708 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



September U, I912. 



naturally, while others must be induced 

 to do so by pinching out the top of the 

 growth. 



As growth advances, and the pots become 

 full of roots, eight-inch pots should be pro- 



vided for the last potting, using the same 

 kind of soil as for the previous shift. On 

 no account must they be allowed to 

 remain in a root-bound condition during 

 the growing period, or premature flowering 

 will result. One stake will be quite suffi- 

 cient to support the whole plant, and 

 should be placed in position when the final 

 potting takes place. As growth proceeds 

 all the shoots must be looped to this stake 

 l>efore they become heavy. The tying 

 operations will require frequent attention 

 to ensure well-formed specimens. Watering 

 must be carried out in a very careful man- 

 ner, for excessive moisture is most disas- 

 trous. Should mildew appear at any time, 

 a dusting with flowers of sulphur will check 

 it. 



For basket culture the plants are grown 

 in the six-inch pots until they are ready, 

 when they are planted in the baskets. The 

 number required for each basket will be 

 governed by the size of the latter. A 

 twelve-inch basket will hold four plants. 



Regarding varieties suitable for pot and 

 basket culture, there are grand iflorus hy- 

 l)rids, an excellent strain in every way ; 

 grandiflorus maximus, with large flowers, 

 and a splendid range of colour; S. retusus 

 and S. retusus albus, two of the older 

 kinds, and, although both are suitable, 

 they are quite out-classed by the two first- 

 mentiloned ; S. Wiseit^nensis is of good 

 habit, and very free-flowering. 



Cnjjtmi Gardens. E. C. Pooley. 



IXORAS. 



Though large spe<'imen plants are at the 

 present time not grown to anything like the 

 same extent a« they formerly were, there 

 does, not seem to be any decline in the 

 popularity of the ixoras, as among their 

 desirable features is the fact that they 

 will flower freely in a comparatively small 

 state, at least most of them, for I. macro- 

 thyrsa or Duffi is only seen at its best when 

 grown strongly, as the huge heads of bril- 

 liantly-coloured flowers demand the ener- 

 gies of a large plant for their development. 

 On the other hand, the numerous garden 

 forms derived from Ixora coocinea may l)e 

 flowered freely in pots from five to seven 

 inches in diameter, and they serve to render 

 the cool part of the stove gay during the 

 summer months. The different varieties bear 

 flowers of, for the most part, some shade 

 of orange, scarlet, or salmon, but there is 

 one very distinct form, namely Ixora coc- 

 cinea lutea.vwhose flowers are of a clear, 

 soft vpIIow. Tliose of I. Westi are pink ; 

 while I. ().lniat;i lias pure white blossoms. 

 K\('r|ui(ni is sniiiorinn'^ tnkm to ixoras on 

 tlif ^roiuid rtiat tlu'v i;ik,' much trf)uhle to 

 keep thoni clean, Imt if in a liralthv state 

 this is in no way <liffir'iilt. Thrips Van l)e 

 readily kept down by a free iiso of the 

 syringe, ami this will also prevent mealy 

 bug from being at all comfortahle. A 

 bottle of methylated spirit and a small 

 brush kept handy may be used at the £ 



of the latter j>est with 



appearance 

 advantage. 



W 



Pentstemon Newbury Gem. 



It may not be generally known that this 

 showy pentstemon, which is so popular for 

 beddmg puri>oses, is roirardod as a true spe- 

 cies, for it is considered to be identical with 

 Pent«temon Hartwegi, a native of Mexico, 

 and mtroduced therefrom in 1825 It fur 



<»1H 



, many instances of a ffood old 



V"'ut which, hvst for a time, becomes verv 

 popular when re-introduced.— W 



standard 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF A 

 SCHOOL GARDEN-— IIL 



A Field for Nature Study. 



It dawned upon education authorities 

 some years ago that while children in vil- 

 lage schools went through a certain routine 

 of education, more or less mechanically, 

 and left after they had passed the sixth 



J say, in possession of a certain 

 number of facts, they w^ere not en- 

 couraged to observe anything, and the 

 great and fascinating book of Nature was 

 closed to them simply because the opening 

 of it was no part of the curriculum of the 

 elementary school. Here and there, it 

 is true, you came across a teacher who 

 was a natiiralist, a botanist, or a student 

 of Nature himself, who introduced Nature 

 study into his school simply because it was 

 natural for him to do so^ and he couldn't 

 help it, but, apart from such exceptions, 

 children looked upon birds' nests as some- 

 thing to rob, flowers as something to pick, 

 insects as something to kill, but as for 

 making any study of the natural and 

 animal life round about the school, well, 

 the children could tell you much more 

 about the polar bears in the Arctic regions 

 or the elephants in India. 



In view of all this, the introduction of 

 Nature study was a good thing, though it 

 has to be admitted that a certain amount 



of so-called Nature 



wrongly 



study was 

 named altogether. It came suddenly, this 

 new^ subject in the schools, and its coming 

 found a good many teachers as ignorant 

 of it as the children .'^ They set out to teach 

 Nature study without knowing Nature 

 themselves, and they had to resort to one 

 or other of the handbooks that came out 

 with remarkable rapidity, and while some 

 of them were very helpful, others failed 

 to serve the purpose for which they were 

 intended, not so much because the author 

 was at fault, but because attempts were 

 made to teach Nature study from the hand- 

 lx>ok alone. 



