December 26, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



513 



Douglas says, although the real value of fruit is in flavor, 

 yet, as a rule, at exhibitions size and color only are con- 

 sidered. The same applies to vegetables ; the big potatoes, 

 cauliflowers and cucumbers, which only a cow would eat 

 with any pleasure, almost invariably count first at exhibi- 

 tions. It is quite time that an effort should be made to 

 reform this kind of thing, as horticulture really loses rather 

 than gains when characters of no real value are allowed to 

 count for a great deal at exhibitions. Mr. Douglas recom- 

 mended that more care should be taken in defining the 

 character of the classes in the preparation of the schedule, 

 as judges ought properly to interpret the schedule literally, 

 whatever the consequences. But, so far, very little care has 

 been exercised in the preparation of the schedule, and the 

 result is, in consequence, more or less squabbling between 

 exhibitors, the committee and the judges. Mr. Douglas's 

 suggestion has been taken up by the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, who have appointed a committee to draw up a 

 code, or guide, to judging which shall be explicit and cover 

 all questions likely to arise at exhibitions of horticultural 

 produce. If well done, and there is no reason why it 

 should not be, this code will be to horticulturists what the 

 Marylebone Cricket Club rules are to all cricketers — the 

 guide and arbitrator upon whose dicta all are content 

 to rely. 



Vegetable Pathology. — A large treatise on the diseases 

 of trees, originally prepared by Professor Hartig, of Ger- 

 many, and now translated by Dr. Somerville and revised 

 and edited by Professor Marshall Ward, has recently been 

 published by Macmillan & Co., and favorably noticed in 

 the English press. [This work has been reviewed in Gar- 

 den and Forest, page 488. — Ed.] It is essentially a diag- 

 nosis of diseases among trees, and does not prescribe 

 cures for them. The easy guide to a knowledge of plant- 

 diseases and how to prevent or cure them has yet to be 

 written. For instance, I cannot get any one to tell me 

 exactly the nature and cause of spot in Orchids and how 

 to prevent or cure it ; the cause of and cure for canker in 

 fruit-trees ; to explain the sudden death of Heaths or other 

 hard-wooded plants which sometimes die wholesale as if 

 stricken by the plague. There is much learning in such 

 treatises as this last addition to the English literature of 

 plant-diseases, but practical people can get little out of it. 

 First catch your hare is a good proverb, and first know the 

 nature of the disease before attempting a cure is likewise 

 sound advice. If some one would collect, condense and 

 simplify all that has been written and is reliable upon the 

 diseases of plants, cultivators would be grateful. Even 

 such subjects as Potato-disease and Corn-smut are not yet 

 worked out so as to be clear to the laity, some of whom 

 declare that while scientific men have, as a rule, limited 

 themselves to tracing the life-history of the disease and 

 deciding what it should be called, practical men have seen 

 that a weak constitution falls an easy prey to a disease 

 which a strong constitution can resist, and have accord- 

 ingly bred for strength and found salvation. Breeding, 

 however, is not a ready alleviator in the case of diseased 

 trees. Still we are apt to go on struggling with a hopeless 

 cripple when it would be far simpler and easier to burn it 

 and replace it with a healthy youngster. There is much 

 ignorance apparent in the ordinary treatment of trees and 

 shrubs, which often fall an easy prey to some fungal or 

 other disease through neglect of ordinary precautions. By 

 the way, I notice that you do not recommend coal-tar for 

 the dressing of wounds in trees and shrubs. At Kew noth- 

 ing else is used, and it answers perfectly in all cases. 

 [Coal-tar makes one of the best of coverings for the wounds 

 of trees, and we have often commended it. — Ed.] 



There are innumerable " quack " remedies and cures for 

 plant-diseases, which are often recommended by those 

 who ought to know better. For instance, a recently pub- 

 lished work on horticulture contains a chapter by a special- 

 ist on Fruit-culture, who gravely recommends "driving 

 rusty nails into the trunks of fruit-trees as a preventive or 

 cure for blight " ! Clearly, therefore, we want some author- 



itative guide to plant-ailments and their cure. The follow- 

 ing shows that this want is also felt by Continental culti- 

 vators : 



Vegetable pathology is receiving considerable attention 

 from Continental botanists, and for the purpose of giving the 

 necessary information for the cure and prevention of plant- 

 diseases, a special committee has been established by the 

 Royal Botanical Society of Belgium. This body will meet at 

 the Brussels Botanic Gardens, where nurserymen, horticul- 

 turists, arboriculturists, etc., may obtain all the advice science 

 can give on the subject. 



