26 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 12, 18f 3. 
Yorkshireman at the cool end of this house were not injured, the 
plants being also smaller. Perhaps your readers may fail to see why 
1 am thus writing, but I will endeavour, without condemning the 
system, to give my experience as far as I can, as it may be useful to 
someone. I am now growing with moderate, not excessive, lire heat, 
no ventilation, plenty of water at the roots, moderate syringing 
once a day early in the afternoon, and there is no sign of red 
spider. 
I said in my former paper that I did not think it possible to give 
too much water to Cucumbers grown with dry bottom heat ; in fact, 
for the guidance of perhaps some w 7 ho are afraid to apply water, I 
may say I have this week given the bed, which is 3 feet wide, six 
gallons to a length of 9 feet. Never forget, if the weather be dull 
and more tire used, to give the water all the same. 
To make sure that all is right at the roots do as I have done— 
namely, with a trowel carefully dig down to bottom of the bed to 
ascertain its Condition. Cucumbers can and will subsist, and appa¬ 
rently do w T ell, more especially in dull weather, as far as regards 
their foliage, but if the fruit sets badly and is at all deformed be 
sure something is wrong at the’ roots. The severe burning of the 
plants was caused, I am sure, by root-dryness in part. I now have 
the pleasure of seeing straight fruit 6 and" 7 inches long, with flowers 
yet to open. This is -what I like. I used nothing but turf or loam, 
but am now giving them slight top-dressings of stable manure. I 
am pleased to say under my system I cut Cucumbers 2 feet long, yet 
quickly grown, thus tender and of a good colour, whereas without 
shading the fruit was very small and very deficient in colour. In my 
smallest house I endeavoured to cut a great quantity, but failed, and 
I cannot claim to have cut largely out of this house, but shall hope 
to do so presently. Still, if I make as much money by one good 
fruit as I did by two smaller grown in the same time I see little to 
commend in the Express system, nor do I think it very practicable in 
such light houses as these, with the wires only 14 inches from the 
glass ; 2 feet is quite near enough. Then I am not sure whether 
shading would be necessary. 
I shall be pleased for others to record their experience. I am 
quite sure if burning can be avoided, great heat and moisture com¬ 
bined are just what Cucumbers like, yet I do not believe in a high 
night temperature. One grower tells me he succeeds grandly w T ith 
the Express system in a frame, on the same day another tells me he 
fails, so there are always two sides to a question, or two ways of 
carrying out a system.— Stephen Castle, The Vineyard, West Lynn. 
AMARYLLIS VITTATA VAR. CLOVIS. 
I AM very much surprised that so little attention has been given to 
the very beautiful varieties of A. vittata which were raised by my late 
lamented friend M. Souchet of Fontainebleau. More than once on my 
visits to him I had been struck with their beauty, and wished to try what 
could be done with them. So two years ago I obtained half a dozen of 
the best raised from M. Charles Yerdier of Paris, and as they were per¬ 
fectly hardy at Fontainebleau, where the winter temperature is so much 
lower than with us in the south-east of England, I did not see why they 
should not do as well with us as there. I planted them in the same 
position as the Belladonna Lilies—namely, in the front of a greenhouse 
on a warm border facing the south. Like all of the tribe they do not 
like removal, and so I did not expect much from them last year ; but 
this season, after passing the two winters, I have been rewarded. Clovis 
(a flower of which our Editor saw at the Rose Show at South Kensing¬ 
ton) is a dark crimson flower of large size and good form, with a white 
band in the centre of each petal, and is a remarkably striking flower. 
It has been said that we cannot do these Lilies here because of our wet 
and sunless autumns, and that the bulbs do not ripen. Well, we have 
not had much to ripen them the last two years, and yet they have with 
me succeeded well, the only protection given them being some ashes. 
—D., Deal. 
WANDERINGS AT THE NATIONAL ROSE SHOW. 
A detailed account of so extensive and interesting display as that 
of Tuesday, the 3rd inst., would probably occupy many pages of the 
Journal, but a short resume of what I saw and did not see may help to 
place on record the effects of the Rose season, 1883. Although it must 
be admitted that the best was done to adapt the large tent of the Royal 
Horticultural Society to a Rose Show, it can hardly be said that cut Roses 
in boxes seemed there at home, and for purposes of comparison and judg¬ 
ing it did not appear to me satisfactory, and exhibitors had some diffi¬ 
culty in alighting upon their allotted quarters. One of the most attrac¬ 
tive and best features of the Show of Tuesday was the freshness and 
purity of the Teas, and perhaps at no time has a more regular display of 
such floral beauties been brought together, and the Committee when 
they projected a class for ornamental baskets of Teas could hardly have 
anticipated such a successful result. Jean Ducher in the stand of A. J. 
Waterlow, Esq., Mr. Cant’s, and the Rev. W. H. Jackson’s Souvenir 
d’Elise, and Innocente Pirola in several stands testify not only to what 
sort of a season it is for Teas, but what splendid Roses these are. By 
Innocente Pirola it would almost seem that Niphetos would be displaced, 
and that the Marechal must bend to the beautiful Etoile de Lyon, which 
is said to be a hardier and more generally shapeable yellow than the 
king of Teas. The amateur classes, and even that for suburban-grown 
Teas, were barely inferior to Cheshunt, Oxford, or Colchester, and the 
judging of the Teas generally must have been neither an easy nor an 
enviable task. 
