JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f> 24 
[ December 9, 1880. 
dozen sound heads. Some writers say over-feeding with liquid 
manure and a check to growth when the plants are young will 
cause the stems to be hollow, or allowing the plants to remain in 
the beds too long before planting them in their permanent place. 
My plants were neither fed with liquid manure nor checked 
when young. I have some planted with plenty of manure in the 
trenches and others without any, and I find all the produce is in 
the same state. Should this meet the eye of gardeners who have 
been in the same fix, I shall be glad if they will give me their 
opinion on the subject and suggest a remedy.—F. T. 
FORCING STRAWBERRIES. 
Those of your readers who have been preparing Strawberry 
plants for forcing will now have them in a dormant state, and 
will be probably contemplating placing a few in their forcing 
quarters. If it is not absolutely necessary to have them in at 
a particular time I would advise delaying placing them in 
heat as long as possible, as there is little to be gained by starting 
the plants into growth very early. I have started numbers in 
December, and others not until the end of January, and by the 
end of March the latter were as early as the former, and certainly 
superior in the quantity and quality of the fruit. Many of the 
flower shoots which readily commence growth in February and 
March, scarcely move in December and January. December must 
certainly be regarded as a precarious time to begin Strawberry 
forcing ; January, especially about the end, is better, and later is 
better still. However, as many growers cannot select their own 
time, the best must be made of them at all seasons. Before 
placing the plants in heat it is of little consequence how much 
cold and bad weather they are exposed to so long as frost does 
not break the pots. Except to guard against this I never protect 
any of my Strawberry plants in winter, and the crop which I 
have obtained from them afterwards has never led me to suppose 
that this treatment is wrong. As each batch is taken in to force, 
the dead leaves are removed from the crowns, the surface soil 
is cleaned and the pots washed. I never plunge the pots in 
bottom heat, and I find the plants grow perfectly well without 
this assistance. At first they are placed anywhere about the 
floor of a house where the temperature averages about 55° ; and 
after they have been a week or two there, and when they have 
commenced growing, they are shifted as much into the light as 
possible, and in a slightly higher temperature. As soon as the 
flower buds appear 05° is not too much heat for them, and it 
should not average more than this throughout all their growth. 
I never employ saucers or turves beneath the pots, but from the 
time the plants come into bloom until the fruit is gathered they 
are watered twice daily, and insects or mildew rarely trouble 
them. 
In growing Strawberries in pots much depends on the supply 
of water. If the soil and roots are kept moderately moist at all 
times success will be certain. As the blooms open and the fruit 
swell liquid manure is given every other day, but apart from this 
they are treated similarly when the fruit is ripening and before 
it was formed. I never dry-off the plants, withhold water in the 
slightest, or increase the ventilation greatly to gain more flavour, 
as this would be sure to check the later fruit. Aphides are some¬ 
times troublesome. For these and other insects the plants should 
be carefully examined before the blooms open, as they cannot be 
destroyed readily afterwards without injury to the flowers. A 
thorough syringing is one of the best modes of cleaning the 
plants, and this should be given before the flowers open, and 
again immediately after the fruit has formed. During the time 
the flowers are open it is an advantage to brush them over gently 
with a feather or soft hair brush to spread the pollen, and they 
should not be exposed to cold winds at this time, or many de¬ 
formed fruits will be the result. As soon as the fruit has formed 
the smallest should be removed, leaving only about twenty-four 
of the best-formed and most prominent. I have allowed many 
more than this number to remain on sometimes, and they swelled 
very well, but a regular crop all through of twenty-four fruits 
to a pot is profitable. Those who force thousands of plants may 
take in hundreds at a time, and those who only grow hundreds 
may find a few dozens enough to introduce to heat at intervals 
according to the demand.—A Kitchen Gardener. 
The Weather in Ireland. —The weather here for some time 
past has been extremely mild for the time of the year. The days 
have been so genial as to remind us of the months of April or 
May. For ten days the mercury of my outdoor thermometer never 
fell below 4G° night or day, and more generally, as at present, it 
stood at 56° Fahr. Outdoor Chrysanthemums, double Daisies, 
Wallflowers, Anemones, Crocuses, Stocks, and Pansies, are still 
bright and cheerful; and the spring flowers are making great 
progress, that will be disastrous if severe weather comes by-and-by. 
