December 20, 1861. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAG-E GARDENER. 



493 



started (?) we find them desirous of having- union with local 

 societies, and what is to prevent them from putting their 

 shoulder to the Birmingham Society, and issuing a schedule 

 for a great fruit show to be holden once a-year during the 

 show week ? It might, however, be necessary to depute 

 from the Fruit Committee a certain number of delegates to 

 insure success and protection to the meeting. — fe Millek. 



CHAELES LEFEBYEE EOSE. 

 Amongst its other claims to be considered the finest 

 Hybrid Perpetual Rose in cultivation, may be added, if my 

 experience of it be correct, that of really deserving the 

 name of Perpetual. I have this day (December 8th), cut a 

 bloom of it, which for size, shape, and colour is as perfect 

 as if cut in the middle of the Rose season. It measured 

 51 inches across, and is, as I loot at it on my chimneypieee, 

 a rich treat at this time of the year. Undoubtedly this is 

 an exceptional season, but I think there are few Roses of 

 which such an account can be given now. Tou may get 

 them, it is true, but not in such character. 



_ I know it is the habit to decry Perpetual Roses, as if they 

 did nothing worthy of their name, but to have had, as I have 

 had, blooms for so many months, up to midwinter, surely 

 entitles them to some credit on this score. If persons expect 

 that their trees are to be for ever crowded with bloom as in 

 summer, of course they will be disappointed; but if their 

 expectations are moderate, I do not at all see that the nasne 

 is undeserved, and it is just possible that improved varieties, 

 with somewhat more of Bourbon blood in them, may yet give 

 us more autumn flowers than even at present. — D., Deal. 



DESTRUCTION OF EED SPIDEE. 

 Soot is a certain cure for red spider. No plant, that I know 

 of, is more subject to them than Kitley's Goliath, a much 

 batter Strawberry than has ever been allowed. I have re- 

 introduced it. It is better than many that come out at high 

 prices. It is obtuse-coned, subject to white tips, but fine, a 

 ieavy cropper, and of good flavour. Red spider drove it out 

 of general cultivation. Some years ago I had some plants 

 sent to me to plant covered with them like Cayenne pepper, 

 I put in the plants, watered them and the whole surface of 

 ile ground, and then I put on the soot till nothing but soot 

 could be seen. I never saw anything more of the red spider. 

 3Ty present Goliaths are perfectly free from this pest. In 

 two places I have seen Goliath perfectly devoured by it. 

 Perhaps soot mixed with the sulphur and clay might be of 

 service to the fruit trees of "G. W." (page 472). Insects 

 detest ammonia, and in no form can you apply it so inno- 

 cently as with soot, which containing nitrogen is conducive 

 to the prosperity of vegetation. When sown over Straw- 

 berry plants it enables them greatly to resist severe frosts. 

 o-W. F. Radclyfee, Eushton. ■ 



CEF/SHED BONES AS A MANURE. 



I should feel obliged by any of your correspondents 

 stating if any injury has arisen to their plants by the use 

 of crushed bones. Mr. Rivers, in his "Orchard-House," 

 recommends the use of one quart of bones to every potted 

 fine, mixed intimately with the soil ; and, in your answers 

 to correspondents, I see them recommended to be placed 

 gear the bottom of the pot. Now, I had some nice young 

 Tines last autumn, two years from the eye, intended to 

 ffruit the present season, which were healthy and well-rooted 

 sphen potted, and to which I applied about one quart of 

 fresh bones, crushed, mixed with, the soil, and I expected 

 good results. From about ten such Vines I have not had a 

 Sunch ; they have grown very badly, and have not ripened 

 their wood. Satisfied that something was radically wrong, 

 1 examined their roots, and found them very poor and 

 aotten, and some roots, as thick as the stem of a pipe, which 

 jtook healthy, are in some places shrunk to half their size, 

 and at such places they easily break. 



My sister, also, hearing of the virtues of bones, used some 

 for her Fuchsias, which have done pretty well; but, on 

 repotting, she finds very few roots, whilst, in other seasons, 



without bones, the soil has been one complete mass of 

 roots. 



