58 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
t January 24, 1884. 
attacked, and never unless the rainfall is abnormally great 
when they are approaching maturation ; and grown under 
glass there is no disease except by some mismanagement in 
ventilation and watering. The path of safety lies in the 
direction indicated—a race of Potatoes, the offspring of a 
moisture-loving stock, the habitats of which are the low coast 
line and ravines where S. Maglia is found, and not that of a 
plant whose home is on dry mountain sides, as in the case of 
8. tuberosum. 
If peradventure Mr. Eaker shall have proved that the 
labours of cultivators and hybridisers have been devoted to 
improving the wrong Potato, and if his investigations should 
result in varieties being raised naturally adapted to our 
climate, he will deserve a national tribute which will be 
shared by the great establishment which he adorns. 
HORTICULTURE IN 1883. 
While our good friend “ Wiltshire Rector ” always gives us his 
sound and cheery advice for the time that is before us, and shows us 
how best we may benefit others even when carrying out our own 
plans, it has generally fallen to my lot to give at the beginning of a 
new year a resumS of that which has just closed ; and its bearings on 
the present we all delight in ere they pass from memory, and in these 
days of express speed they very soon do so. They are like the land¬ 
scape through which we rush in the “ Flying Dutchman." We catch 
a glimpse of the stately towers of Windsor, of lovely reaches of our 
queen of rivers, of quiet homesteads and snug country homes ; but 
before we have time to think much about them they are gone from 
view. And so with events now. The events of months and years 
rapidly fade from memory, and with them the lessons which they 
teach. It is not, then, I think, a useless task to bring the past year 
to mind and see what it has done for horticulture and what notable 
things it has brought before us. 
In a review of our subject the proceedings of the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society naturally claim prior attention. Although in consequence 
of the greater exhibition at South Kensington no adequate space was 
left for grand horticultural shows there, yet the Society was enabled 
to carry out an exhibition at Chiswick—the Apple Congress, which 
for its practical utility and far-reaching benefits must be noted as the 
horticultural event of the year, and that it will give a great stimulus 
'to the cultivation of this most valuable of our fruits there has been 
■already ample proof, while the report which is yet to come will no 
doubt be appreciated by all who cultivate it. The fortnightly meetings 
of the Society still maintain their interest; while the evening meet¬ 
ings at the Linnean Society were so successful that they converted 
most of those who went there into so many Oliver Twists, “ wishing 
for more —not on the same night, as some of the papers were too 
long, but for more meetings of a similar character. What its future 
is to be no one seems able to forecast : let us hope that more pro¬ 
sperous days may be in store for it. The exhibitions at the Royal 
Botanic Society have been successful; and as delightful promenades 
with good music and a fashionable company they cannot, with the 
one remaining element, fair weather, fail to be so. The Crystal Palace 
Company under its new management is evidently looking upon its 
flower shows as one of its best cards. The schedules of the exhi¬ 
bitions during 1883 were more liberal than has been for some years 
the case, and there is a promise of those of 1884 being still more so : 
and yet flower shows as such do not seem to pay ! 1 wonder whether 
there was truth in what a well-known horticulturist said to me the 
other day. The fact is w 7 e want to do away with big shows in London 
for a few years. People have had too much of them, and if they 
-ceased for a time would then ask for them and appreciate them when 
■they were held. 
I think perhaps one of the most interesting exhibitions of the 
year was that held by Mr. Bull at Chelsea, where for weeks during 
the height of the season a beautiful collection of flowering Orchids 
was visited by the most eminent cultivators and by vast numbers of 
the nobility and gentry. Not only were the plants themselves models 
of good cultivation, and beautiful in the profusion and variety if 
their bios-oms, but they were arranged with great taste ; and certainly 
the remembrance of the sight is to me, and I doubt not to many 
others, one of the most pleasant memories of 1883. The furore for 
Orchids seems to grow with ever-increasing ardour—sale after sale 
at Stevens’ and Protheroe & Morris’ disperse thousands and tens of 
thousands of Orchids over the kingdom. The older growers seem to 
have lost none of their zeal, if we may judge from the prices given 
for them (the £243 given by Sir Trevor Lawrence for Vanda Sander- 
iana), while new growers are starting up in all directions. Nor is 
this to be wondered at. The mysteries that once surrounded Orchid- 
growirg are frst be ; ng dispeised ; the abnormally high temperature 
is being discarded, for it is seen that they do not require it, and of 
course this means less expense (though, from the prices given, few 
Orchid-growers seem to think much of this) ; and their varied and 
most lovely forms, their often most delightful perfume, their con¬ 
tinuous flowering, so that the Orchid house is never without flowers, 
all combine to make it what it is—one of our most popular flowers. 