The same is true of grass and the early buds on deciduous shrubs 
and fruit trees.—W. J. M., Clonmel. 
OXFORD BOTANIC GARDEN.—No. 3. 
NYMPHiEAS. 
Having briefly referred to the chief interesting portions of the 
history connected with this Garden, a similarly cursory description 
of the most remarkable plants in the collection will indicate how 
well the various divisions of the vegetable world are represented. 
As will have been gathered from preceding remarks, the garden is 
not extensive, neither is the accommodation for plants under 
glass very great, and it is surprising that so large a number of 
species can be maintained in such satisfactory condition as that 
which marks the majority. About ten houses are devoted to 
tropical and other plants requiring such protection ; most are of 
moderate size, and some are rather old, so that the successful 
treatment of their occupants is by no means easy. A new and 
commodious range of houses would enable the collection to be 
considerably increased and improved, and add much to the 
renown of the Garden, for many visitors are greatly disappointed 
in the appearance of the present structures. Herbaceous and 
hardy plants are well represented, some being arranged in their 
natural orders, and others according to the Linnean system, while 
against the walls are many rare and curious trees and shrubs 
too numerous to particularise. 
The Oxford Botanic Garden has long been noted for its col¬ 
lection of tropical aquatic plants, and consequently it was the 
house devoted to them that I was most desirous of visiting, and 
to which I first directed my attention. Although I am familiar 
with the beauty of such plants, I was totally unprepared for the 
magnificent display of those most charming of aquatics, the 
Nymphseas, which there greeted me. A large tank of oblong 
form was occupied with all the best forms of the genus, the 
majority in flower rendering the surface of the water bright with 
diverse shades of blue and rose, relieved by a few white blooms 
and the rich green elegant foliage. The flowers were very 
numerous, most of them emitting a powerful and agreeable 
fragrance, the general effect being heightened by the arrangement 
of tall graceful plants around the margins of the tank. This 
house is incomparably the most attractive in the Garden, and 
those who are fortunate enough to see it at such a favourable 
time as I did will not readily forget it. There are, perhaps, 
comparatively few private gardens in Great Britain where 
adequate accommodation can be provided for Nympbeeas in 
large numbers, but there are many in which some may be ad¬ 
vantageously grown either in a specially prepared heated tank 
or in large shallow tubs. A regular temperature between 75° 
and 80° both in the water and the atmosphere, good turfy loam 
with a small proportion of well-decayed and dried cow manure 
suit the majority, attention only being needed to avoid planting 
too deeply beneath the surface of the water. Free exposure 
to light is aiso an essential condition, without which they make 
slow and unsatisfactory progress, a moderately low house being 
better adapted to their requirements than a lofty one. This, of 
course, particularly applies to the tropical forms which inhabit 
the lakes or rivers of the East and West Indies and Egypt, where 
they are exposed to the burning rays of a vertical sun. But 
during very hot weather in this country a little shade is found 
beneficial for the majority, differences being observable in the 
amount of direct sun heat the various forms will endure, some pre¬ 
ferring a constantly slightly shaded position. 
It is worthy of remark that the North American Nymphasas and 
others from similar climates also succeed admirably in the warm 
house, though they grow freely in tanks outside during the 
summer. Noticeable in this respect are N. odorata and its variety 
minor, both natives of North America, and resembling our much- 
admired hardy N. alba in form and colour, possessing considerable 
fragrance ; the variety chiefly differing from the type in size. 
Both these were growing luxuriantly and flowering abundantly in 
the Oxford tropical tank, their charming white flowers being inter¬ 
spersed amongst the brighter shades of blue and rose. They are 
well worth including in any collection either for growing indoors 
or out. N. nitida was in similarly good condition ; it is a Siberian 
form bearing white flowers, and like those already mentioned it 
can be grown in cool quarters out of doors. But by far the most 
interesting of these hardy Water Lilies is the diminutive and 
aptly named N. pygrmea, of which a leaf and two flowers are 
represented in the engraving (fig. 93). They are shown 
about the average size, but in a warm house, as it is grown at 
