504 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 21,1894. 
white variety, and if it is to be found in Europe it will not be long 
before it has a home in the cherished collection near Antwerp. 
The evening’s visit was worth the voyage across the strip of sea and 
merry little dance home again, tor the waves when in a sportive mood 
can play ducks and drakes with the best of steamers, and render the 
limbs of landlubbers useless for the time. There is yet another Belgian 
garden that demands a few words of reference, to follow in due course. 
LIVERPOOL NOTES. 
Eucharis at Allerton Priory. 
Almost every week questions are being asked relating to failures in 
growing the Eucharis, and in many gardens these beautiful stove flower¬ 
ing plants are by no means successfully cultivated. This is not the case 
at Allerton Priory, where Mr. J. J. Craven, the noted fruit grower, has 
demonstrated that he can grow Eucharis equally well. Commencing 
some eighteen months ago, he divided the contents of six large pots, 
placing them in 9 and 10-iach pots, using good fibry loam and sand, 
the bulbs being potted rather deeply. A square bed with bottom heat in 
one of the stoves was filled with good sweet leaves, the pots being 
partially plunged in this material. The atmosphere of the house was 
kept moist, water being very sparingly applied to the plants until they 
commenced growing, when it was increased. The drying off system is 
not adopted, but the plants are sparingly watered for a short time after 
flowering is over, a little chemical manure being used as a top-dressing. 
At the time of my visit the bed contained forty plants .in perfect 
condition and profusely flowered, some of them carrying twelve and 
thirteen spikes, averaging five flowers on a spike. The same plants had 
previously flowered in November and December. Questioned as to the 
disease, Mr. Craven was of opinion that indiscriminate watering caused 
more failures than anything else. Nothing will sooner give a sickly 
appearance to planta, however healthy they may be, than exposing 
them to strong sunshine; therefore shade by all means. I firmly believe 
that to a want of inattention in this matter many failures may be 
attributed. 
A Pretty and Useful Combination. 
This is perhaps the best way that I can describe a charming arrange¬ 
ment I recently saw at Oaklands, Aigburth, the residence of A. L. 
Jones, Esq. Here Mr. J. Bounds, the gardener, has to supply a great 
number of flowers for cutting, as well as to keep the houses gay, and 
variety in such is always useful. On a stage in the stove were arranged 
Begonia nitida, B. nitida alba, and rosea, the deep colour of the latter 
showing up well against the white and pale flowers of the other two, the 
whole forming a perfect bank of bloom, an edging of Panicum giving 
the requisite finishing touches. As regards usefulness, everything is 
in their favour. The cuttings were taken about this time last year, 
placed in small pots in a compost of loam, leaf mould, and sand, 
and being kept in a warm temperature the plants were soon ready 
for a shift into 6-inch pots, in which they are flowered. When well 
established the plants were removed to a cool frame, where they 
remained until autumn, when they were transferred into a warm house, 
where by November they commenced to flower freely. Mr. Bounds said 
that he had been able to cut two and three times a week for table 
decoration, besides keeping up the display in the stove. Associated 
with Maidenhair Fern the effect by gaslight is very rich. To all who 
want an abundance of flowers dnring the winter and spring, I advise 
them to lose no time in procuring a stock, follow out the system of 
culture as briefly recorded above.—R. P. R, 
RIPENING AND PRESERVATION OF FRUITS. 
(Concluded from page 456.) 
Then we have two kinds of tin plates, the “bright” and the 
“ terme.” The latter contains much more lead alloyed with the tin than 
the former. In Germany the law requires that tin plate used for 
canning fruit shall not contain over one per cent, of lead. In the 
chemical laboratory of the Department of Agriculture at Washington 
the tin of some fifty cans, in which Peas had been put up, was examined 
for lead. Thirty of them were found to contain from 1‘2 up to 13 per 
cent, of this poisonous metal. Then, again, solder rich in lead is easier 
to handle than if poor in this metal. In Germany canners are 
prohibited from using solder with more than 10 per cent, of lead in it. 
The solder of twenty-four cans, examined in the laboratory above 
mentioned, was found to contain from 43 to 65 per cent, of lead. There 
is no question but that the use of lead, or of materials containing much 
lead, that are to come in contact with articles of food, and especially 
of acid food, is to be strongly condemned. And further, it is very 
possible that the poorer the quality of the materials put into the cans 
and coming in contact with these alloys rich in lead, the greater the 
danger of getting some of the lead and the tin also into the contents of 
the cans. How far such materials are used in the canning of fruits I 
cannot say, but if used so often as they are in the canning of vegetables 
it is reasonable to suppose that they would often be used also for fruits. 
In respect to the drying of fruit, we have again a temptation to 
depart from scrupulous honesty in the use of sulphur or of sulphuring 
to an excessive extent. You all know that Dr. Hilgard, Director of the 
California Experiment Station, has for some time been carrying on a 
crusade against so much sulphuring. He does not believe in the 
bleaching any way, and calls the handsome light coloured slices of dried 
Apple “ whitened sepulchres.” He believes that this sulphuring may 
be used to cover dirty and damaged fruit, and that fruit excessively 
sulphured is less digestible, because it contains so much of this 
antiseptic, all antiseptics, whether borax, salicylic acid, or sulphites 
being unfavourable to digestion when taken into the stomach with the 
food. All fruit when dried darkens owing to the action of the oxygen 
of the air upon certain constituents of it, and he thinks that this 
colouration, which is in itself perfectly harmless, “should be looked for 
by every consumer as the natural mark of an honest, unmanipulated 
article.” In all this I must allow that I am inclined to agree with him. 
