364 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f Hay 3, 188». 
- According to a paper in the Board of Trade Journal for 
April, the production of attar of Roses constitutes one of the most 
inportant branches of native industry in Bulgaria. The valley of 
Ke*anl}'k, known as the Vale of Roses, is the centre of this pro¬ 
duction, which extends as far as Carlovo, and the villages which lie 
sheltered from the north wind by the vast chain of the Great Balkans. 
In 1885, and no later statistics have been published, the manufacture of 
attar of Roses in the district indicated amounted to a value of 1,100,000 
francs. 
- A New Holly.—W e are informed that at the sale of the 
Lawson Nursery Stock at Bangholm, Edinburgh, last week, the new 
Golden Variegated Hodgins Holly, which originated in the Bangholm 
Nursery, Edinburgh, consisting of twenty-four plants, was sold to Messrs. 
Little & Ballantyne, Carlisle, this being the entire stock. Assuming the 
variegation is clear and constant, and the plant inherits the free growth 
of the type, this “ Golden Hodgins ” should be an acquisition. 
- Messrs. Oakshott and Millard request our opinion on 
s.amples of Cinerarias that have been presented for examination. One 
of the blooms exceeds 3 inches in diameter, and though the others do 
not quite equal it in size, they are good in form, substance, and 
coloration. We have not yet received a bloom exceeding in size the 
one sent by Mr. R. Owen that was referred to on page 352 last week, 
and when we do the circumstance shall be recorded. 
- A Berkshire correspondent appeals for information as fol¬ 
lows “ Can any of your contributors inform me if either of the 
Lawn Edging Cutters in the market give really satisfactory results ! 
Some few years since I tried one of them, but from the impossibility of 
varying the depth of the cut to suit the depth of edge it turned out 
a failure with us. I should be very glad to learn that this difficulty has 
been surmounted, as we have something like a third of a mile of edging 
to keep in order, and the labour of doing it wdth the shears is a great 
tax on the gardener.” 
- We are informed that Messrs. Shirley Hibberd and H. Hcrbst 
have been added to the Committee of Management of the Chiswick 
Gardens. 
A PROPAGATING PAN. 
At the last meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, Messrs. 
Thos. Pascall & Sons, South Norwood Pottery, S.E., exhibited samples of 
a new propagating pan, and the Floral Committee recommended that it 
be sent to Chiswick for trial. It is very simple, as the accompanying 
cut (fig. 46) indicates, and is likel3' to be found useful by amateurs and 
others who have few conveniences for propagating plants. The trough is 
hollowed on the under surface, so that it fits evenly on hot-water pipes. 
The lower part is filled with water,'and upon two small ridges at the side 
a perforated tile rests, the soil in which the cuttings are to be inserted 
being placed on this. The top can be covered with a piece of glass, and 
most softwooded plants, like Alternantheras, strike readily. The 
troughs are 14 inches long, 64 inches wide, C inches deep, and the bottom 
is m.ade to fit a 4-inch hot-water pipe. 
GLADIOLI NOTES. 
With regard to “ A Northern Amateur’s ” destructive criticism of 
what you were good enough to publish at p. 319 I do not think a better 
reply could be found than is furnished by the notes from Mr. Murphy, 
which precede those of your correspondent. That gentleman “ cannot 
justly complain of disease, exhaustion, or degeneration,” and then follows 
*• one of the great agencies which command success.” “ The conns must 
be ripened or failure will result.” When, may I ask, was the culture of 
the Gladiolus at its lowest ? Was it during the hot summers between 1867 
and 1876 ? During that period we know that the Gladiolus was established 
as a florists’ flower, and nothing waAthen heard of any difficulty in keeping 
it. But by the time the disastrous seasons of 1879, 1880, and 1881 had 
passed the hope of keeping stock of the Gladiolus had been so lessened 
that “ D., Deal," myself, and perhaps others, had simply to advise tho 
purchasing of stock every season. Last jmar we entered on, let ushoi)e, 
another series of hot summers, when the difficulty of ripening the conns 
will be overcome. For my own part, I can only repeat that want of 
maturation and not disease has been the difficulty I have had to contend 
with. A few points of your correspondent’s letter I maj^ be allowed to 
reply to. First as to French corms being badly diseased. For the past 
few j'ears 1 have had mj' stock from Messrs. Stuart & Jlein of Kelso. 
