November 13 1890.] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
419 
leaves should be picked off, as they encourage insects to take up 
their residence on them. 
Cherries. —Black fly will sometimes attack Cherry trees very 
badly. The best remedy is to syringe with the tobacco water 
solution as recommended for green fly as soon as the first flies are 
seen. 
Pears. —Birds will often eat small holes near the stalk of Pears, 
causing them to decay quickly ; tits are the worst. The best plan 
is to net the fruit on walls if they are attacked. 
Protection of the Flowers in Spring. 
As both the Peach and Apricot come from a much warmer 
country than ours they flower very early in the spring, and are very 
liable to be damaged by the late frosts. It is best to hang old fish 
netting of a double thickness loosely over the trees, and let it 
remain until the leaves are a fair size, and all danger of frost is 
over. Branches of Spruce, Fir, and Yew stuck in the trees at 
intervals are the best substitute if net cannot be obtained. These 
protecting materials should not be put on until the first flowers 
open in spring, and must not be left on too long, or the young shoots 
will grow through them and they will be very difficult to remove. 
Conclusion. 
Fruit growing has been recommended to farmers as a cure for 
the agricultural depression. The speakers and writers probably 
thought that anybody could grow fruit, and they were right to a 
certain extent ; but when it comes to a question of profit, those 
will have the most who pay the most attention to it and have the 
best knowledge of the business—in other words, success in this 
matter depends on close attention to all details, and strict and 
sound business principles, carried out with energy and perseverance. 
Fruit growing is not an Eldorado, where anyone can pick up gold ; 
it has to be diligently sought for. I have mentioned this because 
a person unacquainted with the subject might read what prices it is 
possible to get, and think they were to be had every year. It is 
not so ; a full crop of fruit is very seldom brought to maturity, 
probably not more than once in ten years. The greatest skill and 
attention will not compensate for dull wet seasons, which cause 
badly ripened wood and a short crop the following year ; or for 
late spring frosts, which kill the tender blossoms when they open. 
But for all this money can be made from fruit growing, and it will 
probably develope much more in the future, as the population 
increases and greater facilities are given for obtaining land.— 
W. H. Divers 
SMALL FERNS FOR DINNER TABLE 
DECORATION. 
Fashion in dinner table decoration, like most other things, is 
continually changing. When I began my gardening career Fern3 
and bright foliaged plants were liberally used, while cut flowers 
were only employed in small quantities, and were generally reserved 
for filling epergnes of massive design which invariably occupied 
the centre of a table, and in too many instances greatly obstructed 
the view from one side to the other at that particular point. A 
few years later cut flowers were almost entirely used, with the 
exception of a few small Palms or plants with graceful foliage which 
were dotted about at irregular intervals—and to my mind these 
designs when well carried out resulted in some of the most per¬ 
fect examples of dinner table embellishment that construction and 
artistic skill could devise. There was, however, one great draw¬ 
back to these beautiful but fleeting displays—viz., the numbers 
of choice flowers which were required for the purpose during 
the autumn and winter months, and the supply to be drawn 
from the occupants of glass structures was so great that even in 
large establishments the resources were taxed to their utmost. The 
vases in the boudoir and the drawing room, where choice flowers 
might be shown off to advantage for days, had to be filled with 
more commonplace flowers in order to keep the dinner table in 
floral splendour for a few hours. In many gardens where the 
extent of glass is ridiculously small when compared with the 
quantities of cut flowers required, able and energetic cultivators 
know only too well how their efforts to grow both plants and 
fruits to a high state of perfection are crippled by the constant 
demand for cut flowers, and which often necessitates the grow¬ 
ing of a great variety of plants in one house, a practice which 
is seldom productive of good results. Happily for those placed in 
such unfavourable circumstances there has been a growing ten¬ 
dency during the last few years to employ Ferns and other graceful 
foliaged plants more extensively for dinner table embellishment 
than heretofore, consequently less quantities of cut flowers are 
needed for that purpose, and are therefore available for the 
adornment of other rooms, where their scent and beauty are 
appreciated for a longer period. 
