August 23, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
157 
are the methods adopted to check these pests, but the most effectual one 
is to destroy the nests. The plan usually adopted to destroy them is 
that of making a squib of gunpowder and brimstone ; but as this involves 
no small amount of trouble, and is not always effectual in action, besides 
being attended with danger, it is not to be recommended as being easy 
of application. 
The simplest and most effectual method is that recommended by a 
correspondent of the Times some time since, and which we have recently 
practised with great success. It is as follows :—Take one or two table¬ 
spoonfuls of well-pulverised cyanide of potassium and place it near the 
mouth of the hole by day. As the pure cyanide is a powerful poison it 
must be handled with great caution. We would advise experienced 
persons to procure the commercial cyanide of potassium and get the 
chemist to pulverise it for them. Two tablespoonfuls of this form of 
cyanide will be found as effective as one of the pure, besides being less 
dangerous. In a few hours the wasps will become suffocated by inhala¬ 
tion of the fumes, and in six hours the nest may be safely dug out. In 
refilling the hole take care to first throw in the remaining cyanide that 
exists to prevent fowls or other domestic animals coming in contact 
with it.—T. W. S., Lee. 
THE STRAWBERRY SEASON. 
The Strawberry season now just over has been one of the most 
productive I have ever known, but the weather at times was too showery, 
and some of the fruit was injured in consequence. I have at last decided 
to do away with a bed of Keens’ Seedling, which has been down for a 
great number of years ; I am afraid to say exactly how many, but I 
believe it was made in 1868. The crop was as good as ever in quantity, 
but the size of the fruit showed evident signs of falling off, and some 
couch grass is troublesome to eradicate. I am frequently asked how 
often I make fresh beds. My reply is, When the old ones cease to be 
profitable. I have already made a new bed of Keens’ Seedling, and do 
not expect to be troubled with another for the next ten years at least. 
Sir J. Paxton and others I cannot keep going quite so long, but they 
generally continue for seven or eight years. Perhaps in other situations 
where the drainage of the soil is not as good they may require renewing 
oftener. Sir J. Paxton was not so good as usual this year from the rain 
and absence of warm sunshine, but I fortunately put out a good bed of 
Elton Pine the year before last, and they were excellent. I intended 
them for preserving, but they were the best I had for dessert at the 
time they came in. The plants came from Messrs. Lovel & Son ; and I 
take this opportunity of observing that there is not a more profitable 
investment than sending to a good grower for your plants if you do not 
happen to have just what you want of your own, for the extra crop of 
fruit you obtain the first year more than pays for the cost of the plants. 
I have tried many Strawberries, but not grown every Strawberry under 
the sun yet. This year 1 have Alice Maud (not a new one), and find it 
answers very well. Forman’s Excelsior, too, I have tried ; the fruit is 
of good flavour and fair size, but I have not grown it long enough to 
decide about its cropping qualities. I have also tried another, which I 
believe to be either James Yeitch or Sabreur ; perhaps some of your 
readers can tell me which it is. The fruit is large, of good flavour, and 
pinkish in colour ; the leaves pale green, and the stems of the leaves and 
the stems of the runners of a dull reddish hue, which is decidedly 
peculiar. There was some confusion in the names. I ought to have had 
two sorts, but they were all one, and I do not know which,— Amateur, 
Cirencester. 
PETUNIAS IN POTS. 
Those who have appliances, skill, and time prefer to grow 
plants that become more valuable as they increase in hulk, and 
for greenhouse work indulge in specimen plant-growing more 
or less, and for such many valuable hard and softwooded plants 
exist in plenty. Those who lack the appliances, or the skill, or 
the time to devote to certain plants are equally well provided for, 
especially in the way of easily grown Pelargoniums, Begonias, 
Petunias, and lots of other showy decorative kinds. Petunias, 
like Zonals, are not subject to any insect pest, and that is a great 
point in their favour. Another is that they are continuous 
bloomers, unless by sheer starvation they be stopped. Easily 
propagated and easily grown, showy and highly useful either as 
small decorative plants, as large specimens, or as screens, they 
have many points in their favour. 
For early summer work, to come in after the Azaleas, the 
Hyacinths, Tulips have gone, autumn is the best time to strike 
them. For soil, ordinary potting soil such as we use for Roses, 
Fuchsias, and Pelargoniums will do, only it should be open, so 
that the delicate roots may move freely. A good admixture of 
flaky leaf soil secures this. 
For many decorative purposes the bright-coloured doubles 
are best. In order to have such well furnished it is necessary 
to begin pinching and staking'from the very first. When these 
are wanted pretty large for conservatory decoration it is neces¬ 
sary to go on pinching continually and removing the blooms till 
these are wanted. The shoots should never be allowed to grow 
into each other, as the leaves are very sticky and the stems very 
brittle. For doubles the bush form is best, and there is no 
excuse for having the plants not covered with bloom from the 
pot upwards. It is only a question of feeding and pinching. 