Amongst Hybrid Perpetuals I could not help noticing the important 
absence of really good daTks and reds, good blooms of Alfred Colomb, 
Marie Baumann, and Charles Lefebvre, and many others of their colours 
being conspicuously wanting, whilst Roses of the Madame Gabriel Luizet, 
Mons. Noman, Julie Touvais, and Duchesse de Yallombrosa types were 
almost universally well shown. Marie Cointet and Madame Julie Dymo- 
nier (a fine light of good substance) were both finely shown by Mr. B. R. 
Cant; and Duke of Teck, a really hardy and fine red Rose, does honour 
to, if it has not enriched, Mr. George Paul, as it is a Rose, like Star of 
WaUham and Magna Charta of Mr. W. Paul, which has with the two 
latter improved upon acquaintance. Francois Michelon again stood 
prominent in several stands as a model of the globular rose-pink type. 
Madame Isaac Pereire, Ulrich Brunner, Madame Eugene Yerdier, and 
Georges Moreau seem promising Roses of recent introduction, the three 
first haring good size and well-formed and arranged broad petals, and of 
different shades of peach and pink. Alfred Dumesnil a good red, and 
Comte de Flandres a dark of the Charles Darwin build and colour, will 
also probably be heard more of. Amongst the older bright-coloured 
Roses I ought to have excepted from the 1883 black list A. K. "Williams, 
still the most perfect Rose shown. Comte de Raimbaud almost in as 
good form, and one very fine Marie Baumann, Xavier Olibo, and Sultan 
of Zanzibar were also fairly represented. Amazon and Madame Caroline 
Kuster, and Comtesse de Nadaillac and William Allen Richardson, have 
now all established themselves as beautiful and indispensable Teas, and 
were well shown. 
Mr. Bennett has a promising novelty in Mary Bennett, and Mr. 
Waterlow’s new break, a well-marked striped sport from Comtesse 
d’Oxford, in the absence of Her Majesty would have deserved the gold 
medal. The latter Rose, however, from the atelier of Mr. Bennett, 
appears likely to distance all other light H.P. Roses, and indeed to call 
it an improved and enlarged Baronne de Rothschild is almost to 
depreciate this magnificent variety, which in size equals the largest 
form of Edouard Morren, with the colour of the Baroness and the form 
and fulness of Marie Cointet at her best, whilst the scent which savours 
of its Tea parentage is in advance of that of the Baroness. Although 
shown largely by Mr. Bennett in both tents I did not detect a single 
malformed bloom, and the raiser will probably be able to point to the 
year 1883 as that of Her Majesty. It is a Rose that will do much to 
allay the hostility which some of Mr. Bennett’s former productions 
have rightly or wrongly created in this country from their reported 
unsuitability to the climate. 
Although it may be said that Roses upon the whole have been 
seen better at the National than on Tuesday,.this may, I think, be 
considered a year for lights. So far as my own experience goes I have 
only on one occasion during the past quarter of a century seen in the 
eastern districts of England Roses after starting go straight on without 
a check, and I have never seen Jfewer confused and ill-shaped blooms, 
the exceptions being Roses of the Madame Boncenne and Jean Liabaud 
build and colour, which have come almost universally bad. Madame 
Gabriel Luizet as a contrast, which has rarely come good with me, has 
this season hardly shown a defective bloom.—T. Laxton, Bedford, 
I counted ail the boxes exhibited in competition at the National 
Rose Society’s Show at South Kensington, and found that several hundred 
blooms were shown in excess of last year’s Rose Show, making this the 
largest Show the National Rose Society has yet held. Considering how 
hampered up the Show was with the Fisheries Exhibition and the 
irregularities of the ground in the big tent and the unprecedented 
number of exhibits, the arrangements were admirable, and great credit 
is due to Mr. Barron for the way in which the marquee was made to look 
as well as it did. 
The one drawback to the beauty of the Exhibition was the closeness 
of the weather during the previous night and on the morning of the 
Show. To my mind after the middle of the day at least one-half of the 
Roses were unpleasing objects to look at. Some varieties stood, however, 
remarkably well, and notably A. K. Williams. This as a crimson, and 
Madame Gabriel Luizet as a light rose, were very numerously exhibited, 
and are both grand flowers. A remarkable number of blooms (for a new 
variety) of “ Her Majesty ” were shown by Mr. Bennett, and were on all 
hands much admired. For several years past the Society’s gold medal 
has been withheld, no Rose being shown considered worthy of it. “ A 
first-class novelty,” as the schedule has it, Mr. Brown’s sport from 
Comtesse d’Oxford was a pleasing and interesting novelty. The 
challenge trophy was again won by Mr. Cant, who also, as last year, 
had the best Hybrid Perpetual and best Tea in his seventy-two. In the 
amateurs’ class the best Hybrid Perpetual and also best Tea both came 
from Reigate. The other trophy was won by Mr. Slaughter, who only 
two years since secured a first prize in the class “ open only to amateurs 
who have never won a prize at an Exhibition of the National Rose 
Society.” Mr. Slaughter was also first in the chief class this year at 
Croydon and Reigate. No. 3.in the trophy class came Mr. Girdlestone, 
who last year showed for the first time, and on that occasion secured the 
first prize in the never-before-won-a-prize class just referred to. Both of 
these remarkable strides. 
The baskets of Roses was a new and interesting feature, and broke the 
