August ii, 1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 123 
18 inches. It seems to need rich soil, which may be a drawback 
to its adoption by market gardeners who can scarcely afford to 
apply manure heavily for Peas, otherwise it seems a most suitable 
variety.— Charles Barnes, Lichfield. 
Carters’ Stratagem Pea.—“ Clericus” (page 69) asks for 
information about this Pea, and as we have grown it for three 
years I will gladly tell all I know of it. It was not offered to the 
public for the first time this spring as “ Clericus” says, but it 
was sent out last year, and this must be the second season of its 
general cultivation. As a main crop Pea I value it very highly 
indeed. It grows from 2 to 3 feet high, and is very robust in 
character; the pods are produced in great numbers, each con¬ 
taining from eight to ten peas of a beautiful dark green colour. 
The flavour is very superior and quite in keeping with its other 
good qualities ; the pods are very even in size, and they fill well. 
If fairly dealt with it is a Pea capable of giving every satisfac¬ 
tion, no matter by whom cultivated. Possibly the Pea which 
“ Clericus” means as having been sent out this spring is Carters’ 
Pride of the Market, and if so I may say it is in every way worthy 
of being associated with Stratagem.—J. Muir, Margatn. 
This Pea will not disappoint your correspondent. It is an ex¬ 
cellent variety, and will when well known probably be grown in 
every garden. It is dwarf, not more than 2 feet 6 inches high, 
remarkably strong, and laden with pods equal in size to Telephone 
or Telegraph. The pods with me have filled well, having from 
eight to ten peas in them ; the quality when cooked is sweet and 
good, in fact all that can be desired to constitute a good Pea. 
Stratagem in every respect fully justifies the raisers in giving it 
a high character, which it really deserves. It is at least ten days 
earlier than John Bull, and a few days later than Telegraph. I 
sowed on April 28th, and Peas were ready for gathering about 
the end of July.— A Lancashire Grower. 
SHADING CAMELLIAS. 
Your correspondent Mr. Muir appears to be rather dogmatic 
in his views on this subject. The inference to be drawn from his 
article on page 75 is that he is right and everybody else is wrong. 
His idea concerning his own plants may justify his assertion, but 
a wider margin should be left for others than Mr. Muir appears 
disposed to allow. His plants may be doing well, but many cul¬ 
tivators, especially amateurs, have Camellias, perhaps, not in the 
best health and condition. Would Mr. Muir recommend such to 
be grown under the influence of a burning sun ? or would he ad¬ 
vise a little shade until the plants were restored to health and 
vigour ? If shade only in this case would prove beneficial, then 
the remarks of your correspondent may mislead. I am no ad¬ 
vocate for excessive shading so that injury will result therefrom ; 
but with Camellias shade judiciously employed is beneficial, espe¬ 
cially when they are making their growth, and again when the 
flowers are unfolding in spring, or the sun soon takes the colour 
from them. The young leaves are very tender when first develop¬ 
ing, and if the direct jays of the sun are screened from them they 
are not so liable to injury. Your correspondent must not think 
he is the only cultivator who has tried growing these plants with¬ 
out shade. I have tried, and to my sorrow had a number of 
leaves burnt. Shading in the end had to be resorted to, and I 
found it safe and beneficial to the plants. When planting out a 
number of Camellias when growing your correspondent says they 
cannot be done without some injury to the roots : will not shading 
then be of service to the plants ? or will they recover better under 
the influence of direct sunshine ? 
To prove that Camellias do well even under dense shade, I know a 
collection in large tubs always grown under the shade of Vines, and 
no plants could look better, and they never fail to flower profusely. 
Further, I have Camellias covering the back wall of two Peach 
houses. The Peach trees are trained close to the glass and nearly 
to the top of the house, so that very little sun reaches the Camel¬ 
lias. These never fail to do well, and I am convinced they would 
be worse rather than better if the Peach trees were removed. 
Again, the shrubs grown in the house devoted to them here, with 
the roof and front shaded, have foliage, I am sure, as fine in size, 
brightness, and colour as it is possible for your correspondent’s 
to be. He contends it is impossible for them to have fine, dark, 
glossy foliage when grown in the shade. I can only say if those 
grown at Margam Park are finer in colour and foliage than the 
plants grown here, they are indeed really grand. 
Now to the time of planting. Your correspondent recommends 
removal of Camellias when they are just advancing into growth. 
