63 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 24, 1884. 
I agree with “ T. L.” that head gardeners are not altogether faultless. 
Although quite a youth I have served under gardeners of very different 
character and very different in their treatment of those under their charge. 
A few encouraging words when deserved assist a young man greatly in 
his onward path. At the same time 1 think that head gardeners ought to 
keep and see that others under him keep the ru’es of the estatilishment to 
a letter, for it is certain if rules are not kept at the top they will not be 
kept at the bottom.—T. It. M. 
There seems a little misunderstanding about the advice of “A 
Working Gardener,” and the comment of ‘‘ H., A oil ft.” The way I real 
Ihe letter of “ A Woiking Gardener” I could not see much, if anything, 
to find fault with, and I am very much inclined to think some at least of 
your correspondents are somewhat blind to their own interest. What 
interest can it he for “ A Working Gardener,” “ II.. Notts,” or any other 
member of the fraternity to cast a stone at the present genera'ion of 
young gardeners ? No, it w r as not intended to hurt their feelincs, but I 
take it to be a gentle ri minder that we must not slumber, hut be up and 
doing. “Let 1 im that standeth take heed lest he fall ” was somewhere 
near, if not the text from which your correspondent preached. It is 
useless for young men to say they can do this, that, and the other. They 
cannot rerve two masters, as I know' from experience, and this I strive 
earnestly to impress upon the minds of the young men under me. It is 
very few years since I was a journeyman, and by no means without fault; 
nor do I wish to be considered spotless now'. L t young men read the 
articles in question again, and I thiuk they will be of the same opinion 
as—A Young Heao Gardener. 
[We have two other excellent letters on this subject which will be 
published ; for some others w r e fear space will not be available, b it 
“ H., Notts,” will be accorded space for reply if he desires it. In the 
meantime we suggest that the whole subject be well considered, and in a 
few months hence if the sound advice that has been given is turned to 
account its value wi'l be appreciatt d. We have no fear that the gardeners 
and wiiters of the future will not be as competent as those of the past and 
the present; but that is not enough. Our hope is that they will be better 
cultivators and better writers, both in their own interests and in those of 
the art that they should ever strive to improve.] 
THE TULIP. 
The fortnightly meeting of the Manchester Horticultural Improvement 
Society w r as held in the old Town Hall on Thursday the 17th inst., Mr. Bruce 
Findlay in the chair. There W'as a large attendance. 
Mr. F. Robinson read a paper on the Tulip. He said a history was con¬ 
nected w'ith this plant in some respects differing from most floral productions. 
The Tulip is a native of the Levant and the warmer parts of Asia, and is 
very common in Syria and Pa’estine. In the year 1559 the Tulip w r as rapidly 
distributed through all parts of Europ >, being brought from Persia by Conrad 
Gesner, an eminent German physician and naturalist. Early in the seven¬ 
teenth century the special cultivation of particular varieties was first prose¬ 
cuted to a considerable extent in the Netherlands, and the price of the roots 
was higher in value than that of the most precious meta’s. In the years 
1634 to 1637 the passion for the possession of choice Tulips became so strong 
amongst the Dutch, that dealing in them became one of the most impoitant 
money speculations, and the bulbs were sold and resold at enormous prices. 
For one root of the Viceroy va>iety £250 was paid, while for Semper Augustus 
a person agreed to give 4600 floiins (equal to £460) with the addition of a 
new' carriage and a pair of horses. Another agreed to give twelve acie 3 of 
land for a Fingle root of this sort. As late as the y'ar 1854 Mr. Groom of 
Clapham catalogued show Tulips at enormous prices : Duchess of Cambridge, 
Princess Mary of Cambridge, and Miss Eliza Seymour were sold at one 
hundred guineas each, others at fifty, twenty-one, and ten guineas per root. 
In the following year, 1855, the whole of Mr. Groom’s collection, which con¬ 
sisted of over 200,000 roots, was sold by auction, as they stood in the rows, 
at very low prices, and f on this time the Tulip as a show flower declined in 
the public favour at a rapid rate. Mr. Robinson described the different 
sections of the late or show-blooming varieties—viz., bizarres, byb’oemens, 
roses, and breeders, the three first being again divided into the feathered 
and flamed forms. The soil needed, the planting time, and the treatment 
were fully and c’early stated ; and he next passed on to the early-bloom¬ 
ing sorts—those mostly used for the dr coration of our greenhouses and con¬ 
servatories, as well to the broad stretches of beds to be seen in the spring 
in public parks and private gardens, where they are grown in masses in the 
flower beds. An approximate estimate of the numbers sent from Holland 
annually of a few of the hading sorts would be about as follows :—Scarlet 
Due Van Thol, 800,000 ; White Pottebakker, 300,000 ; Golden Prince, 500,000 ; 
White Queen Victoiia, 500,000; and Thomas Moore, 100,000. The total 
number of flowering bulbs of the Tulip yearly exported by the Dutch florists 
amounts to over 5,000,000 bulbs. The commercial value for a flowrnr at the 
present day of a new variety of early Tulip, if of unusually fine quality, 
would be about £1, being only about one-tt nth the value of anew Hyacinth. 
The reason for this difference is that it would take fifty years to get up a 
stock large enough to send out; while with a Hyacinth, which multiplies 
rapidly, the same results could be produced in ten years. 
