168 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Marcb 1, 188 a 
glass, blit the quality of the fruit was not what our Mereditlis, 
Thomsons, AVildsmiths, Colemans, and Castles can obtain, so the 
idea fell to the ground. But if the most celebrated of physiologists 
and histologists—Sachs—is right, there was something in General 
Pleasanton's idea after all. 
Speaking of light, I remember the late Dr. AV. Siemens asserted 
that the electric light had the same effects on vegetation as solar 
light, and he attempted to prove its efficiency for forcing purposes. 
!Now 1 hear of the ghastly destruction of Palms, Tree Ferns, and 
ether choice decorative vegetation in the electric-lighted conserva¬ 
tories in Russia and also in Paris. Nature is jealous, and time 
brings in his “ whirligig of revenges ” after all. 
Movixri Fouwako.—N ow that some of us are pushing on the 
movement in favour of English plant names, as additions useable 
in co-operation with the Latin names, it is pleasant to find that our 
German cousins are also agitating in favour of their own tongue 
instead of Latin as used for prescriptions. “ A Berlin contem¬ 
porary informs its readers that the famous surgeon. Dr. Esmarch, 
is the leader of an attack upon ‘ Apothecaries’ Latin,’ and he is 
supported in this campaign, on behalf of common sense in medicine, 
by several of the most eminent physicians and medical professors 
in Germany. He asks why a foreign tongue should still be em¬ 
ployed by physicians in writing their prescriptions when a general 
expulsion of foreign terms and phrases and the substitution of 
their German equivalents has become the order of the day. A 
pharmaceutical lexicon is being prepared for the use of doctors and 
chemists, so as to assist them in prescribing and making up pre¬ 
scriptions in the tongue understoid by the people.” 
Bekry-hkauixg Peiixettya.s —“The Pernettya is a very 
pretty small-leaved hardy evergreen shrub, with small white Heath¬ 
like flowers in early summer, followed by the bright berries, which 
give the plant a very ornamental appearance during the autumn 
and winter, and which w’ere often retained till succeeded by the 
flowers the following season. It is now some thirty years since 
the first seedlings were raised by Mr. L. T. Davis in the Ogles 
Grove nursery at Hillshorough, Co. Down, from Pernettya angusti- 
folia, the hardiest and best free-fruiting variety ci Pernettya 
mucronata then in cultivation, which produced several distinct 
sorts, varying considerably in foliage, habit, and colour of the 
berries. From the most promising of these another lot of seedlings 
was grown, and so on from subsequent raisings, till a collection has 
now' been produced of very great merit, for varietjq hardiness, and 
free-fruiting character. The varieties of Pernettya mucronata 
will succeed in any good light soil, but prefer an open situation, if 
not exposed too much to cold east or north winds. Their berries 
are quite harmless, and although not palatable, may be eaten with 
impunity.” 
The above is Mr. Davis’s own account of these charming little 
shrubs, and the following is a selection of the best kinds :— 
P. mucronata alba, profuse white berries, tinged flesh on the sunny 
side ; P. m. atro-coccinea (small-leaved), bright crimson berries ; 
P. m. carnea nana, dwarf, flesh pink ; P. m. lilacina macrocarpa, 
large puce-coloured fruits ; P. m. macrocarpa, large crimson berries ; 
P. m. sanguinea, crimson red, approaching scarlet. Mixed seedlings 
are very pretty. 
Colour Effects. —The author of the paragraph quoted below 
from the “ Popular Science Monthly ” says “ in what w'ay animals 
are affected by colour is not very well understood,” but supposing 
that man is a red-coated animal, and that he goes into a meadow 
containing a “ gentleman cow,” I believe it is etiquette for one of 
them to retire. This one animal does in deference to the other. 
It is the man who retires. Flying is not difficult sometimes ! 
“ There are some other curious things in regard to the way in 
which the human mind is affected by colours as well as the human 
sight. AVe are all familiar with what is termed colour-blindness 
and the unexpected results that sometimes attend it; but colour- 
sound is something which has received much less investigation. 
How' much or in w'hat way animals are affected hy colours is not 
very well understood ; but the subject has been investigated 
enough to know that they are influenced by them, and the future 
will probably bring out some surprising results to the one who 
shall thoroughly cultivate this comparatively unexplored field of 
research.” It is a well known and most remarkable fact that some 
blind persons have the nerve centres at their finger tips so ex¬ 
quisitely sensitive that they can actually and infallibly recognise 
various colours by the sense of touch. Blacklock, a celebrated 
Scottish poet of his day, possessed this ability in a marked degree, 
and tradition tells of a noted silk buyer who was the very reverse 
of colour-blind, although what is usually termed sightless or blind. 
A visitor the other day was looking at Laslia anceps, and startled 
me by saying it was of a lovely blue colour ! He could see all 
coloursexcept red,so that to him purple flowers appeared as blue one^^. 
