86 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July £G, 1383 
All correspondence should be directed either to “ The 
Editor” or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. 
Hogg or members of the staff often remain unopened un¬ 
avoidably. We request that no one will write privately 
to any of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to 
unjustifiable trouble and expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions 
relating to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should 
never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended for insertion should be written on one side of 
the paper only. We cannot reply to questions through the 
post, and we do not undertake to return rejected communica¬ 
tions. 
Xiilium gig-anteum (T. TT ).—We should be pleased to see a photo¬ 
graph of your plant, as it is seldom this Lily flowers so satisfactorily. 
Allamanda from Stopping to Flowering (U. S. B. L.). —With 
the shoots an inch or 2 inches long from the last pinching the plants 
may, if they are of a floriferous nature, be had in flower in six weeks, 
but much depends upon the condition of the plants. 
Humea elegans (Alec). —The cold winds in May were one of the 
causes of this plant losing so much of its foliage, as we have plants 
10 feet high with the same fault; but as they are flowering well at the 
top we must not object to their naked stems. Do not by any means cut 
it down. 
Heating a Small Conservatory ( (Mrs.. BT ).—No stove without a 
pipe or chimney ought to be admitted among plants—it slowly destroys 
them. We had such a small conservatory once, and we heated it by a 
gas stove, but with a pipe to carry off the fumes resulting from the 
combustion of the gas. 
Tuberous Begonias (II. .7., Birmingham ').—The Post Office 
authorities disregarded your directions, and the box arrived in a 
smashed condition without any letter. A few flowers remained in the 
corner of the box, and these are excellent examples of a double scarlet 
Begonia of good shape and brilliant colour. 
Implement to Carry Barge Plants in Pots (U. S. B. IT). — 
If they are too large for an ordinary hand-barrow they could be moved 
by means of two stout wooden rods or iron bars, one each side secured to 
a chain encircling the pot below the rim. Chains are sometimes used, 
furnished with large strong hooks at the side for fixing in the bars, or 
sometimes hooks are fixed in the wooden rods and then inserted in the 
chain. Several other methods of a similar character will suggest them¬ 
selves to you on a little consideration. 
Earwigs Infesting Climbers (R. O. MT). —These pests can only 
be successfully dealt with by trapping, than which for your purpose 
few things are better than Broad Bean stalks cut into lengths of 6 or 6 
inches, and placed horizontally in different parts of the trees or plants. 
The hollow stems of Hemlock, Sunflower, and Jerusalem Artichokes are 
equally applicable. The traps should be examined every day and the 
earwigs blown out into scalding water. Earwig traps, which may be 
had of most nurserymen, will prove effectual if well attended to. The 
climbers may be syringed with a solution of softsoap, 2ozs. to the gallon 
of water, adding a pint'of tobacco juice, which will make the plants 
distasteful to the pests but will not kill them. Perseverance in trapping 
is the only remedy we know. 
Lawn Weedy (T. RT ).—You propose to pare off the turf as thin 
as possible, then fork it over, picking out the Dandelion roots, give a 
dressing of artificial manure and sow the best lawn grass seed, and this 
is a capital plan, but we should not confine the picking to the Dande¬ 
lion but extend it to all perennial weeds, and repeat the forking so as 
to thoroughly cleanse the soil of the roots of the weeds. The seed may 
safely be sown in the second week in September, and if you could afford 
a dressing of short but not very much decayed manure in early 
November, it would assist the grass through the winter and insure an 
early and good growdh in spring. A cleanly and good tilth is of primary 
importance, and it is necessary that the seeds be sown sufficiently early 
in autumn to insure a good growth before winter, or if there is not time 
to effect it sowing would bo best defered until spring. We have sown 
grass seed up to early October with satisfactory results. 
Ornamental Trees and Shrubs for Filling- up Shrubberies 
(77 AT ).—Kobinia inermis, Ailantus glandulosa, Almond, Amelanchier 
Botryapium, Bird Cherry common, and Virginian, Double-blossomed 
Cherry, Chestnut (double red, pink or scarlet, and yellow) ; Cotoneaster 
frigida, Laburnum vars, Liquidambar styraciflua, Crab, Japan, &c.; 
Maple, Variegated, Ash-leaved, and Bed Colchic ; Mulberry, black ; Plum 
Myrobalan, White Beam, Mountain Ash, and Double Thorns in variety. 
Those are trees or semi-trees. Shrubs :—Aucuba japonica, Berberis 
Darwini, Box, Handsworth and variegated ; Broom, Spanish and White ; 
Cotoneaster Simmonsi; Elder, New Golden, Guelder Rose, Kerria ja¬ 
ponica, Laurustinus ; Lilac, vars; Philadelphia grandi floras ; Privet, 
Chinese, and latifolium novum ; Spiraea arimfolia, Sweet Briar, and 
Double Whin. Write to Low, Marston & Co., Fetter Lane, E.C., respect¬ 
ing the books mentioned. 
