JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
198 
[ March 8, 1883. 
year like a deluge, while another section of the same tree would 
tell us that particular year was the driest on record. However, 
if this is not sufficient, it may be as well to add that Sir Herbert 
Christison, the great Scotch chemist, has made some curious ob¬ 
servations on the effects of a cold wet season in diminishing the 
normal growth of trees. He found on careful measurement that, 
comparing 1879 with 1878, eleven deciduous trees—not Oaks— 
made on an average 41 per cent, less growth in the last year than 
in the year before. Of seventeen Pine trees the average deficiency 
was 20 per cent., so that heat appears to have more to do with 
the making of wood than moisture has. It is strange that the 
growth of the Oak, which drops its leaves, seems less dependent 
on heat than that of the Pine, which we usually associate with 
very cold regions.” 
CULTURE OF CINERARIAS. 
The Cineraria is one of the most useful, showy, and at the 
same time easily managed plants in cultivation for the embellish¬ 
ment of the conservatory and greenhouse during the winter and 
spring months ; and as it is a plant that comes within the reach 
of everyone possessing a couple of ordinary garden frames and 
a greenhouse from which frost and excessive damp can be ex¬ 
cluded, a few cultural details respecting its management, and 
which if followed will lead to success, may not be unacceptable 
to those of your readers who hitherto have not succeeded so well 
as they could have wished in its cultivation. 
A packet of seed from a good strain should be obtained and 
three sowings made of it—viz., one the middle of March, another 
the middle of April, and the third a month later. These sowings 
will supply a succession of plants. The seed should be sown in 
light fine soil, which has been previously made firm in the pot, 
covered lightly with fine sandy soil, over which place a piece of 
glass and damp moss, and then stand or plunge the pot in a 
Melon or Cucumber frame. As soon as the seedlings appear 
through the soil remove the moss, and when large enough to 
handle prick them out in pans or boxes and return them to the 
frame, where a look-out must be kept for slugs, which are very 
destructive to seedlings of this description. Bearing this in mind, 
and that “ prevention is better than cure,” it will be advisable to 
make a line of fresh soot and lime round the pans and boxes con¬ 
taining the seedlings, which, by repeating the application twice 
a week, will keep the pests at bay. The young plants should be 
well shaded from sunshine until their roots have taken to the soil. 
Potting. —As soon as the seedlings are established into useful 
little plants in the pans or boxes into which they had been trans¬ 
planted, take them up carefully by the assistance of a stout label, 
with as much soil as possible adhering to their roots, and pot them 
off singly in 3-inch pots in a compost consisting of three parts 
light loam and one of leaf soil, and a good dash of sharp sand, 
which should be pressed moderately firm, keeping the stems of 
the plants the same depth out of the soil as they were before ; and 
I may here remark that this is a point, and a very essential point 
too, that should be observed every time the plants are being 
potted, as the cause of the plants frequently “ going off ” is to be 
attributed to their having been potted too deeply. The plants 
when potted should be placed on sifted coal ashes in a frame near 
the glass, watered through a fine rose to settle the soil about the 
roots, and shaded for four or five hours on bright days, as the 
plants are very susceptible to injury from bright sunshine. As 
soon as the plants have partly filled the 3-inch pots with roots 
they should be shifted into o-inch pots (a useful size for furnish¬ 
ing purposes), ramming the soil between the sides of the pot and 
the ball of the plant with a flat stick ; and if large specimens are 
aimed at the plants should have two more shifts—-viz., into 7-inch 
and again into 9-inch pots, always bearing in mind that after the 
plants have produced their flower-spikes there is no use in giving 
them larger pots with the object of increasing their size, and that 
where large plants are desired the latter should not be allowed to 
become root-bound before being placed in their flowering pots. 
The pots should be properly drained by placing a large piece of 
potsherd over the hole in the bottom of the pot, then several pieces 
of smaller ones, and finish off by filling-in the chinks with pieces 
which have been through a quarter-inch sieve, altogether a little 
less than one-third the depth of the pots, and over all place a 
handful of sphagnum moss, which will prevent the soil coming in 
immediate contact with the drainage. 
