532 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 20, 1805. 
embedded, and planting as near them as possible. They will require plenty 
of water until they are fully established. The following is a short list of 
those most suitable:—Lycopodium alpinum, L. clavatum, L. com- 
planatum, L. Selago, and L. annotinum ; Erica Watsoni, Andromeda 
polifolia, Gaultheria procumbens, Empetrum album, E. nigrum, Vac- 
cinium vitis-idtea, V. uliginosum, Arctostaphylos alpina, Betula nana, and 
Cornus suecica.—D. D. 
MURRAY’S VINE COMPOSITION. 
In reply to “ M. A.’s ” inquiry (page 461), respecting Murray’s Vine 
composition, I have much pleasure in endorsing all that he has said in its 
favour. Three years since I had a number of Vines very much infested 
with mealy bug, and being recommended to try this remedy I did so with 
the most satisfactory results, and now 1 am thankful to say they are 
perfectly clean. Since then I have used it extensively on my indoor 
Peach trees, and find it quite harmless in its application to the buds, and 
I have also found it invaluable for dressing hardwooded stove and green¬ 
house plants infested with either brown or white scale ; and I feel assured 
that were this excellent composition better known it would prove a great 
boon to the gardening community at large.— Benj. G. Stone, Elhingion 
Hall Gardens, Louth. 
[Why is it not made “better known” by the vendors? We have 
received other letters to the same effect as the above, but sufficient has 
been published at present on this subject.] 
AURICULAS AND THE] WOOLLY APHIS. 
On page 488 “ D., Deal," while speaking of woolly aphides, says, 
“Every grower speaks of it now as existing in their collection, and its 
mysterious dispersion is one of those insect problems about which, with 
all the vaunted discoveries of science, we know next to nothing.” Yet I 
wrote to the Journal two or three years ago to infoim “ D., Deal," how I 
had successfully stamped it out of our collection. The roots were so 
covered with it that they had the appearance of lines drawn with a piece 
of chalk when the plants were first turnpd out of the pots. We had it 
introduced into our collection by some fresh plants from a large grower 
in August. The following spring, when they were being top-dressed, I 
first discovered it. It was very bad on the new plants, but it had spread 
more or lesson those that stood nearest to them. I made a rather strong 
mixture of soft soap and tobacco water (I forget the quantities that I 
gave them at the time). Two or three of the worst plants were shaken 
out of their pots, and the roots and collars well washed. Holding the 
foliage in my hand to prevent any of the mixture touching them, I 
placed them on the potting-bench for about ten minutes, and then 
washed them in clean water, wrapped the roots in damp moss, and left 
them for two or three days. They were then examined very minutely 
with a glass to see if there were any woolly aphides alive, and whether 
the roots were injured. They were perfectly clean, and I could not see 
that any injury had been done, so they were at once repotted. The 
plants, instead of being top-dressed, were shaken out, washed, laid down 
for about ten minutes, then washed in clean water and repotted. All 
the old soil was carefully collected and burnt, the frame scrubbed with 
hot water and soft soap, and I have never seen any woolly aphides 
since. But when we have had any fresh plants they have had to 
go through the washing process before being placed with the main stock. 
—J, L. B. 
THE PARSLEY-LEAVED BRAMBLE. 
On page 5 of our issue of July 5th of the present volume Mr. Muir 
narrated, no doubt with strict accuracy, his experience of the Kittatinny 
Blackberry, which variety had proved with him very unsatisfactory. Our 
correspondent’s remarks seemed also to have a wider bearing, for he 
su fig e sted that probably “ some persons may grow American Blackberries 
against a wall, and even then it would be good space badly used.” We 
advised our correspondent at the time to try the Parsley-leaved Bramble, 
and perhaps he will do so despite his observation that “nothing which 
could be said or shown in their favour would induce him to have anything 
more to do with them,” as this decision was founded presumably on such 
varieties as he had endeavoured to cultivate. Much was “ said” in reply 
to the letter in question, and now we “ show” (fig. 105), a good example 
of the fruit under notice as grown by Mr. W. K. Woodcock at Oakbrook, 
Sheffield. In October, 1882, this cultivator referred to the productiveness 
of this Bramble as follows :— 
“ A single row here 22 yards long, and trained to tall stakes after the 
manner of Raspberries, has been producing a constant supply of large 
and well-ripened fruits for six weeks now past, and looks as though it will 
continue to do so for another month should the weather continue mild. 
Up to the present time since the first gathering commenced an aggregate 
ol more than two bushels of good fruit have been obtained, and employed 
by our cook in a variety of ways for pastry, also for making jam, jellies, 
cheese, syrup, &c., till she tells me she appears to have an inexhaustible 
suppiy. It appears to be especially adapted for training over light wire 
arches or trellises spanning the kitchen garden walks, where it would be 
both useful and ornamental. Many of the fruiting rods with us are 
10 feet long, and furnished with long racemes of fruit from the base to 
the summit. I do not know any other fruit-bearing plant or shrub which 
will produce an equally large quantity and long succession of fruit for the 
space occupied. Its cultural requirements are very simple, the main 
point being attention to training and tying out the young growths occa¬ 
sionally during the summer, and pruning after fruiting in the autumn, 
when a few of the oldest fruiting rods are cut away to make room for 
young growths, and those left have their laterals cut back to one or two 
eyes from the base, after which they are again trained to their supports 
and a liberal mulching of manure given to their roots.” 