The singles are far best on flat trellises and make capital 
floral screens—better than anything else that could be named, 
perhaps, for covering back walls or shutting out unpleasant 
views. For this purpose trellises made of a stout galvanised 
wire to form the circumference; and galvanised wire netting, 
such as is used for poultry runs, if neatly manipulated is as good 
as anything. These stout stakes with protruding ends to insert 
in the pots give the necessary rigidity. According to the positions 
they are to fill they may be made with a surface of from 10 to 
30 square feet. 
It is very easy to cover such a surface with leaves. A few 
growths trained round and round the trellis will do that; but 
the sole beauty of the Petunia lies in the mass of colour they 
present when well grown. To succeed in having an unbroken 
sheet of bloom all over the trellis from the pot upwards pinching 
must be commenced when the plants are not over 3 inches high, 
and every shoot must have the point taken out when it lias grown 
from 2 to 3 inches. If this treatment is persevered in, and a 
proper distribution made of the resulting shoots, there will be at 
least one growing flowering shoot for every square inch on the 
trellis. 
Petunias must not be placed in too large pots or in greasy 
mixtures that are supposed to be rich. For decorative plants 
4 or 5-inch pots are sufficient, and to maintain the supply 
repeated batches can be brought forward. When young and 
vigorous too rich soil causes a too rapid growth, and the flowers, 
especially those blotched with white, are muddy in colour. Mode¬ 
rately grown the purity of the white is untarnished, and its 
proportion is greater than when too great vigour is maintained. 
Moreover, under such conditions the plants do not become so 
rapidly ungainly in appearance. 
After flowering for some time, however, signs of exhaustion 
show; the growths fail to lengthen, the leaves turn sickly yellow, 
and flowering fails. This should be anticipated and prevented 
by judicious applications o? liquid manure. For sitting-rooms 
nothing equals nitrate of potash. It is cheap, a first-rate stimu¬ 
lant, and gives out no evil-smeUing or unwholesome gas. In 
glass houses not adjoiuing living-rooms, guano water, or any 
stimulant made from animal manure or soot, is good, none 
being cheaper, because taking neither money nor time,, than 
weak sewage or mine, and none is more satisfactory. Judiciously 
applied such feeding will keep Petunias growing a whole summer 
in pots apparently far too small. 
Large plants on trellises of course require larger pots, but 
“ the more hurry the worse speed ” if it is tried to get up large 
plants quickly by giving large shifts into rich soil. Petunia 
roots d) not take well with such, and greater progress will be 
gained by giving small shifts, using sweet open material enriched 
either beforehand—that is, by loam enriched long before use 
or at the time with only very fine bonemeal or Standen’s manure. 
An 8-inch pot will sustain a densely covered trellis of 12 square 
feet, a 10-inch 20 square feet, and a 12 over 30 feet. Strong¬ 
growing varieties should be used for the larger plants, smaller 
growers for the lesser size. 
And what an ado about a plant that grows everywhere like 
a weed! It grows much too well, and hence it is neglected 
or half grown. As too often seen Petunias are not half nor 
quarter the ornaments they ought to be. In one case they are 
grown strongly and the colour ruined ; unpinched, and few blooms 
the result. In another they are starved and unsatisfactory. 
When properly grown they are green and neat before blooming, 
and solid with colour when in bloom.—S cotia. 
REVIEW OF BOOK. 
Handbook to the Ferns of British India, Ceylon , and the Malay Penin¬ 
sula. By Col. R. H. Beddome, F.L.S. Calcutta : Thacker, Spink, 
and Co. London : W. Thacker & Co. 
INDIAN Ferns comprise many of the most beautiful of those now 
so largely cultivated in England ; and though there is not a very great 
number restricted to that portion of Asia known as British India, a large 
proportion of the tropical species from the Old World have been in¬ 
troduced to England directly from India owing to the frequent intercourse 
with this country. They, therefore, have considerable interest in what 
may be termed an historical point of view, and when to this is added 
tho fact that the really elegant and beautiful species are so abundant, 
it can be imagined that a work devoted solely to them must possess a 
large share of value and utility. The author of the work now under 
consideration is well qualified for the task he has undertaken, haying, 
during a long residence in the Indian peninsula, become familiarly 
acquainted with the native Ferns, and he has proved by the works 
previously issued by him—viz., “The Ferns of British India,” “ The 
Ferns of Southern India,” and the “ Flora Sylvatica of Southern India, ’ 
