CURRENT GARDEN LORE. 



6zg 



orchard-house, are most ornamental and useful. The 

 health and fertility of these pot-trees can be kept up by 

 giving them, every season, some fresh food in the shape 

 of a top-dressing of a rich compost formed of loam (if te- 

 nacious all the better, ) and thoroughly decomposed stable- 

 manure in equal parts. This operation should be per- 

 formed about the last week in October, removing the sur- 

 face soil, generally a network of fibrous roots, to a depth 

 of 4 inches, and replacing it with fresh compost of the 

 description just given. When the trees are in active 

 growth and laden with fruit, clear manure-water may be 

 freely given, and a copious daily washing with the syringe 



water-lilies, is particularly good. Along with the gourds 

 grow such fine-flowering creepers as Solanum U'oid- 

 laudii, the best of all tropical solanums, passifloras, 

 \-pomc&SLS,A}-istolochia elegans, A. ridicula, CUioria ter- 

 7iala, Bignouia Twccdiana, Bcaumontia grandiflora 

 allamandas, etc. In tanks in the corners of the house 

 are nelumbiums, Cypertts papyrus, AmorphophaHus 

 campanulatiis, and other large and remarkable moisture- 

 loving plants. We have counted over a hundred ex- 

 panded flowers in this tank on a July morning at about 

 eleven o'clock. Blue, purple, red, rose, white and yel- 

 low colors are among them. The gourds comprise luffas, 



W.^TKR-LiLY House, Kew. 



must be given to keep down red-spider — Gardening 

 Illustrated. 



Water- Lily House at Kew. — Nymphsas occupy the 

 whole of a large circular tank in this house, with speci- 

 men plants of hedychiums, sugarcane, sagittaria, and 

 clusia round the margin. The iron rail which encircles 

 the tank is partly covered with the stems, leaves and 

 flowers of Batatas pa^iictilata, and the narrow shelves 

 against the sides of the house are covered with soil one 

 foot deep, in which a collection of tropical gourds is 

 planted. The vines of the gourds are trained to wires 

 running below the roof, and the effect of their large and 

 .sometimes bright-colored fruits, as they hang over the 



including the Sooly Qua [L. Egyptiaca), which has 

 fruits five feet long, and which are shown in the engrav- 

 ing ; lagenarias, such as L. gigantca and L. vulgaris. 

 Cucurbit a maximei, Cucumis Sikkimcnsis, snake and 

 adder gourds ( trichosanthes ), the wa.\-gourd, and 

 numerous other kinds. The house was built in 1853. Its 

 dimensions are 44 feet square, with a porch on the south 

 side. The roof is a span, about 20 feet high in the mid- 

 dle, and the whole of the framework is of iron, resting 

 on a thick stone base. It is an extremely light, and at 

 the same time a ".trong and elegant structure. The tank 

 is circular, 36 feet in diameter and 2 feet deep, with a 

 leaden botton. Two rows of hot-water pipes run through 



