JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
374 
t October 21, 1880. 
now encumbered—varieties which are called distinct, but which 
have no real difference. What does a grower care whether one 
variety has smooth wood and another has thorns, if there be no 
essential difference in the blooms ? If such a variety as Mar¬ 
guerite Brassac or Wilhelm Koelle do not show some marked 
improvement over their relatives, Charles Lefebvre and Alfred 
Colomb, they should be stamped out as early as possible. A com¬ 
mittee of such men as Messrs. Paul, Cranston and Turner, who 
grow Roses on an extensive scale, have excellent opportunity of 
determining the value of new sorts at an early date. Add to 
these such judges as the President and Secretary of the Society, 
and the dictum of such a committee in relation to this and other 
subjects with which they are charged would be of very great 
benefit.” 
BRUSSELS SPROUTS. 
In the interesting chapter on Chiswick it is stated, on page 344, 
that the Brussels Sprouts generally are not buttoning well. I 
have a splendid lot, the produce of seed which is three or four 
years old. My sprouts were a failure last year, owing, as I believe, 
to the bad stock from which the seed came ; and as I knew there 
was little or no new seed in the market to be depended on, I 
sowed some of the old lot last February, and have every reason to 
be pleased with the result. It is probable that Brussels Sprouts 
may need to be selected afresh in order to have them as good as 
they were before the series of bad seasons, and I should advise 
anyone who has a good stock to save some of it.—W m, Taylor. 
FIG CULTURE IN POTS AND BORDERS. 
To have good crops of this luscious fruit under glass prepara¬ 
tion must be made at the present time, and I will refer briefly to 
trees established in pots, and to planting in borders. Trees in 
pots intended for early forcing that have been placed in the open 
air to mature the growth will now require to be taken under 
cover to keep them from the autumn rains. Any thinning or 
pruning of the shoots, or top-dressing the surface of the soil, 
should now be attended to, and the trees dressed with an insecti¬ 
cide, so as to have them ready for forcing in November. Until 
then keep them cool and dry, but do not allow the soil to become 
dust dry at the roots. Trees permanently planted out in the 
borders will, except those that are late, be shedding their leaves ; 
and the houses, though required to be kept cool by free venti¬ 
lation in favourable weather, must be closed when it is wet. 
Lifting and root-pruning should be attended to as soon as indi¬ 
cations of the ripening of the foliage are apparent. This more 
particularly applies to trees that are very luxuriant and do not 
produce fruit satisfactorily. Planting new varieties or making 
fresh borders should be attended to as soon as the foliage com¬ 
mences ripening. For Figs a border of moderate size is most 
suitable, but it must be efficiently drained with 1 foot depth of 
rubble, as brickbats, &c., with pipes beneath to carry off super¬ 
fluous water. The drainage should be secured by a layer of turves 
grass side downwards. The soil should be 2 feet deep, putting 
it in 6 inches deeper in the first instance to allow for settling, as it 
ought to be allowed do before planting. Turfy loam taken from a 
pasture about 4 inches thick, chopped up moderately small, add¬ 
ing a tenth of old mortar rubbish, and about 15 per cent, of half- 
inch bones. A G-feet border is ample for the usual run of trellises. 
Brown Turkey is the most reliable variety, and a fitting com¬ 
panion is found in White Marseilles. Negro Largo also is excel¬ 
lent, and the Grizzly Bourjassotte is delicious. Trees only requir¬ 
ing surface dressing should be attended to before the leaves fall, 
so that the roots may not be disturbed too much before forcing 
commences, as is likely to be the case when top-dressing is 
deferred until after the leaves have fallen.—G. A. G. 
LAWN MOWERS. 
I am afraid some of your readers north of the Tweed would 
open their eyes a little on perusing an article in your issue of the 
7th inst. to find that they have had a “ Wyld Savage” amongst 
them in search of a subject, and that he could find none in “ a’ 
bonnie Scotland” worthy of notice but the pretty Tropaeolum 
speciosum. I hope hotel proprietors will take the hint and grow 
something more cheerful in their gardens than “ annuals and 
weeds,” for it is quite evident that they have had a depressing 
effect upon the mind of your worthy correspondent. Your readers 
cannot yet have forgotten the strain in which “Wyld Savage” 
wrote but a few months ago on the beauty and grandeur of the 
woods, not in their summer beauty, but in winter, when all is 
bleak and bare ; but in the words of Norton— 
“ But for thy soul it still had warmth and power; 
Not to its cheerless beauty wert thou blind. 
