820 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 19, 1883. 
favourably impressed with the variety included, there being too 
many, in fact, of one or two vigorous but inferior sorts. This 
season, however, the plants resulting from a 5 s. packet have been 
most satisfactory. We had fully eighteen varieties, including 
the richly coloured Ruby King, Suttons’ Pearl, Rosy Queen, 
Reading Pink, good Fern-leaved varieties, and several of the new 
spotted sorts. The majority were of compact sturdy leaf- 
growth, and though on the whole the display might not have 
been so gorgeous as when two or three varieties are grown in 
quantity, we prefer to sustain the interest in the batch by being 
able to point out the beautiful features of each variety.” 
- At a recent meeting of the Committee appointed by 
the Minister of Agriculture to report upon the condition of the 
PHYLLOXERA AND THE FRENCH VINEYARDS, M. Tisseraud, 
the Director of Agriculture, gave some very interesting informa¬ 
tion as to the ravages of the phylloxera up to the present time. 
It would appear that nearly two million acres of Vines have been 
destroyed, and that 1,500,000 acres more have been attacked, and 
are more or less affected in their yield. About fifty thousand 
acres have within the last year or two been replanted and the 
young Vines dosed with sulphate of carbon, while thirty thousand 
acres newly planted have been protected by submersion ; forty 
thousand acres more have been planted with American Vines. 
But though there has within the last year or so been a slight 
increase in the area of newly planted vineyards, the total is very 
trifling compared to what has been destroyed. M. Tisseraud 
mentions, however, as an encouraging circumstance, that Vine- 
growers are forming many associations for the purpose of con¬ 
ducting experiments as to the best mode of combating the phyl¬ 
loxera ; that these associations now have 12,338 members, and 
that they received last year subsidies amounting to £43,000 from 
the Government. The Committee has decided that no remedy 
has yet been discovered entitling the inventor to a premium of 
£12,000 offered by the Government some years ago, but recom¬ 
mends the use of sulpho-carbonates and the submersion of the 
Vines as palliatives of the disease. The cultivation of the 
American Vine is authorised in twenty-three arrondissements, 
and it was mentioned incidentally in the course of the meeting that 
seventeen fresh districts were invaded last year. The Committee 
has prepared a Bill which will be introduced into the Chambers 
this session for guarding against the invasion of the Algerian 
Vines by the dreaded insect. 
- A correspondent of an American contemporary gives 
the following list of flowering plants for shady places :— 
“Among the choice native plants delighting in a cool shady spot^ 
moist if possible, is the genus Cypripedium, and the most showy 
species are C. spectabile, with large, showy, rose-coloured flowers ; 
C. pubescens, the larger yellow Lady’s Slipper; C. parviflorum, 
smaller yellow Lady’s Slipper ; and C. acaule, stemless, with pale 
rosy bloom. The Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens), 
frequenting cool northern slopes, is well adapted for cultivation 
in shady spots. The showy Orchis, O. spectabilis, transplants 
readily, and is very conspicuous when in bloom. Several of the 
genus Platanthera are also valuable, requiring but little attention. 
All the above must have a nicely prepared bed of peat to grow in, 
else their fleshy roots will decay after the first season. Ferns 
are always in order in just such a locality, and harmonise well 
with other plants, especially if placed on a little mass of rocks. 
Clumps of the early white Anemone, A. nemorosa, transplant 
easily, and are very satisfactory in a cultivated state. The same 
might be said of all the Violets—the Bloodroot (Sanguinaria 
canadensis), Dwarf Dogwood (Cornus canadensis), Trailing Ar¬ 
butus (Epigaea repens), although difficult to transplant, but espe¬ 
cially desirable when it thrives properly ; Liver-leaf (Hepatica 
triloba), the delicate little vine called Twin-flower (Linmea 
borealis), another small trailing plant known as the Partridge 
Berry (Mitchella repens), all the species of Trillium and Dog’s- 
tooth Violet (Erythronium americanum). All the foregoing are 
natives, and are usually quite plentiful and widely distributed. 
The Lily of the Valley loves a shady nook, and the evergreen 
trailing vine, Periwinkle, is partial to the same spot. Double 
English Daisies and Primroses are the better for a partial shade, 
and a clump of Fuchsias will grow and bloom freely with little 
sun.” 
