April 10, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
285 
Royal Aquarium, Westminster, November 12th and 13th, it contains 
lists of the officers, honorary members, and subscribers, together with 
the names of tbe prizetakers at the previous show and the balance 
sheet for the past year. From the latter we learn that the Society 
has a balance in hand of 4.?. 8 d., the amount of reserve fund invested 
in consuls up to December, 1883, being £G1 10s. 11 cl. The prizes 
are of the usual liberal character, all the classes being open to exhi¬ 
bitors from all parts of England, except nine, termed Metropolitan 
Classes, which are confined to persons residing within three miles 
and a half of Shoreditch Church. The winner of any prize in the 
Chrysanthemum classes is entitled, on application to the Hon. Secretary, 
to receive a specially designed certificate recording his success, the cost 
of which will be defrayed by a fund instituted for the purpose. The 
leading class is that for forty-eight blooms, twenty-four incurved and 
twenty-four Japanese, the first prize for which is £15, £10 being given 
by the Society, and £5 by Mr. N. Davis of Camberwell. The other 
prizes in this class are £7 and £4. It should be added that the Society 
undertakes to defray a portion of the cost of carriage of the plants. 
MANURES FOR PLANTS IN POTS. 
It may be roughly assumed that there are two classes of 
cultivators who err in the matter of applying manure to plants 
in pots. One do not as a rule apply any manure after the plants 
have been potted; the other begins to supply with manurial 
solutions long before the plants require it, and continues to do 
so as long as the plants are able to bear up against the treat¬ 
ment. These are extreme instances; but there are many who 
do not go to such extremes, who yet fail to grasp the true reason 
for the application of manure with water. There are, it is true, 
soils so poor in quality, so deficient naturally in the constituents 
of plant food, and so incapable of retaining these when applied, 
that it becomes necessary to add manurial agents with the water 
at a much earlier period after potting than is necessary or even 
wise in the case of other soils. Therefore no hard-and fast line 
can be laid down on this matter; and hence w T e find one writer 
advising the application of liquid manure when the roots begin 
forming round the outside of the ball, while another tells us to 
wait till the roots have become much more numerous. 
The mode of potting the plants must not be overlooked as 
an agent in timing the first necessity fur liquid manure. Firm 
potting as a rule and the employment of small pots give better 
results all round than an opposite practice. A comparatively 
small pot filled firmly with soil has the plant food more con¬ 
centrated and lasts longer than if the soil were loosely placed 
in the pots. However, in most classes of soil the time arrives 
sooner or later when manure must be applied. It then remains 
to consider the best manurial agents and the best mode of apply¬ 
ing them. Many gardeners have their favourite mixture, to 
which they cling with unswerving fidelity. Sheep, deer, cow or 
horse manure, sing’y or in mixture, are all employed in the pre¬ 
paration of liquid manure. Soot and guano are occasionally 
used, but often with a feeling of uncertainty. 
The reason why manure has to be employed for plants in 
pots is simply because the roots have extracted all or nearly all 
of certain elements necessary to the health of the plant, and any 
extra applications of manure must be given in order to meet 
these wants. Nitrogen is commonly the first element to be used 
up ; hence it is that occasional pinches of Peruvian guano, sooty 
water, or a little nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia, cause 
the plant to assume fresh vigour and life. These not only supply 
a want, but by some unknown law enable the plant to appro¬ 
priate other plant foods, which before they were incapable of 
doing. Liquid manures from animal excreta act in much the 
same manner as those already mentioned. Of the very neces ary 
though small potassic elements they are all deficient, and after 
a time flowering plants fail to respond to manurial agents not 
containing this element. 
Surface applications of mineral manures is the cleanest and 
most generally efficacious mode of furnishing plant food to the 
soil. An effective and cheap dressing may be composed of 
superphosphate of lime 4 lbs., chloride of potash 3 lbs., and sul¬ 
phate of ammonia lbs. As much of this mixture as will lie 
on a shilling applied to flowering plants once a week throughout 
the summer months will give the best results. Should there 
appear to be a tendency to flower too much at the expense of 
growth apply sulphate of ammonia alone (or guano will do), for 
two weeks or so. and fresh growth will be excited at once. For 
Ferns nothing better than guano and soot dissolved in the water 
can be given, so also for fine-foliage plants generally, though an 
occasional pinch of the above mixture will be of advantage. 
Irregular watering will stultify the benefit derivable from any 
kind of manure.—R. P. Brotherston. 
BROWALLIA JAMESONJ. 
Old favourite plants are occasionally re-introduced to notice by 
nurserymen or amateurs, and those who thus rescue really meritorious 
plants from the neglect into which they have been allowed to fall deserve 
as much public credit as the first introducers. In the past few years 
many'such forgotten plmts have been brought before the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society at Kensington, and the subject of the present note is 
one of the most remarkable and handsome of these restored favourites. 
Thirty-six years ago Messrs. Veitch & Son introduced Browallia 
Jamesoni from Peru, where it had been found by their collector growing 
in wood at an elevation of G000 feet above sea level. It attracted some 
attention thtD, and was figured in one or two botanical work-', but seems 
Fig. CD.—Browallia Jamojoni. 
to have escaped the attention of the general cultivator, and, except in a 
few large collections, the plant is now rarely seen. When, therefore, 
Messrs. H. Cannell & Son exhibited a specimen at the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society’s meeting, March 11th of the present year, it was quite a 
welcome surprise to many, and a certificate was granted for it without 
any hesitation. 
As we have previously stated, the plant is suggestive of Rondeletia 
speciosa in habit and the form of flowers, and requires training to a few 
stakes, allowing the heads of flowers to hang slightly downwards, as they 
are seen to better advantage in this way (fig. G9). The corollas are about an 
inch across the mouth, very bright orange in colour, slightly lighter in the 
centre, and are borne in close heads at the extremity of the branches. 