My opinion is that the bones have generated some fungus 

 or other in the soil, which has produced the effect described. 

 Favour me with your opinion, and say should the bones be 

 raw or boiled, or vitriolised. —J. J. 



[A quart of crushed bones we consider quite enough for 

 a bushel pot. Using raw bones extensively has just pro- 

 duced the same effect as using putrifying flesh in the 

 soil. Boiled bones, or old bones, may be used more freely. 

 Vitriolised bones, as superphosphate of lime, may be used 

 safely in moderation, and best as a top-dressing — say 2 ozs. 

 at a time to a 15-inch pot. We, too, have been thwarted 

 once or twice by using raw fresh bones. If unavoidably 

 used theyshould be placed in the soil at some distance from 

 the roots. I 



VINES IN AN OECHAED-HOUSE. 



I see one of your correspondents does not agree with me 

 on the value of the Trenthatn Black Grape for a cold house, 

 and says his plant does not set its fruit well. I have two 

 bearing-eanes of this variety, one in a warm house and one 

 in an orchard-house without fire heat. From the first we 

 gathered about 40 lbs. weight of beautiful fruit, as well set 

 as Black Hamburghs, larger, richer, and thinner skinned, 

 and it has been quite as satisfactory in the two previous 

 seasons. I know it to be correct, having had the plant direct 

 from Trentham. As I wrote before, it was in every respect 

 superior to Black Hamburgh in the cold house. 



Now, as both of our houses have a good deal of air given 

 to them, is it not possible that your corrrspondent's house 

 may have been too close and damp ? There must be some 

 reason if we could but find it out why Vines behave so dif- 

 ferently in one place to what they do in another. Ask a man 

 whose soil is dry and who gives a great deal of heat to his 

 Vines, what he -thinks of Barbarossa, and he will, perhaps, 

 tell you it is the best of all late Black Grapes. We all know 

 what it is as generally seen. So of the true Black Alicante. 

 I have grown it for years in two houses, one warmer than 

 the other. In the warmer house it is equal to the Lady 

 Downes' and keeps better; in the other, which had heat 

 enough to ripen Black Hamburghs thoroughly in October, it 

 is hardly fit to eat, though quite black and equal in appear- 

 ance to those in the warm house. There is much to learn 

 about fruit; let each give his opinion a.nd the reasons for it, 

 and it will be mutually beneficial. — J. K. Peakson, Chilwell. 



CHEYSANTHEMUM "BOB." 

 Two gardeners here in New York had a dispute about the 

 date when Chrysanthemum " Bob " was first introduced, 

 raised, or sold in England. The one contends that it was 

 cultivated in England in 1850, the other says it was not out 

 at that time. Will you oblige us by answering the above. — 

 J. W. Wood. 



[We sent the above letter to the best authority we know 

 on all that relates to the Chrysanthemum, and the following 

 is his reply : — " Bob was raised by an English florist at 

 Lyons, named Smyth, about 1852. I sent it out in 1854. — 

 John Saltek, Versailles Nursery."'] 



Cetodeen's Chrysanthemum: Show. — A Chrysanthemum 

 Show on a small scale, took place at the school-room of 

 Summer Town, near Oxford, on Monday last, the exhibitors 

 being the children educated there. With the view of foster- 

 ing a love for flowers amongst the children, one hundred 

 young plants were distributed in the spring to about thirty 

 of them, boys and girls, by a late resident (Professor J. 0. 

 Westwood), the only restriction being that the children 

 undertook to cultivate the plants themselves without assist- 

 ance. Small prizes were offered, not so much for fine flowers 

 as for care bestowed on the plants. The late dry summer 

 proved unfavourable for the experiment, but seventeen o 

 the children produced their plants on Monday last, to nine 

 of whom prizes were accordingly given ; several of the plants 

 being carefully trained and nicely bloomed. The girls ap- 

 peared to have bestowed as much pains on their plants as 

 the boys. — {Oxford Journal.) 



