324 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 20, 1882. 
immediately. Nor can any external examination detect it, except 
slicing off the skin. Last year I planted some of this class of 
tubers in May to test their germinating properties, and found they 
grew well and produced sound tubers. I spoke to several gar¬ 
deners and farmers here, and the experience of all agreed with mine. 
Do your English or Scotch readers find this result ? and is there 
any remedy ? Would not the point as to whether this is different 
from the ordinary Potato blight be well worth the attention of the 
Scientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society ? If there 
is a remedy it would be worth millions. I am about to consign a 
quantity to the manure pit.—W. J. M., Clonmel. 
ORCHIDS IN APRIL. 
The work of this month is a continuation of that of last month, 
the heat and humidity of the houses being progressively increased. 
The following are amongst the most noticeable in bloom. 
ADguloa Clowesii, A. eburneum, and A. Ruckerii are now pro¬ 
ducing their flower spikes, and should have fresh material added 
into which their new roots can extend. Aerides japonicum, with its 
greenish white flowers spotted with rose, is in bloom, also Aerides 
rubrum with its rosy carmine flowers. These both thrive in cool 
quarters, and should be grown near the glass. Camarotis pur¬ 
purea with its numerous beautiful rose-coloured flowers is in fine 
condition, and will remain m beauty for about three weeks. This 
must be kept in the warmest division, and requires plenty of water, 
Calanthes.—The deciduous Calanthes should be potted at once, 
not giving them too much root room, as we find they do better 
and make larger pseudo-bulbs in small pots or pans. The com¬ 
post should be loam, peat, and cow dung well mixed. The plants 
should be placed on shelves or suspended near the glass, and 
watered sparingly until they begin to form roots, after which 
they ought to have a more liberal supply of water. Cattleya 
citrina with its charming Jonquil-scented yellow-coloured flowers 
is blooming at present. This succeeds well with the Lmlias on a 
block. Chysis bractescens is in flower, and is a good showy plant, 
bearing from five to six white flowers blotched with yellow in the 
centre, and continues attractive a long time. C. Liminghii is 
showing its creamy white rose-tinged flowers. This will require 
more water now as it is growing. Cvpripedium hirsutissimum 
with its fine flowers, with green dorsal sepal and lip and purple 
petals, is beautiful now. This Cypripedium succeeds best in the 
cool house. 
Dendrobium Dalhousianum is a magnificent species, bearing 
from six to twelve large flowers on a pendulous spike, is now 
blooming. The flowers are clear yellow tinged with rose, and 
with two crimson spots on the lip. It thrives best in the East 
Indian house. D. Devonianum is producing its charming flowers, 
which are of a creamy white colour tipped with purple, the lip 
being beautifully fringed and marked with two large deep orange 
spots. This should have a liberal supply of water, as the pseudo¬ 
bulbs very soon shrivel if allowed to become dry. D. Farmeri 
with its white rose-margined flowers and a pale yellow lip is in 
fine condition, as is also D. Farmerii aureum, resembling the pre¬ 
ceding, with the exception of the flowers being entirely yellow. 
D. fimbriatum is displaying its graceful spikes of fine yellow 
fringed flowers. D. F. oculatum is also bearing its long 
drooping racemes of flowers, which are like the former, but with 
a dark blood-red spot near the base of the lip. D. primulinum is 
very free-flowering and is finely in bloom, and thrives well either 
in a basket or on a block. D. Jamesianum is flowering well in a 
cool position, and will remain in beauty for a long time. It 
should always be kept in the cool house. 
Epidendrum crassifolium, having an irregular spike bearing a 
profusion of lovely rose-coloured flowers, which last a long time 
in perfection, is very attractive. E. vitellinum with brilliant 
orange-coloured blossoms is very striking. It is a cool-growing 
Epidendrum, delighting in the shady Odontoglossum house with a 
plentiful supply of water during growth. E. vitellinum majus, a 
finer variety of the former. 
Lmlia cinnabarina has fine spikes of cinnabar-red flowers and 
an orange-yellow lip striped with red, is now finely in bloom, 
and will continue for about a month in full beauty. This thrives 
well in the Cattleya house. L. flava somewhat resembles the pre¬ 
ceding, but bears from six to ten canary-yellow-coloured flowers. 
Vanda cmrulescens is a curious little Orchid now in bloom, bear¬ 
ing from fifteen to twenty delicate pale blue flowers, which last a 
considerable time. It thrives best on a bare block.— Orchidist. 
