401 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COT1AGE GARDENER. 
May 22 , 1884. 
beneath the berries to raise them from the ground. Hay and straw are, 
like other similar materials, open to the objections that they are liable to 
decompose and to harbour slugs. At Minella to-day I saw a new use 
for Crocus grass as a substitute for the hay or straw or other material 
placed around each Strawberry plant. Cartloads are cut off at this 
season in large establishments, and, I venture to say, in no better way 
could it be utilised. This Crocus grass is hard and wiry, and will last 
as I suggest for a long time.— W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
SPRING DIGGING. 
The busy season for gardeners has come round once more. In the 
kitchen garden especially all is, or should be, actively going on, as any 
neglect or delay at this time will bring its punishment late in the season. 
Stirring the ground between growing crops has been advised times 
without number in gardening periodicals, and this year it will be more 
important than at any time in my recollection. The extraordinary 
absence of frost during winter and of drying winds in March, has left 
all heavy soils in poor condition for the reception of seed. For my own 
part it has been a not altogether unmixed evil, as I am determined from 
this time to dig no heavy soils until cropping. I should have been in a 
better position with kitchen garden work had I taken the advice which 
Mr. W. Taylor gave in the Journal some years ago, to discontinue autumn 
digging ; but never knowing long beforehand the amount of forest tree 
planting I may be called upon to do, I have been in the habit of having 
digging done early in autumn or winter, so as to be ready for any 
e nergency. In some years the plan has worked well, but this year it 
was nearly impossible to get the land into good condition. The time 
spent in preparing for Potatoes and all early crops was more than 
double what it should have been. Frequently stirring the soil between 
growing crops must be resorted to at all opportunities, or the result will 
be poor crops on all heavy land. Immediately the plants appear above 
ground, forking between the rows will be done two or three times in dry 
weather, and after that the Dutch hoe will be employed, and by these 
means I hope to bring the soil into good condition.—T. A. 
SEASONABLE NOTES ON FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 
Atjkiculas.— As I have already said, my notes from henceforth op 
these and other florists’ flowers will not be from the exhibitor’s point of 
view, but from that of the general grower who is contented from one 
cause or another to keep away from the struggles of the exhibition tent, 
and to be satisfied with his flowers at home. I hope I shall not fall into 
the error of too highly estimating them, for I shall have the corrective of 
seeing the splendid specimens of culture we can see now-a-days. How 
often have we heard, “ Oh, I have much better than those at home ? ” 
How often has the salmon which got away with the fly and line been by 
far the finest fish seen all the day, and the fox that got away the most 
splendid fellow for a run that had been seen for some time ? and I shall, 
1 hope, therefore know how to moderate my expressions : but I have not 
for some years had a finer bloom of Auriculas than this season. I dare 
say my plants would have been nowhere alongside of Mr. Horner’s or 
Mr. Douglas’s, but even to my eye they were good, and yet I see woolly 
aphides crowding around the crown. The plants have now nearly finished 
their blooming, and 1 shall next week remove them to their summer 
quarters under a hedge facing the north. I shall probably commence 
repotting at the end of the month, and as my collection is small it will 
not take very long. I am quite sure the simpler the compost, provided 
it is good, the better—three parts turfy loam and one part cowdung, 
with a little leaf mould and charcoal, I think about the best. I think 
the size of pots not a matter of any great importance. That they will do 
well in small pots is unquestionable, but that most successful grower, 
Mr. Woodhead, was accustomed to use large pots ; hut, then, he always 
put a large quantity of drainage, so that it came to nearly the same 
thing, and if 5-inch pots are used this will be necessary. A longer 
experience of glazed pots confirms my preference for them. The plants 
look better in them, and do not require so much water in the winter 
months, while the plants are quite as vigorous as in the ordinary unglazed 
pots. I believe in firm potting, and when there is any sign of woolly 
aphis the roots should be well washed in soap and water or in a weak 
solution of Fir-tree oil. As aphides are abundant this year I have given my 
Auricula pit a good smoking, and the plants will ail be gone over with 
hand, dead leaves and stems picked off, and the surface stirred before 
they are moved to their summer quarters. 
Carnations and Picotees. —I never planted out a more healthy 
set of these plants than this year, but they have had a hard time of it 
since then. They had not been coddled during the winter, and had been 
stood out of doors for some time before they were planted ; but those 
cold frosty nights (although with us the frost was not nearly so severe 
as in some parts), the easterly winds, and hot suns injured them very 
much and checked their growth. If stakes have not already been placed 
to them it shtuld be done at once, and the flowering shoots tied to them. 
The surface of the ground ought to be stirred, as nothing conduces more 
to the well-doing of the plants than the use of the hoe or fork. 
Pansies. —I have had a good collection of these in flower in pots, and 
certainly most remunerative they are for any care bestowed on them, 
especially the Fancies, some new ones of Mr. Hooper’s of Bath being 
specially noticeable. They will soon have done flowering, and will then 
be turned out of their pots into a cool part of the garden, which I find 
difficult to get, and then the plants will be spread out and some light 
compost shaken in amongst them. There will be, when the time for 
taking up comes, plenty of young plants by dividing the roots, and 
these I have found to do quite as well as from cuttings, and a great deal 
of trouble is thereby spared. 
