iS 



THE 



GA RDENERS MAGAZINE. 



January 8, 1898. 



The Pelicans at Kew Gardens are always a source of interest to 



sion he set apart four plots for the purpose of dealing with the question of 



the transmission of the disease through the manure of cattle fed up- SJ«K£^^ 

 diseased turnips. The manure was mixed with ord.nary so.l in the pro- new s £ eci J e J have now ad(le(1 to the establishment, and may 



portion of one to three, and fifty pounds of the mixture was applied to f . bg seen on the Palm , fouse Pond> 



onenlot The second olot received a similar dressing of manure of animals n -•-..«■« 

 that d been Ted I upon sound turnips ; the third plot was dressed with Spanish Chestnuts -The nuts of the so-called Span.sh chestnut form a 



nanu anTso as in the case of the second plot, with the addition considerable propornon of the ^enumerated frmts amported dunng the autumn 



manure wu * r ' months, and large supplies are sent us from trance and Spain. The French 



that the refuse from the animals' trough cons.sting of bits of diseased ^ J ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ othef ^ ^ 



roots and soil, were added ; and the fourth plot received a dressing similar ^ ^ at ^ Jhe bulk Qf ^ French crop ^ 



to that of the first plot, with the addition of lime. The results obtained ^ ^ ^ first to arrive here ^ nuts reaUse a bettef price> and then 



are of much interest. The percentage of diseased roots grown on the dcalers , themselves from Italy, from which country they import as much as 



first two plots with manure made from diseased and sound turnips, were 

 exactly the same, indicating that the vitality of the spores of the 



fifty thousand hundredweights annually. The Italians, however, are making efforts 

 to establish a direct trade with England. Their chief difficulty hitherto has been 



plasmodiophora is destroyed in their passage through the animal. t ^ at t j ie nuts are a p t to germinate, and thus become unfit for the market. A 



The plot dressed with manure to which the trough refuse was added, method of checking this germination is said to have been discovered, and is stated 



produced seventy-five per cent, of diseased roots, proving that the spores to De carried out in the following way : The nut is soaked for seven or eight days 



of the fungus may be communicated to healthy land, by permitting the { n a tank and well stirred daily, after which it takes about a week to dry again, 



diseased stumps of cabbages, cauliflower, kales, and brassicas of similar This seems to sterilise it completely, and in this condition it can be exported 



character, and diseased roots of turnips to find their way direct to the satisfactorily. It is a remarkable fact that if a second lot of chestnuts are put in 



manure This is in complete accord with the advice we have so the same water they will be sterilised in about half the time. This season a large 



frequently given, when referring to the rax ages of the plasmodiophora, quantity of the Italian nuts have been placed on the British market. | 



and should be constantly kept in mind. The addition of lime to the 



Growths 



Mr. S. T. Wright sent to the Scientific 



■ w m ____ 



fourth plot effectually checked the development of the disease, but Committee some gall-like structures taken from vines in the large vinery at Chis- 

 materially reduced the crop of roots, owing probably by liberating wick. He observes that 1 < many of the old and young rods are similarly malformed 



at their base. It does not appear to affect the health and vigour of the rods. In 

 all the malformations grubs or maggots are present ; but neither moths nor weevils 

 have been seen in the house." Mr. Michael pronounced the grubs to be coleop- 

 terous, but they were not likely to have been the cause. Prof. Church undertook 



nitrogen. In the other experiments slaked lime appeared to be more 

 efficient than quicklime, and lime from the magnesian limestone was 

 more efficient than from the carboniferous formation. It was also found 



1 n 11 jr^*1 iL nM 00 MM w9m«*« terous, uui ixiey were not UKeiy 10 nave oeen uic eciusc. nui. ^nuicii uuuciiuuh. 



that gas lime, one year old, was more effectual than the same product in ' 1 . - 7 . 



h ' 3 9 r to examine them chemical y. There was no apparent structure in them beyond a 



a fresh state. 



