546 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I December 13, 1888. 
require attention before a full measure of success can be attained. 
In planting, choose a warm sunny position sheltered from the north 
and east. Take out your soil to a depth of 1 foot, well fork up the 
bottom. Now give a good dressing of cow manure in the trench 
and cover with 3 or 4 inches of soil. A layer of sharp sand, old 
mortar rubbish, or the like, may be added with advantage. Then 
place in your bulbs and cover in with soil. According to the size 
of your bulbs will the first year’s flowering depend, but if you allow 
them to remain for several years undisturbed you will annually be 
charmed with some of the most beautiful plants any garden can 
boast of. In general appearance they may be compared to a small 
•Gladiolus, growing about 3 feet high, and having spikes of brilliant 
orange and gold flowers. M. crocosmseflora is probably the best of 
this group, and has orange-scarlet spikes of flowers. The brilliancy 
of the flowers of these plants is such as to command attention in 
any garden where they have become established, and treated as I 
have here briefly described they are by no means difficult to grow, 
and at the same time increase very freely at the root, so that by 
liberal treatment a handsome bed of these charming flowers may 
soon be obtained. These remarks apply equally to the Crocosma, 
which has brilliant orange flowers, and may be regarded as among 
the gems of autumn-flowering bulbous plants for the hardy plant 
garden. 
TRITELEIAS. 
I have at the present time a small bed of these in flower, 
planted late last spring, thus illustrating how a season’s flowering 
of certain plants may be extended and even reversed. In effect 
the species and varieties of this little group are very pleasing when 
in flower, and continue sending forth flowers for a considerable 
time, and pretty as these appear, they are destined never to become 
popular on account of their decidedly objectionable odour. 
COLCHICUM AUTUMNALE ALBUM:. 
This variety has far surpassed all the rest both in the freedom 
with which its flowers have been produced, and likewise their 
longevity. When the early frosts came and made such sad havoc 
of several acres of Chrysanthemums which were out of doors in 
this district, this Meadow Saffron was in full beauty, and in spite of 
frost night after night, this variety alone seemed to resist it. In 
the same bed with it stood the typical C. autumnale, also variega- 
tum, speciosum, Byzantinum, and others, but all were more or 
less shattered and damaged by the rain and frost, while the subject 
of this note continued to produce its snowy white blossoms as 
though nothing had happened. Imagine such a one covered with 
flowers of snowy white thickly studded over a carpet, say, of some of 
the mossy Saxifragas thinly planted, or the dwarf Alpine Phloxes or 
Pyrethrum Tchihatchewi, Aubrietias, or in short anything which 
would just give the necessary carpet of leaves to keep their flowers 
•clean in wet weather. That white varieties of certain plants are 
hardier than the type has been proved by the Lapageria and 
Gamellia, but I have never experienced so direct and positive 
a proof as this among the Colchicums before, and consider it worth 
remembering. The flowers are of such a useful size, and so pure 
withal, that it should be turned to good account by the florists. 
They expand with remarkable rapidity in a temperature of 60°, 
and quite took a visitor by surprise the other day, for whom I had 
plucked a few flowers which were in the bud, to find them fully 
expanded five minutes later when he had entered the greenhouse. 
Even when plucked they may be counted as among the most 
•durable of flowers, and when I say that their flowering has con¬ 
tinued unbroken for quite tivo months—not in ones or twos, for 
the flowers come in quantity from each bulb or corm—I think 
they may safely be regarded as among our best and most useful 
hardy plants, such as merit a more extended cultivation. The fact 
•of their being quite hardy and remarkably cheap should be points 
favouring their general adoption. As a margin to large shrub¬ 
beries or the like, or for the purposes of naturalisation, all the 
members of this group are very pleasing and effective — J. H. E. 
NOTES ON GRAPES. 
I head with interest the notes on Grapes by your correspondent, 
Mr. H. Dunkin, on page 419, and while generally agreeing with 
liim, I must take exception to some of his statements. One is, 
that Black Hamburgh will colour quite as well in dull as in bright 
weather, and he advises shading at colouring time if the weather 
be very bright. I have seen Black Hamburgh Grapes this year at 
•several places, and they have not been well coloured. In some 
■cases, where grown alongside of Alicante, the latter has been the 
better coloured of the two. In our own case in the late vinery Black 
Hamburgh, which promised well for a time, did not finish in colour 
as well as Alicante or Lady Downe’s. Again, if this Grape colours 
quite as well in dull as in bright weather, why do we see so many 
“red ” Hamburghs in the market? I do not think we could have a 
brighter summer than 1887, and yet there was no need (in our case, 
at least), to have resort to shading. 
