498 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Dectmber 4, 1864. 
not be left out of account. I also imagine if all symptoms 
of apbis-colonisation is rigidly suppressed throughout the 
winter we have not the same trouble in the summer months 
in looking after them. 
As to the best means of killing the various insects, I do 
not know anything better for destroying aphides and thrips 
than the old-fashioned plan of suffocating them with the 
fumes of tobacco. There is no danger to plants when fumi¬ 
gation is carefully performed if we except such cases as Ferns 
when producing their young fronds. Successful fumigation 
consists in having good tobacco paper or cloth as a first step, 
then a good heating material, charcoal being very suitable ; 
but I have often used glowing coal cinders and also burning 
sticks. The danger to be expected is from their bursting 
into flame, but that will only be caused by carelessness in 
the attendant. It takes a little experience to damp the 
tobacco paper just enough and no more in order to produce a 
dense smoke. I am much averse to filling houses too thickly 
with smoke; it is much better to perform the process more 
frequently. 
Hot water and soap is a most efficient means of insect de¬ 
struction. It has, however, this disadvantage, that the num¬ 
ber of plants on which we can employ it with effect and with¬ 
out harm to the plants themselves are very few. Camellias, 
Ixoras, Lapagerias, Stephanotis, and Crotons are plants 
which can be syringed with impunity. The way to go about 
this process is to have a copper filled with boiling water. 
Dissolve a few pounds of softsoap in a little of the water, 
and to each pailful of water add some of the dissolved soap. 
If the syringe with which the water is applied is so worked 
as to break the water into numerous small jets the water 
may be employed quite hot, as in its passage from the 
syringe to the plant it is slightly cooled. Few insects are left 
after a syringing with hot water applied as above. But 
there are a few plants which we dare to treat so. 
Petroleum dissolved in soap and water is a very effective 
and cheap insecticide, but it requires great care in its use, 
and inexperienced hands occasionally make sad mistakes with 
it. I think it a very good plan to dip plants that can be so 
treated in some prepared solution, afterwards going over 
them carefully and cleaning all dirt off with a sponge. It 
may be noted that a temperature of 90° at the least should 
be allowed for the most tender plants ; many may do with 
the solution from 110° to 120°. The barbarous practice of 
scrubbing leaves with brushes in order to remove scale is 
nowadays quite unnecessary. A good insecticide should 
remove everything with the pressure of a sponge, and if it 
does not do that it is of no use. Sponging is a very good 
means of clearing foliage of both dirt and insects, and as I 
have already said I like to cleanse plants that have been dipped 
with a sponge. The extra trouble is always well repaid. 
Like others I have had my troubles with red spider, and 
have long ago come to the conclusion that sponging is the 
most certain and in the end the most expeditious way of get¬ 
ting rid of this most destructive pest. I always sulphur the 
pipes of vineries as a preventive, but a much better one is to 
keep the Vines in a healthy condition. Bed spider finds a 
weak place in our armour with marvellous rapidity, and the 
most certain means of getting rid of the enemy is to find out 
our weak place and strengthen it. Water is generally 
wanting in sufficient quantity, but an insufficient supply of 
manurial agents will as often as not be found at the bottom 
of the mischief. Well-fed plants are never so subject to 
attacks of red spider as are those which are starved. 
The main thing at present, however, is to make an 
endeavour to destroy every insect inimical to the well-being 
of plants, and there is not much time to lose if the work is 
to be done at all thoroughly; and no faith in any solution 
by whatever name it may be called will compensate for an 
intelligent and painstaking examination of every plant.—B. 
Chrysanthemum Queries. —“ Is there a better reflexed Chrysanthe¬ 
mum than La Neige ? ’ A friend asked me this question to-day, and I felt 
unable to answer to my satisfaction. Permit me to ask it in your column?. 
Mrs. Forsyth I have very fine, but owing to the looseness of the over¬ 
lapping florets I do not look upon it as a good type of reflexed Chrysanthe¬ 
mums. This applies in a greater degree to the whites among the early- 
flowering, such as Soeur Melanie, La Vierge, &c. Lady Selborne, the new 
sport from James Salter, is by general consent classed among the Japane e. 
Again, I should like to know if there is a variety of Elaiiie that never 
shows a centre ? My Elaines, and so far as I noticed those in the collec¬ 
tions around, well or ill grown shows a centre. I have, however, betn 
show n an exhibition bloom sent from a London amateur of immense size and 
without any centre. I could not ascertain if this was the result of forcing 
in so far as the centre was concerned. Several Chrysanthemums have 
vertical florets—how should they be classed ?—W. J. Murphy, Clonmel, 
SHRUB-GEOUPING. 
