April 23, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
825 
and a believer in the active principle of osmosis. I hesitated to declare 
my convictions because of the difficulty of accounting for the non-escape 
of the juice of the fruit through the fissures, but further observation has 
led to the conclusion that the cells are merely separated, the membra¬ 
naceous walls not being ruptured. 
I am now convinced that whatever exceptions there may be to the con¬ 
trary, either in Mr. Thomson’s Grapes or any others, the main cause of 
the Grapes splitting is the transmission of moisture from the atmosphere 
through the cuticle of the fruit, and to the peculiar brittleness of the 
skins of certain varieties ; but given moisture enough almost any varie¬ 
ties will split, and I cannot be alone in having witnessed the cracking of 
more than half the berries of outdoor Grapes when the fruit has been 
almost constantly wet in the autumn. I make no apology for dwelling on 
the subject, which is one of great practical importance, and is in my 
opinion worthy of being thought about closely by all growers of Grapes, 
and with them I leave it for the present. 
I should not like your versatile correspondent “ D., Deal ,” to 
imagine I intended to utter anything having the resemblance of a reproach 
on his habit of stating his failures. On the contrary, I believe it would 
be instructive if other writers were to be equally ready to publish their 
mishaps with the circumstances that led to them. I can only regret that 
“D Deal,” has so many obstacles to surmount, which do occasionally 
impart a melancholy tinge to some portions of his communications, 
though in other parts a little humour occasionally sputters from between 
the lines. I hope he will long continue to give us useful hints. I read 
every line he writes, and generally find something worth studying. He is 
a parson of resource evidently, for on page 292 he tell us that when his 
Lapagerias “grew too large for their pots” he overcame the difficulty by 
“putting them into a box.” 
I. have duly noted what your correspondent says on Freesias, 
and intend trying them. I have rather held aloof from them, having 
seen some potfuls of plants without flowers, and I cannot afford to peddle 
about with miffy plants. I wonder if “D., Deal," could induce his 
friend Mr. Tymons to detail his method of culture. I may add it was 
the writings of those gentlemen that enabled me to grow the gorgeous 
Disa grandiflora—the “Flower of the Gods,” I think it is popularly 
called, and good varieties are certainly wonderfully rich and beautiful. 
There is, however, another “wrinkle” which I think worthy of 
dragging out of the article under notice—namely, flowering Doronicum 
austriacum in pots in winter and spring. I can quite understand how 
welcome the bright yellow flowers must be, and I shall hope to see some 
of them grown as suggested. Shall I give a wrinkle in return ? It will 
only be fair to do so. Possibly everybody does not know that Foxgloves 
force admirably and are very effective in a conservatory at the present 
time, also single and double Pyrethrums, Delphiniums, and the lovely 
blue Spiderwort, Tradescantia virginica. This is all I have to offer just 
now as a quid pro quo. 
Another word on Gladioli. Like your Clonmel correspondent, 
“W. J. M.,” I have had French and “ Kelway ” corms, and the latter 
were quite as satisfactory as the former, and the spike3 even more massive ; 
but sooner or later a number of the varieties of both lots “ went off.” 
By the way, the Clonmel notes often bothered me a little, and I fear I 
attributed their tone to the sanguine Irish temperament; but something 
more tangible is gathered from the paper of the President of the Meteoro¬ 
logical Society (page 256) on the duration of sunshine in various parts of 
Great Britain and Ireland, in which it is stated “that in late autumn and 
winter Ireland is much sunnier than Great Britain.” This, then, accounts 
for the ripening of the corms of “ W. J. M.,” and, I presume, his success 
with the fickle beauty. I thought in my ignorance that Ireland was foggy 
and misty with little sun ; hence Peaches remained evergreen, as we 
were told, even under glass. It must be brighter at Clonmel, and I trust 
the success of your correspondent will be permanent. 
I have read with pleasure Mr. Jamieson’s excellent and exhaustive 
paper on the “Peach and Nectarine,” and note it now to direct prominent 
attention to one sentence particularly—namely, “ I have for several 
years, when the trees have been in full bloom and the sun shining, given 
them a gentle syringing, and this is the best of all plans for setting the 
fruit.” I have found this precisely as stated when the trees were flower¬ 
ing in bright sunny weather. Some years ago, in passing through a large 
Peach house, and hearing the gardener deplore the non-setting of the 
fruit, I requested him to try the syringe. He apparently thought some¬ 
thing was the matter with me. The day was bright and the air still aDd 
dry. When he found I was serious, he allowed me to make an experi¬ 
ment. A portion of the trees was syringed obliquely across the trellis ; 
there alone every blossom appeared to set, and much thinning was im¬ 
perative, while on the great unsyringed portion there was not half a crop. 
If my friend reads these notes he will get to know who “ Thinker ” is, and 
is quite welcome to the information. 
