September 9, 1S96.] 



Garden and Forest. 



367 



applied in the house, and soon enough to get them all rooted 

 before the winter sets in. A compost of half leaf-mold and 

 half sand is used, and the runners are set thickly in boxes, 

 well watered and placed in a shady cool frame, there to stay 

 all winter. They are frozen up for at least six weeks every 

 winter, but this does not harm them if the frames are kept 

 closed until the arrival of warmer days, and the rooted plants 

 are kept in the boxes until it is time to put them in the open 

 air to harden off, and they are planted in their summer quar- 

 ters some time at the end of April or early in May. Plants 

 that we have now have not known what it is to be sub- 

 ject to fire-heat for several years, and 1 find that the expe- 



the result has been in each case that they were an easy prey to 

 disease, and we have now a number of the variety sent out as 

 the Farquhar that seem predisposed to spot, although they 

 were obtained from stock that was perfectly clean with the 

 grower last winter from whom they were purchased. 



All remedies tried up to this season have been of no avail to 

 even check the spot, but this autumn we are trying Sulpho- 

 napthol, a preparation sent out as a disinfectant, insecticide 

 and germicide. For the first purpose it is excellent, the 

 second very dangerous, and for the third use, at present writ- 

 ing, seems promising, ft is used in a one per cent, solution 

 with water, is easily soluble, and if effectual will be a cheap 

 remedy for a trouble that has hitherto baffled all 

 who have tried to do battle with it. It would be 

 well for others to experiment also and report their 

 results. 



Most people now have tried the Violet Cali- 

 fornia, and the opinions seem varied, to say the 

 least, but we have found it to be a really good 

 single flower, fragrant, of good color and ample 

 foliage. It would seem as if this kind would be 

 worth growing for the foliage alone ; it is stout and 

 makes up well with the flowers of other varieties, 

 for most growers are aware that in midwintergood 

 foliage is more difficult to obtain than flowers, and 

 with this fact in view we have decided to try a 

 good frame full of them, for they seem healthy and 

 vigorous so far. 



Violets require a cool house; in a night tempera- 

 ture of, say, forty degrees as a minimum, the plants 

 will thrive, and insect pests, as red spider and 

 plant-lice, will not, and if a whole structure cannot 

 be spared for Violets alone, Mignonette will lie 

 found an excellent companion plant ; the two thrive 

 under exacily similar conditions as to depth of soil 

 and temperature, excepting that it is almost im- 

 possible to make soil too rich for Mignonette. 

 The seed should be sown at the beginning of 

 August, but it is not too late now to sow and get 

 good results in winter and early spring months, if 

 some good strain of seed is chosen. Sutton's Giant 

 we have used for a number of years ; Allen's De- 

 fiance is a very large-growing variety, and if either 

 of these is not to hand Machet is quite satisfac- 

 tory, although strains of this vary very much. 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. 0. Or pet. 



Fig. 49. — Dodder growing on Onion Leaves. — See page 365. 



rience of other growers agrees with mine. This does away 

 with spring propagation when time is less easily found for it 

 than just now, and when space in the greenhouses is scarce. 



There seems to be no doubt that the ordinary system of 

 cultivating Violets has rendered the plants more susceptible 

 to disease, and this fact was emphasized the past week when I 

 saw a large number of plants in the open field with one of the 

 specialists in this vicinity. He pointed out a row of plants 

 that had been propagated from plants imported from England 

 this past spring, and one would have taken them for a distinct 

 variety, so vigorous were they, but all were Lady H. Campbell, 

 the variety that has given the most successes of any in past 

 years. We, in common with others, have been tempted to try 

 varieties that seemed more desirable on account of color, but 



Seasonable Flower Notes. 



CHIRONIAS are soft-wooded south African rep- 

 resentatives of the Gentian family which de- 

 serve to be better known. They are herbaceous 

 in habit and succulent in character. The whip-like 

 stems arise from a common root stock, arching 

 away gracefully on all sides. The stems are rather 

 sparsely covered with opposite lanceolate, bluish 

 green leaves. The salver-shaped, rosy pink flow- 

 ers are produced abundantly along the upper part 

 of the stems. A well-trained plant is a showy 

 object at this season, when flowers of its color for 

 conservatory decoration are uncommon. I saw 

 some fine specimens recently of C. baccifera at 

 N. T. Kidder's place at Milton, Massachusetts. The 

 plants were about two feet in diameter and about 

 the same in height, and a mass of bloom. They are 

 essentially cool-house plants, and can be easily in- 

 creased from soft cuttings. 



Allamanda Williamsi lias proved to be one of 

 the most valuable acquisitions of recent years. 

 Its dwarf bushy habit commends it for pot- 

 culture. It needs scarcely any training, or even 

 staking. One good stout stake will hold a large plant to- 

 gether. It stands well out-of-doors in either sunshine or 

 shade. Better growth is made in the sun, but the flowers air 

 shorter-lived. Plants which have hail a month or two of rest 

 out-of-doors bloom profusely all the winter. It strikes easily 

 from soft-wooded cuttings, and should soon bo abundant. 



Pyrethrum uliginosum is a common hardy border perennial, 

 and is scarcely thought of otherwise. Cuttings taken in early 

 June, topped onceand grown on in seven-inch pots, have n 

 pretty specimens about eighteen inches high, and nowcovered 

 with Daisy-like flowers. This Pyrethrum is rapidly becoming 

 a florist's flower, and since it does so well under glass and litis 

 cleaner and better-formed flowers 1 r stems, it is sale ti 1 



say it will be taken up by the florists and grown in the same 



