242 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r March 22, 1888. 
the mouth, funnel-shaped, with five broad lobes, pure white, and 
possessing a strong fragrance. The plant is a native of Chittagong in 
India, and sent by Dr. Wallich in 1818 to Messrs. Whitley of Fulham, 
with whom it flowered 182.5, and it was figured in the “Botanical 
Kegister ” for that year. A compost of good turfy loam, leaf soil, and 
plenty of sand suits it, and the temperature of a warm conservatory is 
even better adapted for it than an ordinary stove. 
VALUABLE BOTANICAL AND GARDENING! BOOKS. 
It may interest some of your readers to know the price realised for 
certain works on botany and gardening at the recent sale of the Ayles- 
ford Library by Messrs. Christie, Manson, & Woods. Andrew’s Engrav¬ 
ings of Heaths, 4 vols., folio, calf gilt, £18 15s. Besleri Hortus Eystet- 
tensis, 3 vols., £5 5s. Bute, Earl of. Botanical Tables, 9 vols., £60. 
Chandler & Booth’s Camellias, 1 vol., £4. Brunfelsii Herbarium, 2 vols. 
in 1, 27s. Ciusii Exoticorum lib. x., Rariorum Plantarum Historia, 
2 vols., 32s. Edwards’ Botanical Register, 33 vols. and appendix, calf, 
£35. Dethicke’s Gardeners’ Labyrinth, 1 vol., £10. Curtis’s Flora 
Londinensis, £13 10s. Curtis’s Monograph of the Genus Camellia, 
£3 15s. De Tussac Flore des Antilles, 4 vols., £41. Duhamel du 
Monceau Traite des Arbres et Arbustes, &c., 7 vols., £49. Duhamel du 
Monceau Traitd des Arbres Fruitiers, &c., 6 vols., £47. The Grete Her- 
ball, 1526, .£8 8s. Herbalaria Vulgare, 1522, and Plantarum Effigies, 
2 vols., £5. Hooker’s British Jungermannia, .£9 10s. Horticultural 
Society’s Transactions, 10 vols., 78s. Hortus Ericteus Woburnensis and 
two others, 24s. Knight Pomona Herefordiensis, 29s. Hofland, Mrs., 
Description of White-Knights, .£2 15. Noisette et Gautier Jardin 
Fruitier, 45s. Repton’s Fragments on Landscape Gardening, £4 15s. 
Repton’s Sketches and Hints on Gardenin?, £2 4s. Redoute LesLiliacees, 
8 vols., morocco, £47. Redoutd Les Roses, morocco, £23. Redoutd 
Choix des Belles Fleurs, morocco, 1 vol., .£12 10s. Redoute Histoire de 
Plantes Grasses, morocco, 2 vols., .£10 5s. Scott Perfitte Platform of a 
Hoppe Garden, and Mascall, the Arte of Planting and Grading, 1 vol., 
£7 15s. Watson's Dendrologia Britannica, 2 vol.s., £5 15s. This class of 
books seems rising in value. I have several of them and others in my 
library, purchased a few years ago, at much lower prices than those 
recently realised.— William Paul, Waltham Croxx, Herts. 
PROTECTING FRUIT BLOSSOM. 
The articles of “ A Kitchen Gardener ” are always read with interest, 
and these few remarks are not intended to be a criticism on his season¬ 
able notes on the above subject, but merely supplementary. Although 
considerable differenees of opinion exist as to the necessity of protecting 
fruit trees while in bloom, it is generally conceded that in exposed 
situations is more beneficial than otherwise. The greatest difficulty is 
how to protect them effeetively without exceeding the cost of production, 
for any system which does so will not long commend itself to the owners 
of gardens. Now that fruit-growing is so extensively conducted, there 
are doubtless many methods in operation to save the blossom from frosts, 
and if those in charge would publish the systems which they have found 
most successful, in the manner “ A Kitchen Gardener’’ has done, much 
good would doubtless result. I have proved from experience that the 
same practice does not sueceel equally well in all localities. 
A portion of the wall space here chiefly covered with Peaches and 
Apricots was nearly always a failure as regards a crop of fruit, although 
ordinary precautions with nets, as recommended by “ A Kitchen Gar¬ 
dener,” were taken to protect the blossom, and yet a few miles off the 
same kind of protection was as satisfactory in its results, as noted by 
your correspondent. A glass protector proved effectual for most of the 
Peaches, and the difficulty regarding the other trees was met by a 
mode of protection which may be of service to some others similarly 
situated. The scathing effects of east winds are very noticeable on 
walls where there are no buttresses projecting to break their force, or 
where there is no plantation sufficiently high, as in our case. To lessen 
their violence two 9-inch boards braced together are placed close to 
the w.all, jutting out at right angles from it, and fastened by means of 
two screw nails to an iron stay about two-thirds up the wall—this 
proving quite sufficient to steady it. These temporary shelters are 
placed about 30 feet apart and connected at the top furthest from 
the wall by a half-inch rod of iron, the rods being flattened at the ends, 
and a hole made to fit a hook which is screwed into the boards ; this 
forming a continuous length as far as required. To keep the rod from 
sw,aying or bending downwards, brackets to support it are fixed into the 
wall in distances of about 10 feet from each other. Along the top of 
the wall is stretched a wire, and then all is ready for the coping, which 
consists of branches of Yew or any other shrub, between 3 and 4 
feet in length. We find Yew the most suitable, being less liable to be 
caught by the wind than larger leaved varieties, besides being more 
cleaniy. The branches are spread thinly along, barely touching each 
other, the thick end being tied to the wire on the wall, and the other 
end fastened to the rod which it overhangs. The effect of this pro¬ 
tection is very marked. Instead of a crop of Api'icots once in eight years 
there has been a fair crop each year since it has been used ; and on the 
Peach trees—-not inside the protector—where blistered leaves wej’e once 
prevalent scarcely one is seen now. No ill results from the shade of the 
branches is anywhere noticeable, the trees being all as healthy as before 
it was used, and when the work is finished its appearance is not at all 
unpleasing. 
