September 3,1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
201 
Instances occur where it is difficult to find a sound tuber. A few can 
be found, but not many. Tomatoes as an outside crop are about ruined 
by the disease, although a short time since they promised remarkably 
well.— E. Molyneux, Sioanmoro Park. 
- Wasps. —“ We have many wasps now,” writes Mr. F. Geeson, 
Alowdray Park Gardens, Midhurst. “ Our mode of taking the nests is 
to pour a little gasoline into the hole, and stop it up till the wasps are 
■stupefied. We take all nests found within a mile, and also, last May, 
paid for destroying 1GG7 queens at Id. each, £6 18s. lid.” Several 
wasp3 were sent, including young queens, but it does not follow that 
the whole of these, if not caught, would pass the winter and found 
future colonies. It is most desirable, however, to prevent the possibility. 
- Cactus and Decorative Dahlias.—N ew forms of this 
popular section continue to be introduced, and great as have been the 
improvements previously made the latest additions will mark a still 
further step in advance. There has been some tendency to deviate from 
4he true Cactus form, but we are brought back to it by the varieties 
honoured at the Drill Hall last week. Of these one of the most note¬ 
worthy was Robert Cannell, and Swanley Cactus, though less strikingly 
•distinct, is of the correct type. In Kynerith, too, we have a marked 
<id vance, the form being good, and the greenish shade which has dis¬ 
figured so many of the earlier varieties thoroughly worked out. 
- Boccoxia cordata.—T his is an extremely elegant hardy 
herbaceous plant not often met with, but it is really a stately and 
beautiful object, thoroughly adapted for planting on lawns where bold 
■objects are desirable, in positions similar to those in which the various 
■kinds of Pampas Grasses are grown with marked effect. The bold and 
finely cut leaves of this Bocconia are produced on long tapering stems, 
-crowned with panicles of small buff coloured flowers. The panicles 
being light and well proportioned appear at a distance like “ feathery 
plumes,” and are highly prized for associating with Asparagus, Gladiolus, 
and Phloxes in tall trumpet-shaped glasses, and for growing at intervals 
in the back row of herbaceous borders.—H. Dunkin. 
- Town Sewage. —The disposal of town sewage and waste has 
long been the most troublesome question local bodies have had to answer. 
They have dealt with the matter in different ways, in which they have 
been assisted or harassed, as the case may be, by various suggestions and 
■criticisms. Mr. E. R. Shapland now comes to the rescue. He advocates 
in a small pamphlet, published by S. Edgecumbe-Rogers, at Dorset 
House, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, London, the disposal of garbage, 
refuse and sewage, by conveying it in trucks or barges to some selected 
spot and burying it in large trenches, from which, after a natural process 
-of decomposition, it could be dug and sold as manure. In another part 
-of the pamphlet we are told that 70,000 tons of London sewage sludge 
are thrown into the sea every month. If to this we add at least an 
equal weight of dust refuse we have 110,000 tons to be disposed of. 
‘Can Mr. Shapland have thought what it means to collect, load, unload, 
■and trench in 4500 tons of such material every day 1 The problem is 
not to be solved thus. There are far greater possibilities in an extension 
of the Kingston system, where the Native Guano Company evolve a 
•cheap, safe, and useful manure out of itown sewage without endangering 
4he public health. 
- Strawberries.—A small manual by W. H. Harrison, M.A., 
Shrewsbury, on “ How to Grow, Protect, Gather, and Eat Strawberries,” 
•lias been sent to us by the publishers, Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 
The author is an enthusiast, and we have no doubt whatever that he 
grows well the fruit he loves. His teaching, he tells us, is for amateurs, 
an 1 not for professional gardeners. It contains many sensible hints— 
some good grain, but mixed with a large amount of chaff ; or, in other 
words, though readable, is tautological, and as the author himself 
■suggests, egotistical. He cannot have had much experience wfith 
gardeners, as he tell us he allows his Strawberry beds to become 
crowded with runners when he has not time to cut them away, because 
he has “ never found a man sufficiently educated in Strawberry culture 
to entrust with the task—not one with sufficient judgment to know 
which of the runners should be taken and which should be left.” This, 
he goes on to say, may seem “very egotistical,” and that is just what 
gardeners will think it is, as will those experienced amateurs who know 
how thoroughly competent many of their professional friends are in 
growing, gathering, showing, and winning prizes for fruits weighing 
from 1£ oz. to 2 ozs. each. There really are men who know how to cut 
off Strawberry runners, though our author ha3 “ not had the good 
fortune to meet with them.” It seems a pity he has not succeeded in 
training one during lii3 experience of thirty years. The work is weak¬ 
ened by a number of words andi sentences in italics. Yet it may be 
useful to discriminating amateurs. 