Of other flowers there has not been, I think, during the past year 
anything very noticeable. The Rose still maintains its popularity, 
and the success which has attended Mr. Bennett’s hybridising 
(although I dissent as much as ever from the term “ pedigree Roses,’’ 
and hold my hand still with regard to Her Majesty), has given hopes 
of still further improvement. It would seem that when flowers get 
to that pitch of perfection that there is very little difference from 
year to year on the new varieties that their day is to a certain extent 
over. It would be difficult to say what furffier improvement can be 
effected in the Pelargonium either in the Show or Zonal varieties, 
and I suppose in consequence of this the Pelargonium Society feels 
that its work is done. Can, again, the Begonia advance much 
further ? With flowers 6 inches in diameter and of all shades of colour, 
with double varieties of great beauty and substance, we are tempted 
to ask, Is not their day nearly over also ? The past season has 
brought before us some very remarkable new varieties, so remarkable 
that we may well ask, What next ? The single varieties raised by 
Mr. Laing and the double from abroad are alike wonderful and 
beautiful. 
That horticulture is throughout the country not only holding its 
own but progressing is, I think, manifest to anyone who goes much 
about the country. The ever-varying pleasure which it gives must 
make it popular, while the low price at which so many of its produc¬ 
tions are now offered, and the liberal spirit which marks most horti¬ 
culturists, tend still further to increase it ; and we are delighted to 
find how the taste for herbaceous and alpine planis is on the increase. 
In all directions we see the old bedding-out system giving way to 
the long-neglected old-fashioned flowers, and those who follow out 
this pursuit have stores to go to which our forefathers knew nothing 
of. The recent introductions in these classes far outnumber the 
old-fashioned flowers, and the immense variety and great beauty 
that exist amongst them will, I hope, still more encourage others to 
cultivate them. 
As ever, the death roll for the last year numbers amongst it many 
well-known and deeply regretted names. The genial and hearty 
Harper Crewe, one of our most distinguished herbaceous and bulbous 
cu'tivators, is sadly missed ; then we miss the portly form and honest 
face of Henry Hooper. The gentle Edward Pilgrim is no more with 
us, and the closing days of the year have brought us the sad news of 
the melancholy death of Thomas Speed, and thus it is each year. 
Solemn notes of warning to us who remain 1 
One noted name still is with us, fresh and vigorous as ever—in 
fact, recovering its youth—cheering with its smile many a youngster 
to whom we veterans must give way ere long—the Journal. Age 
does not seem to add a wrinkle to its brow or a grey hair to its head, 
and I but, I am sure, echo the wish of all its readers when I say, 
Esto perpetua. —D., Deal. 
ROOT-CULTIVATION OF VINES. 
In common, no doubt, witli others similarly situated, I have 
often been questioned as to the cause of and remedy for Vine 
roots going down into the drainage or subsoil, and not taking 
possession of the surface half of the border; and very recently 
we had some interesting remarks on this subject from an amateur 
in the south of England who was at the time engaged in getting 
his Vine roots out of the depths. It is, of course, very undesir¬ 
able, especially in certain subsoils, that the roots of Vines should 
be chiefly in the depths of the border, and not active and nume¬ 
rous near its surface. The cause of such a tendency on the part 
of Vine roots may be an inherent disposition to go downwards, 
or there may be several cond lions which force the habit in them. 
At all events the roots of Vines can be led to multiply themselves 
at the very surface of the border, and in the great majority of, 
if not in all, circumstances it is most desirable that they should 
do so. 
The fact that the roots of Vines require to be as carefully 
cultivated as their stems is in numerous instances not syste¬ 
matically recognised nor acted upon. What is considered an 
orthodox border is made, and young Vines planted, and while 
every necessary detail connected with the welfare of the stems is 
attended to with care, that upon which success mainly depends 
—namely, the culture of their roots, is not attended to with the 
regularity and care that is necessary to keep them where they 
ought to be—near the surface of the border. 
The first step in leading the roots in their downward ceurse 
is in mixing into the border a quantity of ordinary manure from 
