JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 3,1895. 
le 
if he gives his full experience. He is not to be jeered at nor flouted, 
as Mr. Mechi wisely observed, if he makes his failures known as well as 
his successes. Both benefit the public by being known. And this is so 
in Mr. E. D. Blackmore’s case. He tells us of his failures in fruit¬ 
growing, and what the loss has been to him, and yet for this, one writer 
with an obliquity of mental vision that I am unable to understand, 
says, “ It seems to me that the advice of Mr. Blackmore is not only mis¬ 
taken but unpatriotic.” Where is the mistake ? He has grown fruit 
on his own land for forty years for market purposes. He says, “ I began 
with the idea of living on the proceeds.” In this he was disappointed— 
grievously disappointed. Instead of gain he has lost—lost thousands of 
pounds in the forty years. Then his “ candid friends ” tell him that 
he knows nothing about it. Well, I know Mr. K. D. Blackmore, and if 
after forty years’ practice he knows nothing about it, all I can say is, 
that close observation, long and careful treatment of his trees, and the 
bringing to bear on the question a powerful and clear intellect ought to 
have made him an adept in these long years of thought and toil, and 
I may add with the love of fruit-growing. 
Next I will take the assertion of “ Spes in Futuro ” that he is 
“ unpatriotic.” It is a well-known fact that no two people see alike, 
nor think alike, nor act alike; therefore I may be pardoned if I side 
with my dear good friend Mr. E. D. Blackmore, and in so doing I say 
this, I think his action was very patriotic. He has toiled in the heat 
of the day, and he knows the cost. He tells the people “ This is what 
I have done, and in doing this, this is what I have lost. I tell you not 
because I am benefited in the telling, but that you, knowing what I 
have done, may not go into the matter blindly as I did, but with your 
eyes open. I expose my affairs to you for your good, not mine. I have 
no interest in telling the nation how and what I have lost, but you 
have in knowing, because you can profit by learning where I failed.” 
Surely there is nothing but patriotism in this. I think so, and I honour 
my friend for it. 
There was no need for him to tell of his losses, but for the public’s 
good he has done it. He has done it bravely and well. Jeer at him if 
you will, any of you, all of you interested or otherwise ; gird at him, 
read his truly pathetic letter where he says, “ Well, gird away.” He is 
convinced, he is honest in his convictions, and his truthful honesty of 
character, his deep sincerity, his manly upright nature would not let 
him withhold his practical knowledge from those he loves so well. I 
mean the English people. Sneer at him you little ones because you do 
not understand the magnitude of the deed, but honour him for it you 
greater minds. Honour to the man that outspeaks the truth as he 
knows it, sees and feels it. Such a man is, in my belief, Mr. E. D. 
Blackmore.— Haeeison Weie, Iddlesleigh. 
JOTTINGS ON APHIDES. 
I HAVE read “ Entomologist’s ” article on aphides on page 560 
(last vol.) with much interest. With many of the facts stated I am 
well acquainted from researches. I am not quite certain as to the 
hybernating of the viviparous Plum aphis (A. pruni). I have found 
them in mild winters in January on the blossom buds taking nourish¬ 
ment from the base or neck, and supposed they must have climbed to 
that position from underneath the trees in grass orchards. 
The common Primrose is a favourite winter hybernating situation 
for one species of aphis of a pale green colour ; by taking up a few roots 
from woods at this season of the year the insects will be found on the 
under side of the foliage. Whether these are the forerunners of the 
great army of Plum and Hop aphides I am unable to say, not having 
minutely compared them. 
I find the common brown scale or coccus very prevalent on Eed 
Currant bushes at Kenilworth, some branches almost coated over, but 
the male referred to by “Entomologist” I am unacquainted with, and 
would like to learn more about it. The Black Currant mite and American 
blight, or woolly aphis, are also very destructive in certain districts 
visited by me in Warwickshire, and also the nut phytoptus on Filberts. 
Many trees I find ruined for the present until fresh growth is produced 
by pruning off the infested parts and burning them. 
Some years ago “ Entomologist ” gave us some interesting informa¬ 
tion on silkworms and moths. Would he be kind enough to say where 
eggs can be obtained, and whether it is probable that they would 
become valuable if exported and reared at Chicago, U.S.A. ?— JAS. Hiam. 
POINSETTIAS AT LEIGHTON. 
Much the best display of these popular plants I have seen for some 
time are under the charge of Mr. P. Mann, gardener to W. H. Laverton, 
Esq., late High Sheriff of the county of Wilts. What winter-flowering 
plant is there, apart from the Chrysanthemum, that possess so many 
claims for decorative work, dinner-table, ball-room, or general use ? In 
December even Chrysanthemums cannot vie with them not approaching 
the brilliance of the Poinsettia. This is more particularly emphasised 
when the cultivation of the plant is above the ordinary standard of 
excellence as in the case under notice. 