Paphiopedilum is not the name of some new sea-urchin, nor the title of 



mass of cellular tissue with a corky exterior surface. ; 

 Horticultural Club.— Special attention is being paid to the question of 



some microscopic fungus recently discovered ; it is the generic title by which, fruit culture by the members of the Horticultural Club, and there can hardly be 



in future, our leading botanists wish us to recognise those orchids hitherto known any question that could well be more profitably discussed. At the conversazione 



as tropical cypripediums. The title is not a new one, for Dr. Pfitzer proposed it • following the monthly dinner on Tuesday next, January It, the subject for dis- 



in 1886, and recently, in the reduced form of I'aphiopedium, Mr. R. A. Kolfe, of cussion is " The Seasons of 1896-97 : Their Lessons and Effects on the Fruit 



Kew, has put it forward. Discussing the matter in the Bot. Mai*. Sir Joseph Crops and Trees," to be opened by Mr. George Bunyard, V.M.H. 



Camoensia maxima, a handsome West African climber, that for so many 

 years defied the efforts of cultivators to induce it to flower, is represented in the 

 current issue of the Bot. Mag. by a double-page illustration. The flowers are 

 milk-white, the segments being margined with gold. As our readers have pre- 

 viously been informed, this leguminous plant first flowered in Europe at Mythe 

 Castle, Tewkesbury ; in November, 1896, it flowered at Kew, and last autumn, a 

 specimen flowered at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens ; during the recent Christ- 

 mas week the Kew specimen once again flowered. Other interesting plants 

 figured in the Bot. Mag. for January, 1898, are Paphiopedilum Victoria- Marie, 

 known to orchid lovers as Cypripedium Yictoria-M arise ; the now popular, plenti- 

 ful, and beautiful Strobilanthes Dyerianus, a stove plant that gained so much 

 notoriety when shown at the Ghent exhibition of 1893; Lathyrus splendens, a 

 species from South Carolina, with blood-red flowers ; and Sievekingia Reichen- 

 bachiana, a wonderfully quaint orchid from Equador, discovered by Lehman in 

 1879 ; it has golden-yellow flowers, marked with blood-red, but the most peculiar 



Hooker states that the true cypripediums are inhabitants of cold and temperate 

 regions, while paphiopedilums are all natives of tropical Asia and Australia, 

 The American species, now fairly well known as selenipediums, are still to be known 

 as such. 11 In Cypripedium proper," Sir J. Hooker remarks, "the leaves are 

 cauline, thin, and plicate in vernation, the perianth marcescent, and sepals valvate 

 in activation ; in I'aphioircdilum the leaves are radical, coriaceous, and conduplicate 

 in vernation, the perianth deciduous, and sepals imbricate in aestivation, the 

 dorsal enfolding the lateral." Dr. Pfitzer also suggested Ascherson's cypripedilum 

 for the popular Linnean cypripedium, but this would make what Linmeus wished 

 to 1* Venus'- foot orchids, into Venus' or Lady Slipper orchids, as they arc 

 popularly but erroneously known. Sir Joseph reminds us that Cypripedium of 

 Linnaeus should have been spelled cypri pod in in to be correct, and suggests that 

 to simplify matters ami gain uniformity, the generic terms Cypripodium, 



Sclenijxxlium, and I .iphiupodium might l>e used if the change referred to becomes 

 desirable. 



Coffee.— A request for the introduction of part about them is the hair-like fringing of the petals and labellum. 



seeds of Indian and Singalese shade trees into British Central Africa for the pur- 



Hungarian Hardy Fruits. 



