January 1, 18!)1. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
15 
also given the height of the plants above the pots, which are within a 
few inches of their exact height this season ;— 
\ arieties to he cut down early — 
Guernsey Nugget (very tine) ... 
Boule d’Or . 
Marta . 
feet in, 
0 
3 () 
4 0 
Mid seas on — 
A. Salter. . 
Queen family . 
Barbara . 
M. Bernard . 
Neptune. ... . 
Amy Furze 
Comte de Germiny ... . 
Coquette de Castille . 
E. Molyneux (late bloom unsatisfactory) . 
Hamlet... 
Mdlle. Lacroix. 
Mr. Garnar . 
Meg Merrilies and R. Brocklebank. 
Puritan (produced eight good blooms) . 
Maiden’s Blush... 
George Atkinson (flowers fuller than when grown on 
the orthodox system) . 
W. AV. Coles . 
Madame Baco .. . 
Mrs. F. Thomson . 
Mrs. J. Wright (fine form) . 
Soleil Levant ... ... ... ... • 
Cullingfordi . 
Massalia (good colour and form) .. 
Mrs. Irving Clarke . 
Sunflower 
3 C, 
S fi 
1 G 
2 G 
3 0 
3 r, 
3 (■> 
2 0 
3 0 
3 0 
2 G 
2 0 
3 0 
3 0 
3 G 
2 G 
4 0 
3 0 
3 G 
3 G 
3 G 
2 0 
2 G 
3 G 
4 0 
To he cut do?vn late. 
Beverley family 
Eundle family 
Aureum multiflorum ... 
Avalanche (very fine) .. . 
Florence Percy. 
C. Wagstatl (good) . 
Etoile de L.'yon (very fine) 
Mdme. Louise Leroy (very pretty) ... 
Elaine . . 
Agrements de la Nature (very pretty) 
J. D61aux . 
La Triomphante. 
Martha Harding 
Mdme. de Sevin ... . 
M. J. Laing . 
M. Freeman . 
Othello . 
Mdme. J. Laing ... 
Sarah Owen . 
Wm. Holmes (very fine) 
Wm. Stevens . 
Wm. Robinson. 
Miss Gorton . 
Marvel . . 
Triomphe du Nord . 
Gorgeous. 
3 0 
3 G 
2 G 
2 0 
2 0 
2 0 
3 0 
3 0 
4 0 
4 0 
4 G 
4 0 
3 0 
2 G 
3 0 
1 G 
2 0 
2 G 
2 G 
2 0 
2 G 
3 G 
3 G 
3 0 
1 6 
3 0 
The Teck family have succeeded well this season, but I do not 
consider them reliable. Ours were cut down at midseason and late. 
Both gave fair blooms, especially Lady Dorothy and Mrs. Norman Davis 
from the midseason plants. The Christine family generally succeed, 
and should have been placed in the midseason list; also Cloth of Gold, 
though these varieties are not so desirable for grouping ; the blooms are 
produced on weak stems, therefore require support. There are other 
kinds addicted to the same habit, though included in the list, notably 
Elaine, the Beverley family, and the Rundle family. Some growers 
recommend Lord Wolseley, Jeanne d’Arc, and many other large flower¬ 
ing kinds to be cut down in order to dwarf the plants, but I have not 
found it answer so well as cutting back later to just below the summer 
bud. Perhaps these remarks may induce some of your numerous readers 
to give their experience on the subject. 
I have tried Guernsey Nugget stopped the last week in April, but it 
was rather coarse. Last year it was very fine, carrying six good blooms 
on a plant. I consider this variety very desirable, for when done well 
it makes a splendid and formidable plant for grouping, the foliage and 
fljwer lasting for a long time.—J. Pithers. 
nurserymen — Belgian and French in particular — is that they 
know how to write English better than some of their confreres od 
this side of the channel. At any rate, the Lettuce under discussion 
ought to be made a note of, especially by those who wish a good 
exhibition dish, for which purpose I am pretty certain from what 
has been written it will hold a high position. 