INSECTS ON PLANTS IN POTS. 
All plants when grown in small pots are much valued in most 
gardens, as they may be used in such a variety of ways and they 
are most convenient for all purposes ; but nothing looks worse 
than small plants in bad health or infested with insects, and it 
is the latter which destroy their pleasing appearance in many 
instances and cause them to be unhealthy as well. 
Many plants in pots are much injured through earthworms 
being present in the soil. Sometimes these are introduced with 
the soil when potting, and in other cases they creep in when the 
pot is standing on soil. A little soot mixed with the soil before 
using checks them, and soot water applied to the roots occasion¬ 
ally will prevent them doing much inj ury. Lime water is some¬ 
times used, but it is not so fertilising and does not suit some plants 
so well as the soot. All plants that are not to be potted this 
spring should have their roots and drainage attended to. A good 
plan is to fill a two-gallon pail with water ; add 2 or 3 ozs. of 
soot to this, and immerse the pots in it for five minutes. Few 
worms will escape then. 
Insects on the leaves are very destructive. Sponging will clear 
away and destroy them all, and it is this plan of working I wish 
to recommend, especially for fine-foliage plants. They do not 
need to be sponged daily, nor yet every month, but if once tho¬ 
roughly cleaned they may not require more than an occasional 
syringing for three months or more. The great object is to have 
all plants cleaned once thoroughly, then keep them in that 
thriving state. There is no difficulty nor great labour in doing it. 
It is only when plants become thoroughly dirty and are neglected 
until insects have taken possession of every leaf that they cannot 
be readily cleaned. If time cannot be devoted to the cleaning 
do not grow so many plants. In such a state they afford no 
pleasure or profit. It is much better to have two dozen clean 
healthy plants than a hundred infested with insects. Sponging 
in the first place aDd syringing afterwards constitute my cure and 
preventive. Now is the time when all this must be attended to. 
Soon there will be young growths, and the colour and strength 
of these can only be maintained by keeping them clean and 
healthy.— A Kitchen Gardener. 
SEEDLING OXLIPS. 
Four out of five of my seedlings from an Oxlip have flowered, 
three plants producing single flowers, one a flower from an umbel, 
the only one developed at present. The remaining plant is not in 
bloom yet, but flowers will be produced from an umbel. I have 
now thirteen plants of Oxlips. All this spring produced single 
flowers in the first instance, then they sent up umbels. I have 
never seen the Cowslip producing single flowers.—A. Fitch. 
[We have never succeeded in obtaining fertile seed from the 
true Oxlip. It is evident that in your case the seed was so, and 
that in some measure it reproduced the Oxlip, for one of the 
specimens you have sent has all the characteristics of that form 
both in flower and foliage, while the others are true Primroses.— 
Ed. J. of II.'] 
CURRENT NOTES ON PEACH CULTURE. 
Our late Peaches under glass are well set, and as others will 
doubtless be in the same condition with the young growths 
starting vigorously, it may, perhaps, not be out of place to discuss 
the question of thinning and pruning. “ Pruning 1 ” someone 
will say, “ who would prune a Peach tree in April ? ” I, for one, 
do ; and here it may be stated that as the fruit is gathered in 
autumn the shoots likely to be of no use are cut out, and the 
benefit of light, air, and heat to effect the thorough finishing of 
the wood secured. That is all the pruning the trees receive until 
the shoots have commenced vigorous growth. Many of the buds 
seen to be useless are removed early. Now the trees are examined, 
the strongest and best placed shoots selected, and those not 
required are cut back to a growth at the base. The others are 
thinned to the number required to fill up spaces. The growing 
points of shoots on which a fruit is not found are also cut back to 
the shoot immediately above a fruit, and the future bearing wood 
kept by that means as nearly as possible to the central axis of the 
tree. When that has been done priming is finished. 
Now as to the matter of thinning. That is a matter which must 
be left entirely to the judgment of the cultivator, and is chiefly 
dependant on the requirements of the family. In my case I leave 
more shoots than I did a few years ago, because the fruit produced 
was larger than my employers wanted, at the same time that a 
greater number of fruits would be acceptable ; consequently, I 
have increased the number one-third and reduced the size of the 
individual fruits. I have a brother of the craft who annually 
shakes his head, prophesies “ nae froot next year but he, like 
many more who believe in overcropping (so called) rendering a 
tree unfruitful, forgets that a well-tended tree will if well cropped 
only produce fruit of smaller size, according to the number left, 
without affecting its fruitfulness the coming season. A healthy 