Prescience of development in the form, size, and colours 
of shrubs is only to be acquired by close and continuous obser¬ 
vation. I use the term “ colours ” advisedly, for many shrubs 
change with the seasons so much as to present a totally different 
appearance, each change being more or less attractive in its 
season; and it is by watching such changes that we gain valuable 
knowledge to guide us in the work of tasteful grouping, and how 
to plant so as to produce harmonious combinations, pleasing 
contrast, picturesque effects. Who does not admire the Virginian 
Creeper in the full glory of its crimson autumnal colouring ? 
Plant near it a Pampas Grass, and do not the silvery plumes 
seem brighter and the crimson foliage richer by force of contrast? 
Prepare a station of deep rich soil for a Pampas Grass to insure 
its development into a stately specimen with noble spikes some 
12 feet high just now; bring near it the common Holly, laden 
as it is now with the scarlet berries clustering so thickly among 
the glossy green leaves; and Arbutus Unedo, which is also most 
attractive this autumn with an abundant crop of its large crimson 
berries and numerous clustei’s of its waxen flowers. If possible 
plant the Holly and Arbutus thinly upon a slope above and 
sweeping round in a semicircle behind the Pampas Grass. 
Higher up have the soft green tapering forms of Thuja Lobbi 
mingled with a white-stemmed Birch or two. On a lower slope 
in front of the Pampas Grass make a large bed of the Irish 
Heath (Menziesia polifolia), which is now one mass of purple 
flowers, and you have a picture most lovely, not a mere fanciful 
conception, for I am painting from Nature and really giving a 
description of the more prominent features of a scene that has 
been growing in beauty for several years. In front of the 
Menziesia bed is a sheet of water charmingly studded with the 
fragrant white flowers of Aponogeton distachyon. Then, too, 
there are glimpses of scarlet Japanese Maple near the Pampas 
Grass, a low spreading cushion of the deep green Gaultheria 
procumbens, the rich crimson leaves of Azalea pontica, and the 
varied leaf tints of the Andromedas, all contributing incidence 
of colour to our picture. 
In treating of shrubs one cannot altogether avoid some 
mention of trees, for they are so intimately associated in orna¬ 
mental planting that few large groups are perfect without them. 
Laburnums, wild Grab, and Mountain Ash are literally dwarf 
trees, but no shrubbery should be without them. An attractive 
clump last summer contained fine specimens of each of them, 
with a large Weigela rosea and a young Pinus insignis; in 
another a white stemmed Birch with long pendent branches, a 
Picea nobilis remarkable for the conti'ast of the glaucous hue of 
the young foliage with the dark green of the older leaves and 
the elegant air of the tree, a Thuja Lobbi, three or four Mountain 
Ash, with a low growth of Japanese Maples, Berber is. Heather, 
and Bracken; in the background a Beech and some Larches 
gave finish and setting to the group. Or to take a less con¬ 
spicuous group, we turn to one rich in shrubs for all seasons. 
In front came Japanese Maples, Kalmia glauca, Erica carnea, 
Potentilla fimticosa. Yucca gloriosa, and Fuchsia Riccartoni; 
in the centre Spiraea Douglasii, S. ariaefolia, Eorsythia viridis- 
sima, a group of early-flowering Rhododendrons consisting of 
R. Nobleanum coccineum, R, caucasicum pictum, R. Russelli- 
anum superbum, R. Blanch Superb, and R. Broughtonianum, 
a Deutzia crenata flore-pleno; and behind a Siberian Crab, a 
mop-headed Acacia (Robinia inermis umbraculifera), an Arbutus 
and a Holly. This is a very attractive group, and all the shrubs 
in it may be highly recommended. Another good group has in 
front a Daphne pontica 10 feet in diameter, Diplopappus chryso- 
phyllus, a variegated Osmanthus, a Mahonia aquifolia. Rhodo¬ 
dendrons Grand Arab, Minnie, and John Waterer ; behind come 
Spiraea californica, Desfontainia spinosa., Syringa (Philadelphus) 
grandiflora, Spartium junceum, a Laburnum, Pink Thorn,Moun¬ 
tain Ash, Magnolia Lenne, and Eucalyptus coccifera. A much 
bolder group contains fine specimens of Pampas Grass, Ilex 
tortuosum. Ilex Golden Queen, Arbutus Unedo, wild Crab, and 