- The Squire and the Schoolmaster.—A squire down in 
Essex, Mr. W. Mellis of Stewardstone, has, it is said, caused to be 
numbered all the fruit trees in the parish, and he keeps these numbers 
in a register at the Hall, with the proper name of the variety appended 
to each. The schoolmaster, Mr. Spink, has drawn up a graduated 
Bcheme for teaching fruit culture as a specific subject to his scholars. 
This has been sanctioned by the Education Department of the Govern¬ 
ment. The children will first be taught the botany of the Apple 
blossom and fruit, followed by the difference between seedling and 
parent, planting, mulching, summer and winter pruning, thinning the 
fruit, insect pests, packing and storing the fruit. This will constitute 
the first stage. The second stage deals with the food of fruit trees, 
manures, course of sap, and the third the art of propagation. 
- Nicotiana affinis. —“L. G., Chester ,” writes very positively 
in reference to the duration of Nicotiana affinis, p. 15G. He is quite 
mistaken in affirming that it is a hardy annual, for the growth above 
ground is exceedingly tender, and any seedlings appearing in the autumn 
would most assuredly be killed to the ground line by the first nip of 
frost. Other self-sown plants would come up in the spring, as Balsams 
and Portulacas do, in which case it would be termed a tender annual. 
However the plant may conduct itself in Cheshire, I have long since 
regarded it here (near Bristol), as a hardy perennial. Only last spring 
I dug up a clump of old roots that had started into growth in order to 
transplant some elsewhere. No artificial protection had been given 
during the late severe winter, and I am not sure that it is not ?s hardy 
as Bindweed, but there is nothing of the “ hardy annual ” about it, in 
this country at least.—T. S., Uenbury Hill. 
- The London Plane Trees have begun to shed their bark 
this year somewhat earlier than usual, 3ays a daily paper. The cir¬ 
cumstance is the more curious, as though we have had some hot days, 
there has been plenty of air and a good deal of rain. Generally 
speaking, the trees seem in excellent condition. Where there is a 
failure the authorities should make a note now, and renew at the proper 
time. The trees seem to grow better in the heart of the city than in 
its outskirts. Those along the Thames Embankment are peculiarly 
flourishing. In Trafalgar Square they have dwindled a little. The 
tree in the north-east corner seems dying, and another near it on the 
east side wants a little looking to. Of course the source of delicacy is 
not city smoke, but sewer gas. In front of the National Gallery well 
clipped Bay trees, growing in roomy tubs—the gift of the Metropolitan 
Gardens Association—give a little grateful colour where it is most 
needed. The success is so great—the green looks so well next the grey 
stone—that it is curious the experiment is not pushed a little further. 
The yard between the railing and the facade of the building might 
easily be sodded over. London is greener than most large cities, but 
there is still room for much improvement. 
- Heuchera sanguinea.—A little tuft of this “ Alum Root,” 
which was risked to all the rigours of the late winter, is now in full 
bloom. This fact, taken with the notes of other cultivators in various 
parts of the north-east, proves that this excellent plant is, beyond all 
doubt, hardy as far north as Boston at leas'-. Few plants of recent 
introduction have attracted such widespread attention, and the number 
of those as well worthy of cultivation is still smaller. It was intro¬ 
duced from Mexico about ten years ago, and the exertions of propa¬ 
gators were re-warded by rapid distribution in Europe. The demand 
for the plant is still strong across the ocean, and it now finds a ready 
sale in this country. The uncertainty as to its hardiness was the prin¬ 
cipal cause of the neglect which it has hitherto suffered from American 
growers of hardy plants, but it is likely to receive ample attention in 
future. The plant forms a close mas3 of pale green lobed leaves, the 
entire cluster of foliage being about 8 or 9 inches high. The erect, 
loose panicles of bright salmon-red flowers attain a height of from 18 
to 24 inches, and are produced in large quantity. When in bloom, in 
established masses, the plant is a never-failing source of gratification. 
There are, at the present time, many more striking hardy plants in 
bloom, but certainly none more pleasing. This Heuchera thrives best 
in a light and moderately rich soil. The be3t situation is one where 
the roots will be moderately dry in winter, and which affords moisture 
and partial shade in summer. Propagate by dividing the plants early 
in the season before growth commences.—(A merican Garden and 
Forest .) 
