470 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Novemb r 25, 1886. 
a remarkably graceful and pretty sort with white flowers. A. 
elegans, A. simplex, and A. multiflorus are small-flowered sorts 
with long spikes, very useful for mixed decorations. A. dumosus 
and horizontalis, very much alike, are both of value. A. novac- 
angliae, A. novae-belgii, and A. 1 ;e vis are perhaps the finest of all, 
but they are late in flowering. 
The two hardy single Chrysanthemums, C. uliginosum and 
C. maximum, are both extra good. The latter is rather late in 
flowering, but it is a charming flower, a bunch or two enlivening 
an otherwise dullish arrangement most wonderfully. The former, 
however, is perhaps the most useful of the two, as it comes early 
into flower in autumn, and continues as late as the other. We use 
it for table work, bedroom glasses, and the smaller glasses as a rule. 
Both are easily increased by division, and require good culture. 
The common Ox-eye Daisy, it may be noted here, may be intro¬ 
duced to cultivation as a flower-producer with good results. 
Selected varieties, large and broad-petalled, may be had in flower 
for many months, always provided good soil is given them, and no 
seeds allowed to be produced. 
Dahlias. —Like the herbaceous Asters, Dahlias are of the very 
greatest use late in autumn. They are doubtless somewhat uncer¬ 
tain to grow, owing to their liability to be damaged by early frosts, 
but in situations where the damage from this cause is of slight 
extent they amply repay for all trouble. I employ all Dahlias for 
cutting, and each class is so markedly distinct that it would be a 
positive loss were we to discard one. Perhaps the finest Dahlia 
for decorative purposes is Juarezi. With us it has shown only one 
fault, and that a grievous one—it is a remarkably shy flowerer. 
Mr. Tait is also somewhat shy, but nothing like Juarezi, and we 
are always able to secure a good supply of this the finest of white 
Dahlias. The best white, taking all points into consideration, is 
the very old Alba floribunda. Under good cultivation this comes 
very fine, and yields a most abundant supply of flowers. Like Mr. 
Tait, in order to secure a long stem, a good number of buds are 
sacrificed ; but from a decorative point of view this is not a disad¬ 
vantage, buds, flowers, and foliage being all alike valuable for 
furnishing. Mont Blanc we have for the first time, but the plants 
have been extremely shy of bloom, and we must reserve our 
opinion of its merits for another season. It is, however, a very 
pure white. Mrs. Haskins is indispensable with some, others would 
not tolerate it; Constance is, of course, valuable. Glare of the 
Garden is fairly useful; the crimson form we cannot tolerate. The 
fault of both is the shade of colour and the short time the flowers 
last when cut. Of the common double Dahlias varieties like Julia 
Wyatt, Miss Browning, and good scarlets are best. Double Dahlias 
are condemned for “ lumpiness.” I quite agree when that term is 
applied to floral globes shown on green boards ; but when grown 
for cut flowers and arranged in large vases on long stalks with buds 
and foliage attached the expression does not apply. Taking all 
sections together they do not yield—or rather, it should be said, 
there is not so many used for decorative purposes as the Show and 
Fancy varieties by themselves. Then for church decorations they 
are simply invaluable, and I think I do not overstate the case when 
I say that where other flowers, such as Gladiolus, Chrysanthemums, 
Arums, &c., are sent by the dozen for this purpose double Dahlias 
are sent by the hundred. Of the Pompons not many are used ; 
they are very pretty, but we have much better flowers in quantity 
for small glasses, while for large vases the double and single varie¬ 
ties are more suitable. A word or two as to cultivation. All of 
the Cactus section are propagated by root-division, as by this means 
it is found that more plants are produced. Many of the other sorts 
are propagated in the same way. Started late and established in 
boxes in cold frames we find all these do very well so. Moreover, 
these have a great advantage over strongly grown plants from cut¬ 
tings, inasmuch as the tubers keep so much better through the 
winter, for it is our experience that the poorer the soil D ihlias are 
grown in the smaller and harder is the growth of the tubers, and 
the less liable are they to damp oft: during winter. 
The Gladiolus. —Perhaps this can hardly be termed a 
“common” flower, but there is no reason why it should not become 
so. The species generally are not of much value. The white 
form of Colvilli is fine, but requires a light soil in our climate to 
winter in the ground safely. G. gandavensis is very good for large 
vases, and fully worth the trouble of lifting in autumn and re¬ 
planting in spring. The same remark applies to aureo-purpuratus. 