Artificial Manure for Alpine Plants. ^-An eminent 

 chemist, Professor Hugo Muller, who is also an enthusi- 

 astic collector and grower of alpine plants in the south of 

 England, has concocted a mixture which he applies to all 

 his rock-plants, with, he says, beneficial results. The mix- 

 ture is composed as follows : 



40 gallons of water (in paraffin cask). 



zy 2 oz. Potassium phosphate. 



i l / 2 oz. Potassium nitrate (nitre). 



1J2 oz. Magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts). 



1% oz. Calcium nitrate. 



The Calcium nitrate is prepared by taking 100 ounces or 

 less of chalk, dissolve it in dilute nitric acid until it ceases 

 to give off carbonic acid. This leaves a solution of one 

 and a half ounces of Calcium nitrate for each ounce of chalk. 



This is mixed in the paraffin cask and the plants are 

 watered with it about once a fortnight during the growing 

 season. Professor Muller is a gardener as well as a chem- 

 ist, and, therefore, a safe adviser in a matter of this kind. 



The Glastonbury Thorn. — The mild weather we have 

 had lately has induced this Thorn to flower with excep- 

 tional vigor and a little in advance of the usual time. I 

 have seen specimens from Bath and several other places in 

 the south of England, bearing abundance of new leaves 

 and flowers, as well as the ripe fruit. The fruit is said to 

 be from the second or spring lot of flowers. It is the Cra- 

 t;egus oxyacantha, var. prsecox, of Loudon, and is an in- 

 teresting plant apart altogether from the legend with regard 

 to its origin, which is that Joseph of Arimathcea visited 

 Glastonbury, in Somerset, to preach the gospel, and after 

 toiling up a hill, now known as Weary-all-hill, he stuck his 

 staff into the ground and went to sleep. When he awoke 

 his stick had taken root, and eventually it grew into a tree, 

 which always blossomed on Christmas-day. Glastonbury 

 Abbey was built near the spot where this tree stood. Lou- 

 don says there is no reason why Joseph's stick should not 

 have been the origin of the Glastonbury Thorn, and its habit 

 of flowering in midwinter is nothing very extraordinary, 

 seeing that Chestnuts, Apples, Pears and other trees will 

 flower in late autumn if the season be favorable. The mild 

 weather here this year has affected many plants ; for in- 

 stance, Jasminum nudiflorum has been in bloom a month 

 or more, Chimonanthus also, while Abutilon vexillarium, 

 on a south wall, is still in full bloom. The Glastonbury 

 Thorn opened its first flowers at Bath this year on Novem- 

 ber 17th, but usually they expand about a fortnight before 

 Christmas. ... ... 



London. W. WaiSOH. 



I do not dislike garden-walls ; it is sometimes a good and 

 consoling thought to reflect that one is in a well-secured en- 

 closure, alone with perfumes, flowers, trees, the air, the sun, 

 the stars, remembrances and reveries, and to know that nobody 

 can come and disturb you. I like walls, but I do not like white 

 walls. I like nothing but old walls. I have one here which 

 pleases me much. It is just as old as it ought to be ; if it were 

 a little older it would be given over to the mercy of bricklayers, 

 who would introduce all sorts of new bricks and white stones. 

 As it is, it is gray and black and diversified with the subdued 

 tints of twenty species of Mosses and Lichens. It is crowned 

 with yellow VVal I flowers and Ferns, which root in the crevices 

 on its summit, and its base is buttressed by Pellitory and Net- 

 tle in masses of richest green. 



— ALPHONSE KARR, in A Tour Round my Garden. 



A lawn amid extended wood affords the same relief as a 

 mass of wood on a wide expanse of meadow. 



— Planting and Rural Ornament, 1796. 



