120 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Angnst 7, 1884, 
proliferous Marigold should have appeared in the immediate neighbour¬ 
hood of the Daisy, but we do not suppose any influence was exerted to 
produce it ; it is probably accidental. 
KEEPING GRAPES IN WATER. 
Ten years ago, or nine at least, I sent you a description of zinc boxes 
I was using for keeping Grapes in water exactly on the same principle as 
Mr. Ward’s. Although for a few years back I have not kept late Grapes 
I endorse all that is said in favour of Mr. Ward’s system, and I shall add 
my own, as it is identical. Anyone having large quantities to keep will 
find it much more simple and quite as efficient as the bottle plan, I am 
quite certain you will not allow me to point out that an article of mine on 
the same method appeared in the Journal of Horticulture about nine 
years ago. — Wm. Irvine, Glossop Hall. 
CYANANTHUS LOBATUS. 
What a misfortune that everybody is not successful in growing that 
charming Himalayan plant Cyananthus lobatus. With me it grows and 
flowers freely, a small plant having in two years completely covered over 
a foot squf.re ; but notwithstanding my success with it, I do not hesitate in 
terming it fastidious. It grows best in shade, but is very impatient of 
moisture, and although it prefers a strong rich soil it must not be retentive. 
A black spongy peaty soil seems to s»it it best, to which has been added a 
good dressing of old decayed manure, and with a good under-drainage, 
or the growths will be meagre, the flowering scarce and of a washy 
colour. During the growing season moisture should be supplied plenti¬ 
fully, and in winter the crown should be covered with leaves or pieces of 
glass to ward off damp. Though rarely growing more than 6 inches 
high even when robust, it forms neat dense masses with its much-toothed 
and irregular-lobed leaves. The flowers are borne at the end of the wiry 
stems as large as a florin, but varying in colour from their opening from a 
lovely soft to a rich intense blue: the calyx tube looks very peculiar, 
covered with the soft brown hairs so prevalent all over the plant. It 
flowers from now unlil late autumn, and is increased by seed.—K. 
BLIND WINTER GREENS. 
The summer of 1884 will not be far behind any of its predecessors so far 
as a supply of insects injurious to vegetation is concerned. In some parts of 
Whales on large tracts of mountain land every particle of vegetation has 
been eaten by caterpillars, and it was feared that they would spread into 
the more fertile valleys, and give much trouble to the farmer and gardener, 
but this they have not done. Amongst the most troublesome insects is 
the one which eats the tender centre out of the Brussels Sprout, Savoys, 
Broccoli, &c., and makes the plants blind and useless. I hear very many 
complaints of plants being destroyed in this way. In some small gardens 
the majority are gone. When so eaten the plants are useless. They 
should be pulled up and others put in their places as soon as possible. A 
good crop may then be secured for the winter, but if anyone waits think¬ 
ing to see young centres sprout out and become strong, like the original one, 
they will wait in vain. Plants which are all right now will remain so, as 
It is generally in the early months of summer the attacks are made, and in 
August they stop their depredations or advance a stage in their develop¬ 
ment, probably feed on something else than the most delicate part of our 
winter greens. 
In the garden here we have lost a few plants, but only a few, as we 
dust the plants well with soot and lime when they are in the seed beds, 
and m my opinion this prevents any deposit being made on them which 
would ultimately end in their destruction. I am very much in favour of 
dusting all young plants in this way, as it does them good in more ways 
than one, and when it is put on them after rain it adheres to them for a 
long time, being washed down to the roots by degrees and warding off all 
insects. In gardens where many plants have been lost lately, I would 
recoinmend all plants with good centres in them to be dusted at once ; 
and above all let all the blind ones be drawn up and thrown away, as any 
dealings with them after this time will only end in failure, which will not 
be so much felt now as in winter and next spring when seasonable vegetables 
are in demand.—J. M. ° 
PEOPAGATING DRAC^NA GOLDIEANA. 
f. Draciena is a remarkable plant, and quite distinct from any 
ot the others. It is not so graceful as some of the Dracaenas, but 
•when well grown it is a noble plant, very ornamental and effective. 
X it was stated some time since that stem cuttings 
of this Dracaena would not strike. This statement I am able to con- 
^ in as stem cuttings I have three 
established plants in 4-inch pots. It does not strike so freely as 
others ; in fact, it takes double the time to strike. I put in a great 
quantity of. stem cuttings of other varieties; they struck, and were 
established in 3-inch pots some time before those from D. Goldieana 
appeared above the soil. Side shoots taken off with a heel strike as 
readily as those of ot ler varieties. 
