in 

 width, path from 2.1 feet; two four-inch pipes below the bed, surrounded 

 with clinkers, for bottom heat, two above bed for top heat, plants trained at 

 least 1 6 inches from glass. In your proposed position you would, of course-, 

 form a house, and that would be much better. You do not say what is 

 the height of the gable against which the house is to be placed; but_ pre- 

 suming it is 14 or 16 feet in height, we would adopt either of these heights 

 for the- back wall ; and for 10 feet in width we would make the front wall 

 from 3£ to 4 feet in height. This would give a fine slope either for early 

 Cucumbers or early Vines. Then for Cucumbers we would shut off a pit — 

 —say 3^ or 4 feet wide, and 2£ feet in height, the outside wall forming one 

 of the boundaries. Then we would place two four-inch pipes at the bottom 

 for bottom heat, and one in front returning by the back for top heat. The 

 bottom ones we would surround with clinkers, the top one in front to be 

 opposite the ventilators in the wall, roof fixed, and a smallhinged ventilator 

 along the top— say a foot wide. Trellis 16 inches irom the gla*a. For vary 

 early Cucumbers three pipes would be required for top heat. The back of 

 the house could be devoted to many purposes, yuch a house with different 

 arrangements would do either for Cucumbers or Grapes, hut not well for 

 both at the same time. See an answer about Melons and Or rap.es. 



Vinery with Melon-pit [H. R. D. P.).— We think we recollect your 

 case and. what we said about it ; but you "should have referred us to page 

 and column, as we have turned up several Numberc, and without finding 

 what we wanted. We will do the very best for every correspondent at the 

 time; but it would be impossible for us to retain individual cases in our 

 memory, and our friends should not give us unnecessary labour. We 

 sometimes receive poiite requests as to what volume such and such articles 

 are to be found in, but we decline to do that for our readers which they could 

 so well do for themselves. Now to the questions of our worthy corre- 

 spondent. 1, You may plant the Vines outride, with the certainty of 

 ripening good Grapes in June if the house is spouted and the biTder pro- 

 tected wirh litrer and tarpaulin. As stated lately, if put on soon '•nough— 

 say in the middle of October— dry litter or fern will be better than dung, just 

 because it is safer and easier to keep in the heat of the soil than to send 

 heat into it when it has been cooled. 2, You could grow Melons or Cucum- 

 bers in a pit in the centre of the house, and you would do so earlier and 

 better if you had lights to lay over the pit or frame. These lights would 

 enable you to afford a high temperature, or otherwise, to the plants in the 

 "bed, when you might be merely starting and breaking your Vines, and when 

 a high temperature for them would be unsuitable. We have grown fine 

 Melons in such positions, especially when the Vines were young. Whilst 

 your Vines wece young you might so employ your pit for a year or two 

 with advantage, if you looked after insects. You might continue to do so 

 if you kept your Vines from 4 to 6 feet apart, and were very careful as 

 to insects. If for the sake of abundance of Grapes you pretty well covered 

 the roof with foliage, you would do little good with the Melons under the 

 shade, and they would be more apt to ba troubled with insects, In faot, 

 owing 1 to the likelihood of insects, we would give up the use of the pit for 

 anything except a few early things, after the Vines were fully ostablishedv 

 3, You will have abundance of heat from your flue, and. therefore for 

 Melons will want no sashes, after the heat of the house ranges from 6o> to 

 70° with fire heat, The size of the flue is very good. For early work you. 

 had better have pans on it for evaporating moisture, until your crops 

 approach the ripening state. 4, We think your ventilation will be sufficient, 

 but, to make sure, you had better have a little piece made to open in the 

 end of the house close to the apes. 



Mushrooms (An. Amateur of Six Months).— If you send us your address, 

 together with four postage stamps, the dumber which you require will be 

 forwarded to you. 



