Jsnnar; 5, 188S. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
3 
■next yearly retrospect even the faintest tinge of sadness that the 
pessimist may be able to detect in some of your remarks, and at the 
same time justify the hopeful view you take of the future. Perhaps 
there is no other interest that feels the effects of depressed times 
sooner than horticulture. Nevertheless, those who can carry their 
retrospective glance back for ha'f a century can testify to the 
immense progress that gardening has made, and how it has pretty 
well kept pace with the unexampled progress of the world’s 
commerce. They cannot fail to be impressed with its immense 
expansion and the great change in its position and influence. 
Fifty years since horticulture was but little thought of beyond 
the limits of the gardens of our landed proprietors. In the interval 
it has expanded and overflowed beyond its old boundaries to such 
an extent as might then have been considered extravagant to hope 
•for. Now our wealthy merchints are perhaps the more extensive 
and ardent patronisers of the cultivation of fruits and flowers, and 
fortunately the love of gardening has captm’ed to an extent, once 
■fiever dreamed of, the hearts of the humbler million. No joyful 
festival, sacred or otherwise ; no mournful event takes place without 
their floral accompaniments. Consequently as a commercial pursuit 
its growth has been amazing. Fifty years since there were next to 
no glass houses devoted to commercial gardening to be found 
■except in our leading nursery establishments. These were exclu¬ 
sively devoted to supplying the then comparatively small require¬ 
ments of the, already referred to, landed proprietors’ wants. Now 
these old nursery establishments, though they have multiplied and 
expanded immensely, are insignificant compared to the acres of 
glass houses found in the suburbs of our great commercial hives 
devoted to the production of fruit, plants, and flowers, to meet 
the ever-increasing demands of those who are in “ cities pent.” 
Though perhaps more slowly, yet none the less surely, the 
jscience and art of horticulture have made marked progress, thanks, 
to a very great extent, to the interchange of thought and practice 
'carried on, chiefly by practical men, in the pages of the horticultural 
press—^the progress and growth of which have been no less marked 
than thkt of horticulture itself. In all these respects there are 
.many gains to be counted among a few losses, such as, among the 
latter, the many fine specimens of plants that are now seldom met 
■with, simply because horticulture has become more a domestic 
■Necessity, and these objects, though many of them are gems, do 
not sb ■well adapt themselves to the wants of the time. 
. All this, when at the same time the hybridisers and importers 
'oi plants have been placing new objects In the arena to keep up 
■the ihtetest, and the pot boiling at the same time. Much, or most 
of all this, horticulture owes to cheap glass, and to those marvellous 
triumphs of science, our “ greyhounds of the deep,” our steam 
marine. It would be unfair to leave our scientists and their labours 
out in the cold, and all they have done for us is duly acknow¬ 
ledged. 
In the retrospect there are some points on which we cannot so 
ireely congratulate ourselves, and they should be referred to as nuts 
ior especially our scientific coadjutors to crack. So far as the im¬ 
provement in our fruits is concerned, there has certainly been a 
multiplication of varieties that in some respects is not altogether 
desirable ; but in the quality of fruits there seems to be but little 
or no gain, and it would seem that there are hard-and-fast lines in 
t'lis direction t’lat bvfile human skill. Take, for instance, the 
Black Hamburgh Grape. In spite of all the attempts to improve 
•on it, or to raise a black variety with fruits of superior merit, this 
old variety towers above all rivals for all-round first-c'ass qualities. 
There has not yet been raised a black Grape that even approaches 
it. It can easily be placed in the dessert, for nine out of the twelve 
Wionths. On no other can the palate fall back with such refreshing 
offect for a length of time without cloying. It has an almost, if 
hot quite, an ideal physique, and it is as nearly faultlessly fertile as 
possible, and of no other Grape can all this be said. It would 
really seem that this and certain others of our old varieties of fruits 
-defy the wit, the science, and the art of man to improve on them, and 
Any admixture that can be introduced into their blood only deterior- 
-ates their quality. Mother earth seems by them to say, “You cannot 
•extract from me or cause me to bring forth more good qualities in 
.any one variety.” Concerning white Grapes, the same remarks 
apply with equal force to the Muscat of Alexandria. Numbers of 
white varieties have been raised, but this old variety towers above 
them all in good points, and it can be placed on the table at least 
drom July till March. 
Grapes are not by any means the only fruit that seems to defy 
improvement. The old Queen Pine Apple stands unrivalled, taking 
it all round. The old, old Gooseberries that old men remember to 
have feasted on when they were “ toddling wee things ” are still 
-the best, and would scorn comparison if they could with the coarser 
varieties introduced in the interval. Of Apples, many of the old 
forts have never yet been equalled, and judging from the past are 
mot likely to be soon excelled. 
