146 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND C011AGE GARDENER. 
[ August 1J, 1885. 
heat to rise to 80° to 85° and to 90° after closing, with plenty of atmo¬ 
spheric moisture, and before night admit a little air to allow of the escape 
of any moisture. No fire heat will be necessary unless the weather be 
unusually cold. Maintain a good moisture by sprinkling available sur¬ 
faces at closing time and as necessitated by the weather. 
Houses of Ripe Grapes. —Give abundance of air and keep the nigtJ 
temperature low, with sufficient fire heat to prevent the condensation cJ 
moisture on the berries. Damp the floors and paths on fine days— i.e , 
mornings. Black Grapes will be the better for a slight shade for a few 
hours when the sun is shining on houses that are not well filled with clean 
healthy foliage. 
Melons. —Late plants, which will now be setting their fruits, should, 
as soon as they begin to swell, have the fruit thinned to three or four to 
each plant, leaving, of course, the best situated and most even-shaped. 
Damping the plants and house morning and evening during bright days, 
and when the temperature is likely to fall below 70° at night fire heat 
should be employed to prevent it. Ventilate freely on all favourable 
occasions, and close about three o’clock with sun heat at 85°, and raise it 
to 90° with plenty of atmospheric moisture. Fire heat should be em¬ 
ployed if necessary to maintain a day temperature of 70° to 75°. Let the 
plants when necessary have a good soaking of liquid manure, not too 
strong and in a tepid state, at the roots when the fruit is swelling, which 
will greatly assist their development. Keep the laterals closely pinched, 
not allowing them to interfere with the principal foliage, the foliage being 
kept so thin as to allow of the free access of light and air, thereby secur¬ 
ing a proper elaboration of the sap, and consequently firm, heavy, well- 
flavoured fruit. 
Plants growing in dung frames will need water sparingly either at 
the roots or overhead, as, the days getting shorter, there will be a conse¬ 
quent prolongation of atmospheric moisture. With the soil in a proper 
condition as to moisture very little will be needed after this, as the roots 
push into the fermenting material and there find a congenial moisture and 
a good supply of stimulating food. In ripening Melons in frames much 
depends on the sun heat; especially is this the case with late crops— 
therefore every opportunity that presents itself should be taken advan¬ 
tage of by closing early every afternoon, and on bright warm afternoons 
damp the plants lightly at closing time. In order to assist late plants in 
swelling their crops linings will be advantageous, and mats over the lights 
on cold nights. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Selaginella denticulata (Kraussiana ).—This is without doubt the best 
of all Mosses to grow for furnishing the surface soil of the various plants 
used for room-decoration during the winter months. It is useful for a 
variety of other purposes in arrangements that have to be made effective. 
To have it in good condition during winter it must be planted in shallow 
pans or boxes without delay. Hitherto we have found it most useful in 
pans a little more than 1 inch deep and about 7 or 8 inches in diameter ; 
well-furnished plants in 2 and 3-inch pots are also serviceable. When 
established in shallow pans it can be lifted with the soil attached to the 
roots, and then lasts more than double the length of time that would be 
the case if established in a greater depth of soil, which would have to be 
removed from the roots before the plants could be used. If sprays are 
planted thickly in pans and started into growth in a close, moist, heated 
house or pit, they will quickly take to the new soil and become established. 
After this the growth will be firmer in a cool temperature, and will last 
better in rooms accordingly. 
Panicum variegatum. —This is very useful for decoration in 3-inch pots, 
and to have these in the best possible condition for autumn and winter no 
time should be lost in inserting cuttings thickly. These strike best in a 
close frame shaded from the sun, and when once rooted may be grown in 
the stove or any warm moderately moist structure until they grow thickly 
and are well-furnished plants, when a slightly lower temperature will suit 
them. 
Isolepis gracilis. —Decidedly the best of all green plants for fringing 
the conservatory or greenhouse stage during the winter months. To have 
plants luxuriant during that period a number should be divided without 
delay and placed in 3-inch pots in any moderately rich soil. Alter potting, 
the plants should be kept close for about a fortnight, then grown under 
cool conditions ; plants so treated will be ready for use by the middle or 
end of October. When these plants crowd their pots with roots before 
autumn they not unfrequently turn yellow during the winter months, and 
present anything but an attractive appearance. When repotted about this 
time they usually retain a beautiful healthy green appearance during the 
whole of the winter months. One or two applications ot Standen’s or 
other artificial manure during the winter assists them considerably. 
