48 
[ July 21, 183J. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
year for my opinio”, and although it may not to some be worth 
much I claim to know as much about Yiolas as anyone, for I have 
for years consistently written and advocated the cause of the Yiola. 
But I give out a strong word of warning that the time has come 
when we can no longer tolerate such rubbish as Moonlight and 
some other new varieties recently introduced, and that I, for one, 
so long as life is spared me, will enter my protest against their 
introduction.— W. Dean. 
(To be continued.) 
NOTES ON SALVIAS. 
As greenhouse plants for autumn and winter flowering there 
is nothing, I think, more useful and worthy of extensive cultiva¬ 
tion than the Salvias, for probably at no season of the year is it 
more difficult to keep up a display of flowers than at the commence¬ 
ment of October, before the main bulk of Chrysanthemums are in 
bloom. Salvias may be grown out of doors during the summer 
months, but they must be housed before frost appears, as they 
cannot withstand severe weather. The plants should be propagated 
for all purposes in spring and early summer, the cuttings being 
placed in a gentle bottom heat, when they will root readily, and 
providing due attention is paid to the potting plants may be had 
that will bloom in the greenhouse throughout the autumn and 
winter. 
Salvias delight in a rich open soil, particularly when grown in 
pots. Fibry loam and well-decayed manure in about equal parts, 
one-fourth leaf soil, and a sprinkling of silver sand will form a very 
suitable mixture for them ; 8-inch pot3 are, I think, quite large 
enough to grow plants for general purposes, but if extra large 
specimens are required 10 or 11-inch will not be too large. 
The following are some of the most useful kinds, and they 
should be grown in all gardens where a supply of flowers is 
required throughout the winter. Salvia patens is one of the most 
distinct and beautiful deep blue flowering plants in cultivation. 
Seeds sown in March will form capital plants that will commence 
flowering in June, and continue till the end of the summer. The 
flowers, which are produced in considerable quantities, are large 
and of a lovely bright gentian blue colour, making charming plants 
for greenhouse decoration. For summer bedding or the open 
border it is invaluable, growing to a height of about 2 feet, and 
flowering more or less all the summer. 
Salvia Pitcheri is also a very useful and most desirable plant. 
Its flowers, which are freely produced on branching stems 2 . to 
3 feet in height, are of a beautiful azure blue, and the plants 
continue in bloom all through the autumn. Salvia splendens is a 
very beautiful and useful variety, producing its bright scarlet 
flowers with the utmost freedom. This variety is well adapted 
either for mixed borders or summer bedding, but is seen to the 
best advantage when grown in pots for greenhouse decoration, 
being one of the best for winter flowering. 
Salvia rutilans is, without doubt, one of the most valuable and 
generally grown of all the Salvias, being invaluable for general 
purposes. It is rn exceedingly free bloomer, producing quantities 
of small yet very pretty spikes of flowers of a lovely magenta 
colour. The foliage is delightfully fragrant, hence it has derived 
the name of Pine Apple-scented Sage. 
Salvia gesneraeflora is a magnificent species, deserving a place 
in all collections of Salvias ; indeed, none would be quite complete 
without it, as it is one of the last xo flower, which is a great con¬ 
sideration where a succession of bloom has to be maintained. Its 
flowers, which are produced in abundance, are very conspicuous, 
being of a bright scarlet colour. Care should be taken not to 
pinch the growths after July, the secret of growing this variety 
being to produce good stout growths, failing which it is useless to 
expect satisfactory results. Liquid manure applied twice a week 
will prove very beneficial at the flowering period. Salvias leu- 
cantha, Betheli, Grahaini, and fulgens might also be included with 
great advantage where a greater variety of colours are desired.—• 
Geokge Parrant, Ashby St. Ledgers Lodge, Rugby. 
PEACHES AND NECTARINES. 
Varieties for Early Forcing. 
The very early Peaches Alexander, Waterloo, Early Beatrice, 
Early Louise, Early Rivers, and Early Leopold, with the very early 
Nectarines Advauce and a little later Lord Napier, have a great 
advantage over the older varieties in that they need not be started 
before the new year to ripen the fruit in May and early June 
without recourse to hard forcing. The fruit may be had a month 
or six weeks earlier, but it is at a sacrifice of quantity, size, and 
quality, greater outlay in fuel, and more waste of the energies of 
the trees. To have such varieties as Grosse Mignonne Peach and 
Elruge Nectarine ripe in May or early June the trees must be 
started early in December, and they have to flower and make their 
foliage at an unfavourable season, so that the buds do not form 
well, and are frequently cast in quantity from no other cause than 
the imperfect formation of the buds. The large-flowered varieties 
are very prone to throw off the buds, and do not set nearly so 
freely nor perfectly as the small-flowered varieties. All che Early 
York race are liable to imperfect bud formation and to cast them 
in “ showers ” when they are expected to swell. If opened they 
will be found to have effete ovaries and defective stamens. The 
Early York race of Peaches are also prone to over-maturity of the 
buds when early forced in consecutive years, and sometimes 
expand and even set the fruit in late August or early in September. 