Although to a great extent we have returned to plants used 
for dinner table ten or twenty years ago, the manner of arrang¬ 
ing them, and the receptacles for holding them, are both a 
contrast and an advance upon the somewhat massive style which 
was prevalent then. The plants used now are, as a rule, smaller 
than formerly, and the receptacles provided for holding them have 
a great range of variety both in size and design. China, glass, 
silver, and gold are fashioned into stands and vases, or ornaments 
exceedingly pretty, and of almost every conceivable shape, but in 
the majority of cases the aperture intended for the reception of 
plants is small, in many instances only large enough to hold Ferns 
or plants that have been grown in thumb pots, while in other 
cases there is room for the reception of pots varying in size up to 
6-inch. For filling ornaments of the above description Ferns of 
various kinds are especially adapted, and in order to provide a con¬ 
tinual supply for that purpose, a regular system of raising young 
plants must be followed. When once the right method is adopted, 
it is surprising how easy it becomes, although it certainly requires 
a good deal of attention. We are constantly on the look out for 
young seedling Ferns which spring up plentifully upon the walls of 
plant houses and among pot plants, and when removing old fronds 
containing spores we shake them over the frame which covers the 
central bed in the stove, to distribute the spores, and diubtless this 
accounts for the young seedlings that are constantly appearing. 
These we secure as soon as they are large enough to handle, and 
dibble them into pans filled with light soil, with a liberal addition 
of sand and fine charcoal. The pans are then placed under hand- 
lights kept in a greenhouse during the summer, and in Cucumber 
houses or stoves in the winter and spring. With proper attention 
to watering and damping the foliage with the syringe these seed - 
lings soon grow into useful little Ferns. When well rooted the 
strongest of them are transferred to 3-inch pots and the weaker 
to thumb pots. Numbers of well grown Ferns in these sized 
pots we find extremely useful for dinner-table ornaments of various 
descriptions, but they should be carpeted with Selaginellas, which 
look much better than using moss for covering the soil. Small pieces 
of Selaginella Ivraussiana and aurea should be dibbled into the 
soil as soon as the plants are placed in the pots in which they are 
wanted for use. Then by the time the Ferns have grown into a 
condition suitable for use, the Selaginella will have formed into a 
carpet at the base. When the latter is inserted in the soil the pots 
ought to be placed under a handlight again, and kept there till well 
established, when they may be given more light and air to harden 
the fronds. In some cases tins are made to fit into low gold and 
silver stands. There ought to be two sets of these tins, so that 
Ferns in one set may be growing while the others are doing duty 
on the dinner table. 
Any Ferns prove useful, and by constantly pricking off seed¬ 
lings a great variety is obtained, and when they become too shabby 
for the table the old fronds should be removed, the plants repotted 
and grown for supplying cut fronds, or for ordinary decorative 
purposes. By these simple means a full stock of Ferns in great 
variety is easily kept up.—H. Dunkin. 
PANCRATIUMS. 
These bulbous plants comprise many species and varieties of 
great beauty, are natives of the East and West Indies. They 
require a rather high temperature, moist and shady position, to 
grow them well, say a stove heat of 70° in summer and 60° in 
winter should be the minimum. They can be flowered twice a 
year, at least a few of the species, such as P. fragrans, P. zeylani- 
cum, and P. rotatum ; but if large specimens are to be obtained in 
as short a time as possible they should only be allowed to flower 
once a year, and that at their natural period, which is July or 
August. Young plants should be pushed on by repeated shifting 
as soon as they fill their pots with roots. When the specimens are 
as large as required they should only receive a shift every four 
years. Our largest specimens are in 18-inch pots ; in these they 
were placed five years ago, and last July each threw up eleven 
scapes, with from eight to ten flowers on each. The soil used is 
two parts fibry loam, one part charcoal, and one part silver sand and 
sheep droppings. The loam is broken into pieces about the size of 
pigeon’s eggs, the charcoal the same ; when all has been turned two 
or three times it should then be run through a half-inch riddle, 
and what remains in the riddle put in the pots. In potting the soil 
should be rammed very firmly. In the stove they should be close 
to the glass where there is plenty of light, but shaded from the 
diiect rays of the sun, and they should receive a bountiful supply of 
water in the summer time, both from the watering can and syringe. 
Even during the winter the syringe must be more freely employed 
than for most stove plants, particularly so if the stove in which 
they are placed is not furnished with vapour appliances. They are 