Watering the Plants. —This is an operation that should be 
carried out (like every other cultural detail that has for its object 
success) with judgment—that is to say, the operator should know 
when to apply water and withhold it from the roots of the plants, 
and when they have had enough to thoroughly moisten the balls 
of earth and roots ; and again, that pots full of roots require more 
water than those only partly filled ; also that plants which have 
filled their pots with hungry roots will be considerably benefited 
by being watered alternately with diluted liquid manure. If the 
plants are, as they should be, thoroughly moist at the roots when 
being shifted into larger pots they will not require to be watered 
for several days afterwards—not until the roots have pushed into 
the new soil and nearly absorbed the moisture therefrom. But at 
this stage of their growth the plants—which, as I have already 
hinted, and on account of their soft watery growth require more 
shading than most other plants—should have the shading put on 
earlier in the morning and left on longer in the afternoon for a 
few days, and when removed the plants should be dewed with the 
syringe—a procedure that may be repeated with advantage to the 
plants every bright afternoon during the summer months. 
Air-giving and Situation Suitable to the Plants. —The Cineraria 
in) every stage of its growth may be termed a fresh-air-loving 
plant, but does not like it when admitted in currents. Our own 
practice during the months of June, July, and August is to leave 
plenty of air on all night ; indeed, when the nights are quite 
still and fine overhead we draw the sashes off altogether, tilting 
them again in the morning. 
If the frames—which should be placed facing the north during 
the months of June, July, and August—are deep, a platform, upon 
which should be put a couple of inches of sifted coal ashes, 
should be raised so as to bring the plants near to the glass, lower¬ 
ing it again as they require more headroom ; sufficient of which 
they should have every way and at all stages of their growth to 
properly develope themselves. 
The Cineraria, provided the cultural details are properly car¬ 
ried out, will, during the winter and spring months, flourish in 
any light structure where the plants can be kept near the glass 
(to prevent their being drawn), and from which excessive damp, 
which would cause mildew to attack them, and frost can be ex¬ 
cluded. The plants, especially so if they are subject to forcing, 
and to which process they do not readily respond, are liable to 
the attacks of green fly ; and to eradicate this they should be 
fumigated lightly with tobacco paper a couple of nights in succes¬ 
sion, syringing the plants next morning and ventilating them 
freely, weather permitting. 
Seed-saving. —When the plants are in flower the cultivator 
should save seed from the most distinct colours and best formed 
flowers, and in this way, by judicious selection every year, he will 
in time become the possessor of a good strain. Thus grown, we 
have had this spring several hundred plants of Cineraria, ranging 
from 1 to 2£ feet through, and furnished to the base with luxuriant 
foliage, above which are fine heads of flowers of various shades of 
colour. They are in houses in which the temperature ranges from 
35° to 50° at night. In a cut state, especially when intermixed 
with the feathery flowers of Spirasa japonica, and garnished with 
the beautiful Fern-like foliage of the latter plant, the Cineraria is 
admirably adapted for the embellishment of vases, &c., as the 
flowers, in addition to the variety of pleasing colours which they 
supply, keep well in water.—H. W. Ward, Longford Castle. 
THE HORSE CHESTNUT. 
A discussion has recently been held at our gardeners’ meeting 
as to the origin of the above name as applied to the well-known 
tree, but without any decision being arrived at, and it was sug¬ 
gested that I should write to you on the subject; also I am de¬ 
sired to ask if there is a Chestnut having flowers as double as a 
Hyacinth, as opinions were about equally divided on that question. 
—Secretary. 
[As to the first question, Gerarde may have been right, who 
wrote about the period when the tree was first introduced here, 
when he said it is called “ Horse Chesnut, for that the people of 
the East countries do with the fruit thereof cure their horses of 
the cough, shortnesse of breath, and such-like diseases ;” but we 
rather think that the prefix “ horse ” was merely employed to 
denote harshness and powerful flavour, as in the case of Horse¬ 
radish. As to the second question, a figure is submitted of a spike 
that was grown at Sawbridgeworth several years ago. The variety 
is of continental origin, and is grown in most nurseries.] 
NEPENTHES. 
These plants are very useful for decorative purposes, and not 
at all difficult of culture, the wonder is they are not more generally 
grown. The present is the time to attend to their requirements, 
no plants better repaying for the attention given them. Nepenthes 
