March 24, 1892 ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
219 
- Do Carnations “ Kun Out ?”—In a paper read before the 
American Carnation Society Mr. W. K. Shelmire says :—“ That varieties 
run out in six years I do not believe. It takes that long or longer to get 
a new kind fully distributed ; and I am quite confident that many of 
the older kinds can be found to-day growing as vigorously as ever. 
There is nothing inherent in the plants whereby they should not be as 
healthy after 100 years of propagation by cuttings as when they first 
saw the light of day. Disease may indeed get in its insidious work, but 
a seedling is just as liable to be so attacked as a kind that has been 
cultivated for years. Anyone who has raised seedlings must have 
observed the sickly appearance many of the plants present.” 
- Double Primulas. —We have read with much interest the 
remarks of your correspondent “ P. E. R.,” on this beautiful class of 
fiowering plants, and it is certain he does not overstate their value. 
There is one important point, however, that appears to have been over¬ 
looked by him, and that is their relative earliness in coming into 
bloom as compared with the single varieties. We have observed this 
for several seasons, and notably during the past winter, when our 
Snowfiake, Carmine Empress, Prince of Wales, and other double 
varieties were in full flower quite one month before any of the singles. 
We have no doubt this information will be valuable to those of your 
readers who wish to keep up a succession of charming winter decorative 
plants.— James Carter & Co. 
- Symplocos crat^GOIDES. —This is a hardy tree-like shrub 
which will doubtless grow in time to a height of 10 or 12 feet, and 
perhaps even to a greater size. The flowers, which resemble those of 
the Hawthorn, although they are rather smaller than the flowers of the 
Hawthorns of the Northern States and of Europe, are produced in the 
greatest profusion during the month of May. In the autumn the 
branches are covered with clusters of small fruits of the most beautiful 
and brilliant ultramarine blue. The colour of the fruit is the most 
remarkable characteristic of this plant, and it is this that makes it such 
a valuable garden plant. Symplocos crataegoides is distributed from 
Japan to Northern India, and, as is natural in the case of a plant that 
inhabits an area of such diversified climates, it assumes very different 
forms of foliage and of habit, and botanists have at different times 
bestowed upon it a number of different names. 
- Potash for Fruit.—A ll kinds of fruit abound in potash, 
more especially in their seeds, says a correspondent. Lack 
of potash in available form for use is possibly one reason why 
fruit does not perfect as it used to do. In growing the finest 
Grapes some French vineyardists use no fertiliser except potash 
made by burning clippings from the Vines and twigs cut in pruning 
trees. It is probably true that a dressing of unleached ashes 
applied in the spring will make the fruit ripen earlier and attain 
higher colour and perfection. It is lack of potash that causes fruit at 
midsummer to remain several days without change. This is particularly 
noticeable in Grapes where the Vines have set more than they can 
perfect. In such cases mildew often sets in, and the fruit never fully 
matures. Potash aids not only in perfecting the seed, but in that 
mysterious process which changes the acid, astringent green fruit to the 
wholesome lusciousness that the same fruit attains when ripe. What¬ 
ever of sweetness the fruit has it receives through its leaves, but it 
cannot do it unless there is soluble potash to be taken up by its roots 
from the soil. 
-In noting the severe frost op February, 1892, Mr. G. J. 
Symons has the appended remarks in the “ Meteorological Magazine ” 
for the current month:—“There is usually considerable difficulty in 
dealing with an intense frost. It is generally very local, not extending 
more than perhaps 20 miles by 20 miles—say 400 square miles, and in 
such an area the probability is that there will not be more than one 
station provided with verified instruments mounted in a proper screen ; 
very often there is no such station, and then the question arises. Is it 
possible to utilise the miscellaneous records of which plenty are usually 
forthcoming, but as to which there is uncertainty : (1) if the ther¬ 
mometers ever were accurate ; (2) if they have remained so, or have 
sunk 5° or 10° by spirit evaporating to the top of the tube, if they are of 
Rutherford’s pattern, or if the mercury has been shaken out of place, if 
they are of Six’s ; (3) if their situation is such as to give even approxi¬ 
mately correct results. In dealing with the recent severe frost we have 
had these difficulties to meet, and we have divided our summaries, 
giving first the actual minimum for the four cold days at all the stations 
from which we have heard, and at which verified instruments are duly 
mounted in Stevenson screens. Unfortunately there is yet another 
source of confusion, in that apparently some observers either read their 
minimum thermometers at 9 p.m. instead of 9 A.M,, or else they reset 
them at the latter hour. On the morning of February 17th the greatest 
cold was near the centre of England, the reading in the Stevenson screen 
at Loughborough going slightly below zero (—0°'5 F.). On the morning 
of the 19th it was even colder, but in another part of the country, viz., 
in the N. of England and the S. of Scotland ; readings below zero in 
Stevenson’s stands were recorded as follows : Hurworth Grange 
Darlington—1°-0 F.; Newton Reigny, Penrith—2°-0 F. ; and Norton 
Malton —6°'2 F. (—21°'2 C.).” Several tables follow, in which the 
records are given for February 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th, the stations 
extending from Oxford, Cambridge, and Cheltenham, to Penrith, 
Darlington, and Durham. 