Flower Fragrance. —Nothing in a garden of beautiful flowers 
is so subtly delicate, so deliciously satisfying to cultured people, as 
the fragrance of leaves and blossoms. Fragrance is an open book 
that everybody reads a little, but it is mainly written in faint 
hieroglyphics that nobody can understand. Scent and flavour are 
not reproduceablc in words or in pictures. You must in the mam 
go to Nature for them direct, always if you want them of the best. 
I believe coal tar and rotten cheese and cowdung and other nasty 
unmentionable things do in the hands of the chemist mimic the- 
flower odours pretty well, just as vanilla is made from Pine tree 
saw'dust, and indigo from I know not what. Science is baffled so 
far by sweet smells. “ It has been shown that the odoriferous^ 
molecule of Musk is infinitessimally small. No power has yet been 
conceived to enable the. human eye to see one of the atoms of the 
Musk, yet the organs of smell have the sensitiveness to detect^ one. 
Their smallness cannot even be imagined, and the same grain of 
Musk undergoes absolutely no diminution in weight. A simple- 
drop of the oil of Thyme ground down with a piece of sugar and a 
little alcohol will communicate its odour to 25 gallons of -water. 
Haller kept for forty years paper perfumed with 1 grain of 
ambergris. After this time the odour was as strong as ever. 
Bordenave has evaluated a molecure of camphor, sensible to the 
smell, to 2,262,584,000th of a grain. Boyle has observed that one- 
drachm of assafeetida exposed to the open air had lost in six days thfr 
eighth part of a grain, from which Keill concludes that in one 
minute it had lost l’f)9-220th of a grain.” This is most interesting, 
and I need scarcely ask why we find musk in rats and in oxen, as 
well as in our own familiar “ Musk plants ?"’ Everybody kno-ws- 
the story of the old woman’s test for “ a real princess.” She was¬ 
te sleep on the uppermost of fifteen feather beds, and the beldame- 
h-ad placed a Rose petal once folded betw-een the two lowermost beds. 
“ There !” said she, “if she is a real princess of our line she will 
I ot sleep a wink, and in the morning will complain of the ruckled 
up style of our beji-making.” AA^e want a delicate sensitiveness of: 
this kind to appreciate perfume, especially such subtleties as the 
odour of “ the Strawberry leaves a-dying,’’ or the bursting of the- 
L'me, Cherry, and Chestnut buds in spring. In a word we must 
have a smeller-garten and cultivate our noses. As it is the manufac¬ 
turing chemist can make us swallow- anything he likes under old 
familiar names. Beetroot spirit is gin, rum, sherry, whiskey, or 
brandy, just as he likes, and all done by a few added drops of 
colouring, scent, and flavouring from a bottle. Artificial eggs and 
Nutmegs, and Singapore Pine Apple made from Turnips from 
Sweden, are mere trifles to him. 
Bediung Out. —I believe it is now considered heresy and schism 
to breathe the once sacred name of bedding out, but that good old 
custom as rightly used is not quite banished as yet from our- 
gardens, nor wdll it be for all time to come. Bedding out is “ not 
for an age but for all time.” AA’^e need not go to Heckfield Place to 
see Mr. AA’'ildsmith’s beautiful flower beds ; the best place to see- 
bedding out is in the now many good gardens in w-hich hardy plants,, 
herbaceous and alpine, are the vogue. You must tread softly in 
such places, and there is a particular language or shibboleth, only 
current in tlae parterres of the good people to whom it has become 
a fetich, of the most satisfactory kind. It is a change of names 
rather than a change of systems, and what in Lobelia and seaside 
Cineraria once was “ a bed ” is now called “ an arrangement ” by 
the votaries of hardy flowers. But it is a perfectly harmless foUy ; 
it is like playing at soldiers or at whist with a dummy—very 
amusing and instructive as far as it goes. Formerly in the spring 
days w-e used to have orderly beds of Crocus, Squills and Iris, or 
dw-arf Daffodils, e.asily cultivated and easily protected ; but now 
these bulbs are grouped, massed, or arranged on the grass, the 
arrangement in nine cases out of ten being a vexation to all con¬ 
cerned. The bulb dealers do not object to it for planting bulbs by 
the' cartload on ithe grass and in groups under trees, and under 
fresh carpets is very good for trade. To quote the poet, they— 
* * « “- die 
As your Lours do, and dry 
Away 
Like to the s'lmmer’B raio. 
Or, as tbe pearls of morning’s de-w. 
Ne'er t> be found again. -” 
Hotv TO Raise Fine Flowers. —There are two ready w'ays of 
doing this—good cultivation and judicious cross-fertilisation, or 
cross-breeding as it is sometimes called Good cultivation in the 
open air— i.e., for hardy flowers, consists in deep digging and ample 
supplies of well-rotted manure or of fresh cowdung to the soil. On 
some soils lime is an advantage, and on all soils soot is one of the 
mo.st stimulating of manures if dug into the soil so as to become 
thoroughly incorporated. 
Indoors and in pots good fibrous loam, leaf mould, and dried' 
cow manui e forms a compost in wdiich nearly all quick-gi-owing or 
soft wooded plants do well. It should be made ver-y firm around 
the roots at the last potting, and the best w’ay of apulymg manure 
