January 3, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
7 
Mr. Birkenhead showed the folly of potting Ferns too firmly, preferring a 
rough open soil in which cinders and sand formed a not inferior part. A 
Eumber of questions were asked and replied to, and some further infor¬ 
mation on the subject was imparted by the members who took part in the 
discussion, amongst whom were Mr. Ellis (Pendleton), Mr. Nield, Mr. T. 
Lunt, Mr. W. Plant, Mr. M’Kellar, Mr. Findlay, and the Honorary 
Secretary, Mr. W. Swan. It was announced that the next meeting would 
take place on Thursday, January 10th, 1884, when Mr. F. Bobinson 
(Messrs. Dickson & Robinson) will read a paper on the Tulip. 
A lover of bulbous plants writes—“ I read in the Journal 
recently with much pleasure that a border was being prepared at Kew for 
choice bulbs out of doors, and during a recent visit to that establish¬ 
ment I observed that it was completed and partly planted. It appears 
to have been done in a very thorough manner, and I shall look forward to 
many pleasant visits in the future, when I may expect to see some of my 
old favourites in flower. We are all familiar with the brilliance of 
Tulips, Hyacinths, Crocuses, and others that are usually employed for 
bedding purposes, but too few know the number of delicately beautiful 
plants included amongst many genera of the great families Liliaceae and 
Amaryllidaceae. Except to botanists and a few specialists hundreds of 
these are unknown, and it is to be hoped that this praiseworthy experi¬ 
ment at Kew will assist in popularising a really charming and much- 
neglected group of plants. Much also will undoubtedly be added to the 
small store of knowledge we possess concerning the cultural requirements 
of many of these plants, for with the exception of such experienced 
cultivators as Mr. Green of Pendell Court, few have had an opportunity 
of studying their special wants, and the recorded information available 
upon such matters is too often quite unreliable.” 
- The third number of the “ Science Monthly ” continues its 
work in a satisfactory manner, and contains well-written articles upon 
“Earthquakes,” “Lost Comets,” “Some Account of New Guinea,” 
“ Lessons from Common Plants,” “ Extinct Volcanoes of the British 
Islands,” and a biography of Sir William Thomson, with a portrait. 
Ihe columns devoted to scientific news are filled with interesting facts, 
and the various other departments are also well supported. 
- The December issue of “ L’Illustration Horticole ” con¬ 
tains coloured plates of three very distinct plants. One of these is 
Echeveria decora, which is believed to be a variety of E. metallica, 
resembling that species in habit and form of the leaves, but the colouring 
is very different. The principal ground tint is a peculiar purplish green 
with irregular stripes of pinkish yellow, the stem being of a pale rosy 
hue. Tapeinotes carolinac var. major is a handsome Gesneraceous plant 
with fine elliptical or oblanceolate leaves, deep green, with a glaucous 
tint on the upper surface, and rich red beneath. The flowers are pro¬ 
duced freely from the axils of the leaves, the stalks being nearly erect, 
but the corollas hang downwards. They are curiously bulged at the 
middle, but much contracted near the mouth ; the lobes are small, 
rounded, and pale yellow, the other portion of the flower being white. 
The calyx is large with ovate tapering sepals, deep green, edged and 
tipped with red. The species was discovered in Mexico in 1859 by Dr. 
Wawra, and the variety was introduced to the continent by M. de 
Macedo Costa of Bahia. The third plate represents Batatus paniculata 
a strong-growing and beautiful climber that is too little known in 
gardens. The leaves are large and deeply divided into five to seven 
narrow palmate segments. The flowers resemble a large Convolvulus, 
and are of a rich rosy colour, the centre and tube being deep crimson. 
■It flowers very freely and continuously, though the blooms individually 
are of short duration. A fine specimen is grown in the old Lily house 
at Kew. 
The St. James's Gazette in discussing “ Neglected Vegetables,” 
has the following with regard to the fruit of the purple Egg-plant, 
or Aubergine: —“Another most valuable plant, unknown in this 
country save as an ornament in the quasi-tropical gardens or in 
shrivelled specimens in the windows of the foreign dealers in Covent 
Garden Market, is that for which we have no English name—Solanum 
melongena, the purple variety of the Egg-plant, known in France as 
Aubergine, in Spain as Berengena, to Anglo-Indians as Brinjal (a 
corruption of the Spanish name), and to Turks by a name most impolite. 