Vine Spurs (D. TV.).—In the house referred to the spurs, owing 
to the strength of the laterals and the size of the leaves, ought to have 
been about 15 inches apart along each side of the main rods, or in other 
words, the Vines, if 18 feet long, would be adequately furnished with 
twenty-four laterals, twelve on each side, for bearing fine Grapes. The 
best Grapes produced near the town in which lyou reside were from 
Vines the laterals of which were more thinly disposed. We have seen 
a Vine this week with the laterals more than 18 inches asunder (some 
2 feet), the bunches of Grapes ranging from 1 lbs. to 7 lbs. each. Root 
action does not depend on the number of leaves and growths, but on 
their quality. All Vines are not alike, and possibly 15 inches between 
the spurs might suffice in your case, but nine persons out of ten err by 
overcrowding the foliage. Your suggestion respecting the Orchids shall 
have our attention. 
The White Beam Tree (J7. TV.). —The tree of which you require 
the name and uses is the Pyrus Aria of botanists, and is commonly 
known as -the White Beam Tree, in reference to the white under 
surface of the leaves. It is a native of Britain, chiefly in'the moun¬ 
tainous districts on limestone soils. Its fruit is acid and astringent, but 
is not disagreeable to eat when in a state of incipient decay, like the 
Medlar. When dried and reduced to powder it has been converted into 
a sort of bread during times of scarcity both in France and Sweden ; 
and when fermented it forms a beer, or, by distillation, a powerful 
spirit. It is greedily eaten by birds, for which reason the trees are 
ordered to be preserved in French forests, that the number of birds may 
be increased, in order to keep down the insects. The fruit also fur¬ 
nishes food to squirrels, and when it drops, deer and the hedgehog eat 
it with avidity. The wood is very hard, of a fine close grain, yellowish 
white, and susceptible of a high polish. It may be stained of any 
colour, and is much used in making handles of knives" and forks, 
wooden spoons, and for musical instruments, and various articles of 
turneryware. 
Budding- Manetti Stocks (B. TT). — The stocks being in rows 
earthed up like Potatoes, take a hoe or spud and remove the earth from 
the stock, so as to insert the bud as low as possible. When this is done 
proceed to cut the bud just the same as you do for the Briars, and make 
an incision as low as you possibly can ; the lower down the better, as 
the fewer will be the suckers—indeed, you should almost bud on the 
roots, if possible. At any rate, strive to insert the buds as low as you 
can. Only insert one bud in each stock. Choose the same side of the 
stock ad down the line, and also select a place as free from knobs or 
irregularities as you can find. Make the incision in the form of a T, 
and when the bud is safely in tie up well beyond each end of the bucl 
with rough cotton or worsted. Ladies often use wool, and nurserymen, 
bass or raffia or cotton. You must not replace the earth, but leave the 
bud showing, or rather the cotton, so that in the course of a week you can 
see whether the bud has taken or not. If it has not bud the other side 
of the stock. Do not touch the Manetti shoots, but leave them to grow 
as luxuriantly as they will till the following spring ; then remove the 
cotton and cut back the Manetti to the bud. The best time for budding 
the Manetti is after rain, and if you have no rain give the stocks a 
copious watering, and you will find the bark run. August is the best 
time for budding Manettis. All the varieties you have named do well on 
the Manetti; in fact, all Hybrid Perpetuals except La France, which, 
having some Tea blood, never does so well on this stock as on the 
Briar. 
Calls on Lime leaves (BTortus). —The samples sent are what 
have been popularly called Lime Leaf Nail Galls, attributed to a gall 
mite named Phytoptus Tiliae, though it is uncertain whether under this 
name more than one species may hot be included. Upon their first 
appearance these galls are green, then they become yellow, this passes 
into red, next they arc purplish, and finally brown. Their history is 
interesting, since the Lime was observed to be thus infected more than 
150 years ago by the celebrated naturalist Reaumur. He was, however, 
much puzzled by them, and discovering in some of them a solitary larva, 
he supposed they were produced by a kind of fly or beetle. If he was 
right in his observation such larvae could only have entered in order to 
prey upon the mites such galls may contain, for they are not attribut¬ 
able to other insects. So small and transparent are these mites that it 
is difficult to find them, and the plan generally adopted by naturalists 
is to wash them out with water, and then examine the liquid. On open¬ 
ing one of these galls it mostly appears to be full of hairs of a peculiar 
growth caused by the punctures of the mites. It cannot be said that 
the history of these galls is as yet properly elucidated, and it is maintained 
by some that the mites which they commonly contain are not the real 
parents of the galls, but “ inquilines,” or after tenants. Nor can we 
say how it is that of two trees, seemingly growing under the same con¬ 
ditions, one will be found swarming with galls, and the other almost as 
entirely free from them. 
Barge XVI nshrooms (71 II. GT). —The Mushroom reached us in an 
extremely uninviting condition, but it is evidently Agaricus arvensis, 
which is occasionally found as large as the specimen sent—namely, a 
foot in diameter. It is nearly allied to the common Mushroom, so nearly 
indeed, that it is scarcely better entitled to rank as a separate species 
than the varieties pratensis and silvicola are ; but it is accounted distinct 