These are imported directly from France, and I cannot say I have found 
a diseased corm among any of them parcels. Curiously enough this 
firm, though growing sometimes not more than seventy corms, is 
peculiarly successful when exhibiting. I believe they have beaten both 
Messrs. Kelway & Son, who grow twenty acres, and Mr. Campbell of 
Gourock, who has no difficulty in staging 150 spikes at one show after 
another. 
Secondly, I do not know why some sorts do not succeed here any 
more than I do not know why certain Pansies and Carnations and 
Picotees do not. However, the fact remains. 
Thirdly, I certainly grow Gladiolus primarily as decorative plants. 
Some of the varieties I favour are so beautiful as regards colouring that 
I must say I have little sympathy with anyone who would neglect them 
on account of a lack of size or shape of flower or length of spike. The 
men who measure the beauty of the Gladiolus by inches and feet are 
few. 
Fourthly, Your correspondent is entirely in the wrong in assuming 
that the plant which I referred to as producing seventy-eight single 
flowers did not do so from one single growth. Moreover, it was from 
the half of a cut-up corm, its twin being very little behind in number 
of blooms. The rest of your correspondent’s note hardly calls for re¬ 
mark —B. 
At last, April 23rd, I have finished planting my small stock, not above 
500 roots, and during all my long experience of the plant I have never 
been so late. The very unfavourable state of the weather, and conse- 
qiientlj' of the ground, hinder.d me for some time, and then a sharp 
attack which laid me by for a week hindered me, and it was only by 
snatching bits of times that I was enabled to get it done. I cannot say 
that I look very hoiiefully to my bloom this year owing to this. I do 
not so much mind the lateness of the season as the unkin Illness of the 
ground. 
I am, as j'our correspondent calls me, an “ old time ” correspondent ; 
but perhaps he means that I am so wedded to theories that I cannot 
give them up when I see good reason for so doing, if my consistency is 
delicious to him, his splendid begging of the question is beyond all 
praise. When I have maintained that the Gladiolus is subject to a disease 
which is often fatal, and is more so in some seasons than in others, I am 
not stating a mere theory. Years ago I submitted corms to that most 
distinguished vegetable physiolog'si-, the Rev. M. Berkeley, and he 
distinctly stated it was a dise.ase similar to that which attacked the 
corms in Holland. Some I'ears later I submitted corms to Mr. 
Worthington Smith, who carefully examined them, and published in 
the Gardeners' Chronicle engravings of dissections he made of the 
roots, and clearly established that it was a disease, and so I have seen 
no reason to alter my opinion. This year, as I have stated, amongst 
some corms that I reared in a frame were some so “ evil ” that I could 
not plant them. I sent two up to an authority, and the verdict is 
the same, bad examples of the Gladiolus disease. Happy are those 
growers who know nothing of it. I have often heard the same cry 
from other growers, but after a time somehow or other they lose their 
corms, although, as they have determined that there is no disease, some 
other reason must be found for it. As I have said, however, the prices 
of Gladioli are now so much lowered, and the very best varieties can be 
obtained at so moderate a cost, that the losses by disease or any other 
cause can be readily supplied. 
There is, of course, a greater difficulty in harvesting the late-flower¬ 
ing varieties, such as Duchess of Edinburgh and Phoebus, but when your 
correspondent says anyone who knows the former of these two varieties 
“ will see the impossibility of growing it a second year,” there is a 
complete begging of the question. So far from that being the case, the 
• corms which I planted this year were at least four years old, and each of 
them when harvested measured 10 inches round, and were in perfectly 
sound condition. As I have alreadj' said, I think that one of the best 
ways to remedy this defect of ripening in the later blooming sorts is to 
leave them in the ground longer. They may be left there until the first 
week of December, and unless it is a very wet autumn no injury arises. 
I do not think there is much danger of their throwing out fresh roots, 
a fear I once had myself. I believe that as soon as the new corm is 
formed on the top of the old one it throws out fleshy roots, and the effect 
of leaving them in the ground will be simiily to make them a little more 
vigorous, but not to detract from the strength of the corm ; but after 
all, perhaps the best waj- is not to have much to say to these late bloom¬ 
ing varieties. I know none of them that is not equalled in colour 
and beauty by those which flower at more seasonable times, and I can¬ 
not see much use in growing kinds of which it is verj' doubtful whether 
you will ever get a bloom, and therefore I think that after this year I 
shall not attempt to grow anv of those contained in division 4 of my 
list. 
There will be always a difference of opinion with regard to varieties, 
and wonder expressed why some are omitted in anv- list given,- and why 