I say that the introduction of Nature 

 study into schools was a good thing, even 

 if it did nothing more than encourage 

 children to use their eyes and observe, but, 

 apart from this, it did not, in many cases' 

 lead up to anything, nor have any bearing 

 on the economic side of life. As an illus- 

 tration of what I mean 



, , in how many 



schools, I wonder, do you find glass jars 

 in which the children watch toad-spawn 

 develop mto tadpoles, and from that stage 

 into the complete toad, which is afterwards 

 liberated, or consigned to the tender mer- 

 cies of the school cleaner, with the result 

 that its fate is doubtful, and the study 

 comes to an abrupt conclusion. 



The advent of school gardening opened 

 up a field for Nature study that had never 

 been thought of before, and it is a Nature 

 study that carries one much further than 

 mere observation, because it has direct 



is as essentiallv 

 a part of gardening as operations like <li 

 ging, sowing and planting. You have 

 only to take the adult rural population to 

 learn that it is mostly ignorant of the in- 

 sect life to be found in fruit garden and 

 orchanl Blight " is the comprehensive 

 term that is applied to the various pests 

 of crops and some extraordinary idea^ are 

 held as to the ong.n of these pests. Dozens 

 of i)eople m the country know nothing of 

 the way the balance of Nature is main- 

 tamed by one insect feeling on another 

 an<l Ml then- ignorance, they not infre- 

 quently d..stn.y their best friends in the 

 gar,b.n nn, „nl,an] under the mistaken 

 Idea that because they are insects they 

 must all necessarily he pests. Is there any 



reason whatever why this appalling ignor 

 ance should exist respecting the ways and 

 habits of the living creatures which abound 

 in gardens ? None whatever, and yet one 

 knows what a difficult matter it is to in 

 struct grown-up people in these matters" 

 and induce them to alter their views in re^ 

 spect of " blight." Obviously, the place to 



apt teacher 



may obtain abundance of material for all 

 the Nature study he has time to teach 

 without going beyond the limits of his 

 school garden, or the nearest fruit planta 

 tion. 



As a matter of fact, the school garden 

 has many phases of Nature study to offer 

 There is the soil, to begin with. It offers 

 itself for numerous simple experiments that 

 are not only interesting and useful 

 but they are Nature study in its purest 

 form, and boys can be taught, not only 

 how the soil is formed, and what it is com- 

 posed of, but also how it can be improved 

 in order to render the maximum amount 

 of service to the person who cultivates it. 

 Plant life is a generally accepted phase of 

 Nature study, and surely we have it in 

 the garden. It is just as easy to study 

 the habit, method of propagation, pro- 

 gress, and reproductiveness of a cultivated 

 plant as it is of a wildling from the hedge- 

 row, and infinitely more useful, as the child 

 gets into close acquaintanceship with sub- 

 jects that he may have to do with when 

 his schooldays are over. Even the weeds 

 of the garden have their uses in Nature 

 study, and by learning how they increase, 

 multiply and protect themselves, the boy 

 also learns the best means of eradicating 

 them. 



One day, in a school garden, I noticed 

 a boy was extremely careful not to injure 

 a ladybird on one of his crops, and, at the 

 same time, he was just as diligent in search- 

 ing for, and destroying, the larvae of the 

 ladybird. The fact was, of course, that he 

 knew the ladybird, and had been told that 

 it was a friend, but he knew not the larvae, 

 and, simple be<?ause be didn't know it, he 

 came to the conclusion that it was some- 

 thing injurious, and must therefore be de- 

 stroyed. This is probably just what the 

 boy's father would have done, because he 

 would not have known any ' better, but 

 surely also this is where the value of the 

 garden as a field for Nature study comes 

 in. How many cottage gardeners and 

 allotment holders, I wonder, who see the 

 white butterflies hovering over their cab- 

 bage beds, and notice the caterpillars feed- 

 ing on the leaves, also know the story of 

 the ichneumon flies, that follow in the wake 

 of the above pests, prey on them, and pre- 

 vent them doing anything like the damage 

 they would if Nature provided no such 

 means of keeping them in check. 



Perhaps in rural districts the most strik- 

 ing thing is the ignorance that prevails 

 in respect of the pests of fruit crops, and 

 though, perhaps, in a large number of 

 school gardens there is not sufficient mate- 

 rial to study them, the teacher will have 

 no difficulty in obtaining ready access to 

 an orchard or garden at hand where they 

 abound, and in the spring and early sum- 

 mer will find material in abundance tor 

 Nature study. This phase, too, mind yoJ» 

 has something more to offer than bare ob- 

 servation, because the rural education ot 

 to-day will not be complete if 

 out a generation of country dwellers ano 

 workers, w^ho look upon the various inju- 

 rious pests of fruit crops as mere!} 



blight." and protests, as many do n^^^' 

 spite of everything you may say, that tni 

 blight'' is spontaneous in appearance, or 

 IS brought in clouds on the wings 

 terly winds. ^' 