Hungary 



pose of providing shade for young coffee plantations was referred some time ago has been so greatly developed of late years that an official inquiry has been insti- 

 to the Foreign Office, and Mr. \V. T. Thiselton-Dyer, Director of the Royal 



ascei 



Gardens, Kew, was desired to report upon the subject. Subsequently H.M. Com- the several kinds grown in the kingdom. But in consequence of a rumour having 

 missioner in British Central Africa determined to rigidly enforce the regulations for been circulated to the effect that the inquiry was being made for the purpose of 



dini 



the prevention of coffee disease, which prohibit the importation of seeds from v> __ 



India and Ceylon, for, as Mr. Thiselton-Dyer reported, the coffee disease was culty~in verifying &Mtte£iri^ii*£ The ilStical details ^Ttherefiw 



introduced mto Hj through the instrumentality of tea seeds from Ceylon. Not- hardly so trustworthy as could be desired. Subject to this qualification, the 



w,«hs anchng the splend.d attempts made by S,r William MacGregor to stamp it number of fruit trees enumerated in Hungary was sixty-five million, of which 



out, it ultimately completely destroyed the coffee industry, which was the most 



lirnm -; n(T . . n , T . r , , thirty-two million were plum trees and fourteen million apple and pear trees. In 



ESfSffi £?° 7^ \ r*Z' • Y SOmC Unkn T Cr ° at " and SlaVOnia ei 8 ht million fi ve hM *°u«d P>™ trees and two million 



means, ha e succeeded . in introducing the disease into their African territories. In app , c and pear trees werc schcduIecK 1 



t ie face of these facts it would, in Mr. Thiselton Dyer's opinion, be the height of 

 folly to run the smallest risk of introducing the disease into British Central Africa, 

 where its presence would be an irreparable disaster. Knowing the mechanical way 

 in which such work is carried out by native officials in India, he does not think that 



Industry 



According to the report of the 



1« >cal 



contrary, the first parcel of seed would, in all probability, come from a plantation 

 reeking with disease. The present request is tbe more unnecessary as, according 

 to a coffee planter in Nyassaland who is well acquainted with coffee cultivation in 

 Ceylon, a local African tree, Albizza fastigiata, is admirably adapted for a shade 

 tree for coffee. If this is not sufficient, tfie rain tree, or Pithecolobium Saman, 

 might be tried. The seed can be obtained in abundance from Jamaica, and this 

 would l>e perfectly safe. 



Exports of Potatos.— British potatos were formerly exported in large 

 quantities to the United States, but since the introduction of the McKinlev tariff 



t V» A 4 ma -J a A. _ A. _ % I . AM — * 



Agricultural Department of British Columbia the production of fruit for profit is 

 ^ uu „ iiwl uti.iK in*i P racticable in the greater part of the sections of tbe colony. Both large and small 

 wlmtever^ settlers are planting orchards, and a considerable proportion of those which have 



become established are bearing satisfactorily. The greatest difficulties with which 



cultivators have to contend are the prevalence of imect pests and diseases due to 

 cultivation, and the importation of foreign products, both nursery-stock and fruit. 

 The industry, except in individual cases, has, however, . not been carried on with 

 much system or knowledge of fruit growing. Trees have been purchased regard- 

 less as to whether they were the best and most suitable varieties, with the result 

 that there is a great mixture of fruits, and not much of first quality. Little atten- 

 tion has been devoted to methods of planting, pruning, and general cultivation, 

 so that existing orchards do not, it is stated, fully represent the capabilities of 

 any district. Lack of railway communication, rrmoteness of settlers from each 



a a — — 



000, but last year they had dropped to 1. 000 



<i; M nn 0 .,r^ 4 D i„t . o~ i , ""v www miiw uw i | i » iiioiciiebs oi seiners ITOIH 



«ZH ncrW RcnZ V r STv**. ^ 5* inddent CO the ^ P-paralion, planting, and keeping 

 ninted to nearly 8;o % ooo cwt. of the vaW nf nfnnnr^or/j k i . * \. . . . 1 .._ ... 



aggregate amounted to 341,000 cwt., of which Spai 



.^000 ... 

 possessions 



of an orchard, have also prevented the success of the industry, but these difficulties 

 are being gradually obviated or overcome. The efforts of the Fruit Growers' 

 Association have resulted in the diffusion of a better knowledge of the development 

 of the industry in the province, which is expected eventually to become a large 

 producer of fruit. 



