438 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 22, 1863. 
P. vaccinifolium and P. affine are both very useful for rockwork 
when planted with a view to bang over ledges or for covering bare 
slopes facing south or west. Flowers pink. 
P. molle.—A half-shrubby species of North India, having dense 
panicles of small white flowers. P. amplexicaule and its varieties 
P. Weyreichii, P. polystachum, &c., are all very useful and effective for 
backing up rockwork;.—W. 
POTATOES FROM SEED-AMERICAN EARLY. 
I HAVE been reading with great interest the various articles which 
ha ve appeared for some time back in the Journal, but should have 
benefited more if the writers had mentioned the part of the country 
wherein they reside, and the nature of the soil experimented upon. 
Irrespective of the Potato question, might it not be a good rule for your 
contributors to state the country where their experience has been gained, 
also the height above sea level and the kind of soil ? The average rainfall 
would be useful if obtainable. With these data much information could 
be gleaned which is otherwise lost or thrown away. 
It appears to be generally admitted that the best way to eradicate 
the Potato disease is to raise new varieties from seed, and thus get a 
more vigorous race of plants. My own experience leads me to differ 
from this theory, inasmuch as that a number of years ago I began to 
raise seedlings, but could rarely save them over the first season in con¬ 
sequence of disease, and after four or five years’ trial the attempt was 
given up in dispair. 
There is a Potato which has been cultivated hereabout for over half 
a century, known as the American Early. I have grown it in the same 
garden for more than twenty years, saving my own sets, and consider it 
less subject to disease than any of the new varieties which have recently 
been sent out. It is only about a fortnight later than the earliest of the 
other round varieties, is a fair cropper, and of first-rate quality for the 
table, besides being as handsome to look at as most kinds. I am aware 
that there is a Potato in the market of the same name, but it is an in¬ 
ferior strain, and I have never been able to purchase it true. I enclose 
three tubers taken at random from the seed bag, much handsomer ones 
could be selected. The soil here is sandy loam, 500 feet above sea level. 
—M. G. F., Berwickshire. 
[We have grown the American Early for years, and it was one of the 
few that escaped the virulent attacks of the murrain with us in 1845 and 
1846. It is an excellent second early variety.] 
ORCHIDS AT BRIDGE OF ALLAN. 
I lately enjoyed another visit to Fernfield. Dr. Paterson’s cool 
treatment of his Orchids—not of his visitors — is vindicated by the 
splendid health of the whole stock, which quite fills without over¬ 
crowding the houses. I found the subjoined in flower or about to 
bloom :— 
Cattleya maxima, C. marginata. 
Cypripedium Spiceriarmm, C. Sedenii, C. 
Roezli, C. Maulei, C. insigne, C. Har- 
risonianum, C. venustum, C. javaui- 
cum, C. lcmgifolium. 
Cymbidium giganteum, C. Lowii. 
Calanthe veratrifolia, C. Yeitcliii, C. 
lutea. 
Coelogyne G-ardneriana, C. speciosa, C. 
oceliata maxima. 
Dendrobium album. 
Dendrochilum filiforme. 
Epidendrum ciliare, E. latifolia. 
Lselia purpurata, L. superbiens, L. Per- 
rini, L. autumnalis, L. anceps Barkeri. 
Lycaste Skinnerii. 
Maxillaria lepidota. 
Masdevallia tovarensis, M. amabilis, M. 
maculata, M. aurea, M. melanopus, M. 
ichthodes, M. Veitcbiana, M. Davisii, 
M. ignea. 
Miltonia spectabilis, M. Clowesii majus, 
M. Moreliana, M. atro-rubens, M. Can¬ 
dida. 
Oncidium tigrinum, 0. tigrinum Bar- 
kerii, 0. macrantbum, 0. Kramerii, 
O. Rogersii, 0. lingureforme, O. serra- 
tum, O. cheiropliorum, 0. Schlimii, 0. 
aureum, 0. incurvum, O. ornitlio- 
rhynchum. 
Odontoglossum Londesboroughianum, O. 
pulcliellum, 0. Alexandra, 0. Pesoa- 
torei, 0. bictonense, 0. grande, 0. 
Lindleyanum, 0. nebulosnm, 0. caudi- 
dulum, O. Hallii, 0. cordatum, 0. cir- 
rhosnm, O. Uro-Skinneri, 0. Rossi 
majus. 
Phalamopsis Schilleriana, P. grandiflora, 
P. Lowii. 
Pleione maculata, P. Reichenbachiana, 
P. Lagenaria, P. Wallicliiana, P. pracox. 
Sophronites grandiflora, S. cernua. 
Saccolabium giganteum, S. genimatum. 
Sarcanthus cretifolius. 
Stenia fimbriata. 
Vanda Cathcartii, V. coerulea, V. multi¬ 
flora. 
Zygopetalum Mackayi, Z.M. Patersoni. 
There are also in flower in the Orchid houses Amaryllises in variety with 
Nerines,—A Northern Amateur. 
STORED-UP SAP IN VINES. 