Then there is brenchleyensis, than which there is none more 
useful, coming into flower as it does with the earliest of the 
gandavensis section, and continuing to supply spikes until stopped 
by frost ; moreover, the shade of scarlet which it is possessed of 
it one that is perfectly manageable, and can be used along with 
almost any flower. It has further the great merit of cheapness to 
recommend it, and above all it is easy to grow, and increases from 
year to year The hybrids of gandavensis are among our very 
finest flowers for cutting. They are not common-looking, in 
character they are quite distinct from other flowers, they last long 
—about three months—and they are easy to grow. Expensiveness 
is the one drawback against them. No doubt there are plenty of 
cheap sorts, but when we have been used to the better varieties we 
do not take very kindly to these. We arrange the best of our 
spikes in long narrow vases, six or seven spikes being a sufficient 
number. Either Gladiolus foliage is set among them or the leaves of 
the smaller Irises, which answer capitally. Spikes are also used in 
mixed arrangements in large vases, and the flowers are sometimes 
stripped off singly as used for table decoration or for very small 
glasses, but this way of utilising the flowers I do not recommend. 
If the water is changed, say twice a week, and the withered flowers 
removed, and occasionally shortening the stems, a good spike lasts 
for a very long time, the unopened buds opening to the very 
last one. 
As to the best varieties to grow, any good sorts will do. Although 
1 am myself now buying only early varieties. Shakespeare* for 
instance, is as early as any. It increases in numbers year by year, 
always form large and good corms, and although it is so early, yet 
with a sufficient number of plants it produces spike3—and good 
ones—-as late as is possible out of doors. Celamene is also a most 
useful variety for the same reasons. Other good early flowering 
varieties a e to be found in A. Brongniart, Carnation, Archduchess 
Marie Christine, Caprice, Dalila, Daubenton, Diamant, Dumont 
d’Urville, Horace Yernet, Jupiter, Mabel, Ondine, Omphale, Orpheus, 
Panorama, M. Parmentier, Psyche, Rayon d’Or, Bicolore, Sylvie, 
Teresita, and Victor Jacqueminot. In our northern climate good 
varieties, such as Meyerbeer, Andre Leroy, Brennus, and Duchess 
of Edinburgh are too late. Brennus represents a class which will 
flower, but only finishes a small corm, and can only be grown 
successfully by buying an annual supply. For ordinary purposes 
we plant in the beginning of April, and lift beginning of November, 
and endeavour to secure a ball of soil round the roots. The plants 
are kept in a cool house until the foliage yellows, and the corms 
are thereafter placed in pots, or laid out on shelves, according 
to the quantity of each variety, and in spring the roots are 
dressed and the spawn taken off and sown in rows. We are trying 
the new Aureo-purpurata hybrids, but as yet these do not compete 
with the above. They seem much less tender.—B. 
ON MUSCAT GRAPES SHRIVELLING. 
As one of many who have been troubled, with Muscat Grapes 
shrivelling this year, I wish to offer a few remarks on the subject with 
the view of eliciting results of the observation and experience of others 
on the cultivation of this the best of Grapes, so rarely seen in good form. 
We are certainly very much indebted to the writer of your leader (page 
379) for his lucid exposition of the causes which lead to the shrivelling 
of this and other Grapes. We all knew the primary cause—viz., the 
supply of sap or moisture not being equal to the demand, but it has been 
a matter of difference whether the evil was in the soil or the atmosphere, 
the result of the unripened wood, or the want of some particular element 
necessary to sustain the complete development of the berry. As this is 
a subject of interest to many gardeners depending on the Muscat for a late 
supply, it would be a great benefit to have the real cause in each case found 
so as to be able to apply a remedy. For this purpose I state what I con¬ 
sider one cause, if not the chief one, as it has come under my own observa¬ 
tion. In one vinery here we have six varieties—Muscat of Alexandria, Black 
Hamburgh, Alicante, Gros Colman, Madre-field Court, and Foster’s 
Seedling. The latter being much subject to cracking, to find the cause I 
determined to keep the interior of the house as dry as possible after colour¬ 
ing commenced, about the middle of July. Previous to this the border 
had been well watered, the roots being both inside and out. The border 
then from sun heat and heat from the pipes became particularly dry on 
the surface. The Muscats began to shrink about the end of August. 
Doubtful as to lack of moisture in the inside border, they received two 
good waterings without any effect, the process going on gradually as 
before, resulting in partial loss of the Muscats and saving Foster’s Seed¬ 
ling. To my mind this proved that Grap s liable to split can be pre¬ 
vented by a perfectly dry atm sphere when ripening, also the impossibility 
of growing satisfactorily Muscats and other Grapes in the same 
house. 
The Grapes of the other varieties, excepting Black Hamburgh and 
Madre.sfield Court, are stiff on the Vines as fresh and plump as anyone 
could wish. Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to exp’ain 
the cause of the difference between the two growing side by side on Vmet 
similar in health and strength. 
Oue of vour correspondents can t ace shrivelling to immature wood, 
but this certainly is not the case with me, as the wood was ripe to the 
point as soon as the Grapes. This leads me to inquire bov the laterals 
on some Vines are long in ripening after the fruit has commenced to 
colour, while others of the same sort (Black Hamburgh) a~e quite hard 
and brown even beyond the bunch bef ire the change takes place in the 
berry. The reply I received to the same question from an old gardener 
some time ago, was the want cf water in the case of the early ripened 
wood. Possibly it was something else retarding the. ripening of the truit. 