- The Nutrient Value op Vegetables. — It is true that 
vegetarians show us that meat is not an essential in a healthy, strength- 
maintaining diet, and it may thence be argued that eating meat in 
Lent is not needful to keep up the strength ; but the error here is in 
supposing that vegetarians live and keep strong on any sort of 
vegetable that it may happen to be convenient to procure. The flesh- 
forming elements of food that in ordinary circumstances are got out 
of meat in the daily diet must be replaced by a careful selection of 
pulse and grain when the meat is abandoned. If the fasting menu 
allows plenty of eggs, milk, and fish, and if Peas, wholemeal bread, 
and the like are judiciously supplied in the dietary. Lenten fare will 
do no physical harm, but perhaps sometimes may do good. It is 
abundantly clear that mere “good living” is no sort of protection 
against the current complaint, and very often a reduction of the 
grosser or even of the more dainty appetising elements of an ordinary 
well-to-do person’s dietary may improve rather than reduce his vitality. 
It is such want of knowledge and forethought as trying to live on 
white bread. Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts, and pastry, that will bring 
rigid fasters to grief. So thinks the Illustrated London News. 
- Freesias. —Having had great success in growing these lovely 
flowers, I think perhaps my experience may be useful to those who 
have not been quite so successful. My plan is to pot the bulbs the first 
week in September in 6-inch pots or 48’s, which ought to be washed 
thoroughly, also the crocks. After placing a little old Mushroom bed 
manure over the crocks to prevent the fine parts of the soil stopping the 
drainage, I place eight good bulbs in each pot, covering them with an 
inch of soil. The compost I find most suitable consists of equal parts 
leaf soil, loam, a little Mushroom bed manure, and sufficient sand to 
keep the compost open. I now place the pots in a cold frame, with¬ 
holding water until the bulbs have made a good start, afterwards 
removing them to a light airy shelf in a temperature of from 45° to 50° 
as I find the flower spikes are much finer than when the plants are 
grown in a higher temperature. We have had as many as eleven flowers 
on a spike. After flowering I gradually lessen the supply of water, and 
as soon as the foliage has turned quite yellow withhold it altogether, at 
the same time placing the pots on a shelf in the full sun to thoroughly 
ripen the bulbs. In my opinion this is the secret of success. Each 
autumn I pot 250 bulbs. Freesia refracta alba is my favourite, but it 
does not grow so strongly as F. Leichtlini major. — G. Jordan, 
Harlistead Rectory Gardens, Ipswich. 
- Prunus hortulana. — The hardest puzzle in American 
pomology is the classification and nomenclature of the native culti¬ 
vated Plums. Something over 150 varieties are known to cultivation, 
and these are commonly referred, loosely, to two species, Prunus 
americana and P. angustifolia (P. Chicasa). But the varieties represent 
at least two other species, and perhaps even more. One of these species, 
which appears to have escaped botanical recognition, includes a large 
class of Plums represented by Golden Beauty, Cumberlend, Garfield, 
Sucker State, Honey Drop, probably Wild Goose, and others. The 
species appears to grow wild over a large part of our interior region 
from Kentucky and Illinois to Texas. It is readily distinguished from 
our other species by its long ovate-lanceolate and acuminate leaves, 
which have finely and evenly serrated edges, by long and glandular 
petioles, and by glandular and more or less pubescent calyx-lobes. The 
fruits are red or yellow with thin skins and more or less translucent 
flesh, a very thin bloom, and a juicy sweet flavour. The fruits are later 
than the Chickasaws, to which these Plums have been mostly referred 
for many years. For this species, which I shall describe more fully on 
another occasion, I propose the name Prunus hortulana.—L. H. Bailey, 
Cornell University (in American Garden and Foresf). 