It would appear that no knowledge accurate enough has yet 
been attained that enables us to produce fruits that excel old types 
in more than perhaps one point or two, and these not of premier 
importance. Can this be a field that is hedged about with an im¬ 
passable barrier, and is there a limit placed by Nature to the en¬ 
hancing of many desirable qualities in one variety ? Perhaps if 
our scientists had devoted as much of their time to this subject as 
they have done to malformation, they might have done something for 
us, and perhaps they might not. It is for them to tell us. Pr.actical 
men seem baffled. Are we, then, to sit down quite contented with 
our old and best types or varieties and despair of getting any to 
excel them ? It is sad to see the public tendency to prefer mere 
size to quality, for in the markets all good qualities must go to the wall 
in the face of size and perhaps colour.—D. Thomson, Dramlanrig. 
DISA GRANDIFLORA. 
As the impression which I am afraid has been generally enter¬ 
tained, that the successful cultivation of this beautiful Cape Orchid 
is attended with some difficulty, becomes removed, its extended 
cultivation will be assured, as no garden should be without a few 
plants of this magnificent cool Orchid. It is sometimes described 
as the flower of the gods. To those who have only seen an isolated 
spike or two in bloom this may appear an exaggerated statement, 
but when seen in grand masses on the margin of streams on the 
Table Mountains as described by Dr. Harvey, those who have been 
successful in its cultivation in this country will be inclined to 
endorse the high encomium as being well deserved. 
That the impression entertained of the difficulty in growing the 
Disa successfully is being removed is evidenced by the many more 
growers who are now taking the plant in hand and growing it weh, 
Messrs. Backhouse of York being perhaps the largest and most 
successful. In order to attain to the greatest success in the 
cultivation of any plant it is useful to know something about 
its native home, but I think especially.so in the case of the Disa 
—not that I consider it necessary or possible to reproduce all 
the natural conditions by artificial means, but the primary con¬ 
ditions must be borne in mind in dealing with the plants and repro¬ 
duced as near as possible. Those conditions as regards the Disa 
cannot be better described than in the words of Dr. Harvey, who 
saw them growing on the summit of Table Mountain. “ This 
summit is very frequently enveloped in the mist, especially at the 
season when the Disa blooms. It is very cold also,^ and the mist 
comes accompanied with a strong, cold, north-east wind ; after this 
succeeds the scorching sun of lat. 33°. The plant only grows along 
the steep boggy, spongy margins of a stream which has water in it 
at all seasons, but which in winter must be so swollen as to cover 
the plant. The margin is completely clothed with the Disa, but 
immediately beyond is a margin of Restios, which bending over 
afford considerable shade to the roots and foliage, leaving the flower 
stalks room to peep out at the sun.” _ 
From this it will be seen that the three most essential conditions 
are—a moist atmosphere with abundance of water at the roots, 
slight shade in hot weather, and a low temperature. I am told the 
plant will not be injured by two or three degrees of frost, but I 
have no experience of this, and should be sorry to expose my plants 
to the grip of Jack Frost even for a moment. The best time for 
potting the Disa I have found to be about the middle of October ; 
all the young growths after flowering will by then have appeared 
above ground, so that there is no chance of damaging them through 
inability to see them. -j 
Our plants are divided every year (and are thereby considerably 
increased in number) and the strongest growths are potted by them¬ 
selves, sometimes one in a 6-inch pot and sometimes five or six 
growths in a pan ; but I find the growths succeed better in p(rts 
than pans. Perforated pots are to be preferred, and in potting the 
plants should be well elevated. The compost I find to suit them 
is sphagnum and peat in equal quantity (all the small sifted out of 
the peat), a liberal supply of small charcoal, and clean crock dust, 
the whole well mixed. 
It is an advantage if the mixture can be prepared a few weeks 
before it is wanted. The position they seem to like is a cool airy 
one ; here they are placed between a door and a ventilator, both of 
which are wide open when the weather is warm. In the winter the 
plants are watered once a week. About February, as growth (mm- 
mences, more water is given, and so on every week as the days 
lengthen, and as soon as the spikes appear they are waters three 
or four times a day. As showing that the plant is not difticult to 
increase, I may say that our stock, which now exceeds 200 plants, 
originated in one small plant a few years ago. The largest spike 
ever grown here was grown last year. It measured 3 feet _ inches 
in length and had on eleven flowers. There are several forms of 
Disa grandiflora in this country, each claiming some superiority 
over the others in the brilliancy of colouring, but my experience 
