236 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 19, 1835. 
gallons of water. Half a pint of tlie solution is put in a large water-can 
of water and used for syringing. I have often used this mixture, and 
can vouch that it does injure the blooms of Tea Roses and of such Roses 
as John Hopper. In last week’s Journal Mr. Bardney advocates a mix¬ 
ture much stronger, and assures us that it will not damage the blooms. 
I repeat Mr. Bardney’s last version for comparison “4 lbs. of softsoap 
oiled in a quart of water for twenty minutes, and then mixed in a vessel 
containing 4 gallons of water. Half a pint of the solution is stirred into 
each 4-gallon can of water every time syringing is done.” This is twice 
the strength of the “ Year Book ” recipe, and even that I have found too 
strong.—T. C. Clayton. 
[I am obliged to Mr. Clayton for his criticism, as it will, perhaps, 
enable me to suggest the cause of the injury to which he alludes, and I 
shall have no difficulty in showing that he has not demonstrated any in¬ 
consistency on my part, while the difference in the quantity of softsoap 
and water mentioned in the “Gardeners’ Year Book” is clearly on the 
side of safety. 
In my last version I did not recommend double the'quantity of soft- 
soap to he used for syringing Roses as a preventive against mildew that 
I have previously advised. On the contrary, I advised the use of exactly 
the same solution that I have myself been using for the past seven years, 
and the same recipe that I have recommended for some years in the 
pages of this Journal. I believe the first time I gave the recipe was in 
the leading article (page 497) of the issue for December 25th, 1879. If 
Mr. Clayton will turn to the page given he will there find that I recom¬ 
mended 2 lbs. of softsoap to be boiled and mixed with four gallons of 
water, and one pint to be used in each large canful of water at syringing 
time. In the last version I advise the boiling of 4 lbs. of softsoap to be 
mixed with the same quantity of water, but only half a pint of the solution 
is to be strired into each four-gallon can of water used for syringing. 
Perhaps your correspondent will point out the difference between the two 
recipes? In reference to the “Gardeners’ Year Book” I have only to 
say, the recipe there given is a safe and a reliable one, and those 
who put it into practice will never condemn the “ Year-Book/’ for 
containing it. 
The softsoap that I use is of the best quality only. I have seen tome 
that I would not accept as a gift. Some qualities of softsoap quickly 
chap the hands if washed in it, but the soap I use will not do so. Past 
experience confirms me in the belief that some qualities contain injurious 
ingredients. Does Mr. Clayton think that if the solution I have used 
over the period named would injure the blooms of Roses that I should 
continue to use it daily and advocate its use in these pages for the benefit 
of your readers ? I should not, but on the contrary, should as strongly 
condemn it as I have recommended it.— Wit, Bardney.] 
S3ME GQ3D PERENNIALS AND THEIR PROPAGATION. 
THE WHITE EVERLASTING PEA. 
This is a very old inhabitant of our gardens, and one which has 
adorned the porch of many a country cottage home, and may do so still, 
though in fewer cases than in days gone by ; and it is among the best and 
most useful of perennials. It seeds freely, and what need is there for any 
lack of so useful a plant ? We have few plants which produce white 
flowers in greater abundance than this, while for durability it will also 
vie with many ; the flowers are as freely cut as produced, and seeds 
are not as a natural consequence forthcoming. It is not one of the 
easiest plants to increase in other ways. In dividing the plants, unless the 
stools are large the operation is attended with some difficulty, and must 
not be taken too hurriedly in hand. I do not like dividing them at all, 
for when planted out the long white roots descend to a great depth ; and 
as these are too brittle to be coaxed in any way, they have either to be 
cut or go into much larger pots than they really require. 
Those who possess large roots and are desirous of increasing their 
stock cannot do better than lift the old plants at once, pot them, and place 
them in the greenhouse. In potting allow the crown to stand higher 
than usual. As the shoots are produced and attain a length of from 
3 to 4 inches they should be stripped off with a heel attached, which with 
the crown well above the surface will easily be accomplished. Insert these 
in sandy loam, and if possible accommodate them with a gentle heat, and 
keep them close under the handlights, and they will form roots in about 
fourteen days. I prefer not using a knife, as by so doing that portion of 
the heel which emits roots most freely is invariably sacrificed. In this 
way the stock may readily be increased, and it would be difficult to have 
too many of so desirable a plant. I need hardly refer to its adaptabilities, 
since it is naturally a suggestive plant. One position I might mention for 
which it is well suited, and this is planting it at the foot of some half¬ 
dead or disfigured Wellingtonia, and allow it to ramble at will amidst the 
branches. Thus placed it is very pleasing, and is in fact only placing it 
in similar position to that occupied by the typical plant Lathyrus latifolius, 
which is found wild in woods. 
THE DOUBLE WHITE CAMPION (LYCHNIS VESPERTINA PLENA). 
If among the whole host of perennials there is one plant whose 
propagation is considered difficult, or so little known and understood, it is 
this Lychnis, in which particular it differs from all the other members of 
its genus. Truly it is the most difficult of all perennials in this respect, 
and one which has proved troublesome to most hardy-plant propagators ; 
and I have heard some pronounce it impossible to strike it by means of 
cuttings. Fortunately several years ago, after previous difficulty with it, 
I closely watched its growth and progress, and was not long in dk- 
covering what has since proved the secret of its propagation. Up to 
this time I had tried various sorts of cuttings and always failed, and I 
doubt not that many others have similarly failed. The cuttings I had 
employed were such as could be had in early autumn, all of which 
contained flower buds, and were useless. They were, in fact, laterals taken 
from the flowering stems, and were in consequence somewhat woody. 