A correspondent (see page 396) signing himself “A Non-Believer” 
asks some pertinent questions respecting my physiological creed, which 
I shall have much pleasure in answering to the best of my ability, but 
at the same time I must tell him plainly he has no right to assume that 
most “ experienced gardeners ” are as far behind as he represents them 
to be. Let your correspondent be content to know that he has repre¬ 
sented clearly the state of his own knowledge, and as he is anxious to 
learn he will doubtless find others more capable than myself willing 
to help him forward. Your correspondent says, “What 'is meant by 
root-action is the absorption of food from the soil.” Well, this is part 
of its meaning, but not all. But he proceeds, “ and this begins as soon 
as the Vines are started.” We will see. 
Those parts of a plant which are underground have in many respects 
their corresponding parts above. Thus, the main roots or “ underground 
stems ” are analogous to the stem proper. The divisions and ramifica¬ 
tions of the main roots have their corresponding parts in the branches, 
and both act mainly as channels for the conveyance of material from 
one part of the plant to another. These parts are all perennial— i.e., 
lasting several years. 
Then we have the soft spear-pointed roots, darting about in all 
directions and seeming to be endowed with something like instinct, 
enabling them to travel the shortest way to obtain the plant’s necessities. 
These we may, if we like, compare to the green growing shoots above, 
for, like them, they take up less room the second year than they do the 
first. And lastly we come to the real workers, the root-hairs and the 
leaves, and both of these are only of annual duration. All the good 
the plant receives from the soil, with perhaps the exception of water, passes 
through these root-hairs, and they are only formed on new growth. 
The part of the root which bears them is soft, and varies in size from 
that of a small pin to a goose-quill. Some time in the following winter 
the hairs and the epidermis of the root which bears them will decay, 
leaving only a small wire-like root, which will in turn emit other hair- 
bearing roots, and become itself, like its predecessors, only a channel of 
communication. Then your correspondent will see that one reason why 
the Vine does not begin to feed at the root at the same time it starts at 
the top is that it has no roots to feed with. Plums and most] other fruit 
trees start at the root first. Why they do so I will not enter into here, and 
only mention the fact to show that the Vine, as far as I know, is unique 
in this respect. 
A little further on your correspondent laudably endeavours to correct 
us by saying that “some people wrongly apply the term root-action to 
root-growth or extension.” I confess to being in this company myself, 
and need hardly add to what I have already said, that root-action and 
root-extension are, for all practical purposes, synonymous terms. 
To keep the point clearly before your readers I must again quote 
your correspondent’s words. He says, “What is meant by root-action 
is the absorption of food from the soil, and this begins as soon as the 
Vines are started. If this is not so, wall Mr. Taylor explain the well- 
ascertained fact that a Vine cut off at the root does barely more than 
burst its scale buds before it dies ? ” Whether such a Vine lived or died 
would depend entirely on its treatment. If it was cut off early in 
autumn and the greater portion of its stem buried, with a few inches of 
suitable soil above it, and kept where it would neither lack a suitable 
temperature, sufficient moisture, nor sufficient light, it would not only 
live, but, making allowance for the time it would take to emit roots 
where there had been none before, it would produce some fairly good 
fruit the first season. It probably contains in itself all that is necessary 
for the first stages of development, but as when above ground it is 
subject to evaporation, a certain quantity of water is necessary to make 
up the deficiency; and as a log of wood or even a brickbat is capable 
of absorbing water to its full length when one end only is jdaced in a 
moist medium, we cannot wonder that a living plant should do the same, 
even w r hen it has no working roots. 
The liquid which comes from a Vine stem when it is pruned too late 
in the season is, I believe, very little if anything more than water. It 
is perfectly tasteless, and beyond keeping the wound open probably does 
no harm. There are some Vines which have been so starved and badly 
managed that they will scarcely bleed with any amount of amputation; 
and again there are some—I had the manipulation of some such last 
spring—which bleed, as it is called, at every berry stalk when the Grapes 
are thinned. The growth of foliage will not always stop the bleeding; 
it is simply a question of degree. If the Vines are very vigorous they 
contain a great quantity of water, and some of it will exude. If they 
have been starved and stinted their cells are probably barely sufficiently 
large to draw up even the necessary quantity. 
There is one sentence towards the end of your correspondent’s 
communication, which although correct in this instance might mislead 
some readers who have not followed what I have written before on the 
subject of watering. I never allow the soil of a Vine border to become 
dry. Although it does not require as much water in winter and spring, 
and it is worse than useless to water it when it is already wet, it must 
never even approach dryness except on the surface.—Wii, Taylor. 
CAULIFLOWER AND BROCCOLI ALL THE YEAR 
ROUND. 
The subjoined directions are intended to supply general informa¬ 
tion, and must of course be adapted to the peculiar circumstances of 
each locality. The dates are transcribed from a diary in which the 
records of culture were carefully entered. 
A continuous supply of Cauliflower and Broccoli can be maintained 
in the following manner :—Sow Walcheren Cauliflower the last week 
in August, plant out the 24th of October on a warm border, as thick 
again as wanted for a crop ; leave the small plants on the seed bed 
until March ; in that month thin out the crop planted in October to 
the proper distance, tilling up the vacancies caused by the frost ; then 
plant out a good batch in March of the plants left on the seed bed in 
October ; they will come in May, June, and July. 
The first week in February sow Walcheren, or any sort of similar 
constitution, in a warm quarter ; then sow a little more the first week 
in March at the foot of a wall in case the February sowing fails. In 
the third week of April plant out two good batches of those on a 
