2 5 8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 331. 



Cucumbers may be sown at intervals of a fortnight up to the 

 middle of July in the open ground. Plants of the English 

 frame varieties in houses or frames should have soakings of 

 liquid manure twice a week, and Lettuces, if similarly treated, 

 will pay for the extra labor. Sowings of Lettuce every ten 

 days should not be neglected. If White Okra and Martynia have 

 been overlooked it is not yet too late to put in a sowing of 

 them. Melons, Squashes and Cucumbers, while young, must 

 be examined daily while in a growing state. We have found 

 tobacco dust an excellent preventive of the squash-bug, but 

 it should be sprinkled upon the lower sides of the leaves as 

 well as the upper side, or the work of destruction will con- 

 tinue Egg-plants will be devoured while young by potato- 

 bugs if they are neglected. The best remedy in this instance 

 is hand-picking. 



During moist weather plant out Brussels Sprouts, Savoys 

 and Curled Borecole. Sowings of Cauliflower, Borecole, Beet 

 Sweet Corn and Turnips are still seasonable. Leeks, when of 

 sufficient size to handle, should be planted out nine inches 

 apart in well-enriched ground, and if the weather is at all dry 

 the young plants should be watered well. The fact is that no 

 vegetable-garden is satisfactory unless it has a good water- 

 supply If the ground is properly piped and hydrants are 

 placed as they should be, a hose and sprinkler can usually 

 be kept running constantly in different parts of the garden 

 with benefit to many of the crops. A vegetable-garden, with 

 a o-ood soil and exposure and all the needful appliances, may 

 bcfmade quite as beautiful as any flower-garden and quite as 

 interesting to any intelligent cultivator. Crai°- 



Taunton, Mass. " ° ' 



Work in the Conservatory. 



DURING June and July plants in the conservatory take up 

 o-reater quantities of water than at any other season,^ if 

 they are in a healthy condition, for root-action is now rapid, 

 and the nights being also drier than they are later in the year, 

 more frequent syringing should be given. _ _ 



In a house chiefly devoted to foliage-plants a light syringing 

 two or three times a day during bright weather will help to 

 protect the foliage from the danger of wilting, a danger to 

 which a healthy plant is always liable when moisture is lacking 

 at its roots or about its leaves. _ _ 



The proper attention to details of watering, syringing and 

 ventilation is often of more consequence than the compost in 

 which a plant is potted, though I believe in paying attention to 

 soil as well. The attacks of the various insect pests can also 

 be controlled to a certain extent by the free use of the syringe, 

 red spiders and thrips, two dangerous pests, having a special 

 aversion to water. If thrips are discovered on Palms a 

 spono-ino- with a mixture of whale-oil soap and tobacco-water 

 will usually dislodge them ; and for red spider a solution of 

 tobacco, with the addition of some sulphur, is one of the best 

 remedies. , 



On foliage-plants with soft leaves, like Cyanophyllums, 

 Sphffirogynes and Dieffenbachias, mealy-bugs and various 

 scale insects are the most dangerous enemies, and these should 

 be promptly removed with a sponge, a camel's-hair brush or 

 a pencil made from a piece of soft pine- wood, as the case may 

 demand. 



Cyanophyllums and Sphaerogynes are among the most 

 effective of foliage-plants for a warm house, but they require 

 considerable pot-room for their best development, and if al- 

 lowed to become stunted at any time it is useless to grow 

 them on afterward in the hope of securing perfect specimens. 

 Among flowering plants there will be great activity at this 

 season, especially among the Begonias and various members 

 of the Gesneriacece families, which contain many of the best 

 summer bloomers. Besides the Tuberous Begonias, which 

 have been so wonderfully developed of late years, B. Bolivien- 

 sis, B. Chelsonii, B. Sutherlandii and B. Weltoniensis are all 

 admirable, and so is the more rare B. Froebelii, whose Cine- 

 raria-like leaves and large, brilliant scarlet flowers are most 

 attractive. The Gloxinias will also require some atten- 

 tion, though many of them will doubtless be in their bloom- 

 in°- pots by this time. A good strain of seed of Gloxinia cras- 

 sifolia can be secured from any reliable seedsman, but special 

 varieties must be perpetuated by means of cuttings, and these 

 are made after the same manner as those of Rex Begonias, 

 bein^ either whole leaves or portions of leaves inserted in 

 sand^in a shaded house. Gesnerias, Tydias and Achimenes 

 should also be progressing nicely toward the flowering stage, 

 and will require a good deal of water, though, like other mem- 

 bers of this family, they prefer the water at the root only, and 

 do not require frequent syringing. 