If stock is to be had this season it must be taken in hand at once, care¬ 
fully lifting the plants if in the open ground, and introduce them into a 
warm greenhouse, where a temperature of from 50° to 60° is maintained. 
If the existing stock is established in pots so much the better. As 
fast as the shoots are produced they should be removed with a heel 
attached, inserted in sandy loam in well-drained pots, and covered 
with bellglasses. Well water them in, keeping them close and shaded 
from the sun. Though I have rooted them on a rather strong 
bottom heat I prefer having them on a bed of coal ashes in the tem¬ 
perature above named, and where the bottom is comparatively cool. In 
three weeks from the time they were inserted the majority will have 
formed roots, when the glasses may be removed. If, however, they are 
allowed to get hard at the base they will take much longer to root. In 
this way I have rooted it by the hundred. As soon as ready the young 
plants may be potted, and in due course removed to cooler quarters and 
gradually hardened. 
It is most difficult to increase by division, and should only be taken 
in hand by the experienced, and even then the results are anything but 
satisfactory. I have also tried it by means of root cuttings, but without 
success; indeed, I have tried every means I could think of, and I am 
convinced that radical cuttings inserted in March, and as early in month 
as possible, produce the best results. 
The late Rev. Harpur Crewe had a remarkably fine specimen of this 
Campion 3 feet through in his garden at Tring some years ago, and which 
is much the largest plant I have seen. It was covered with its pure 
white slightly fragrant blossoms, and was in itself a feature. As a 
summer and autumn flowering perennial it has no equal, and but for the 
difficulty which has hitherto been experienced in its propagation would, 
no doubt, be among the most popular of plants. It delights in a deep 
well-enriched soil, and when in good condition I have known its earliest 
blooms to measure nearly 2 inches in diameter. 
STOKESIA CYANEA. 
This is another plant holding a high rank among late autumn flower¬ 
ing perennials ; so late, in fact, that unless planted in light warm soils 
in favoured positions it does not expand its flowers. It is worth every 
attention, however, in this respect, and it is almost if not quite unique in 
its profusion of lavender blue flowers some 2 or 3 inches across during 
the month of October. When the soil is cold or stiff it is best grown in 
pots plunged in ashes during the summer, when it may be introduced 
into the cool greenhouse, there to expand its blossoms. It grows 2 feet 
high, and is in all respects a first-class perennial. 
It is not easily increased by division owing to the tufted or conglome¬ 
rate growth on the rootstock. So closely are they packed in, that they 
cannot be separated without considerable sacrifice ; it is, however, readily 
increased by root cuttings, and as roots may be bad in plenty there is no 
reason why so good a plant should not be more generally grown. This 
may be accounted for in a measure by its lateness in flowering, when 
visits to nurseries are less frequent than in the spring and summer months. 
By lifting a single plant and selecting some of the strongest roots a good 
stock may be secured ; cut the roots into lengths of 2 inches or thereabouts 
and insert them round the inside of pots in sandy loam, leaving the top 
just visible. By placing them at once in brisk heat good plants may be 
secured by the ensuing autumn. In two or three weeks or less time, 
according to the heat they have been subjected to, they will commence 
to break freely from the apex of the root cutting, and when of sufficient 
size they should be moved to a cooler place, subsequently potted and 
hardened. This attractive Composite was first introduced from Carolina 
about the middle of the last century.—J. H. E. 
POWDERHAM CASTLE. 
The title Earl of Devon or Devonshire seems almost coeval with the 
first settlements of the Saxons; for was it not Orgarius Earl of Devon¬ 
shire, and his herculean son Ordulph, who founded and completed the 
Abbey of Tavistock in the middle of the tenth century ? But it was not 
till 1325 that the Courtenays became the owners of Powderham. They 
acquired it by an alliance with the de Bohuns, as afterwards they acquired 
Okehampton, most picturesquely situated of all the Devon castles, by one 
of the family, Reginald by name, marrying the heiress of all the Redvers. 
After the Norman Conquest the manor of Powderham was given to William 
de Ou as a reward for his help in the work of invasion. 
Those of the family who have “ lapsed ” and suffered “ the slings and 
arrows of outrageous fortune ” may be mentioned in Thomas the sixth Earl, 
who, although at first with York, joined the cause of Henry VI., and was 
beheaded on the snowy field of Towton ; John, the eighth Earl, who fell 
at Tewkesbury; Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter, of the blood Royal, for he 
was the son of Katherine, daughter of Edward IV., who was doomed to the 
block for a very uncertain share, and by mere hearsay, in the Pole con¬ 
spiracy by Henry VIII. and Cromwell; and lastly, so as not to swell the 
list, the luckless and foolish youth who was proposed for the Consort of the 
Virgin Queen. This Castle of Powderham was a building in the palmy 
days of the family — viz., the end of the fourteenth century, when a 
Courtenay was Archbishop of Canterbury, and unremitting in his efforts to 
eradicate Lollardism from Oxford, and when a Courtenay was standard 
bearer to Edward III. 
Of the original building but two towers remain. The changes and 