In the middle of January last I had a number of tall plants with 
good crowns of leave^ and rather than run the risk of losing several 
of them by taking off the crowns and putting them in as cuttings, 
incisions were made directly below the leaves ; some wet moss, sand, 
and leaf soil well chopped and mixed together was bound tightly 
about the incisions. Some of the plants were moved to the forcing 
pit, others remained in the jilant stoves. Those in the forcing pit 
rooted nearly a fortnight before those in the stove. D. Goldieana 
was amongst the latter, and was quite a month behind any of the 
others; When the moss was well tilled with roots the crowns were 
severed from the stems directly under the incisions, and potted in 
small 5-inch pots, a stake being placed to each plant, and the leaves 
tied loosely to it; they were then placed in the propagating pit and 
sju'inged three times a day. They soon became established, scarcely 
losing a leaf, and some of them are now from 2 to 34 feet high in 
6-inch and 8-inch pots, and are well furnished with fine healthy 
leaves from the rim of the pot to the top of the plant. This method 
of propagation I consider far preferable to any other. One great 
boon is, better and larger plants can be grown in smaller pots than 
when otherwise treated, rendering them more serviceable for decora¬ 
tive purposes, and instead of tall plants in large pots we can have 
well-furnished stocky plants in comparatively small pots. I have 
not had one failure. 
The other varieties were D. Baptist!, D. Cooperi, D. Ernesti, 
D. Frerei, D. Guilfoylei, D. Hendersoni, D. Leopold!, D. Regina, 
D. Rossi, D. Rebeccse, D. rubusta, D. salmonea, D. terminalis, D. vo- 
luta, and Mrs. Wills.— Geo. Harris, Arle Court Gardens, Cheltenham. 
UTRICULARIA VULGARIS. 
Me. Simms ot Oxford has published his observations upon the 
carnivorous propensities of this plant in the form of two papers, one of 
which appears in the Field of June 21st, page 879, and the other and 
more recent one in Nature of July 24th, page 295. In both instances a 
figure of the plant is given, and vesicles or bladders are represented con¬ 
taining captured fish. Explanatory figures, with some remarks, appeared, 
too, in the Journal of Horticulture, on page 3 of the present series ; and 
in referring to them now it will be seen that in the face of Mr. Simms’ 
papers they possess an interest beyond that they had at the time of 
publication. 
In the contribution to the Field the first in point of order as to date, 
Mr. Simms states that “ Whilst engaged with his aquarium, in which he 
was endeavouring to hatch out a small quantity of perch spawn, his 
attention was drawn to several young perch lying dead on the feathery 
branches of a bunch of Bladderwort.” No mention is, however, made as 
to the period of time the Utricularia had been in the aquarium. Probably 
the “ bunches ” referred to were an accumulation of detached floating 
shoots, in some respects similar to the specimens from which it is 
inferable the plant may have been originally botanically described. 
These have not as yet, so far as we know, been discovered on which fish 
have deposited spawn, but from the appearance of their bladders when 
first taken out of the water they might in some cases be supposed to be the 
spawn of some description of fish if subjected to a slight examination, or, as 
when seed vessels “ closely examined ” by Mr. Simms, it is possible to mis¬ 
take them for “ fruit vessels.” The statement that the bladders exercise no 
such functions as those attributed to them by botanists is much too 
speculative, and, moreover, difficult to authenticate ; and the obvious 
discrepancies in the description of the plant is inexplicable. We are 
informed that “ animals enter the bladders . . . and it is evidently 
difficult for them to escape when imprisoned.” Mr. Simms avers that 
he watched a large worm, which had been caught in a small bladder on 
May 28tb, after a violent and protracted struggle, swim off, minus a 
small portion of his tail.” The capture of the male worm cannot but be 
regarded as particularly interesting, but we must in passing hint that we 
are not oblivious of the fact that the observations under notice must have 
been conducted under peculiar circumstances, or that the s})ecimen3 of 
Utricularia employed were of a very extraordinary description. The 
assertion of its being one of the “ enemies which assist the denizens 
of our rivers in all stages of their existence ” is scarcely worthy of con¬ 
sideration ; it is, however, a point of interest in a remarkable contribution 
to a leading journal—being as it were the summit of the inconsiderateness 
from whence the writer achieves a most amusing literary somersault, for 
he forthwith proceeds to point out the fact that the “ Utricularia is 
seldom met with in rivers.” It may be deemed scarcely necessary to 
remark that were the detached shoots or runners to be under any circum¬ 
stances introduced into a river they would, provided their fragile formation 
could sustain the ordeal, naturally float with the current to—who knows 
where ? The situation where the Utricularia is known to luxuriate is in 
undistuibed deep ponds where the water is overshaded with trees, and it 
has yet to be proved that the plant in its habitat is a destroyer of young 
fish. In the event of shoots being drifted to shallow water at the time 
when the fish are just hatched, it is possible for some of them to become 
entrapped in the extended bladders of the plant ; but it will be seen that 
river fry are exempt from its over-estimated destructive powers. 
“If,” as Mr. Simms states in his paper published in Nature, “for a 
considerable period after they emerge from the egg the young fish remain 
in the shallow water,” how is it to be explained that the Utricularia can 
be considered “ as great an enemy to the small fry as the water-fowl and 
others are to the larger fish in the streams ? ” As to the supposition that 
“ the foliage possesses some poisonous properties detrimental to fish,” we 
may observe that we have had for some time a great number of young 
fish in a glass vessel measuring 10 inches in diameter, placed out of 
doors, containing a comparatively large quantity of Utricularia, and 
