130 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 13, 1835. 
no'common loes to the cause the readers cf this Journal have so much at 
heart.—D., Dial. 
PUSCHK1NIA LIBANOTICA COMPACTA. 
This small genus of Liliaceae according to Baker’s monograph in¬ 
cludes only two species— i.e., P. scilloides and P. hyacinthoides. They 
are closely allied to Scillas on the one hand and Ornithogalums on the 
other, the [habit and general appearance of the plants coming much 
nearer the former. 
P. scilloides, under which is included libanotica, typical, the variety 
illustrated in the accompanying drawing, and also sicula figured in the 
“ Flore des Serres,” is amongst the most welcome of our early spring¬ 
flowering bulbs, coming in early in March and lasting until the end of 
April, a time when flowers are most wanted. P. libanotica is not unlike 
Scilla"amoena in habit, about 6 inches high, throwing up two or three 
radical narrow lanceolate leaves, and sheathing the flower stem a third of 
their length. The flowers are collected in a loose cluster or corymbose 
head, a little larger and deeper in colour than the ordinary P. scilloides. 
In the variety compacta the head is dense, flowers more numerous, and. 
having a more distinct blue-coloured midrib running up each segment 
Dotted here and there on the rockery or mixed border, they look very gay 
during their season, and we hope to see them treated in the same way as 
the Croci and Daffodils in the woodlands. 
L’ke several other bulbs of similar habit the Puschkinias can also be 
grown in pots with advantage, and if introduced into the conservatory or 
greenhouse they are useful for arranging in the front of the shelves o r 
stages. When treated in this way they are preferably grown several in a 
jot, like the Scillas, for otherwise they do not produce so good an effect.—M. 
PEACHES OUTDOORS. 
We may fairly suppose that the young shoots have gone through the 
processes of “ thinning out ” and training; also, that gross shoots have 
been pinched or stopped. In the early part of the month the fruit 
commences its last swelling, or, in southern counties, in the latter part 
of July ; and this is the time I select for what may be termed a general 
stopping of the young sprays. This I have practised for years, and see no 
reason to depart from it. One effect speedily follows this procedure ; 
that portion of the foliage which had been but recently produced attains a 
full development, and, if course, is in a position to add to the productive 
stores of the tree instead of taking from them. We all know that good 
Vine-dressers do not encourage the very latest growth on their 1 ines ; 
they pick them away, for reasons very similar to those urged for the 
Peach and Nectarine. 
It may be readily imagined that stopping the enlargement or extension 
of a deciduous tree, in July or August, by checking all excessive demands 
for the ascending sap, must tend to a solidification of the wood ; and the 
latter we call ripening. Since, however, it is seldom that all portions of a 
fruit tree are equally balanced as to strength, this is the very occasion to 
establish an equilibrium as far as art can effect it. It so happens that 
this stopping is highly conducive to this end, when managed judiciously, 
as I have often proved. Of course, as a general principle, the pinching a 
shoot in full growth has a direct tendency to stop its enlargement. If 
anyone doubt this, let him take some plant or tree on which to try the 
experiment; let him select two boughs, and pinch the one, and leave the 
other unpinched—such, followed np through a couple of years, will soon 
convince him of the truthfulness of this point, 
Now, judicious “ stopping ” I have for many years made the ground¬ 
work of all attempts at equalising the power of the branches of Peach 
and other fruit trees. We have stopped the point of every shoot which 
needed no farther enlargement, and have equally refrained from stopping 
those which required an accession of sap, to bring them into a posi ion to 
compete with the superior branches. I urge that all pains be taken to 
ripen the wood as well as frnit during the month of August. It is scarcely 
too much to affirm that on this month, more than any other, depends the 
success of the ensuing year.—E. R. 
THE HISTORY OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
( Continued from page 105.) 
Returning to Mr. Salter, we learn that at the period first men- 
tioned in this chapter (1850) the flowers most frequently seen in the 
exhibitions which are still with us were Annie Salter, Beauty, 
Christine, Nonpareil, Phidias, Queen of England, &c., and that a 
great improvement had taken place in the interval of some fifteen 
years after that date. . . 
Among the principal attractions in the great metropolis during 
the late autumn months the exhibitions of the Chrysanthemum at the 
Inner Temple must not be omitted. Here there are some thousands 
of these plants handsomely and effectively arranged in the two glass 
houses under the respective care of Mr. Newton and Mr. Wright. 
The former is well known among all Chrysanthemum growers as. the 
able successor of Mr. Broome, while the latter occupies the position 
formerly held by Mr. Dale ; and although it is generally believed that 
Mr. Wright is a comparatively young grower, it is a matter of fact 
that the extent 1 of his show and the number and quality of his flowers 
were, last season, quite on a par and as well deserving of complimen¬ 
tary notice as those of his rival. In 1859 the number of varieties 
grown at the Temple are stated to have been 500, but this is probably 
a very much smaller number than that which the two exhibitions 
comprise nowadays. 
The collection possessed by Mr. Salter in 1860 amounted to 750 
distinct varieties, of which no less than two-thirc's were large-flower¬ 
ing kinds, 150 of them having been raise! in England, and the remain¬ 
ing one-third were Pompons, mostly of French origin. 
The chief events in the history of the Chrysanthemum have now 
been brought down to something like a recent date, and as yet the 
florists of England, France, and the Channel Islands had by careful 
cultivation produced varieties of a far superior type to anything yet 
imported from the far east. As a matter of fact, it is extremely 
doubtful whether it had been considered necessary for the past thirty 
years or so to introduce anything of the kind from China or Japan 
excepting the two small-flowering Pompon kinds introduced by Mr. 
Fortune. There was, however, in Mr. Salter’s opinion still room for 
further improvement, and others were also inclined to think so, 
especially in the varieties not of a white or yellow colour. He says, 
“ Let it not, however, be supposed that this plant has now attained to 
such a degree of perfection as to leave no room for further improve¬ 
ment. Many additions are still necessary before even our ideal can 
be reached. . . . The improvements which have already taken 
place warrant the belief that much more may be achieved, and no 
enterprising florist will rest satisfied until he sees combined with per¬ 
fection of form that diversity of colour which at present only exists 
in his imagination.” It is doubtful whether at the time he wrote those 
prophetic words he was aware of the earliest efforts of a French 
florist who at that very time was commencing the culture of the 
Chrysanthemum, and who was destined to become in his own 
particular section the greatest rival Mr. Salter or any other individual 
raiser ever had, and to whom fuller reference will be made a few 
pages further on. 
Somewhere about the year 1860-2 that enterprising plant collector 
and traveller, Mr. Fortune, introduced from Japan seven varieties of 
new and distinct kinds, which he, with his usual intuition in matters 
of this sort, felt certain would create almost a revolution in the 
Chrysanthemum world. In describing his discovery of them he says 
of the town of Ah-sax-saw that this place “ is most famed in the 
vicinity of Yedo for the variety and beauty of its Chrysanthemums. 