When all danger of frost is over, the protecting branches are taken 
down, and the iron rods unhooked and stowed away overhe.ad in the 
barrow-shed. The boards generally remain a fortnight longer to break 
the force of the wind on the young growth, then they are taken 
down and put away in the same place until required the next season. 
The cost of material is but trifling when its durability is taken into con¬ 
sideration, and the time taken to erect and remove again merely 
nominal.—M. D. 
THE CULTURE OF FREESIAS. 
I AM pleased to see that the few remarks by me on the value of the 
Freesia have found so able a supporter as “J. H. E.” He, however, 
seems somewhat incredulous in regard to my statement respecting their 
powers of reproduction, and gives me credit for more than ordinary 
success. This, however, I cannot admit, having seen equally good 
results obtained by other growers who followed a similar line of culture 
to that described. To verify my statement by one instance, I obtained 
from a grower, who had potted what he required, a few medium-sized 
bulbs. These were placed in half a dozen 32-size pots, flowered well, 
and the following season, after potting, filled eighteen pots of the same 
size. I had remaining both a larger stock and a better sample than tnat 
with which I commenced the previous year. Respecting the time of 
potting I may say that this seems important, and I recommend June or 
July. They can be thoroughly ripened by that time, and the bulbs vviU 
be found one mass of fleshy white roots by the end of September, which 
must surely give them a great advantage over those still in a dormant 
state. The bulb merchant’s catalogue will form but a poor guide to the 
proper time for potting other bulbs besides the Freesia. The early 
ripened must wait for the late.—J. C. A. 
Your correspondent, “ J. H. E.,” page 199, doubts if the Freesia 
will treble its produce of flowering bulbs in one year. I can fully en¬ 
dorse what appeared in a previous number on this subject, as I have 
been growing them for several years, and find that under good cultiva¬ 
tion it is by no means an uncommon occurrence.—FOREMAN. 
A SHORT time back a contributor to the subject of Freesia growing 
stated he had flowered them within twelve months of sowing seed. If 
you think the following worth a note you might insert it in your 
Journal. I sowed seed of Freesia on August 22nd, 1887, and have now 
(March lOth) flowers on some of the plants produced. Is the Freesia 
a recently discovered plant, or is it a new name for an old plant ?—E. T. 
COSSOM, Gardener to the Right Hon. H. Camphell-Bannerinan, M.P., 
Hanton, Kent. 
[Freesia refracta alba has been prominently before the public for 
about ten years, as it was certificated by the Royal Horticultural 
Society in 1878.] 
PROPAGATING TREE CARNATIONS. 
At all times of the year from January to December the flowers of 
Carnations are always welcome. Those who require exceptionally large 
plants and early autumn blooms should strike cuttings in the autumn, 
while the majority who need these flowers when Chrysanthemums are 
past will do well to push on with their propagation at once. The best 
cuttings which can be had for present propagation are those produced 
from the main flowering stems, the young shoots which upon some form 
so readily in the axils of the leaves, in a cool temperature, say from 45“ 
to 50°. They are best when about 3 inches long, and should be detached 
from the parent plant with a heel. Such cuttings as these will need 
little preparation before being inserted, or at the most it may be only 
necessary to remove the lower pair of small leaves. The kind of soil 
well suited for them at this stage is equal parts of lo.am and leaf toil, 
the latter thoroughly decomposed, and the whole made very sandy but 
not very wet. Where there is abundant room at disposal and a gentle 
bottom heat of from 00° to 70° there need not be much trouble in raising 
a good stock of these useful winter flowers. I am much in favour of 
inserting the cuttings singly in very small pots, for this reason—Carna¬ 
tions do not all root at one time, even though the cuttings may be in as 
nearly as possible the same condition when inserted, and to leave them 
in the cutting frame till all are rooted means making those first rooted 
weak and sickly, while to take them out is only done at the sacrifice of 
those not rooted. Another advantage accruing from the single-pot 
method is that the operator is saved the trouble of potting them when 
rooted, as when this is done from store pots ever}' care is requisite to 
prevent their threadlike roots being torn off. 
Depending entirely upon the weather, I do not water my cuttings 
for from four days to a week after insertion, and then give sufficient to 
penetrate the whole of the soil. The pots are plunged two-thirds their 
depth in cocoa fibre refuse, and the frame kept close till they receive the 
first watering, when the lights are left off a sufficient time to allow of 
the tops (cuttings) becoming quite dry. Dewing or sprinkling them 
from time to time is deadly to them, and should be carefully avoided. 
Aphides are often very injurious to the cuttings. As a precautionary 
measure I have in readiness a weak solution of quassia and softsoap, 
into which the cuttings are dipped before being inserted, afterwards 
allowing them to dry thoroughly before being placed in the pots. 
Whether green fly be in existence or not, this is by no means time lost, 
but should they exist even in small numbers, it will be time saved. 
