NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



283 



of sunuy, dry places, exposed to every wind that blows, and thus exactly 

 opposed to the conditions for which Wardian cases were invented. 



Undoubtedly the fittest plants of all are the filmy ferns, a somewhat 

 numerous tribe of plants which only thrive in very shady damp places 

 whence drying winds are always excluded. — E. T. C. 



Willows for Basket-making-. By A. D. \Vebster {Garden, No. 

 1798, p. 241 ; May 5, 1906). — Preferential railway and boat rates, aided 

 by keen foreign competition, have well-nigh rendered the time-honoured 

 industry of basket-making a thing of the past in this country. The best 

 classes of osiers, cleaned and ready for manipulation, are now delivered to 

 our principal markets from Continental sources at so low a price that 

 competition on our part is almost out of the question. There are still, 

 however, a few stations, such as in Bedfordshire, the Fen districts of 

 Lincoln and Cambridge, and along certain reaches of the Thames, where 

 willow culture is engaged in, though not in the same energetic way as 

 was the case some half a century ago. 



It is, perhaps, difficult to estimate correctly, but about 7,000 acres, 

 producing roughly 20,000 tons of osiers, are cultivated in this country at 

 the present time, many small plantations having been grubbed up and 

 the land laid down in other crops during the past five-and- twenty years. 



E. T. C. 



Window Gardening-. By E. Lloyd Edwards (Garden, No. 1796, 

 p. 217 ; April 21, 1906). — To begin with, a box must be constructed to fit the 

 window as deep and wide as the space will allow ; some holes must be 

 made in the bottom of it, and it should be painted leaf -green. In this 

 2 inches of crocks and a few lumps of charcoal must be placed to ensure 

 good drainage. The composts or soil must be carefully prepared, and 

 should consist, if possible, of two-thirds good fibrous yellow loam and 

 one-third of well-rotted manure, with plenty of coarse silver-sand mixed 

 through it. Some people use leaf-mould instead of manure, but it is 

 liable to become sour. If the window garden is started in September the 

 soil need only be renewed once during the year, when it is replanted for 

 the summer. Thinking out the arrangement of the window garden is a 

 delightful occupation combined with the study of plant and bulb lists. 

 There are so many things to choose from. — E. T. C. 



Winter-killing- of Peach Trees. By W. J. Green and F. H. 

 Ballou (U.S.A. Exp. Stn. Ohio, Bull. 157, December 1904 ; 9 figs.).— Many 

 trees are killed during the winter by the frost in the Lake Erie district. 

 It is concluded that, while the direct cause of the injury is the intense 

 and prolonged cold and hard and deep freezing, trees of low vitality, 

 generally speaking, sufier most. The causes of impaired vitality appear 

 to be (1) poverty of the soil ; (2) a poor physical condition of the soil ; 

 (3) the prevalence of San Jose scale ; (4) leaf-curl ; (5) the peach-borer ; 

 (6) the extremely dry condition of some of the soil ; and (7) the water- 

 logged condition of other orchards. The practice of sowing annual cover 

 crops and attention to the foregoing points are recommended. The piling 

 of a few forkfuls of farmyard manure round the stem of a tree has at 

 times proved its salvation. — F. J. C. 