Gladioli. —These are late in coming up with me this year— I sup¬ 
pose owing to the long-continued dry weather ; and in a note received 
this morning from Fontainbleau, Mons. Soulliard says that he has only 
just completed the planting of his bulbs. Nothing will require to be 
done to the beds now except keeping them clear of weeds. 
Roses. —One hardly likes to write of these as florists’ flowers, but 
their clientele is far more numerous than that of all other florists’ flowers 
put together, and many are the inquiries now made about their prospects. 
Some write in despair that they are so backward, that they cannot 
possibly have any blooms in time for the exhibitions, &c. It has been a 
very extraordinary season, and will he the means, I think, of making 
many converts to the system of late pruning, as I see it has already done 
with many of your correspondents. Mine were not pruned until late in 
April. There were then flower buds on many of the stems and the 
plants quite green. I did not find that cutting them in this condition 
caused bleeding to any appreciable degree, and since then they have- 
made good shoots, and I have no doubt that they will be quite up to 
their usual vigour when the “time of Roses” comes. Let the hoe be 
well used amongst them ; it is as good as manure to them. Those who 
exhibit have their beds all mulched now. I have had the mulching on 
my beds all turned in for appearance sake, as I do not exhibit. Should 
this dry weather continue watering with weak liquid manure will be 
necessary.—D., Deal. 
CACTACEOUS PLANTS. 
(Continued from page, 342.) 
DISCOCACTUS, Pfeiffer. 
The two or three species which have been assigned the generic name 
of Discocactus are amongst the least interesting members of the whole 
family, and certainly their horticultural value is small. They are 
dwarf and semi-globose in form, very suggestive of an Echinocactus in 
appearance, and some writers have thought that the two genera were 
not sufficiently distinct to be separated. It must not, however, be con¬ 
founded with the Discocactus or Disisocactus biformis of Lindley, which 
is a totally different plant, now referred to Phyllocactus. The principal 
characters adopted by Hooker and Bentham are the following : — 
Calyx and tube extending beyond the ovary, slender ; base naked,, 
smooth ; lobes indefinite, exterior reflexed, interior larger. Petals in two 
series, spreading, interior smaller. Stamens indefinite ; filaments adnate 
to the tube of the calyx, interior longer ; anthers small. Stem depressed,, 
ribbed ; ribs few. Flower usually solitary from the apex of the plant,, 
and fragrant. 
The species are natives of Brazil and the West Indies, inhabiting 
dry sandy regions, and are found rather difficult of ’ cultivation, and at 
the present time I do not know one collection which contains living 
plants. They require a warm sunny position and great care in supply¬ 
ing water, as the slightest excess results in the death of the plants. 
D. INSIGHTS, rjeiffer .—This is the best known, and is chiefly noteworthy 
for the fact that its flowers possess an extremely agreeable fragrance, which 
has been compared to that of Orange blossom. The stem is semi-globose,, 
with nine or ten obtuse ridges, and a crown of white wool-like substance, 
from which are produced the long and slender flowers, having the sepals 
pink, and the petals white or blush-tinted. D. alteolens has the stem of a 
much darker green colour, and flowers with a less pleasing odour. 
CEKEUS, Haworth. 
(The Torch Cactus.) 
Leaving the globose or tubercled Cacte;s represented by those pre¬ 
viously described, we find in Cereus a greatly different mode of growth 
the stem being greatly elongated, usually of small diameter in propor¬ 
tion to its height, frequently much branched, but bearing parallel ridges 
from apex to base, upon which are arranged bundles of spines, as in 
other genera. In height these plants are the giants of their family, 
some forming in the native habitats enormous columns 40 to 60 feet 
high, while even in cultivation it is not uncommon to find specimens 
15 to 20 feet in height. Some are very rapid growers, and make large 
plants in a few years. Others, again, are so slow in growth that a 
dozen years seem to make no appreciable difference in their size. There 
are, however, two very distinct sections or groups of species of the 
true Cereus, which differ considerably in habit ; one species being dis¬ 
tinguished by their erect rigid stems, and the other by the procumbent 
or trailing slender stems. The plants included in both bear handsome 
and abundant flowers, but the creeping or trailing forms are the most 
beautiful, and contain most of the much-famed Night-flowering Cactece. 
The genus Cereus, however, as now constituted includes a large number 
of plants which were formerly assigned to other genera, hut which 
modern botanists consider are entitled to no higher rank than sub-genera. 
Under the name of Cereus are therefore arranged over two hundred 
species, natives of tropical America, the West Indies, and Galapagos 
Islands, from regions differing considerably in temperature, but generally 
agreeing in the peculiar dry sandy or rocky nature of the soil they 
inhabit. 
Hooker and Bentham thus characterise the genus and adopt the follow¬ 
ing subgenera as pointed out by Dr. Engelmann -.— Calyx tube produced 
beyond the ovary ; lobes numerous, exterior scale-like, interior elongate, 
spirally imbricated. Petals indefinite, larger than the calyx lobes, 
