363 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
t Ootober 22, 1885. 
growing out of doors in summer, and I believe tbe greenhouse is the proper 
place for them during seven or eight months in the year. They all require 
strong, rich loam, and in that the greenhouse is too cold for them in 
winter ; and in the spring they delight in the strong moist heat of the 
stove up to May. Marica coerulea and Northiana are two as beautiful 
flowers as we can grow, but, unfortunately, they only last a few hours, and 
only two or three in a day, although strong old plants of them keep 
throwing up a daily succession of them for some weeks. 
Massonia.— The only beauty in all the Massonias is in their broad re¬ 
cumbent leaves, two of them only coming at a growth or in one season. 
These lie flat on the pot or border, right and left, and from between them 
rise a host of small white flowers in a cluster, with hardly the semblance 
of a scape or stalk. Angustifolia has the leaves upright, and not so 
broad as in the others. Daubenyas are only coloured Massonias, as far 
as gardeners are concerned. All of them delight in rich sandy loam, 
and grow in winter with us, 
MelAnthium. —This has been an ill-used genus ; after being named 
from the dark and dingy flowers, the species with such tints have been 
weeded out of it, and named Wurmbea, yet no one sees Melanths in 
cultivation in these days ; at best they are only botanical plants, with 
Ixia-like leaves, short spikes of small inconspicuous flowers, and slender 
bulbs, requiring about equal parts of peat, and. loam, and pot culture. 
Mill A bifloba. —This is really a very beautiful plant, with large 
white flowers as pure white as snow ; they last a long time, and come in 
succession, and they are as hardy as to live out of doors with a slight pro¬ 
tection. The name biflora is a very great mistake, by Cavanilles, I 
believe. I never saw one without four flowers in the umbel, and the 
peduncle is 3 or 4 inches long. The Horticultural Society introduced it 
from Mexico, and spread it far and wide among the Fellows ; and if ever 
a bulb was worth caring for this is one ; it lasts a long time in bloom, and 
is more fitted for a south border than a pot, being long-legged and the 
parts slender. It will grow in any good light soil all the summer, and go 
to rest for five months in the winter. The other one, called uniflora I 
think, has not been much tried. I think there is some mistake about the 
naming of it.—C. B. 
TREE CARNATIONS. 
Very rarely are Carnations grown well in pots in private gardens, 
and many plants are annually conveyed to the rubbish heap through 
mismanagement. Failure does not so often result from insufficient 
experience up to the time it is necessary to house them as by the want of 
suitable accommodation for them afterwards. Another and probably the 
main cause of failure is due to the supposition that a profusion of 
fragrant flowers will be produced in succession from the time they are 
housed through the winter and spring months. The system of treatment 
pursued to accomplish this soon destroys the health of the plants, and 
failure is the result before the spring months arrive. To maintain a good 
supply of flowers from the present time until the end of spring a large 
stock of plants is required, for a few will yield more flowers after the 
middle of February than a large number will from now until then. 
From a goo 1 stock of plants in a suitable position solitary flowers may 
almost daily be cut from the time of housing them until they are pro¬ 
duced plentifully about the time named, but from ordinary plants they 
cannot be had in any abundance. 
It is very frequently forgotten that the Carnation is a hardy plant. 
Any system of forcing, however gentle, during the dreary months of 
winter, very quickly runs up the growths of the plants weakly and 
destroys them after producing a few small flowers. Those who attempt 
to force Carnations to flower during November, December, and January 
must be prepared to sacrifice the plants, for they are very little good 
afterwards, and will not yield in the end one-twentieth the quantity of 
blooms that they are capable of doing under natural treatment. 
Carnations, after they are housed, may be stood in a vinery from 
which the foliage has been removed for a time, but they will not long 
continue satisfact >ry in a makeshift position. If numbers of plants are 
grown they should have a house to themselves, or the lightest and best 
side of the house if insufficient to fill the whole space. Wherever they 
may be placed the treatment and conditions of the house they occupy 
should be arranged to suit them. From the time the plants are housed 
they should have a light position, not too far from the glass. This treat¬ 
ment must be continued through the winter, and fire heat only employed 
to maintain an average night temper iture of 45°, and occasionally during 
dull weather to evaporate damp. The growth during the winter months 
is almost at a standstill, and employing fire heat is injurious. Under the 
conditions advised they will continue growing slowly, and when the days 
lengthen with increased light and heat thin shoots will rapidly strengthen, 
and a large number of fine flowers will be the result in succession for a 
long time. 
During the winter Carnations require careful watering at their roots ; 
the soil must not be saturated, or the foliage will soon turn a sickly 
yellow colour. On the other hand, they should never be allowed to suffer 
by an insufficient supply of water or the roots soon perish. Strong 
supplies of liquid manure are also detrimental to them, but given in a 
weak state and judiciously it will prove the reverse. Clear soot water 
has a very beneficial effect upon the plants and quickly tells upon the 
foliage. Weak liquid made from cow manure is also good for them. In 
addition to the soot water we have found nothing better for them than 
light applications of artificial manure applied to the surface about once a 
month.—L ancastrian. 
HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 
Let planting be now done as expeditiously as possible, but let it be 
done well, and with a clear end and aim kept lully in view, so that every 
possible advantage may be given to the trees, and a strong growth of root 
and'branch insured next season. “ When shall I get some fruit P ” is, we 
fear, more frequently the thought of the planter than, •* How soon will the 
trees be established and growing freely in the soil ? ” Remember, that for 
a fruit tree to bear really good fruit it must lay well hold of the soil and 
its roots be in full activity. To buy trees “ well set with fruit buds,” and 
to allow them to bear as much fruit as possible the first season after 
planting, is to run a serious risk of crippling them for some time after¬ 
wards. Repeatedly have we heard it said of newly planted trees at 
midsummer, “ How can much growth be expected yet when they were 
only planted last autumn ? ” Yet we must again insist upon it that a 
young fruit tree has only to be planted well and it will grow as freely 
the first season as in any year of its existence. Let us be satisfied with 
nothing less than this, for we certainly cannot afford to lose a year’s 
growth. The points of importance are healthy robust trees, fertile well- 
drained soil, as little exposure of the roots to the air as is possible in the 
transplanting, not to bury the roots deeply, but to spread them out at full 
length, to work the soil carefully in amongst them, to press it by tread¬ 
ing firmly about them, to make fast the stem so that the roots cannot be 
loosened in the soil, to have not more than 6 inches of soil upon the 
upper roots, to apply a mulching 6 inches deep of half-decayed stable, 
piggery, or farmyard manure when the planting is done, and at the same 
time to prune the branches so that the sap may flow into the buds, or 
rather into the shoots springing from them to form the head of the tree, 
and Dot into growth that has to be cut off. In a well-planted tree branch 
and root-growth maintain a tolerably even balance, so that a glance at a 
tree is sufficient to show us what is taking place in tbe soil. The best 
time for planting is certainly during the next three weeks. It may be 
done throughout winter, but not under such favourable conditions as at 
the present time, and therefore with less certainty of success. However 
apparently trivial any of the cultural points enumerated may appear, 
every one of them is important, and must be considered as indispensable 
to success. Perhaps surface-dressing with manure is more neglected 
than anything else, and yet how important it is that the soil should be 
kept moist, and that excessive evaporation should be checked ! To every 
planter we say, then, Get a clear knowledge of the conditions necessary 
to success in your work, and see that not one of them is wanting. 
FRUIT FORCING. 
Peaches and Nectarines. —Early House .—The trees from which 
ripe fruit is to be gathered early in May onward should now be examined 
and receive their final pruning, but where this was carefully attended to 
so soon as the trees were cleared of their fruit it will be a light affair. 
The trees should be washed with an insecticide carefully and effectually, 
repeating it if the branches are infested with scale. Prior to this the wood¬ 
work should have been well washed with soap and water, and if necessary 
paint the trellis and the interior of the house before the trees are tied in. 
An impression prevails that casting the buds is caused by the imperfect 
ripening of the wood, but this is foreign to our experience, and so far 
from this being the case in early houses it generally happens that the 
soil gets dry or the trees receive a check before forcing is commenced. 
To counteract the tendency to over-development of the buds and insure a 
thorough moistening of the soil all early houses should have portable roofs, 
so as to afford the trees the full benefit of the autumn rains. The lights 
may be painted and prepared for placing over the trees, but they ought to 
be placed in position before the middle of November, as any excitement 
now followed by a check next month may cause the trees to cast their 
buds when they ought to begin to swell. 
Succession Homes .—Although the wood appears quite ripe and the 
buds are prominent and abundant, the trees, no doubt owing to the rains, 
are holding their foliage well, but the recent frosts have caused the leaves 
to assume their autumn tints and are falling freely. When this is tDe 
case no time should be lost in proceeding with lifting, root-pruning, ana 
replanting. Provide free drainage, employing good loam from an old 
pasture with a rather free admixture of lime rubble and charred refuse. 
Keep the roots near the surface, and make the soil firm as the work 
proceeds. Although Peaches and Nectarines will grow in almost any 
fresh well-drained soil they do best in a compost that offers some 
resistance, and does not soon become dry, and in such they always set. 
swell, and finish the finest fruit. 
Pruning .—Years ago every shoot was shortened back to from 12 to 
18 inches in length, but of late years the young shoots are left three 
times those lengths and ripen a good fruit to every foot length of wood 
laid in ; in fact, we have had shoots 5 and G feet long ripening as many 
fruits, those from the extremity being as fine as that only a few inches 
from the base. A great change has been effected in the training of youDg 
