June 11, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
479 
any check whatever, nor the roots gorged with water to send up an extra 
supply of sap. If this splitting was not caused by endosmose, then what 
caused it ?—J. McIndoe. 
HIBBERTIA PERFOLIATA. 
Amoxgst many interesting plants included in Mr. A. H. Smee’s 
collection at Wallington this Hibhertia has for some weeks been flowering 
very abundantly, its bright yellow St. John’s Wort-like flowers rendering 
the plant highly attractive. Several species of Hibbertia are grown in 
gardens usually trained to pillars or the roof of a conservatory, but 
H. perfoliata is more compact in habit, and, like the small-flowered 
H. Reedi, is better suited for culture in pots. The flowers are not of long 
Fig. 117.—Hibbertia perfoliata 
duration, but so many are produced and in such close succession that the 
plant continues ornamental for a considerable time. 
PRIMULA OBCONICA. 
Without doubt this is one of the most useful and profuse-flowering 
plants that has been introduced during recent years. It produces in 
succession its light delicate trusses of bloom, and would flower the whole 
year under glass. This is not wise, but it may be flowered for eight 
months of the year without showing the least signs of exhaustion, the 
remaining four being sufficient for it to recuperate itself for another 
season’s flowering. 
The easy culture and continuous flowering nature of this Primula 
renders it invaluable for the decoration of large houses that have to be 
kept gay with flowering plants during the autumn, winter, and spring. 
Those that have not grown it for this purpose should give a trial. In 
addition to its adaptability for the purpose named it is very serviceable 
for room, window, or indoor decoration generally, as it does not appear 
to be injured in the least by confinement in these positions. 
It comes quite true from seed, which should be sown on the surface of 
fine soil in a pot or pan ; if covered the seed will not germinate. Supply 
water from a fine-rose pot, and cover with a square of glass. The pot or 
pan in which the seed is sown must be shaded from the sun, and, if 
practicable, placed in a temperature of 60°. The seed is often a month or 
six weeks before germinating, and for a time the young plants grow very 
slowly. The seedlings, as soon a3 large enough, should be pricked into 
other pans until they are large enough for 2 or 3-inch pots, and may be 
grown in heat until they reach this stage. As soon as the plants commence 
rooting in their pots they may be gradually hardened and grown under 
cool frame treatment during the summer. 
The treatment that suits Chinese Primulas will do for this one admir¬ 
ably. The seeds, if sown in spring, will make strong plants in 5 and 
6-inch pots by autumn, but if sown now will be very useful for decorative 
purposes in 3-inch pots, for they flower equally freely in a small state. 
Very few plants will be raised from a single packet of seed, but fortunately 
the plants produce crowns freely, and one good plant can be divided into 
several, which soon become established, and in one season make strong 
flowering plants. It also produces seed freely, and when once in possession 
of a few strong plants a good stock from home-saved seed may readily 
be raised. The plants will form seed pods while flowering in the con¬ 
servatory or any other structure during the spring, ant will ripen it 
quickly on a shelf close to the glass in a warm house. Sow the seed 
directly it is ripe. 
Even while seeding this Primula will continue throwing up flowers 
from the base, but these should be removed, for the strain of seed-bearing 
after flowering for months is sufficient to exhaust the plants. Another 
highly commendable character of this plant is that its foliage never 
appears to be attacked by insects that infest the majority of plants grown 
under glass.— Cultivatok. 
PLAGIARISM. 
The following paragraphs have recently appeared—one of them in the 
Evening Standard of May 30ch, and credited to Land and Water, in 
which it also appeared on the same date ; the other in the Journal of 
Horticulture of May 21st, page 410. Let us see how they look side by 
side:— 1 
From the Journal of Horticulture , 
May 21st, 1885. 
Young standard fruit trees— 
Apples for instance—are often sadly 
neglected. The long straight shoots 
of hundreds of them are neither 
shortened at the time of planting 
nor afterwards. The result of that 
great error is that a few shoots push 
from towards the extremities, while 
the lower portions, to the extent 
often of 18 inches or more, are prac¬ 
tically destitute of growths, and the 
first crop the trees bear drags down 
the branches, which never get up 
again. Such trees are practically 
spoiled, or at least they are mani¬ 
festly inferior to others of the same 
age that have been pruned and the 
subsequent growths intelligently 
pinched during the first few years 
after planting. I would rather 
shorten the young shoots now with 
tufts of growth near their tips of 
trees planted last autumn or this 
spring than leave them as they are, 
on the principle of choosing the 
lesser of two evils. I have re¬ 
cently seen two rather striking ex¬ 
amples of ill and well managed fruit 
trees established four or five years. 
The former were not shortened after 
planting, nor have they been pruned 
since. The main branches 
of the latter are so strong that they 
would almostor quite bear the owner 
of them, who is not a “ feather¬ 
weight,” while the branches right 
down to the main stem were 
wreathed with blossom. They are in 
condition to bear more fruit this year 
than the untended trees possibly can 
do, and are immeasurably superior, 
having regard to their future career 
and productiveness. They are strong, 
well formed, and studded with spurs, 
and will need little further pruning. 
From Land and Water and the Even¬ 
ing Standard May 30th, 1885. 
Young standard fruit trees— 
Apples, for instance—are often sadly 
neglecte d. The long straight shoots 
of hundreds of the m are neither short¬ 
ened at the time of planting nor 
afterwards. The result of that great 
error is that a few shoots push from 
towards the extremities, while the 
lower portions, to the extent often 
of 18 inches or more, are practically 
destitute of growths, and the first 
crop the trees bear drags down the 
branches, and they never get up 
again. Such trees are practically 
spoiled, or, at least, they are mani¬ 
festly inferior to others of the same 
age that have been pruned, and the 
subsequent growths intelligently 
pinched during the first few years 
after planting. We would rather 
shorten the young shoots now with 
tufts of growth near their tips, that 
are to be found on trees planted last 
autumn or this spring. Then leave 
them as they are, on the principle of 
choosing the lesser of two evils ; and 
young trees that have been properly 
pruned, and the young growths 
pinched back systematically, will 
have presently main branches so 
strong that they would bear heavy 
weights without bending down. 
Such trees will be in a condition to 
bear more fruit than the untended 
trees can possibly do, and they are 
immeasurably superior, having re¬ 
gard to their future career and pro¬ 
ductiveness. They will be strong, 
well formed, and studded with spurs, 
and will need but comparatively 
little pruning afterwards. 
Evidently some impecunious individual has been 'ou^y, and he has 
bungled in his abbreviation, as after advising his readers to shorten the 
shoots he tells them to “ then leave them where they are.” Leave them 
where ? There appears to be something like a triangular form of imposi¬ 
tion here; first we have been slightly imposed on, then the Land and 
