34 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENINa. 



■be used, sucli as will make a bed whereon the bean 

 will fall, and can be made quite firm by superficial 

 pressure of the side soil upon it. The common 

 practice invariably permits hollows to remain be- 

 neath or beside them, much to their injury during 

 and after germination. Another simple plan is to 

 draw drills six inches wide and four deej), placing 

 therein two rows of seeds, each seed being placed at 

 angles with those in the opposite row. Unless the 

 soil after it is drawn over these be trodden down 

 firmly, the plant does not succeed so weU as those re- 

 sulting from dibbled-out seeds. The Broad Bean can 

 be both conveniently and successfully transplanted ; 

 often a useful method to employ when it is desirable 

 that it should follow a recent crop, but one the pos- 

 sible practice of which does not occur to many. 



As to time of sowing, when a long succession is 

 desirable, the Mazagan might be sown late in October 

 and November, also about 

 the middle of December, 

 for the earliest crops. Sow 

 to succeed the above early 

 Long-pod during Decem- 

 ber or January, and an 

 equal quantity of Taylor's 

 Windsor, or Broad, Again 

 plant of the latter in JMay 

 or June, and, if desirable, 

 another of the Mazagan 

 during June and July, to 

 give a crop before the 

 frosts of autumn. The 

 dwarf kind, sow one and 

 a half to two feet apart 

 in the rows ; the taller 

 ones, two and a half to three feet between. The 

 seeds should be about two inches apart in the rows. 



All after-culture is of the simplest ; when the 

 young plants are about three inches high, well hoe 

 between the rows to destroy weeds, then draw the 

 soil in a ridge up to each row of plants from an 

 equal distance on both sides. Beyond subsequent 

 hoeings nothing more is wanted. To hurry on the 

 crop and increase the size of the beans, pinch off the 

 points of all, when all the flowers having expanded 

 also begin to fade. It is important to gather the 

 crop when the beans are little more than half grown ; 

 when approaching to maturitj'- in size they lose 

 flavour and are not appreciated. The Broad Bean 

 is very subject to attacks of black Aphis. Root- 

 waterings, removing the tops, and syringing with a 

 strong insecticide, are means to its removal or 

 destruction. 



The best varieties are — Early Mazagan, Leviathan 

 {Aguadulce), Seville Long-pod, Taylor's Windsor, 

 Green Windsor. 



THE EOSE AND ITS CULTUEE. 



INTRODUCTION.— THE BOTANICAL CRARAC- 

 TERISTICS OF THE ROSE. 



By Dk. Maxwell T. Masters, F.E.S. 



IT would obviously be out of place to enter on full 

 details under this heading, as many points it 

 would be necessary to allude to woidd have little or 

 no practical bearing. We shall therefore confine our- 

 selves to a few leading characteristics to which it is 

 desirable that the attention of the cultivator should 

 be di'awn. The genus Hosa of the botanists is one 

 of those groups which it is easy to define, and which 

 a tyro finds no difficulty in recognising. The case 

 is quite otherwise with the species which make up 

 that genus. Precision now gives way to vagueness 

 and uncertainty, and the alleged points of distinction 

 break down almost at the 

 first trial. Lindley, one 

 of whose earliest and best 

 monographs was one de- 

 voted to this genus, was 

 just in his remark, which 

 reads now as if made 

 yesterday (it was written 

 in 1820) There are 

 no limits to the species ; 

 it is impossible to give 

 them ligorous defini- 

 tions." If this be true of 

 the wild forms as we find 

 them in nature, what 

 shall we say of those 

 which have been de- 

 signedly or unconsciously modified, for untold cen- 

 turies it may be, by the hand of man ? 



Distinctive Marks of the G-enus Kosa.— 



The genus Bosa is mainly distinguished from other 

 plants, not only of its own order ( Rosacece), but of all 

 others, by its peculiar fruit. This is what is called 

 familiarly the " hip," and its structiu-e demands a 

 little attention. By tracing the flower-stalk from 

 below ujDwards, or better, making a slice lengthwise 

 through the hip (Fig. 1), it is seen that the flower- 

 stalk itself gradually dilates, and becomes fleshy, and 

 ultimately brightly coloured. The "receptacle," as 

 this part of the flower is botanically called, forms, 

 in fact, a sort of cup or vase, in which may be seen 

 a number of small, hard, dry nuts, each with a long 

 thread at the top. These are generally taken by 

 beginners to be the seeds, but are strictly not the 

 seeds, but the carpels or seed-vessels, each containing 

 a solitary seed ; the long thread is the style, at the 

 end of which is a button-like dilatation which is the 



Fig. 1.— Slice lengthwise through, the Flower of a Wild Eose, 

 showiug the vase-shaped receptacle (hip) enclosing the 

 carpels, each with its style and stigma, and bearing at 

 its upper edge the sepals (of which only a portion of one 

 is shown), the petals, and the stamens. 