Holmesbui'£, Fa. -r 



Correspondence. 



The English Flower Show. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— I read with unusual interest Mr. Watson's account of 

 the Temple Show of the Royal Horticultural Society in your 

 issue of June 6th, because it chanced to be my privilege to see 

 this exhibition, and perhaps it may interest your readers to 

 know in a general way what impression the display left when 

 seen through American eyes. 



The site of the exhibition was on a lawn of about four acres 

 in the Temple Gardens, on the Thames Embankment— that is, 

 in the very heart of London. Of course, both plants and vis- 

 itors would need shelter even in a climate where it is not likely 

 to rain every day, and five large tents, covering some 30,000 

 square feet of space, were erected for this purpose. Even this 

 space proved too contracted for the exhibition, which had a 

 general appearance of being crowded. Of course, where it is 

 necessary to separate the plants into five distinct groups, and 

 in different enclosures, there can be no opportunity for a gen- 

 eral disposition of the material so that it can all be commanded 

 at a single view. Consequently, no such magnificent spec- 

 tacular effect was possible as I have seen in Madison Square 

 Garden, for example ; but, after all, since plants in such an ex- 

 hibition are shown for their own sake, and not for the purpose 

 of decorating the enclosure in which they are exhibited, the 

 loss of this general effect is not serious. But even .if it had 

 been desirable as a study in artistic arrangement, to attempt 

 any comprehensive picture, the material for such work was 

 not at hand. Specimen Palms, Tree Ferns and similar plants 

 which would be necessary for the appropriate decoration of a 

 large hall were altogether lacking ; nor were there any splen- 

 did masses and groups of decorative plants as I have often 

 seen at exhibitions in Philadelphia and New York. 



On the other hand, the Temple Show was altogether supe- 

 rior to our American exhibitions, not only in the number of 

 plants exhibited, but in their variety and in the general cul- 

 tural skill they showed. Of course, the exhibition was 

 specially strong in Orchids. We have admirable collections 

 of these plants in America, but they are widely scattered. 

 Here there were twenty-five exhibitors of Orchids, all within 

 easy transporting distance, including the owners of the most 

 noteworthy private and commercial collections in the United 

 Kingdom, and they brought together an immense number of 

 choice plants whose money value could be counted by tens of 

 thousands of dollars. Individual Orchids have been shown at 

 American exhibitions which were equal, perhaps, to any 

 shown here, although one rarely sees anywhere such a plant 

 as Baron Schrceder's Ccelogyne Dayana, with its thousand 

 flowers hanging in long racemes of fawn color and purple, or 

 the magnificent Oncidium ampliatum majus, of Messrs. San- 

 der & Co., which had more than five thousand blooms, or Mr. 

 Hardy's noble specimen of an intensely colored Lffilia purpura ta. 

 Of course, there were many novelties which Mr. Watson has 

 already given account of, but the admirable cultivation shown 

 in specimens of the standard kinds was to me most interest- 

 ing. It is impossible to conceive anything more attractive 

 than the forms of Odontoglossum crispum, for example, which 

 were shown in almost endless variety. 



Hardy plants, in pots and pans, as well as their cut flowers, 

 were shown insuch profusion as I had never seen before at an 

 exhibition, although there is no reason why these should not 

 be a feature of equal prominence in our own exhibitions. 

 Some exhibitors, like Messrs. Paul, of Cheshunt, and Back- 

 house & Sons, of York, used rock-work to display the plants 

 suitable for such situations, but, as a rule, not much attention 

 was paid to effective arrangement of the great masses of well- 

 known plants like Trollius, Saxifrages, Spiraeas, Irises, 

 Heuchera, Geums, Phloxes, Aquilegias, Pyrethrums, Delphi- 

 niums, Poppies, Hemerocallis, Paeonies and Alstromerias. 

 Many of these were shown in new and striking forms, besides 

 many that we rarely see here, such as Calochorti, Eremurus, 

 Turban Ranunculuses, etc. It reminded one of home to see 

 neat little plants of Clethra alnifolia, which grows on all our 

 swamp borders, flowering here in small pots, and a minia- 

 ture Virginia Fringe-tree, covered with its lace-like flowers in 

 the collection of Messrs. James Veitch & Sons. Here, too, 

 was a beautiful plant of Philadelphus microphyllus, from our 

 western mountains, which really looked more at home than 

 it does out-of-doors here in the east. I have seen cut roses 

 in our exhibitions which have equaled any in the Temple 

 Show, but never anything like the number and variety of 

 Roses, in pots, shown by the great growers. Every group 

 showed admirable culture, and many of them were most taste- 