In the discussion which followed much light was thrown upon the manner 
in which the new bulbs were reproduced. For in p’anting the bulbs in 
autumn and growth taking p’ace in the spring the flower stem is plainly 
observed rising from the centre of the bulb, but when the bulbs are taken 
up after flowering the flower stem is on the outside of the one taken from 
the ground. A process has gone on all through the growing season by which 
the nutriment first taken up by the roots and passed through the leaves, and 
receiving fresh material from the air, is again passed down the leaves and 
deposited at the base of the flower stem, and gradually built up into a new 
flowering bulb for the following season. Mr. G. Lunt, Mr. Astley, Mr. Tait, 
M Findlay, and the Hon. Secretary (Mr. W. Swan) took part in’the discus¬ 
sion. It was announced that Mr. B. Findlay would give his paper on the; 
next meeting night, January 24th ; subject, “ A Plant: What is it ?” .. . 
PLANT-FORCING. 
With the new year the forcing of plants and bnlhs may be said 
to commence with earnestness, and many indeed are the means and 
contrivances resorted to with a view to having different plants in 
flower out of their natural seasons. It seems almost needless to say 
that success, both in regard to qua'ity and quantity of bloom and the 
yrecise time at which individual plants are required to pnduce their 
flowers, depends in a great measure on two things—viz., the state the 
plants are in, and the treatment they have received preparatory to- 
being forced in the first place ; secondly, heat and moisture. Unless; 
a ceitain amount of preparation and the necessary requirements of a* 
plant have been attended to before its introduction into a comparatively 
high temperature satisfactory results need not be anticipated. To* 
explain the matter more clearly I wmu'd say—speaking in a broad 
sense—that plants intended to be forced must not be taken direct, 
from the borders and put into pots and into a strong 1 eat at the same 
time, as such a process has a very great tendency to defeat the object 
in view. Such plants, for instance, as Azalea pontica, Rhododendrons, 
Lilacs, Deutzias, Guelder Roses, Andromedas, and other hard wooded-' 
examples, should be potted early in the autumn months and be plunged 
in coal ashes in a shady place, there to establish themselves till within; 
eight or ten weeks of the time they are wanted to produce their 
flowers. Herbaceous and bulbous-rooted plants, such as Spirreaa 
japonica, Lielytra spectubilis, Solomon’s Seal, Lily of the Val'ey r 
Helhborus niger, Hemerocallis flava and fulva, Hyacinths, Tulips, 
Narcissus, Crocu-es, &c., must also be potted in the autumn and’ 
plunged in ashes out of doors for a reasonab'e time before being- 
forced. The leasons for these preparations are obvious enough to 
most practitioners ; not so, however, perhaps to the tyro, but the fact 
still remains that unhss a plant is well established and has an abun¬ 
dance of fresh healthy roots, its buds and flowtrs do not respond to 
the heat with such freedom as is necessary to insure the highest' 
success. r I his rule, however, must not be taken in too literal a 
sense, as it has exceptions. I have lifted large bushes of Syringas- 
and Persian Lilacs 6 feet high and as much in diameter, these having- 
been transferred to a forcing house without further delay, and the 
result has been all that could be desired ; but then it should be stated* 
that they were taken up with a large ball of earth and an abundance 
of roots, and at a time wdien the flow of sap was most easily excited— 
viz , February and March, the roots, of course, being af .erwards covered 
with two or three barrowlcads of soil, well watered, and the stems; 
syringed. There is one other very important point connected with; 
the early forcing of plants, especially those of a hardwooded nature;, 
and that is stilting ihem in too high a temperature. The falling of 
buds, immature expansion, and weak spindly flowers wanting in colour 
and odoriftrousness where this quality is a characteristic, are due in 
many instances to a certain amount of disregard and negligence on 
the score of heat, and are not unfrequently attributed to a totally 
different cause. 
What temperature should plants be introduced into when forcing- 
commences ? is a question I have sometimes had put to me, and my 
answer has invariably been, That depends very much on the time of 
the year and the state of the weather at the time it is paiposed to- 
begin. No hard-and-fast line can be drawn, but it cannot be wrong 
to allow the inside temperature to be 10° or 15° higher than the- 
outside, bearing in mind to let the one fluctuate with the other, and- 
when the buds have commenced moving increase the temperature Ivy 
another 10° or 15°. In practice this rule will, in the great majority 
of cases, be found a good and safe one to follow, much more so than 1 
a given minimum and maximum cf heat irrespective of the externa, 
elements. To insist on a thermometer inside a forcing house standing 
at G0° or 70° during a cold winter’s night when there are several' 
degrees of frost is not, in my opinion, conducive to health and vigour 
in plant life. Further, I would say that such a state of things would 
greatly tend to produce the opposite effect, for to maintain anything 
like this temperature under such conditions as I allude to, unlers 
there is an extraordinary amount of heating surface, means that tire 
pipes must be so hot as to preclude the bare hand from remaining on 
them for more than a second or two, and when this is the case tire 
atmosphere cannot be other than in a very dry state, a circumstance- 
which, as is well known, is productive of evil consequences to all 
kinds of vegetation in a growing state. An early vinery with a good 
bed of fermenting maleiial in the middle, made of loam and stable 
litter, is a very good place for forcing such plants as have been 
named, the bed being used when the heat has subsided sufficien Lv 
for plunging the pots in. In this matter, however, great caution and 
judgment must be exercised, otherwise serious consequences in the 
way of burnt roots owing to the violent heat will assuredly follow, and 
which no subsequent care and attention will rectify. A want of fore- 