In July of the present year Mr. Woodcock wrote :—“ My notes in 
October last as to the quantity of fruit we had then gathered were not in 
any way exaggerated, and we continued to gather fine fruit for several 
weeks afterwards. At the present time our stock is growing very vigor¬ 
ously, and promises even better results than last season. The clusters 
of fruit produced on our canes are certainly much finer and the fruit 
larger than the engraving of Kittatinny shown on page 519 of last volume. 
I have been measuring the fruiting spurs or racemes, which are now just 
expanding their first blooms, and find they average 2 feet in length from 
their junction with the cane. There is also an average of fifty bloom 
buds to each spur, and forty spurs to each cane, which are about 12 feet in 
length. As we grow an average of four canes to each root or stool, we have 
a total average of 8000 bloom buds from each root, and nearly every 
bloom may be relied upon to produce a fruit fully as large as the largest 
and best Raspberries ; and coming in as they do after Raspberries and all 
other bush fruits are over, they are highly esteemed. The roots are 
planted 5 feet apart in the row, and the canes are trained more or less 
horizontally over a row of wood stakes, which are 9 feet high and 2 feet 
6 inches apart. They require an open sunny position to ripen the fruit 
properly, coming in as it does in the comparatively dark damp days of 
October. Our system of cultivating them is very simple, and consists in 
cutting clear away at pruning time most of the old canes which have 
borne fruit, to make room for the young canes made during the previous 
summer. If sufficient young canes have not been made to fill the space, 
some of the best of the old ones are left and have their fruiting laterals 
pruned off close to the cane. They are then again all trained to the 
stakes, and have a liberal dressing of decayed manure given to their roots- 
“ In October, 1879, Prince Leopold was staying at Oakbrook for a day 
or two on the occasion of his visiting Sheffield for the purpose of opening 
Firth College. The Bramble was then (October 22nd) in fine condition, 
and received very high praise from His Royal Highness both for its 
qualities as a choice dessert fruit upon the table and for its free-fruiting 
character. Messrs. Fisher, Son & Sibray tell me they afterwards had the 
honour of supplying his gardener with a stock of plants.” 
Mr. Ward of Longford Castle has grown these Brambles to his satisfac¬ 
tion, and he is one of the last persons to be satisfied with what is not 
creditable to him and meritorious. Mr. Luckhurst, whose standard of 
excellence in fruit culture is a high one, has stated in reference to the 
Parsley-leaved Bramble that “ under good cultivation it has proved to be 
so excellent both in the size and abundance of its berries as to have a 
prominent position assigned it among our most useful fruits. The 
common Bramble grows so luxuriantly and in such abundance here that 
when I recei\ed some plants of the Parsley-leaved American Bramble 
from Brocklesby Park in Lincolnshire, where I am told it is so flourishing 
as to attract the notice and admiration of visitors, they were planted in 
ordinary soil under the erroneous supposition that no special care was 
necessary to induce them to grow freely and bear fine fruit. The puny 
growth of the first season proved that I was mistaken, and in the follow¬ 
ing autumn a trench 18 inches deep and 3 feet wide was excavated and 
refilled with two-thirds of spent hotbed manure mixed with a third of 
garden soil, and the Brambles transplanted into it. Nothing could be 
more satisfactory than the result, for the growth that followed was so 
rampant that it was obvious an ordinary trellis would be useless, and a 
neat one 6 feet high of diamond pattern was made of stout poles thrust 
into the ground and crossing each other diagonally. This was soon 
covered, and for some three or four years we have had an ample supply 
of fruit far surpassing anything ever seen on an English Bramble. No 
account has been kept of the actual quantity of fruit picked in a single 
season, but I know that from 6 to 8 gallons has been picked at one time, 
and this may be done repeatedly for several weeks from a row 60 feet 
long and 7 feet high. This season the crop promises to be even more 
abundant, for the row is just now one mass of blossom from bottom to- 
top, borne in huge clusters upon stout lateral growths about 2 feet long, 
so that the row is in reality a thick hedge quite 4 feet through, and is 
probably at its best. Nor is there any fear of a cessation of vigour, for 
new main shoots have come freely from the bottom of the old ones, and 
are already from 6 to 8 feet long, and nearly an inch in diameter. The 
fruit is used chiefly for making jelly, which is so highly prized by con¬ 
noisseurs that it must command a profitable and ready sale. Surely fruit¬ 
growers for market would do well to bestow some attention upon a fruit 
that is so hardy, so prolific, and so easily cultivated, and which, so far as 
my experience goes, is unaffected by blight or disease of any kind.” 
Mr. John Caiter of Keighley has also written favourably of this fruit 
and as his letter is short we reproduce it. “ I have grown these for years, 
and they are very beautiful so far as foliage is concerned, but what is 
much more satisfactory, loaded with rich luscious fruit every season. 
My soil is tolerably strong, and the requisite number of the previous year’s- 
shoots are pegged-in to an unsightly wall during the spring. They often 
make 4 or 5 yards’ growth of very strong wood. In September, 1881, I 
sent bunches of fruit to the Journal, which were favourably noticed- 
Being a late fruit it is essential that the plants should be grown in a 
sunny aspect. I daresay every soil would not grow them satisfactorily, 
but with me the difficulty would be to get quit of them. Keighley station 
is a mile and a half from my Willow Bank nurseries, and I shall be pleased 
to show these beautiful plants to anyone who may think it worth while to 
