June 2J, 1882.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
ing year. When this is so it may be worth considering what plan is 
best for securing strong well-rooted runners at the earliest possible 
date, and for mutual benefit notes might be forwarded by success¬ 
ful growers, which I am sure would be of much interest. 
Perhaps the most time-honoured is the plan of layering in 
small pots. This plan takes time, that sometimes cannot be very 
well spent. Not only is the filling of the pots and fixing the 
runners a time-killing process, but the sometimes bi-daily water¬ 
ings in a serious matter when there is little assistance. 
Layering in pieces of turf is also objectionable on the same 
score. Indeed, it has some faults in addition. Even after the 
plants are rooted and potted or planted out they are still in some 
measure isolated and a trouble. Moreover, when in the rows they 
are in the way of those who gather the fruit, often to their ruin 
and the gardener’s chagrin, for somehow it is difficult to induce 
assistants to fully understand that even a little damage may make 
plants quite useless for the special purpose for which they were 
intended. 
Having tried many plans I find the following the best when 
good results are wanted and time and appliances rather limited. 
It is simply to secure the runners the moment they show sign of 
rooting, and to dibble them in closely in a compost of half loam, 
half well-decayed manure in cold frames. Kept moist and shaded 
they root and become strong plants, while their equals between 
the rows are in vain trying to strike root among the mulching or 
in the hardened soil. Careless or overtasked people who make 
plantations with such have no idea what a difference there is 
between the two systems. Even dibbing them in anywhere in 
rich soil and shading secure results that might well make out-of- 
date growers stare. But when treated as described in a frame a 
year is saved and much better fruit secured. 
It is a mistake to delay preparing the ground for new Straw¬ 
berry plantations until the plants are ready. The ground should 
always be trenched and very liberally manured on the surface not 
later than spring. From this the best of early crops of many 
vegetables may be taken and be cleared off the ground before tbe 
Strawberry plants are ready. When the ground is cleared all 
that is wanted is a slight forking, a levelling, a firming, and a 
soaking of rain or water to have an excellent bed in which to place 
the carefully nursed plants. If they are out by the end of July or 
beginning of August, each, a fortnight after planting, will be 
greatly benefited by half a pint of liquid manure. Late plants 
should receive nothing, or the growth made will be too soft for 
the hardship frost imposes. Spinach may be sown between the 
rows, or the rows planted twice as thick as they are ultimately 
intended to be. When the first crop is removed every alternate 
row may be hoed out.— Single-handed. 
PIPTANTIIUS NEPALENSIS. 
The Evergreen Laburnum is the popular name which has been 
not inaptly applied to this rare and little-known Indian shrub ; 
but though it bears some resemblance to one of our most common 
and beautiful flowering trees, yet it can be easily distinguished from 
it at a glance by the most casual observer, and attractive though 
it be, it cannot rival its more floriferous relative in effectiveness. 
Still it is one of those numerous old inhabitants of our gardens 
that deserve to be rescued from the obscurity and neglect into 
which they have fallen owing to the continued and extended 
introduction of novelties. 
It is of branching habit, but not bushy, and seems to need sup¬ 
port of some kind, as it has a rather straggling appearance. 
Trained to a wall, as it is grown in the gardens at Shirecliffe Hall, 
Sheffield, it both succeeds well and is very pretty during May and 
« early June, as it flowers abundantly when in good condition. In 
a few other establishments it may be occasionally seen, but it is 
far from being common, though it is quite hardy in most parts of 
England, needing the protection of a wall in the northern and 
colder districts, but in the south it is rarely injured, even if planted 
in the open. 
The name given above is the one by which it is best known, but 
it has several synonyms, Baptisia nepalensis being one that is 
occasionally seen, and more rarely Thermopsis nepalensis and 
T. laburnifolia. 
WANTED, A GOOD GENERAL CROP LATE POTATO. 
I duew attention through the columns of the Journal lately to 
the imperfect keeping qualities of the Scotch Champion as one of 
our most largely grown late Potatoes, and noted the black patches 
on the flesh—a general complaint, at least in Ireland, from April 
onwards—that render them wholly unfit for table use. I con¬ 
signed a quantity to the manure heap, and was not successful a 
month since in buying better. This is the case of thousands, and 
507 
to-day I noticed a Dublin journal complains that the wholesale 
price of Potatoes there, especially Champions, which, though sold 
at 8 d. per stone (admitting that half are unfit for use), is equiva¬ 
lent to Is. id. for that quantity. Now let me say a word as to the 
kinds hitherto in use for general purposes before I ask the above 
question, taking them in the order of their extent of culture. 
The White Rock.—This may be said to be synonymous with 
the Seotch Down, and both have had for twenty years very ex¬ 
tended culture in Ireland and in some parts of England and Scot¬ 
land. They varied when changed from moory land or cut-a-way 
bogs to upland, and were much superior in quality ; but as a 
general rule both are now worn out, and their place taken very 
largely by the Champion, and in a less degree by the Magnum 
Bonum. However, if housed and occasionally turned, and they 
escaped blight, they were far superior to the Champion during 
the months of May and June. The fact, however, is of little use, 
for not one in ten escapes blight up to that period. 
There was a coloured variety (the Red Rock) introduced with a 
flourish about a dozen years ago, but as it was of inferior quality 
it never had an extended culture, and generally coloured kinds 
have to encounter a preliminary prejudice on that account alone. 
Coming under this head is a variety having several commenda¬ 
tions—the old Skerry Blue, I believe almost unknown in England, 
and said to have been raised in the north of Scotland. It is cer¬ 
tainly very hardy, yields a fair crop on very poor soil, and is almost 
free from disease. For twenty years it has maintained a position 
in parts of Ulster and Connaught, but even under superior culture 
is of inferior quality. There is another old variety that I have 
planted rather freely this year—the Kemp, without the short¬ 
coming of the last, but more subject to disease, that I shall have 
something to say about by-and-by. There is another still, but I 
have seldom met with it—the late Fortyfold. This does not keep 
well, and had the flesh curiously streaked. I consider the Late 
Rose and some other American large late kinds as only fit for cattle 