Grosse Mignonne and all its race are not good for early forcing, 
often forming triple blossom buds at a joint, and cast all those and 
many other large promising buds. Noblesse and all its tribe form 
plenty of prominent buds and if early-forced two or three years 
sheds a majority of them. Those remaining have, as seen when the 
flowers are fully expanded, twin, sometimes triple, and occasionally 
quadruple ovaries, long thin antherless stamens, whilst many flowers 
have poor ovaries, short styles, and the stamens are short, curved 
inwards in a heap over the pistil, and pollenless. All of the Early 
York (except Hale’s Early), Grosse Mignonne, and Noblesse races 
of Peaches are not suitable for early forcing to ripen the fruit in 
May or early June where it is expected to be remunerative, for 
they are nowhere as compared with the Royal George and Early 
Albert (Grosse Montagne) races, either as regards quantity or 
value of crop. The size, appearance, and quality of the Early 
York, Grosse Mignonne, and Noblesse races is not disputed to be of 
the best, but it is the eligibility of these and their varieties for 
forcing before or even with the new year that is questioned. 
Started in January or February and brought on slowly they are 
seen to advantage in the fruit at midsummer and later. The 
varieties with large flowers are not as a rule such good early forcers 
as the varieties with small flowers. But some may take exception 
to this dictum, and insist on some that have large flowers, as 
Alexander, Waterloo, and Early Beatrice being good setters. Now 
Alexander and Waterloo have flowers about half the size of those 
of Early York, and Early Beatrice has very much narrower petals 
like its parent, the White (Rivers) Nectarine, than Hale’s Early, 
and this variety has narrower petals than its type (Early York). 
What a variety has gained in petals it seems to have lost in vigour 
of pistillate and staminate organs. 
Early Rivers (a grandchild of the White Nectarine) has gained 
nothing by making a departure from the characteristics which stand 
Early Beatrice in such good stead or to insure a good set, but has 
lost so much that it (Early Rivers) either sets about half as many 
fruits as Early Louise, or the set is so imperfect that the fruits 
“ crack at the stone ” and are useless. This defect can be over¬ 
come by fertilising the flowers of Early Rivers, and all the large 
flowered varieties with perfect ovaries, with the pollen of other 
flowers, to wit the small flowered varieties. None, perhaps, sets 
better than Early Louise, a seedling from Early Albert, which sets 
when others do not, and is well worth growing for its pollen to 
fertilise other varieties where a difficulty arises with them in 
setting ; but it is not in any nurseryman’s list, not even Mr. Rivers’, 
and may not be procurable. Early Louise will, however, answer 
quite as well, and it ripens plenty of fruit in May when started at 
the New Year, and the quality is excellent for an early Peach. 
Early Leopold has small flowers, bears well, and succeeds'Early 
Louise. Dagmar has plenty of colour both in the flower and in the 
fruit, the former small and the latter large, and is of the free- 
setting Early Albert race, ripening its downy, deep crimson, hand¬ 
some, melting and rich fruit soon after Early Leopold. The 
difficulty, if any, with these small-flowered varieties is in the abun¬ 
dance of their flowers, which are often weak in consequence, and 
should be freely thinned before the flower buds are fully open. 
This will cause the flowers left to be bolder, and they will afford 
pollen freely for fertilising other varieties, whether Peaches or 
Nectarines. 
Of these early Peaches we should select Alexander and Early 
Louise, and grow them in a house by themselves for a first early 
supply of fruit, say in April and May, and the house being closed 
by the middle of December, and forcing commenced at the new 
year, the fruit would ripen at the time named without pressing the 
trees so bard as to prejudice their future bearing. If a Nectarine 
was desired Advance is the most likely variety in commerce to 
afford fruit about the same time as the Peaches. The trees could 
be forced to produce fruit in less time, but it is better to have 
trees in pots for such “ express ” work as placing ripe fruit on 
the table in three months from starting. This is a very 
