JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
30 
Cranston Company were again first with fine blooms, among ■which 
were Baronne de Rothschild, Duchesse de Vallombrosa, Marie Bau¬ 
mann, Mons. Noman, Le Havre, Marie Cointet, Boieldieu, very fine. 
They were also first in the class for twenty-four single. Capt. Christy, 
A. it. Williams, Madame Lacharme, very pure ; Mrs. Baker, Comtesse 
de Serenye, extra; Mons. E. Y. Teas, Jean Liabaud, Marie Cointet, 
Gdndral Jacqueminot, La Rosi^re, and Madame Charles Wood were 
exceptionally good. Buc their most taking stand was that for twenty- 
four Teas and Noisettes, although some have contended that it was 
impossible to show twenty-four good Teas. It contained Mardchal 
Niel, Catherine Mermet, Madame Camille, Madame Caroline Kuster, 
Louise de Savoie, Madame Celine Noirey, Innocente Pirola, very 
beautiful; Perle de Lyon, Comtesse de Nadaillac, a lovely bloom ; 
Devoniensis, Marshal Bugeaud, Souvenir de Paul Neyron, Madame 
Hippolyte Jamain, Rubens, Madame Furtado, Madame Sertot, Ma¬ 
dame Emilie Dupuy, Perle des Jardins, Bouquet d’Or, Marie Yan 
Houtte. This box certainly attracted, and deservedly, more attention 
than any other in the Exhibition. In the stand for twenty-four 
blooms of one variety they gained the first prize with clean blooms 
of Mons. Noman, and in that for twelve Teas with a beautiful box of 
Perle des Jardins. 
In the amateur class Mr. Crossley was first with Yillede St. Denis, 
Abel Grand, Alfred Colomb, Mdlle. Annie Wood, Marquise de Castel- 
lane, Gdnd al Jacqueminot, Capt. Christy, Charles Lefebvre, Mdlle. 
Marie Cointet, La Fontaine, Pierre Notting, Marie Baumann, Marechal 
Niel, Centifolia rosea, Comtesse de Serenye, very fine ; Star of Wal¬ 
tham, Sultan of Zanzibar, Y. Yerdiei-, Madame Lacharme, Franpois 
Michelon, Bessie Johnson, and Boieldieu. Mr. Pettigrew was a good 
second, and had among others fine blooms of Madame Lacharme, La 
France, and Baronne de Rothschild. In the class for twelve Mr. Moore 
of Coedyleon, Cardiff, was first with Marie Baumann, Sir Garnet 
Wolseley, Madame Eugenie Yerdier, Louisa Maynard, Abel Grand, 
Hippolyte Jamain, A. K. Williams, Marquise de Castellane ; and in 
the class for twelve Teas Mr. Crossley was again first with Perle des 
Jardins, Letty Coles, Belle Lyonnaise, Catherine Mermet, President, 
Marechal Niel, Souvenir d’un Ami, Lamarque, Devoniensis, Niphetos, 
and Celine Forestier. He was also first in the class for twelve of one 
sort with Marie Finger, and first in the class for six Teas or Noisettes 
with Gloire de Dijon. 
The Marquis of Bute’s liberal prize of £5 for the best twelve blooms of 
the old York-and-Lancaster Rose, or rather the Rose generally known 
as such, was won by Mr. Pettigrew ; and the prize for the best twelve 
of Baronne de Rothschild was awarded to Mr. Crossley for a beautiful 
box of blooms, Mr. Pettigrew being a good second with a very fine 
box. It should be noticed that the scarcity of good blooms in the 
other boxes exhibited arose partly from the fact that a tremendous 
thunderstorm burst over Cardiff on the evening before, accompanied 
with torrents of rain, and that, as many of the exhibitors waited until 
the morning to cut their blooms, the greater portion of them were 
destroyed by it. The arrangements were carefully carried out by 
Mr. Pettigrew under the able superintendence of Major Knox. There 
was also an excellent show of Strawberries, some fine dishes of Presi¬ 
dent, Sir Charles Napier, and Amateur being staged, and altogether 
the town of Cardiff may be congratulated on the step that it has 
made. The National Rose Society’s medals were won by Mr. Cranston 
and Mr. Crossley.—D., Beal. 
SUTTONS’ MARVEL CABBAGE LETTUCE. 
I have grown many Cabbage Lettuces and seen many more, 
but I have no experience of any to surpass the one named above. 
It is superb in every way. At first the young plants are nearly 
black iu colour and of no great promise. As the outer leaves do 
not extend far, consequently it can be grown close together ; but 
from this small state it quickly assumes large proportions, and 
solid heads are soon formed of great crispness. I have several 
new vegetables on trial here this season, but none has pleased me 
so much as this Lettuce. Our stock of seed being very limited it 
was sown very thinly on a 4-foot bed. A number of the seedlings 
were transplanted, enough being left for a crop, and these are 
now very fine.—J. Muir. 
WHAT PLANTS USE. 
(Continued from page 535.) 