The vigorous and healthy condition of the plants is remarkable, 
some being nearly 6 feet in height, and I think the average of all would 
be 5 feet. No larger than 7-inch pots are used, and among the collection 
I did not observe more than two or three old plants, the others being all 
early summer-struck cuttings. The girth of the stem of the strongest 
plant was 3 inches near the pot, and the finest bract measured 20 inches in 
diameter. Whether it is a superior form of the type, or the outcome of 
good culture, I do not know ; but there appeared a greater freedom in 
the character than is usually seen. There was not the compactness of 
the early form, nor the irregular habit of the latest one, that has such a 
distinctly bright colour. The colour, form, and time of flowering 
seemed to be altogether intermediate, and whether it is accounted for in 
the distinctness of the variety, or superior cultivation, there is certainly 
a claim for the highest commendation in the general excellence of the 
plants as I saw them. 
Mr. Mann pins his faith apparently on the thorough ripening of the 
stock plants after they have ceased flowering, for they are rested on a 
shelf in an intermediate house, open to all the sunlight available, and 
this must be done without any extreme in the matter of root treatment 
and moisture. From well ripened wood comes sturdy cuttings, and 
these kept well up to the glass until they have gained the desired length 
are rooted in 2-inch pots, filled with a mixture of loam, leaf mould, and 
sand. Peat in small proportion, too, is used in the final potting, as are 
also a few crushed bones. Whether chemical manures of any kind are 
requisitioned I did not learn, but I was told that natural liquid manures 
were very sparingly given. Poinsettias are very sensitive to extremes of 
root or atmospheric treatment, as everyone knows who has to grow them ; 
and the general condition of the Leighton plants testify in a marked 
manner to the care they had bestowed on them throughout the season. 
Their summer quarters after they are rooted is in cool pits, which are 
ventilated in accordance with the state of the weather, and in the 
autumn a small structure is almost exclusively devoted to them until 
their floral heads are developed, when they find employment in the 
conservatory and house.—W. S. 
LIME. 
I AM much obliged to “ W. D., Turnford," for his valuable informa¬ 
tion (page 586, last issue), but hardly think he has fully explained my 
men’s rooted antipathy to lime, for the simple reason that I never, of 
course, expected them to apply so powerful a chemical with their 
hands a bit more than any other manure. If, however, lime “ causes 
soreness and cracking of the skin,” I suppose moving it at all, especially 
if there be any wind, produces the deleterious effects “ W. D.” describes. 
I would therefore ask if it could not be slaked in one large heap ort 
arrival from the kiln, instead of on the land in small heaps ? But then, 
is slaked lime as effective as quicklime ? Indeed, is it of any greater 
power or value than chalk. 
“W, D.” apparently propounds a new doctrine—viz., that lime is 
per se a soil fertiliser. Hitherto those advocating its use, whether in 
print or elsewhere, have confined themselves to recommending caustic 
lime as an insect destroyer. “ W. D.” does not appear to consider it so. 
My query was whether, if applied in sufficient quantity to kill wire- 
worm, slugs, chrysalids, and other injurious denizens of the soil, it 
would not also destroy those microscopic forms of insect life which it 
is every gardener’s endeavour to preserve and protect from injury. 
Otherwise, how is it one so often hears the remark that lime “ burns 
the soil 1 ” Gas lime now seems difficult to procure, owing to new 
processes having displaced its use in gas-making.— Inquiebe. 
Will you please correct the mistake made in the article—viz., 
“ Lime ” (page 586, line 22). It should read “ Lime acts on soils in 
various other ways, for it is in itself a direct plant food, large quantities 
being taken up by growing crops as a nitrate of lime, it decomposes the 
organic matter present in soils, &c,” The comma following the word 
crops should be placed after the word lime.—W. D., Turnford. 
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF SAXIFRAGA 
WALLACEI. 
As I am aware that the Botanical Society of Edinburgh does not 
confine its attention to matters of purely scientific botany, but takes a 
great interest in everything relating to horticulture also, I need scarcely 
apologise for bringing under your notice the subject of the origin and 
history of a now well-known plant, namely, Saxifraga Wallace!. I am 
the more anxious to place this subject before you, seeing that doubts 
still exist in the minds of many both as to the parentage of the plant 
and its raiser ; and being acquainted with its history from the beginning, 
I am able to speak with some degree of confidence on the subject. la 
1873 Messrs. Jas. Backhouse & Son of York sent out two new Saxi¬ 
frages—S. Maweana* and S. Wilkommiana. These were described by 
them as “ two new species of the S. palmata section, with showy tufts of 
large pure white flowers, on stems 6 to 10 inches high. ’ They added 
that, though nearly allied to each other, they are quite distinct, and 
might be regarded as two of the finest of the group. The first of these, 
S. Maweana, has now practically gone out of cultivation ; but the 
second, S. Wilkommiana, is still grown. 
Some two years after they were sent out, the late George Wallace, 
of the Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, succeeded in raising from them a- 
Saxifrage now usually known in plant catalogues as S. Wallace! of 
gardens. This plant has become very widely known, and it is. 
* S. Maweana, Balter, figured in the “ Botanical Magazine,” t. 6384, was discovered by- 
Mr. P. B. Webb, of Paris in 1827, “in its only known habitat, rocks of the Beni Hosmar 
range of mountains opposite Tetuan,” in Morocco, “at about 2000 feet elevation.” He 
regarded it as a form of S. globulifera. It was not recognised to be a new speciea 
until Mr. Maw gathered it in 1869, and it was introduced into cultivation by him. 