At any rate, all honest men will agree that only clean and perfect fruit 
should be used for drying, such as needs no manipulation of any kind to 
cover up defects. All will agree that any form of manipulation which 
can be used to conceal such defects has its dangers as long as there are 
unscrupulous men engaged in every kind of business, and that where a 
large number, honest and dishonest alike, are engaged in the production 
of any manufactured article, the extensive trade in that article thus 
brought about may be seriously damaged by any dishonest practice, and 
that it is usual in such cases that many honest people sutler for the 
misdeeds of a very few rascals. Even carelessness may bring about 
a like result. Fruit dryers became careless in the use of the zinc trays 
in their evaporators, and zinc got into the dried fruit that went to 
Germany. It may be and it may not be that the German Government 
at about that time wanted an excuse for putting some obstacle in the 
way of the importation of so much fruit, and pounced upon this 
oecurrence of zinc in it as a pretext. But, at any rate, if the zinc had 
not been there, the chances are that they would not have been able on 
any other pretext to hurt the trade so much as they did. 
But the public has acquired a perverted taste, and demands the 
“ whited sepulchres,” so till the public taste can be reformed it is good 
business method, of course, to conform to it. But let it be done honestly, 
by using and insisting that all shall use only the best material, and only 
just so much sulphuring as is necessary to bleach it to the desired point. 
Mr. Green of the Ohio Experiment Station stated in a paper read before 
the Michigan Horticultural Society that some varieties of Apples, such 
as the Fameuse, need no sulphuring in order to get a white evaporated 
product, and he would not use sulphur at all in the evaporator itself; 
he would merely expose the fruit to the fumes for a short time as soon 
as prepared for the drying. Thus he would use it, not to bleach out a 
dark colour already formed, but as a preventive against any appearance 
of discolouration. 
Concerning the preservation of fresh fruit a rather singular method 
is proposed by Monclar in a recent volume of the French “Journal 
d’Agriculture Pratique.” It consists simply in bedding the fruit in 
lime. He gives the following general statement of the results of his 
experiments :— 
1. The lime does not in the least attack the skin of the fruit, even 
after prolonged contact. 
2. The fruit does not dry any more In the lime than in the air. 
3. No change takes place in the fruit other than such as is the 
natural consequence of its evolution. 
This method was tested on Oranges, Artichokes, Cherries, Goose¬ 
berries, Prunes, Tomatoes, Onions, Potatoes, Grapes, Apples, Pears, 
Sugar Beefs, and Chestnuts with their shells removed. There was 
certainly no lack of variety in the material used. Not every test was 
successful. Tomatoes kept well for two weeks, and half of them for 
nearly five weeks. In another trial. Tomatoes picked before fully ripe 
in order to save them from an early frost, and put in lime October 22nd, 
were good till January 15th. Pears of a variety that he had been 
unable to keep beyond December in any other way kept well in lime 
till the middle of April. The most interesting results, and it seems to 
me the most striking, were obtained with Grapes. Three varieties were 
packed in lime on September 13th. The first examination of them was 
made December 22nd, when all were in good condition, April 15th two 
hunches of one variety were taken out, one of which was fairly well 
preserved, the other very well; all of one of the other varieties was in a 
bad condition and were removed. On May 2nd the box was emptied, 
and all of those varieties were in excellent condition. In another trial, 
made in the preceding year, the last bunch of Grapes in the box was 
taken out July Ist, when half of the berries were well preserved and had 
an exquisite flavour.—G. C. Caldwell (Western New York Horti¬ 
cultural Society'), 
ON THE RIVER. 
On Wednesday, June 13th, the employes of Messrs. J, Cheal & Sons, 
Lowfleld Nurseries, Crawley, held their annual excursion. The pro¬ 
gramme for the day was as follows ;— 
“ Leave Crawley 6.49 A.M., or Three Bridges 7.7 ; arrive at London 
Bridge at 8.17. On board the steamer, specially engaged, at London 
Bridge (Surrey side) 8,30. Go down the river to the Tower Bridge and 
docks ; then proceed up the river, probably as far as Richmond, and 
return to Kew Bridge. Luncheon at 1 o’clock at Kew Bridge. The 
entrance to Kew Gardens is close by, and the grounds are open free. 
Special objects of interest are the Palm house and a large number of 
other greenhouses, rock garden, lakes, Chinese pagoda, gallery of Miss 
North’s paintings, extensive woodlands, and open park for games. 
Return from Kew Bridge at 6.30 to take passengers to Battersea (for 
Victoria station) ; or the return may be made by any train from Victoria 
at 7.8, 8.50, or 10.5 ; or from London Bridge at 7.20., 9.10, or 10.20.” 
As miy be imagined, with such a tempting day’s enjoyment before 
it the party, under the guidance of Mr. Joseph Cheal, arrived at London 