To the keen eye of thy poetic mind 
Beauty still lives, though Nature’s flow’rets die.” 
Why did “ Wyld Savage ” not give us some similar descrip¬ 
tion of those many wild romantic spots to be found in Scotland ? 
I am sure they would have been acceptable to the readers of the 
Journal, and would certainly have been more in unison with his 
nom de plume than the common matter-of-fact thing, a lawn 
mower. 
Most of what your correspondent says on this subject is true, and 
I hope he will not take it amiss if I make a few remarks on the 
same subject, even if we do not quite agree- He warns us against 
purchasing machines with the knives on a fixed spindle. Few are 
made like this now, but I believe there are some that have the 
ordinary arrangement reversed—namely, having the knives fixed 
and the sole-plate moveable, so that it can be adjusted to the 
knives, which answers the same purpose. “ An occasional general 
cleaning will be advantageous,” falls short of my standard on 
this point. Every time a machine is used, be it wet or dry, it 
should be thoroughly cleaned before being put away in dry 
quarters. If this is not done it will soon become so clogged that 
neither oil nor elbow grease will make one go smoothly. And 
before being put away for the winter it should be taken to pieces, 
well cleaned, oiled, and prepared for work again. I am glad to 
see that makers are now beginning to find out the value of having 
all gearing enclosed, and if chains could be enclosed in a similar 
manner there would be less grounds for the complaints “Wyld 
Savage ” lodges against them. 
I am quite of a different opinion with regard to collecting the 
grass. The appearance of the “ wee, modest, crimson-tipped 
flower ” I always consider a sign of poverty of soil, and to collect 
and carry away every week a crop of grass only increases the evil. 
It is our practice to mow every fifth day—namely, Monday and 
Friday in one week, and on Wednesday in the week following. By 
doing so the work is light, the little grass scattered about is never 
seen, but does a great amount of good to the turf, invigorating 
the grass, so that Daisies are not so much seen, and the frequent 
mowing keeps the flowers from showing so much. We only use 
the box amongst flower beds and by the edges of walks. I also 
fail to see how “ Wyld Savage ” can expect a man and lad to do 
more work with a 16-inch machine than two men would do with 
a 12-inch machine each. It is a plain case of 16 inches and 
24 inches. My experience leads me to advocate light machines, 
frequent mowing, and leaving the grass uncollected, which pro¬ 
motes a healthy growth, and keeps it of that dark green colour so 
essential to a well-kept lawn.— R. Inglis. 
Your correspondent “Wyld Savage” states that when the 
chain of a lawn mower is worn and the clog moved back as far 
as it will go, and then worn again, that the chain is of no more 
use. Is it not possible to have a link taken out of the chain ? I 
say Yes, and any country blacksmith can do it. File the ends of 
two rivets and draw or punch them out, and the link will drop 
out; then rivet the next link as before, and the cog will want 
sliding as when new. The chain will be found to work as well as 
when it was new, and not slip off when mowing banks.— George 
Picker, 
FLOWERS IN DUBLIN. 
Lobelia CARDINALIS, L. ignea, L. syphilitica, red, white, and 
blue vars., are very beautiful, so is Tritonia Mc’Owani, Rudbeckia 
Newmanii, and one of the finest of all white Composites, Pyre- 
thrum uliginosum. All the Marguerites (Chrysanthemum frutes- 
cens, vars.) are very bushy and floriferous, but they attract the 
flies in swarms, and the star-shaped flowers are thus spoiled by 
their excreta. Browallia elata var. cserulea, sown in June, and 
the plants pinched back until a fortnight ago, are laden with 
flowers. 
Rubus rosfefolius, figured on page 281, is pretty.. We have only 
the double form, and much wish to obtain the single-blossomed 
type, which fruits abundantly, and is then very ornamental. I saw 
this last plentifully around the hill villages in Borneo, at an altitude 
of 3000 feet. Perhaps it was originally introduced there, although 
now quite abundantly naturalised. Van Houtte advertised and 
figured the single-flowered type some six or seven years ago, but I 
never saw it in cultivation. 
I have now a pretty hybrid Calceolaria, C. fuchsiafolia (defiexa 
of “ Bot. Mag.”) X C. Pavoni. It flowers at 10 to 12 inches high 
raised from seed and planted out, and may be useful as a winter 
bloomer indoors ; at any rate it is interesting as a distinct hybrid. 