Roman Hyacinths. —The bulbs are remarkably fine this year and 
cheaper than usual, which will allow of a greater quantity being grown 
to yield white fragrant flowers for cutting and other forms of decoration. 
No Hyacinths are more serviceable for cutting than these, and those who 
require a good supply of flowers should pot bulbs at once, and in batches 
at intervals of a month until the end of October. If this is done a 
constant supply of flowers may be maintained from the middle of October 
until the middle of March. For decoration in pots the bulbs should be 
placed five or six together in 5-inch pots ; if for cutting, thickly together 
in pans and boxes. One crock will be ample at the base of the pots. A 
little sand should be placed at the base of the bulbs, and the compost for 
them should consist of good loam three parts, the other part being com¬ 
posed of leaf mould, decayed manure, and sand. The pots containing the 
bulbs should be placed outside without watering them, and covered 4 or 
C inches deep with ashes. They may remain in this position tor at least 
six weeks, when they should be examined, and if full of roots taken out, 
placed in a frame, and gradually exposed to light and air. Exposure 
must be gradual, or else the tips of the foliage will become browned. 
Narcissus .—The early-flowering varieties, such as Paper White, double 
Roman, and single Jonquils, can now be obtained, and should be potted 
without delay. The two former may be placed in 6-inch pots, five or six 
bulbs in each, while the latter may be placed in the same size as Roman 
Hyacinths. If required only for cutting, the bulbs should be packed 
closely together in boxes. The bulbs should be treated exactly the same 
as recommended for Roman Hyacinths. 
USEFUL HINTS. 
I have always endeavoured to give a useful hint now and 
again in all articles, but in accordance with the wish of a num¬ 
ber of readers, gladly avail myself of the opportunity to place 
these occasionally under the above heading. The great diffi¬ 
culty in giving useful hints is not so much to indicate what 
to do, but what not to do. This difficulty arises from persons 
assuming to what they are themselves ignorant of. The first 
hint I have for this month is to ask all bee-keepers to take 
nothing for granted, but test and prove everything before 
putting anything into general execution. By pursuing this 
course difficulties will disappear. The second hint is to note 
carefully under what system the bees collect most honey with 
the best finish. Hearken not to, nor be led away by the 
report of somebody’s bees gathering double or treble the 
quantity of yours. I am just in receipt of a letter from a 
clergyman who keeps bees to encourage his poorer brethren 
by giving information and supplying them with bees gratis. 
This year his hives have each of them given him 126 lbs. of 
fully finished sections and supers—the former his favourite— 
while my own hives, better bees than his, are short of that 
yield. From the reports I have previously had from that 
gentleman I am certain that had our bees been standing side 
by side mine would have had the heaviest yield. This is 
proved by the fact that in my immediate neighbourhood bees 
wrought on the same principle as that clergyman’s have no 
surplus honey in supers. I repeat, there is no proof of which 
is the best system unless managed side by side. 
I gave my experience last year of sections and supers, 
and showed the superiority of the latter over the former, 
determining then to discard sections altogether, which I did 
almost. One hive I pitched upon to further test that I was 
right in my conclusions. The one half of the top of this hive 
I covered with supers, the other half I covered with sections. 
The result is the same as my previous experience—the supers 
are filled, and not a bee has as yet entered a section. I have 
shown this hive to many bee-keepers, amongst them a bee¬ 
keeper from Derby and a reader of this Journal, who I know 
will support the truth of this statement. I am convinced 
the great majority of bee-keepers at the present day have no 
practical experience of supers. They employ appliances as 
they have been taught by others who did not possess the 
knowledge of both sides of the question; then they in turn 
teach others, and boast of the superiority of their system 
over that of which they possess no knowledge of. I have 
been as successful with sections as anyone could be, but I 
soon perceived they were a mistake. The fault is the broad 
bottom bar, with the space between the top of the hive and 
sections—repugnant or objectionable to the bees, who often 
prefer to swarm or cluster out instead of entering them, at 
the best losing time they do not lose when supers are em¬ 
ployed. 
I have already given an explanation of my divisional 
supers. I now give instructions how these may be employed 
in combination with sections, as some prefer these. But 
perhaps I had better explain a still simpler super for that 
purpose. The super proper, or I may say rack or crate for 
sections, serves all the three purposes, while it has the ad¬ 
vantages of having the sections more compactly filled than 
any other way, and the bees do not object entering them, 
