JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 31, 1881. ] 
253 
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kept by itself. The latter is dipped in a tub of clean water and 
left to drip for a few minutes before being added to the dry fruit, 
and the whole should be left in the baskets in a cool place until 
about to be sent off. If possible the fruit should be despatched 
the same day it is gathered, as it is very liable to mould in the 
barrels. 
Various systems are employed for sending Strawberries to 
market in a fresh state. The most usual is probably the punnet 
or chip basket. The Newcastle market favours 10-lb. trays of 
wood. Others use hampers with Cabbage or Rhubarb leaves to 
separate the fruit into quarts or pints. When I began to raise 
Strawberries I saw that I could not tolerate either system. The 
punnets being round could not well be packed in square hampers 
without loss of space. They necessitated some expensive means 
of preventing them crushing into each other. The 10-lb. trays 
were too large. Cabbage leaves were not to be thought of. 
Finally I resolved on having a light box to hold a quart. Fifteen 
of these form a tier in a light wooden crate holding three tiers 
of boxes, with a pair of light racks to prevent the upper tiers 
touching the berries below. These crates of forty-five quarts 
weigh when sciewed up about three-quarters of a hundredweight, 
and being fitted with iron handles are quite manageable by one 
man. After three seasons’ experience I cannot see that I can 
improve upon them. They carry the fruit safely hundreds of 
miles, and they are being generally copied by other growers. 
They are not at all expensive, each quart box only costing me 
one halfpenny, and the crates about 2s. each. 
The fruit is gathered at once into these boxes, four or six of 
which fit into a sort of basket on feet carried by each picker ; 
green Strawberry leaves are laid on each box when filled, and the 
filled boxes are exchanged for empty ones and transferred to the 
crate. Since I adopted this system I have found that it is very 
similar to that usually employed in the United States.— William 
Raitt, Blairgowrie. 
TROPAEOLUM MAGNIFICENT. 
This is a bedding plant of excellent habit, with flowers of great 
brilliancy and beauty. I question if any other plant so effective 
and striking has been introduced to the flower garden during the 
last forty years. For many years I have annually visited the 
gardens of the Earl of Ellesmere at Worsley Hall, under the 
able management of Mr. Upjohn. In September, 1S79, I noticed 
several large oblong square beds in front of the Hall densely 
covered with this Tropreolum, which was then new to me. Mr. 
Upjohn said he did not know what its name was ; he found it at a 
small place and begged some cuttings. I remember the first 
appearance of Defiance, Miss Trotter, and Crimson King Verbenas, 
and the introduction of the brilliant Pelargoniums Glow and 
Vesuvius, but this Tropteolum for effect eclipses them all. I asked 
Mr. Upjohn for a few cuttings, which were readily given. He 
told me it is rather difficult to strike in autumn, and difficult to 
keep in winter. Some of the cuttings were inserted in a cold 
frame, and some in a warmer place. Those in the former succeeded 
best. About twenty weakly plants were wintered here, and in 
the spring last year about one thousand plants were obtained 
from them, and sold amongst other bedding plants. Wherever 
seen they were admired, and they gave great satisfaction to all 
who tried them. Probably this Tropseolum never had a name, 
and hence I have called it Tropacolum Magnificent. 
It is very dwarf and compact in habit, and answers well for 
massing, ribbon, and scroll borders in the flower garden. My 
difficulty last year was to find plants dwarf enough to associate 
with it in a ribbon border. I planted Lobelia compacta in front 
of it, and Viola Purity behindjit, but they were both much taller. 
Mr. Upjohn fringes his Tropceolum beds with Cerastium tomen- 
tosum or something similarly white and dwarf. The great charac¬ 
teristics of the variety are its productiveness of flowers, which 
come from every joint, and its persistency in flowering till frost 
kills it. In the spring under glass it is as easily struck as a Ver¬ 
bena, and therefore can be rapidly multiplied by thousands. Last 
year I resolved not to trust again to autumn-struck cuttings, and 
hence I kept some spring-struck plants in pots, which are now 
yielding cuttings.—A. Pettigrew, Sale. 
BENTLEY'S SPRAY DISTRIBUTOR. 
It is not often we have to record any additions to the garden 
syringe ; hut in the ingenious appliance under notice we have some¬ 
what of a novelty, and one that is certainly not without its uses. 
In addition to forcing out water from the syringe, hose pipe, or 
other connection to which the contrivance is attached, the operator 
can at will apply an insecticide to any particular plant to which it 
is necessary—that is to say, he can first distribute the insecticide 
mixed with water, and by the next movement of the piston eject 
pure water. At the end of the syringe (see fig. 58) is a reservoir 
which is moveable; when turned one way the insecticide which it 
contains is ejected, mixed with water in the form of spray, and 
turned in another direction water alone is discharged. The action 
of this peculiar arrangement is shown in the annexed section (fig. 
59), and described by the inventor, Mr. T. H. Bentley, Scarborough: 
—‘ ‘ a represents the main channel of the syringe, e represents the 
valve or inlet of the water, which when drawn in by the piston passes 
direct down the channel n into A ; but the water being forced out— 
i.c , to water the plants, it returns up channel n, where it meets a 
certain amount of resistance ; this causes a portion of the water to 
force its way through the hole leading in to the reservoir of the 
poison bulb c, which forces in its turn the oils to be mixed into 
chamber n, where the insecticide and main stream of water comes 
into violent contact in its passage towards the spray-producer f, and 
it is at this stage that the mist is produced by the following simple 
and effective manner. Two holes are drilled through the jet or spray- 
producer, which holes meet at a certain angle. The two columns 
of water, meeting as they do by force of pressure from the syringe, 
strike together with such force as to thoroughly disintegrate each 
other and convert immediately the columns of water into myriads of 
atoms which is the mist or spray, and by this process impregnated 
with sufficient insecticide to cause the destruction of insect pests. 
Should the plants be healthy and clean and only require watering, 
then the bulb c has merely to be turned round, when a letter w is 
observed on the top of the bulb, denoting pure water only is passing. 
The bulb is filled with the liquid by the screw g. A letter p is also 
stamped on the bulb or screw ; this denotes that poison is charged 
with the water, but by simply turning the screw round so as to 