Yery few places have an adequate supply of proper water, and 
without this many failures, or at best very partial success, attend 
even well-directed labour and judiciously laid-out money other¬ 
wise. The first thing to con-ider in erecting glass houses which 
are to be filled with occupants requiring large quantities of water 
is where the water is to come from. Often it is the last, and its 
procuring afterwards costs more than can well be afforded. Too 
often the labour that ought to be spent elsewhere is spent in carry¬ 
ing it from a distance in cans ; disappointment and failures 
follow, where otherwise success and satisfaction might result. 
Closely allied with the subject of watering is the one of drain- 
age. We cannot in this place enter into the subject deeply, and 
as it has often been treated on in the pages of the Journal it is 
[ July 14,1881. 
only necessary to draw attention here to the cleansing effects of 
draining. Soils from which water cannot readily escape generally 
contain matter noxious to vegetation. It is also known that 
when such lands are effectively drained the noxious matters dis¬ 
appear in time—are, in fact, washed by the descending rain out of 
the soil, and carried away by the drains. Soils into which water 
soaks but never passes through are always full of matter hurtful 
to vegetation. Even necessary food when present in superabun¬ 
dant quantity is hurtful, and often destructive. Soils into which 
much nourishment is washed by water, and never any washed out, 
speedily become unfit for plants. Yery many old Vine borders 
are in this condition, especially those inside. More than once has 
the writer assisted in renewing inside borders of vineries, and 
been astonished to find not a living root in the old soil. No 
doubt many readers have noticed the same. As we grew older 
wonder ceased at that. The wonder now is how any living thing 
can exist in some of them. Once we tried when very young to 
improve some fine Fuchsias by soaking the soil in which they 
grew with pure cow urine. It killed them. Since we have 
grown them with cow urine only for manure, and that with much 
success ; but then it was given much diluted, and only at inter¬ 
vals. Between times liberal waterings were given of clean water, 
which effectually prevented any injurious accumulation of the 
salts contained in the urine. 
It is seldom that the waterings which Vine borders receive filter 
through into the drains ; and yet they should, otherwise of what use 
are the drains ? Salts are necessary to plant life, and with ammonia 
are very helpful when they do not exceed a certain proportion in 
the soil. We all know that. When they are present in too great 
quantity they become actually poisonous. In hundreds, thousands 
of Vine borders, throughout the land salts are present in excessive 
quantity. When liquid manure is given to inside borders just in 
sufficient quantities to moisten the whole there is an addition to 
that border—of what ? Water and manure ? No, but manure 
only ; for the water soon escapes by evaporation from the surface 
or by the leaves of the Vines, and a portion, very often a large 
one, of the manure is left behind in the border. This operation 
continues until so much accumulates that the roots perish, or 
travel away to more wholesome if poorer material. We all 
know that Vine roots travel far, but few dream that they are 
“ driven from home.” 
The writer once served in a garden when the Vines were past 
their best and very near their worst. It was not for want of 
manure nor top-dressings. We ventured to hint to the head 
gardener that perhaps the borders were too rich. His opinion 
was they were too poor—exhausted he said. Fuchsias were being 
potted at the time, and as he laughed at my idea that the borders 
were too rich, it was proposed that a portion of the Fuchsias 
should be potted with soil from the borders without any addition 
save sand. This proposal was acceded to, to teach us how 
ignorant we were, for our reputation was risked by maintaining 
that they would fail to root in it, as proved to be the case. 
We went another step. It was proposed to take a given quantity 
of soil from the border and to make liquid manure with it, and 
to try it against an equal amount of cow manure. Each was used 
on an equal number of the afore-mentioned Fuchsias to test their 
value, and the liquid manure made from the soil taken from the 
border actually proved stronger than that from the cow manure. 
The whole border was a manure heap, and a strong one. Many 
borders are in the same condition. 
How is this state of matters to be remedied or prevented ? By 
withholding manure ? By no means. How does Nature prevent 
an undue accumulation of acids and salts ? She washes them 
out. Why cannot we do the same ? Some fear to impoverish their 
borders if they do so. But there is no real danger of that. It is 
only when these are present in too great quantity that they are 
removed at all. Soils hold saline and other matters in spite of 
water, indeed filter them out of water. There is no fear then of 
impoverishment ensuing when water is passed through borders in 
quantities sufficient to cleanse them. Moreover, liquid manure 
should follow, for one dose will never harm unless too strong, but 
the very reverse. It is only when too strong or when the borders 
are already too rich that it does harm, and this over-richness 
cannot be better dealt with than by washing. Some may be in¬ 
clined to ask, “ Why wash out manure and then add more ? ” 
Well, the fact is, few manures possess the different salts which 
Vines need in the proportion required. No matter, then, how 
carefully we apply manure, there will be left in the soil the 
matters which were present in excessive quantity in the manure 
applied. Again, even under-manured soils through which water 
never passes accumulate hurtful matters which water is capable 
of removing. Soils may be poor and also noxious ; soils may be 
rich and yet wholesome. It is not only excessive accumulations 