This is one of the most precious of the great Solanum family, greatly 
esteemed all over the tropical and warm temperate world, which only 
needs to be better known in England to be liked as much as its first 
cousin, the Tomato, Supposed to have been originally introduced from 
America, the use of the Brinjal has spread all over the East. Sancho 
Panza tells us that the Moors of his time were especially fond of it. In 
Spain it has always been most popular. The Brinjal in its habits is very 
like the Tomato, and may be grown in English gardens without any 
more trouble. As with the Tomato, the main secret of success is to sow 
the seed in a hotbed or under glass, and have the plants well forward 
before they are put out into the open. In an ordinary English summer 
the fruits ripen readily against a south wall, the plants requiring no 
further care than copious and constant watering. The Brinjal may be 
cooked in various ways—either cut in slices and fried in oil, or parboiled 
and then the interior taken out and fried with force-meat, or put into 
stews and curries. One precaution it is necessary to take, and that is to 
steep the fruit, after being cut in half, in water for half an hour or so. 
This is done to expel the poisonous element which this, like all the other 
members of the genus Solanum, contains in more or less degree.” 
PROPAGATING HARDWOODED PLANTS. 
“A Foreman” (page 552) says that Ericas, Epacrises, and Azaleas 
should be propagated in the spring and Camellias in the autumn. I 
would advise your correspondent to propagate Ericas in September, and 
then not in a forcing house, and when standing them in the open air not 
to place them behind a north wall, but in the open, so that one plant 
shades the other, placing a piece of board against the outside row of pots ; 
then, with attention to stopping at the proper time and careful watering, 
plants may be had with a good constitution and masses of bloom by the 
time their blooming season arrives. I can assure “A Foreman” that 
those robust plants in 48’s that may be seen in Covent Garden Market by 
thousands at this time of the year are not grown under the system he 
recommends. Azaleas and Camellias, I think, are best grafted. A good 
stock for Azaleas is A. Sir Charles Napier, but gardeners as a rule do not 
graft them, leaving this work to the trade.—A. Young. 
STORED-UP SAP IN VINES. 
“ It appears tome,” says “Beta,” “that he has avoided repeating 
the statement as to the exact size the shoots and leaves attain before 
the stored-up sap is exhausted. In his principal argument he is un¬ 
doubtedly right, but in this I consider he errs, and I would advise a 
graceful retreat from an untenable position.” 
Now I cannot understand that anything has yet occurred to make my 
position untenable. The mere assertions of half a dozen people who 
have no records of experiments to support their particular views cer¬ 
tainly will not do it. As I have said before, my theories and deductions 
are open to criticism and argument, but the facts of observation must be 
taken as absolute facts. I will re-quote the passage from “Beta’s” 
letter, and point out where the practical facts end and where the theory 
commences. “ The shoots are now from 3 to 7 inches long, with two to 
four fully expanded leaves, the largest of which measure 4^- or 5 inches 
across. Here and there in a few of the older ones are patches of dark 
colour, a sort of bluish green, only visible at present to the practised eye 
which is watching for its appearance. Yesterday it was only discernible 
on two or three leaves, now it shows slightly on a score or more.” Then 
comes the bit of theory, which we will leave out for the present. 
If the above passage had been written last month from memory there 
might be grounds for suspecting I had stretched a point, but when I 
state that it was written word for word on the precise date I attached 
to it and in the house where the Vine in question was growing, and that 
all measurements recorded in the series of articles from which this is 
extracted were taken carefully and booked at once, and that in no case 
did I stretch a single hair’s breadth, it will be owned that I have good 
grounds for sticking to my point. No, “Beta,” I thank you for your 
letter and advice, but I shall not retire “ gracefully ; ” when I do retire it 
will be because I am beaten, and then gracefulness will be out of the 
question. 
I shall have more facts and figures to record which I know will not 
be received by everyone, and I own that some of them surprised myself, 
but that is no reason why I should withhold my notes. There will be 
ample opportunity for hundreds of persons during the next few months 
to test the veracity of my statements, and I can assure them that if they 
will take the pains to go into the matter deeply and carefully that they 
will find an inexhaustible fund of interest. 
Now for the little bit of theory which has caused so much discussion. 
It is to the effect that the appearances noted above and recorded within 
inverted commas “ indicate that the roots have commenced action, and 
that the leaves are no longer dependent on the stored-up food which was 
prepared last autumn and preserved in the stems for early use.” True 
this is pure theory, in which, as far as I know, I am not supported to 
the full length by any professed physiologist; but, on the other hand 
has any learned physiologist made the Vine (which I hold to have an 
economy peculiar to itself) a special study ? 
The notes of observant cultivators who have recorded experiments 
during the discussion have partly supported my theory, and mere 
assertions, however numerous, without a shadow of proof to support 
them, carry no weight whatever. 
Have none of your readers noticed the remarkable, almost magic-like 
change of colour which comes over the leaves of a Vine at the particular 
