540 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 17, 1885. 
whether the above-noticed deduction applies equally to resinous and non- 
resinous trees deserves special consideration.” 
- A packet of Messrs. Cassell & Co.’s publications, received a few 
days since, contains the following—Part 19, “ Cassell’s Popular Garden¬ 
ing,” giving chapters on trees and shrubs, house and window gardening, 
bush fruits, stove plants, hardy fruit garden, bulbous plants and pro¬ 
pagation, with numerous illustrations, including a frontispiece showing a 
group of Orchid flowers. Part 4 of “Familiar Trees ” is devoted to the 
Apple, with coloured plate of fruit and blossom. Part 81 of “ Familiar 
Garden Flowers ” gives plates and descriptions of the Foxglove and 
Deutzia gracilis, the latter being an unsatisfactory representation of this 
popular plant. Part 22 of the “ Encyclopaedic Dictionary ” contains from 
“Croose” to “ Cyclopterus,” or from page 577 to page 640. Part 19, 
the “ Book of Health,” has some useful chapters; and part 43 of 
“ Canaries and Cage Birds” deals with miscellaneous British birds, giving 
a coloured plate of the Finches. 
- Nature states that the United States botanist, “ Dk. Asa Gray, 
was presented, on November 18th, being the seventy-fifth anniversary of 
his birth, with a silver vase, by the botanists of America. It is described 
as being about 11 inches high, and is appropriately decorated with those 
plants which are distinctively American, and which are most closely asso¬ 
ciated with Dr. Gray. The place of honour on one side is held by Grayia 
polygaloides, and on the other by Shortia galacifolia. Among others, 
Aster Bigelovii, Solidago serotina, Lilium Grayi, Centaurea americana, 
Notholoena Grayi, and Rudbeckia speciosa, are prominent. The work¬ 
manship is described as highly artistic, as well as remarkably accurate. The 
vase stands on a low ebony pedestal, which is surrounded by a silver hoop 
bearing the inscription :— 1 In token of the universal esteem of American 
botanists.’ The greetings by card and letter of the 180 contributors were 
presented on a silver tray. They contained the warmest expressions of 
esteem and gratitude.” 
- A correspondent of the American Gardeners' Monthly thus 
describes finding in Carolina the American climbing Hydrangea, 
DecumAria BARBARA, a plant which is scarcely known in England :— 
“ For years I had admired a climbing plant with myriads of white flat 
clustered flowers, which clung to the tree whereon it grew with the 
tenacity of Ivy, and always intended removing a small specimen to my 
own home, thinking it would be a good companion with my Ampelopsis 
Yeitchii, which covers hundreds of feet of the brick foundation of my 
home. At haphazard I drove to this specimen and collected many 
branches, feeling sure as soon as I reached it that I had it correctly, for 
it having flowered in June it was filled with its seed vessels, which, 
according to descriptions, ought to be urn-shaped, and sure enough 
they are. They remind me of the old-fashioned pot-pourri pots of our 
grandmothers, with their queer squeezed-in little covers.” 
- A French nurseryman announces that one of his novelties to 
be sent out this season will be Passiflora yiolacea, which has been 
recently imported from Brazil. It is said to be “ one of the species 
described by Vellozo in his ‘ Flora Fluminensis,’ but though well known to 
botanists it has never before been introduced in a living state to Europe. 
The petals are lilac, the outer filaments white, and the inner ones violet 
blue, darker at the base ; the central column is green, the stigmas green 
spotted with purple, and the anthers are yellow.” 
A CAUTION TO GARDENERS. 
Kindly permit me to call the attention of my fellow practitioners to 
the tactics of certain unscrupulous members of the craft, who have lately 
in my district thought it part of their duty to endeavour to obtain a 
situation by a mean and despicable trick. One of these persons called at 
my employer’s house about seven o’clock one evening, a couple of weeks 
ago, and on being asked by the butler to furnish his name and the nature 
of his business, he declined to do so, saying he wished very particularly 
to see my employer, mentioning his name. As my employer is an aged 
gentleman he refused to see the man personally, but sent his son to 
inquire the reasons he had for so particularly wishing to see the former. 
As with the butler, he was still unwilling to state his business other than 
to my employer, but on being told that he could not possibly see him, 
he naively said, “I hear you require a head gardener.” “Nonsense,” 
said my employer’s son, “ You are mistaken ; our gardener is not leaving 
us, you must have made a mistake in the name of the place.” “ Oh no ! ” 
said the man, “I am sure I have not, for a friend, who knows the place 
well, brought me to the door. I assure you, sir, your gardener intends 
leaving you.” “But who told you so?” “ A friend from Chislehurst.” 