Their roots are then active, and it is next to impossible to turn 
them out of large pots or tubs without considerable damage to the 
roots, which must affect more or less the growth. I consider there 
is no better time for lifting, planting, or repotting than when 
growth is completed and the flower buds have commenced to 
form. The roots are then less active, and consequently less liable 
to injury, than if in an advanced stage of growth. When planted 
after growth is completed and the flower buds are swelling, their 
roots are sufficiently active to enable the plants to get a good hold 
of the soil before root-action ceases. The plants are then ready, 
when the growing season arrives, to make a vigorous growth— 
much more so than if planted as growth commences and left un¬ 
shaded, to get over the injury as best they can. It may be 
asserted that the buds are in danger of falling when the opera¬ 
tion is carried out in the autumn of their growth, but if judiciously 
done before the buds are too far advanced a good crop of flowers 
is certain. 
Mr. Muir objects to withholding water after the flower buds 
of Camellias are visible, and evidently has the same strong ideas 
on this phase of culture as he has on shading. It is necessary to 
keep them drier at the root if a second growth is to be prevented 
on young vigorous-growing trees, and I maintain it is necessary to 
prevent this second growth, which, according to Mr. Muir’s idea, 
is an advantage, in order to obtain a succession of bloom. When 
second growth is made is it sufficiently ripened in many seasons 
to produce fine flowers ? If this is so in Wales it is certainly not 
the case in many parts of England. A succession of flowers can 
readily be maintained by selection, and even a limited number of 
varieties. It is unwise to encourage a second growth in the culti¬ 
vation of Camellias without size of the plant is the chief object 
and the blooms can be sacrificed. 
I am sending, Mr. Editor, for your inspection wood of Camel¬ 
lias—No. 1 from beneath Peach trees, densely shaded ; No. 2 from 
plants judiciously shaded ; and No. 3 from a plant that has been 
much exposed to the sun. I should like to know how they 
compare with others that may be sent you from unshaded trees. 
—W. Bardney. 
[We have no others to compare them with. No. 1 is remark¬ 
ably fine, the foliage being deep green, glossy, and spotless. No. 2 
has thick, leathery, very dark green shining foliage that we have 
never seen surpassed. No. 3 has large foliage, but it is thinner 
than that of the others, and lacks the rich glossy hue for which 
they are remarkable. All the growths are short-jointed, and have 
healthy flower buds.—E d.] 
THE VAGARIES OF PLANTS. 
Have any of yuur readers noticed the whims or vagaries of 
plants to grow from seed in the most unlikely or unwished-for 
places l Some years ago I carefully sowed some Portulaca seed 
in accordance with the best directions as to soil, silver sand, and 
the comforts of a hotbed, but with a lamentable result. The fol¬ 
lowing year to my surprise I found some seedling Portulacas 
coming up of their own will amongst the cobble stone pavement 
of the enclosure or yard where I had my hotbeds. Since then I 
find that some plants will grow on my limestone-chipping garden 
walks from self-sown seed, whilst they decline to grow in the 
adjacent borders enriched by manure. I remember some thirty 
years ago going to an old garden not far from where I now live, 
and finding a man busy “paring” the Gentianella from the 
garden walks. It had left the borders where it had been planted 
as an edging, and had grown over the surface of the walks, and 
encroached so far that it had to be “ pared ” off to make the 
walks passable. 
The inference I draw from the above is that we injure many 
of our garden pets by coddling and overnursing. I have no 
hesitation in asserting that the “Verbenas” have been lost to all 
practical purposes by the system of forcing for cuttings for the 
million. Herbaceous Calceolarias were in a fair way of following 
the Verbenas, but fortunately for them it has been found out 
that, instead of being coddled and treated as a consumptive 
patient in a sort of warm sanatorium, they do best in a cold bed, 
in a frame, or even with only the comfort of a handlight to pro¬ 
tect them from extreme frost.—G. 0. S. 
Swarms of Caterpillars.—A correspondent of the “Ento¬ 
mologist” notes, that in various parts of the New Forest the 
Oaks appeared to be completely denuded of their leaves by the 
middle of June, the result of the presence of caterpillars princi¬ 
pally belonging to the genus Hybernia. “ The incessant rasping 
noise of countless thousands of jaws was distinctly and strangely 
audible.” In the vicinity of London there has been observed 
this season an excessive number of the caterpillars of the Vapourer 
Moth (Orgyia antiqua), many of the larger boughs of the Limes 
