324 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 23, 1885. 
race of plants which help to brighten many a home in 
crowded smoky cities and lighten the hearts of many weary 
toilers. Such an object is worthy of every encouragement 
that willing hands can give, and hundreds will join in 
wishing the Society substantial prosperity. 
USEFUL WINTER-FLOWERING PLANTS. 
Eupatokiums. —These are very useful where there is much furnish¬ 
ing to be done, especially if large plants are required, a3 good specimens 
can be obtained in a short time either from seed, cuttings, or division 
of the roots. I prefer cuttings, as plants struck in this way are not 
inclined to run so wild under my system of cultivation. The cuttings 
are inserted early in March. When rooted and strong enough they 
are potted into 60-sized pots and shifted to 5-inch pots as soon as 
necessary, which will be by the first week in May. During this time 
a warm border should be selected to receive the plants, and may be 
well enriched by good manure. The pots will be filled with roots 
by the first week in June, when the plants may be placed out 2 feet 
apart in the border prepared for them. Continually stop the shoots 
while in pots and when in their summer quarters until the middle of 
August. The plants will fill 8-inch pots by the time they are taken 
up, which should not be later than the second or third week in 
September. Cut round the roots with a sharp spade about ten days 
before being taken up, leaving a ball about the size of the pot which 
is to receive them. They should be potted very firmly and stood in a 
shady position out of doors until the time of housing early in October, 
although the longer they can remain out the better will be the result. 
They will begin flowering in November, and continue until the end of 
January. When flowering is finished they are cut back closely, and 
allowed to break previous to being shaken out, which is usually in 
March. The soil is shaken thoroughly away from the entangled 
roots, and then cut back, so that a 6-inch pot will hold them. These 
are placed out at the same time as the younger plants, but will require 
to be 5 feet apart, stopping as recommended before, when by the 
autumn these will make bushes 3 or 4 feet high and as much in 
diameter. The variety I prefer is E. odoratum album. 
Salvias. —Very fine plants of these may be obtained in much 
the same manner as recommended for the Eupatoriums, only they 
must not be planted out quite so early, and will require more space. 
They may be fed liberally through the months of July and August, 
and these will require to be taken up a week or so earlier in the 
autumn, and need assistance after being established in their pots. 
More care will also be necessary in raising the plants, or the foliage 
of some will be lost. Some of the newer varieties I am not ac¬ 
quainted with, but the best I have found is S. splendens for early 
winter flowering. By the above treatment plants will attain a large 
size. I have had them 4 feet 6 inches high and 3 feet 6 inches in 
diameter. It is scarcely necessary to keep more than one or two 
plants after flowering for stock, as young plants are the best. This 
variety should be placed not later than the middle of September in a 
cool house, and if gradually brought into a stove heat as the winter 
advances should commence flowering about the commencement 
of November. 
Marguerites. —The favourite Marguerites may be grown planted 
out with success, and if cuttings are struck in spring useful little 
plants in GO-sized pots will be obtained by the middle of May. An 
open situation should be chosen for the reception of these, allowing 
plenty of room. The soil does not require to be so rich for these 
plants. Ground where a crop has been taken, and manure employed 
for such as Lettuces or Spinach, will suit them admirably. Take care to 
pinch them in order to produce symmetry until the middle of August, 
when they will be showing flowers freely, and these should be re¬ 
proved until after the plants are thoroughly established in pots. 
Seven-inch pots will be large enough for the following season if the 
plants are potted firmly in strong soil. These should be plunged the 
following summer, and reieive weak liquid manure during the grow¬ 
ing season. Treat them in other respects similar to the young plants, 
keeping the flowers pinched out. They will also require abundance 
of water, and a cool house will suit them well, where they will con¬ 
tinue flowering for a long time. 
Agath^a ccelestis.— A most useful plant for the production of 
flowers through the winter months and for table decoration. I have 
large plants that have been flowering since October. They are best 
to remain in pots, but must be liberally treated during the growing 
season, and every flower bud taken out until the end of October, when 
hundreds of useful little blue flowers will be produced that are most 
effective when used with the Yellow and White Marguerites. 
Solanums. —Several of these are noteworthy from their coloured 
berries, but S. capsicastrum, to which the following remarks refer, is 
especially useful. The first point is to obtain good seed, then sow in 
spring, and transfer the seedlings as soon as possible into pots singly 
until a shift is required. Pots of the 48-size will be large enough for 
the plants this season, not allowing them to form berries _ the first 
year, but get all the wood obtainable. The plants are kept in a cold 
frame or pit through the winter, affording protection from frost. In 
February of the following year these will require cutting in closely, 
and when they begin starting into growth shake them out of the old 
soil and replace them into the same size pots. Keep them in a close 
frame until they are rooted into the fresh soil, then give more air. 