“Well,” said my employer’s son, “ all I can say, my man, is that you have 
made a grafid mistake,” and forthwith bid him good night. The next day 
my employer mentioned the matter to me, but happily they repose too 
great a confidence in my integrity to believe that I was guilty of surrep¬ 
titiously endeavouring to obtain another berth without first communicat¬ 
ing my intention to them, therefore the would-be aspirant for my post 
utterly failed in the object he had in view. This state of things might, 
with some employers, have caused unfounded suspicions, and perhaps 
cost innocent gardeners the loss of good situations. A case similar to 
this did happen not far from here a few months ago, but happily the in¬ 
formant did not get the coveted post. 
On inquiry I found that the person who had been trying the trick 
in my case was temporarily employed in a large nursery a few miles from 
here, and I sent him a letter through the firm requesting the names of 
the person who informed him that I was leaving my situation, but, as I 
expected, no reply has been as yet received. I may add that the firm is 
entirely exonerated from any knowledge or participation in such methods 
of procuring situations, and no one more than they regret that such 
methods should be adopted by men in their employ. I hope my fellow 
practitioners will be on their guard against such men who, stooping to 
such acts, are unworthy of the profession, and richly deserve a greater 
punishment than the publication of their misdeeds in the press.—T. W. 
Sanders. 
CANKER IN FRUIT TREES. 
Much is written about canker in fruit trees. My experience on a 
strong soil, with clay subsoil, is head down trees afflicted with canker 
and graft with a strong-growing sort. Some years ago I had an old 
tree of Summer Orange (a local sort, good eating in September). This 
tree was badly cankered all round the stem. It was grafted with 
Warner’s Seedling Apple, a strong grower. The grafts only grew on 
one side. This side is now quite clean. The other side is still cankered, 
but not so badly as it was years ago. Nothing whatever has been done 
to the stem to try to cure the canker, and the tree has neither been root- 
pruned nor manured in any way. Therefore I attribute the cure of one 
side entirely to the influence of the grafts, which have for several seasons 
borne good clean heavy cooking Apples, keeping until April and May 
sometimes. If Mr. J. Hiam would tell me through your paper where I 
can get the Cobham or Popes’ Apple tree true to name he will confer 
a favour.— Robert Warner. 
Mr. J. Hiam, page 517, commences with this sentence—“I am well 
acquainted with the fact that almost every writer is against me in my 
conviction that insects are the cause of canker.” This may be so to a 
certain extent, and if he holds that they are the cause of every canker I 
also am against him. That they cause a form of canker I am almost 
positive. I hold that there are different sorts of canker (two, if not 
three). One I doubt not caused by imperfect drainage, and the tap root 
being allowed to run into cold wet clay. In my garden here (not five 
miles from the Liverpool Exchange) I have no such canker, not even on 
Ribston Pippin or Lord Suffield trees, more than ten years old. Why ? 
Because the trees are all on red sandstone rock, which, although moist, 
never holds water like clay, and the tap roots cannot penetrate into them ; 
nevertheless 1 have had a canker show itself on some branches of newly 
planted trees, caused by American blight, but this I have immediately 
stopped by painting the part attacked with petroleum, using an or¬ 
dinary paint brush. This destroys the insects instantly without injuring 
the tree, and the canker does not spread. Trees once attacked by this 
pest should be watched, and directly there is a trace of it seen apply 
the petroleum and it will soon cease. The petroleum I use is the same 
that I burn in the lamps. Anyone having fruit trees on rock must use 
plenty of manure yearly if he wants a good crop of fair size fruit, whether 
Apples or Pears, &c. If I had heavy clay soil I should take out a good 
area before planting a tree, put in a good layer of brickbats, stones, &c,, 
and under the tap root a slate, thus preventing one sort of canker at any 
rate ; and by watching for insects and applying petroleum when they are 
found endeavour to do away with canker in toto. —L. J. W. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM BELLE PAULE. 
One of the best Japanese novelties shown this season is that of which 
a bloom is represented in the accompanying woodcut, fig. 80. Though a 
novelty to English growers it is not strictly new, having been sent out by 
M. Marrouch in 1881, but it does not appear to have been introduced to 
England until last year, when it was distributed to a few of the leading 
Chrysanthemum exhibitors. Mr. Molyneux succeeded in developing the 
characters of the variety, and two blooms staged by him in his collection 
of thirty-six varieties at the Crystal Palace Show, with which he won 
the £10 prize, was the first time it attracted prominent attention at a 
London exhibition. At Kingston in the following week it was again well 
shown by the same grower, both in the Challenge Vase collection and in 
the class for six blooms of one Japanese variety. The latter were won¬ 
derfully fine, and indicated the character of the variety to perfection. At 
this show both Mr. Molyneux and Messrs. Jackson & Son were awarded 
first-class certificates for it, while at a recent meeting of the National 
Chrysanthemum Society Mr. N. Davis of Camberwell was awarded a 
similar honour. 
The variety has been generally shown under the name of Belle 