With regard to Madresfield Court cracking, and front ventilation, 
I think your correspondent is in error when he states that in a 
succession of wet days the moment the front ventilators are opened 
the damp air finds its way into the house and cracking takes place 
in a few hours ; but when the front or bottom ventilators are at 
once closed and more heat kept in the pipes, cracking is arrested, 
and it is want of bottom ventilation that has to answer for want 
of colour in Madresfield Court. I maintain that bottom ventilation 
will not cause Madresfield Court to crack if it is given judiciously. 
When visiting the gardens at Fernclough in early summer, Mr. 
Herd, the gardener, told me he always left the front ventilators 
open a little night and day, and is never troubled with cracking, and 
he grows this noble Grape as well as anyone need wish to see it. 
He maintains that if there is sufficient heat in the pipes the air 
coming in at the bottom is warmed before it passes through the 
house and up to the Grapes. Be that as it may, I did not observe 
a cracked berry then, nor when looking at them a few weeks ago. 
They were all well-finished bunches about 4 and 5 lbs. in weight. 
It is only right to say they are not so dark in colour as in brighter 
summers. 
We took the hint, and have left front ventilation on our vineries 
ever since, and have not observed a cracked berry. I maintain this 
is sufficient proof that bottom ventilation will not cause cracking 
in Grapes. This is a very wet district in this part of Lancashire, 
and should be a good test of the theory put forth by your corre¬ 
spondent. I believe we would have less of cracking and scalding 
if a little ventilation were left on in front night and day, and 
plenty at the top during the day at stoning time, with sufficient 
heat in the hot-water pipes to maintain the desired temperature.— 
G. Hilton. 
THE NATIONAL AURICULA AND THE NATIONAL 
CARNATION AND PICOTEE SOCIETIES. 
A fully attended meeting of the members of the Committee of 
the London Societies took place, by the kind permission of the Horti- 
cultaral Club, in the rooms at the “ Hotel Windsor,” on Tuesday, the 
11th inst., the Rev. H. H. D’Ombrain in the chair. The minutes of the 
last meeting having been read, it was resolved that the offer of the 
Council of the Royal Horticultural Society to give the sum of £10 to 
each of the Societies be accepted, and it was arranged that the Exhibi¬ 
tion of the National Auricula Society should take place in the Drill 
Hall, Westminster, on Tuesday, April 23rd, in connection with the meet¬ 
ing of the Royal Horticultural Society on that date ; and that of the 
National CarnatioD and Picotee Society on July 23rd, also in conjunction 
with a meeting of the Society. The Council having expressed a desire 
that something in the form of a Conference should take place at each of 
the Shows, having reference to the particular flowers exhibited, by way 
of imparting additional interest to the Society’s meetings, a sub-Com- 
mittee, consisting of the Rev. H. H. D’Ombrain, Messrs. Selfe Leonard, 
R. Dean, and J. Douglas, was appointed to make the necessary arrange¬ 
ments and report at a future meeting of the Committee. The schedule 
of prizes offered at the Exhibition of the National Auricula Society was 
passed in the form in which it appeared at the last Show, and a few 
alterations were made in that of the Carnation and Picotee Society. It 
was decided that yellow ground flowers be no longer shown with seifs 
and fancies, as there is a class for them. That for twelve blooms was 
reinforced by one for six blooms, it being understood that yellow seifs 
can also be shown in these classes. Mr. Douglas having drawn attention 
to the fact that there is in the hands of the Treasurer a balance from the 
two Societies amounting to £40, suggested that a portion of this should 
be invested as a reserve fund, and eventually it was agreed that £25 be 
set apart for the purpose of forming a reserve fund, it being left to the 
Rev. H. H. D'Ombrain, Messrs. Selfe Leonard, and J. Douglas to make 
the best investment they could. The proceedings closed with thanks to 
the Horticultural Club, and also to the Chairman for presiding. 
MEALY BUG IN VINERIES. 
Having read with interest the excellent articles which have 
appeared in the Journal on “ The Vinery in Winter,” I thought I 
would venture to state how I got clear of that terrible pest the mealy 
bug. 
A little over two years ago, when I obtained my present situation, 
the vineries, of which there are two, were terribly infested with the 
pest. The Grapes in one of the houses were so bad that 1 had most of 
them burnt, only leaving a few that were clean to ripen. Some may 
say, Why not burn Vines too, and plant again ? which, for my part, I 
would have gladly done ; but there are always two sides of a question. 
The place was taken on a lease for a short period, so it could hardly be 
expected that we should plant and grow young Vines for a new tenant, so 
1 had to do my best to eradicate the pest. 
As we had other duties pressing, it was almost Christmas before we 
had a start to clean. We had some very hard frosts during the month 
of December, and it was welcomed inside the vineries, throwing the 