LONDON NURSERIES IN APRIL. 
Although the leading London nurserymen, Messrs. Veitch, 
Mr. Bull, and Mr. Williams, have made no attempt to secure 
any of the medals at the International Show at Ghent, few will 
suppose that they were not prepared to take a distinguished part 
in that great gathering of what is rare, choice, and excellent in 
the floral kingdom. On the contrary, those who have been accus¬ 
tomed to pay periodical visits to these three great establishments, 
will be ready to admit that their contents are richer and more 
numerous than they have ever been before. The proprietors of 
these famous nurseries are simply resting on their oars, as they 
can afford to do, leaving the course at Ghent clear to others who 
deserve all the honours they have won in the contest of the present 
week. As a great continental establishment, the Compagnie Con- 
tinentale d’Horticulture (M. Linden’s), also refrain from com¬ 
peting, but arranges a show of its own, which will doubtless be 
noticed, so, also, a brief record—a passing glance—of our home 
nurseries in April will not be inappropriate, nor certainly un¬ 
acceptable to our readers on the eastern shores of the North 
Sea. 
MESSRS. YEITCH’S NURSERY. 
We are apt to forget, in the absorbing topics of the day, what 
has been done by British horticulturists at past international 
exhibitions. Memory takes us back to Ghent in 1868, and recalls 
the valuable collection of plants staged by Messrs. Veitch there, 
and amongst them the then new and still prized Clematis John 
Gould Veitch and Pandanus Veitchii. Coming to the Quinquen¬ 
nial of 1873, we remember the great contests for twenty newly 
introduced plants, in which this firm secured first honours, the as 
popular as ever Aralia Veitchii commanding great attention. Also 
at this Show they secured both first and second prizes in the class 
for the best new plant in bloom with Tillandsia Zahni and Masde- 
vallia Harryana ; and still again they excelled all compeers in 
the class for the best seedling plant obtained in Europe with 
Cypripedium Dominianum ; and yet again Dracaena amabilis won 
for them the first honours in the class for new plants not in bloom, 
and which we said at the time would prove one of the most useful 
decorative plants, and it has ; in fact, for general “ wear ” and 
usefulness it is scarcely surpassed by any of the grand new 
varieties of recent years. In the great Centennial Exhibition at 
Brussels in 1876, although in accordance with the custom then 
established, Messrs. Veitch did not enter the competitive lists, 
the groups of plants staged were of such striking merit that the 
great gold medal, offered by the Comte de Flandres for the 
foreigner who contributed most to the effect of the Exhibition, 
was awarded to the firm. Then at the last Quinquennial in 1878 
two honorary groups were sent from this nursery—namely, new 
and rare plants of great richness, and the grandest collection of 
Hyacinths ever seen in Belgium, and for each group gold medals 
of the first class were unanimously awarded. 
These are only a few of the Belgian honours that occur to 
us that Messrs. Veitch have won, and without doubt there is 
material in the nursery now that would have enabled them to 
surpass all former efforts—namely, the magnificent Amaryllises, 
a brilliant remanet of the grandest show of these flowers that the 
world has ever seen ; Nepenthes in thousands, quite a bewildering 
mass of splendid pitchers, which certainly has no equal in Europe ; 
and such a wealth of Orchids as is seldom seen even in this famous 
establishment; Dendrobiums, a few striking examples left of the 
late remarkable display ; gorgeous Cattleyas ; Odontoglossums, 
thousands of spikes, embracing all the finest forms in this fine 
genus ; Cypripediums, Phalaenopses, Lycastes ; a magnificent 
specimen, probably the finest ever seen, of the beautiful Cymbi- 
dium eburneum ; Angraecuras, and many others that cannot even 
be enumerated ; then the glowing masses of Anthuriums, with 
fine-foliaged plants and Ferns in the finest condition ; and Camel¬ 
lias, which are not surpassed at the Ghent Show, are a few of 
the prominent features of the nursery at the present time. Of 
plants not in bloom that cannot be overlooked is a wonderful 
importation of specimens of Cattleyas Trianm and Mendelli, the 