I imagine Mr. Harding, who writes so fully on Lettuces on 
page 532, last volume, would succeed better with midwinter 
Lettuces were he to transplant them earlier than the time he 
recommends—November, and also were he to make use of plants 
in a less advanced stage of growth. At the best they are a rather 
uncertain crop, as for instance last year the weather was so 
abnormally mild that our stock bolted and had to be replaced with 
younger plants from the open quarters. This year we have them 
just right. I find it is also unsafe to depend on one sowing. This 
season the sowing made ten days after the one which was intended 
for the winter plants proved to be a very fortunate one, as the 
mild autumn brought the crop forward so rapidly that we had 
to use these for the frames. Of course it places us at a disadvantage 
for the crop expected in early summer, but the little cabbage sort, 
Tom Thumb, is so amenable to forcing treatment that there is no 
difficulty in piocuring an early supply of these. 
With regard to winter Lettuces I think the following points 
need to be specially considered in order to succeed. Not to depend 
on one sowing, but to make a planting of each sowing made ten days 
earlier, and ten days later than the one which generally comes ia 
to time. Hicks’ is the one I find satisfactory. I have had it for 
the past eighteen years, and have never found it fail. During 
the summer and autumn it grows a large size, but for winter supply 
it is grown on soil which is sufficiently poor to keep the heads 
small. Our Lettuces are invariably transplanted. In some seasons 
when growth is too robust the plants are partially raised a week 
before their removal to frames. The middle of October is quite 
late enough to remove them, and the plants should not be fully 
grown. They are selected in different stages, but, of course, all 
good plants. To each 6 by 4 light one barrowload of leafy soil is 
employed, and is all placed round the balls. Water is never given, 
but care is taken to have soil and plants in a proper state of 
moisture. If the weather continue dry the sashes are kept off, 
but on the other hand, should a period of rainy weather set in the 
sashes will do no harm if left on continually, taking the precaution, 
however, of raising them at the top and bottom about a foot above 
the frames. Slight frosts do no harm, but directly it is seen that 
a severe frost is imminent the sashes must be closed and kept 
matted until the frost is out of everything. 
Endive is given much the same treatment, but is much easier to 
manage than Lettuce. If very hard frost sets in it is a good plan 
to fill the inside of the frames with bracken—clean Wheat straw 
being a good substitute. Our frame snpply lasts as rule until 
April. March almost invariably proves the worst time. The 
increased power of the sun starts the plants, and the winter treat¬ 
ment seems to have so thoroughly deteriorated their constitution 
that numbers damp directly growth is made by the plants. 
Early Lettuces. 
Now is the time to begin the preparation for these. A. 
sprinkling of Tom Thumb seed should be sown in a box filled with 
light soil. As soon as the plants are large enough prick them into 
boxes ; those which are to finish in the boxes at 3 inches apart,, 
the others at 2 inches. The great merit of this as an early variety 
is that it forms close little heads at an early stage, and can be cut 
much smaller than any other sort. If left uncut it continues tO' 
grow, but those in boxes should be cut as soon as they fill the 
spaces allowed. The others in due time are transferred to frames, 
a late Peach house, or the foot of warm walls. In the third week 
of January a further sowing should be made. Tom Thumb, 
Hicks’, and All the Year Round, or any of the new varieties which 
are continually appearing. Some of the Tom Thumbs should be 
transplanted in frames, the others going to the garden. From the- 
middle of March to the beginning of April is the period to trans¬ 
plant these. About the same time these are sown, though some¬ 
times we have to wait until February, a sowing is made at the bane 
of a south wall, and we generally have some useful heads frona 
these positions.—B. 
LETTUCEg, 
The note from M. Schaettel, stating that the ‘ Blonde Gcante ” 
is synonymous with the “ Blond Blockhead ” confirms the impres¬ 
sion I was under when I wrote the inquiry he has so kindly given 
an answer to. “ Geante,” of course, means gjant or gigantic, and it 
does seem strange that such a mistake should have been made in 
translating the name into English. My experience with continental 
IRON. 
Its Use in Connection with Fruit Culture and Diseases-. 
On page 511, December 11th, 1890,1 concluded with a state¬ 
ment by Dr. Griffiths ia reference to the efficacy of sulphate off 
iron in the Cucumber root disease. Ammonia is necessary for 
Cucumbers, yet practically useless without iron. Soot contains the- 
essential iron. I found it transform Gardenias from small sick.’y 