Mr. Symons, I am glad to see, has figured his simple and useful rain 
gauge on page 275. I have used one of them for years, and have had 
pleasure in transmitting the results to “head quarters.” It is an ex¬ 
cellent contrivance, and an interesting addition to a garden, but should 
be attended to with strict regularity, or the records are worse than 
nothing. I contrived to make my gauge “ pay,” too, as it supplied 
material for a few columns of matter for newspapers, which I had no 
difficulty in disposing of for a “ consideration.” I have been laughed at 
by a neighbour for “ measuring raio,” but he was not aware of the 
“ method in my madness.” 
There is a very good hint in the communication of Messrs. Foster 
and Pearson on page 316 on painting hot-water pipes. The new joint 
appears to be good, but the point that I think merits the attention of 
gardeners is the reason given why so many pipes fail—namely, “ letting 
them stand for months without working.” I know that is true, because 
I have been a culprit, found out my error, and mended my ways. Let 
the hint be taken, for there is assuredly something in it. 
If records of bothy life were compiled there would be some curious 
remembrances. I remember a bothy on one of the walls of which were 
a number of horizontal marks at heights ranging from 4 feet 1 inch to 
6 feet 2 inches. These represented the altitudes of the occupants, and 
the stretching that occurred in one endeavouring to overtop the other was 
not a little amusing. On another wall the marks were vertical. These 
represented the stretch of the arms, and the straining that was endured 
as with chests flattened and fingers outstretched to overreach another’s 
marks was almost agonising. I thought of these eff rtswhen reading of the 
trade greatness that has been evolved by sixpenny telegrams, and when I 
read the note on page 307 I could not help wondering what the Jones’s 
had done amiss to be left out of the reckoning. I like to see enterprise in 
everything wholesome ; we have it in play in the bothies, in trade,, 
and the great seed firms and nurseries in this country are monuments of 
industrial life. 
And now I must acknowledge the letter of Mr. Iggulden, lest he 
should think me discourteous. If I have made an “unfair” use of the 
Essex statistics I am sorry, as I did not intend to do so. I can well 
afford to withdraw all that part of the subject, and even to throw in 
Essex and its excellencies into his scale against myself. I will, therefore, 
give him Essex and take Kent, where the land has been marvellously im¬ 
proved of late years by deep cultivation; also I would desire to 
place on record what I have reason to believe is a fact—that the finest 
hardy fruit grown in Eogland is from trenched land, not “ subsoiled ” 
merely, but trenched in the manner that has been so ably denounced. 
This is a mere skirmish, however, and I must now attack my doughty 
opponent’s main fortifications. 
A feint is often useful in war, and we shall see in a moment whether 
in “ twice mentioning Mr. Gilbert ” I have “ invoked a powerful witness 
against myself.” The fact is, Mr. Iggulden has allowed me to tempt him 
into a cul de sac. The case now stands thus : If Mr. Gilbert has not 
trenched the garden at Burghley my opponent is the victor, and I shall 
band him my sw-pen. If he has trenched that fertile garden the 
case is slightly different. Bearing in mind the advice not to “ draw on 
my imagination ” I will just state two facts. The first is that the Burghley 
Garden is one of the best and most systematically trenched gardens in 
Britain, the best portion of it being trenched the deepest—(neither Mr. 
Gilbert, Mr. Temple, nor any other good gardener trenches the same ground 
every year)—and hence its great productiveness. I know this is so, because 
I have seen the trenching in progress, and Mr. Gilbert has told me it is 
the secret of his success. So much for the Burghley stronghold. The 
next fact is of a general nature, but not less striking as showing the 
enormous advantages of deep over shallow cultivation in contributing to 
the earth’s productiveness. The gardens of this country are worked to 
more than twice the depth of the land devoted to farming, and the former 
are immeasurably and beyond all comparison the more productive because 
ot — the trenching. Whatever local exceptions may be adduced and 
examples of abuse in trenching shown, the great fact remains firm and 
immoveable that deep cultivation has powerfully increased the fertility 
of the soil, and if all the gardens in the kingdom had only been dug a 
“ spade deep ” they would not be nearly so productive a3 they are to-day. 
That is all at present from—A Thinker. 
IN THE GARDEN. 
Hose-in-Hose Polyanthuses. —I am extremely fond of 
these. Granted they are abnormalities, but none the less, in 
my opinion, they are desirable. The following are flowering 
with me now:—White, pale yellow, orange-yellow, gold laced, 
crimson, amaranth, and what I take to be King of Hose-in-hose. 
It is a laced variety, with the calyx lobes foliage-like, similar 
to Jack in the Green. The white, orange-yellow, and crimson 
are very free and showy; all the rest are pretty, and particularly 
interesting. The crimson is apparently very scarce; my plants 
come from Ireland, the home of so many remarkable and scarce 
plants King of Ho3e-in-hoso is also striking. A gold-laced 
variety I have is similar, but without the foliaceous calyx. In 
association with these is Jack in the Green, known also as the 
“ Priest in his Boots ” and “ Pantaloons;” there are two or three 
forms of it, varying in colour and the arrangement of the large 
leafy calyx divisions. There is one called Galligaskins, which 
I take to be a form of Jack. I have received it from two Trish 
localities and from Lincolnshire. The old Rex Theodore Poly¬ 
anthus is a gem, with its very duplex flowers opening a rich 