By the end of May these will have started well into growth, when a 
south border is chosen for their summer quarters. I plant them 
about three deep from the wall 18 inches apart each way in rich soil. 
This situation is preferred, as we get good berries in profusion. The 
first and second clusters of flowers must be selected, and these as soon 
as possible in the season, especially where plants are required for the 
autumn shows. After as many flowers are set as will furnish the 
plant I commence stopping and taking out all later flowers when for 
the above-mentioned purpose, in order that the berries may ripen as 
nearly as possible at one time. Much care is necessary in lifting and 
potting the Solanum, as the roots are very fibrous. When taken up 
place them into 5 or 6-inch pots, give plenty of water after potting, 
and make the soil very firm ; then place them on a border after being 
in a shady position for a short time, to enable the plants to obtain a 
firm hold of the soil, which should be of a rather heavy texture, or 
the result will be loss of foliage. When housing the plants, if the 
berries are apparently not likely to be coloured by the time likely to 
be required, place them close to the front of a cool house, so that the 
plants may get all the sun possible, which is not too much in Novem¬ 
ber. The time of housing is according to the ripeness of the berriep. 
The earlier the berries are set, the longer the plants will remain out¬ 
side or in cold frame or pit; and the later the plants remain outside the 
less likely are they to lose their foliage. As I remarked before this is 
a disadvantage. At all stages the Solanum is subject to green fly, but 
it can be easily checked in early growth by fumigating if in pots. 
When planted out a little guano sprinkled between the plants is a 
preventive, and answers as a manure. Another remedy is to dissolve 
softsoap in the proportions recommended for other softwooded plants, 
and add a small portion of sulphur.—J. Pithers, Summerhill. 
DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH GRAPF. 
There can be no doubt that this Grape was sent out as an early Grape 
and recommended as such, as numerous paragraphs scattered throughout 
the horticultural papers testify ; and Mr. Thomson’s disclaimer on that 
head in your pages lately is the first of the kind that has appeared from 
the raisers and sellers of the Grape, and comes late after people have 
found out the fact for themselves. In confirmation of what I state it may 
be mentioned that in Mr. David Thomson’s “ Fruit Culture Under Glass” 
the Duke is recommended, for the earliest vineries, in the proportion of 
three to one to any other sort except the Black Hamburgh, also for early 
forcing in pots, pp. 69-67. As to the gimlet operation to prevent splitting, 
one would naturally expect the extra sap to run out at the hole made for 
its escape, but no one ever saw anything of the kind happen. Query— 
where does the by-flow run to 1 —A Duke Grower. 
Last year that fine Grape Duke of Buccleuch was ready for use about 
four weeks earlier than the Black Hamburgh and some other of that kind. 
The proprietors, who had not tasted that kind before, were agreeably 
surprised to find that such a fine Grape was in cultivation. They said 
that the flavour was most delicious, the berries were golden and large 
even for that “ Goliath.” Its value as a very early kind does not seem to 
be generally known.—C. H. 
THOUGHTS ON CURRENT TOPICS. 
To me, and presumably to many others, the most interesting topic of 
the time is the fresh ideas that have been advanced on the splitting of 
Grapes. I have had the subject under mental review for a very long 
period, and fully satisfied myself that the evil was certainly notin all cases 
traceable to a great influx of sap supplied by the root 0 . Mr. Mclndoe’s 
evidence on page 304 is so strikingly condemnatory of the ordinary notions 
on this subject that I suspect Mr. Thomson will find some little difficulty 
in disproving what is, in my view, a settled fact—that moisture passes 
from the atmosphere into the fruit and causes splitting. 
On a former occasion, when I was “ positive that fruit will split, and 
does split, under the influence of atmospheric conditions alone,” I had 
gocd grounds for the assertion. I have more than once cut Melons from 
frames in late autumn, and placed them on the shelf of a warm and moist 
plant stove to ripen, and they have split in all directions; but fruits 
placed on flower pots and stood on the hot-water pipes in the same houses 
remained sound. Tomatoes have been treated similarly with exactly the 
same results, and numbers of fruits have been totally spoiled by splitting 
after they had been removed from the plants more than a week. The 
juice did not ooze out of either the Melons or Tomatoes, but a thick white 
mould grew in the fissures, just as it does in cracked Grapes, but worse, 
and quite spoiled the fruit. It was those results, followed by experiments, 
that set me a-thinking, and eventually made me a convert of Dutrochet, 
