February 25 1S86. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
147 
bloom, which with proper attention to watering and an occasional 
tap of the stems set from four to six good fruits. As soon as they 
are swelling fairly the plants are removed to a house in which a 
mean temperature of 65° is maintained. Here narrow borders of 
loose bricks filled with loam are formed, the dimensions generally 
being 18 inches wide and 12 inches deep, in front of and running 
the length of the house, the plants being turned out 1 foot apart 
and tied to the trellis. All side shoots being strictly removed no 
overcrowding or confusion of growth can occur. Under these con¬ 
ditions the fruits swell rapidly to a large size, and with an average 
amount of sun can be depended on to supply several good dishes 
during the latter part of December and onwards. Those plants 
remaining in 4-inch pots after the first selection are shifted into 
6-inch pots somewhat later, and so remain in a light position in an 
intermediate house until early in the new year, when they are 
treated similarly to the foregoing, and the result is abundance of 
early fruits of large size and good quality. 
Of the superiority of the single-stem or cordon system over the 
spreading or scrambling mode of training there is not, in my esti¬ 
mation, a shadow of doubt. A striking instance of the success of 
this system I recollect seeing a season or two ago illustrated in a 
very forcible manner in the gardens of Lord Wolverton at Iwerne 
Minster, Dorset, where, in one of the extensive ranges of glass 
Mr. Davidson had recently converted a cold orchard house into a 
heated vinery, and, being the first year, had planted the back wall 
(some 60 feet long and 13 feet high) with Tomatoes on the cordon 
system. The result was Tomatoes in the most extravagant abun¬ 
dance. The sight of the large fruits hanging in enormous clusters 
one above the other, which to my mind resembled strings of Onions, 
was a sight not easily forgotten. 
Such convenience is so seldom attainable that a more generally 
practicable method is to place two strong plants in a half-bushel 
pot, with a good space left for watering, and stand close together 
on the staging at the ends of vineries or Peach houses and such-like 
places where most light can be obtained, and secure the stems to 
wires fixed to the sashes. In late vineries they can be staked 
upright and the pots placed in rows on the inside border, where, 
after perfecting a crop of fruit before the shade from the Vine 
foliage becomes too dense, they can be removed to a warm corner 
outside, and the pots being well packed round with plenty of long 
stable manure and the stems fastened to the wall, they will quickly 
produce a further supply of fruit and continue to do so until the 
autumn. 
Where a house is devoted to their culture, the use of borders or 
pits formed with loose bricks has much to recommend it in pre¬ 
ference to pots, the chief feature being the ready means afforded 
of giving the plants fresh root room when they show signs of 
exhaustion by taking down one or both sides of the pit and placing 
the bricks at such a distance as seems desirable, filling the inter¬ 
vening spaces with fresh soil, which the roots will soon take posses¬ 
sion of, and renewed vigour and fruitfulness will result. 
In whatever position, or under whatever system the plants are 
grown, a liberal supply of water—the chief essential to their well¬ 
being—must constantly be applied according to requirements. As 
a pot plant I do not know of another so thirsty as the Tomato, which 
semi-aquatic propensity is, I suppose, to be accounted for in the 
peculiar formation of the leaves being such as to enable them to 
rapidly evaporate the supplies administered. On one occasion I 
tried an experiment with the supposition of the Tomato being 
a semi-aquatic plant, by placing four in a zinc trough 3 feet long, 
15 inches wide, and 5 inches deep, partially filled with soil and 
perfectly watertight, and trained on the cordon system to the back 
wall of a vinery in a light position. From the first the plants made 
satisfactory progress, set and ripened large clusters of fruit, and 
succeeded generally as satisfactorily as others in the same house in 
half bushel pots. An interesting feature in the experiment was 
observing the rapidity with which they would imbibe the water 
that was often standing half an inch above the soil after watering, 
there being, of course, no outlet for it. I may add that they did 
not require watering more frequently than those in large pots, and 
also that liquid manure was occasionally administered. Many 
gardening friends on seeing them evinced considerable surprise at 
the small amount of soil, the more so as there were but few surface 
roots, as to doubt the fact of the roots being confined within the 
trough, and only on lifting it clear of the ledge on which it stood 
would be convinced, when they came to the same conclusion as 
myself, that it is not the amount of soil that is of so much import¬ 
ance as the amount of moisture contained therein. Since perform¬ 
ing this experiment I have been informed that a member of the 
profession holding a high position in regard to horticultural 
matters was pursuing experiments in somewhat the same line—viz., 
by rendering watertight the bottoms of the pots with a layer of 
cement. AVhat the results of his exp eriments are, I am sure, would 
be welcomed by many interested in the culture of this deservedly 
popular fruit. 
As to varieties, many would-be cultivators are often puzzled to 
determine which to select of the multitude of sorts, which, with 
such marvellous descriptions attached (correct or otherwise) swell 
the lists of many seed-vendors’ catalogues. Amongst a number of 
sorts grown on trial, Dedham Favourite has proved itself a superior 
and reliable variety for summer or winter under glass and outside 
during summer, a good cropper, handsome in appearance, and 
excellent in quality. — M. Coombe. 
THE PRIMULAS. 
(Continued from page 117.) 
P. OlG;E, Rgl .—A new species, discovered by Dr. Regel of St 
Petersburg, and figured by him in the “ Flora Turkestanica.” It was 
at one time in cultivation in the St. Petersburg Botanic Garden, but 
we believe has since been lost ; a fresh supply of seed has, however, 
been obtained, and we may soon hops to see it in English gardens. 
It is said to be nearly allied to P. nivalis, Pall, and judging from the 
coloured drawing in the above work it promises to be a great 
acquisition to our list of Primulas. It is found at about the same 
elevation as'nivalis, which fact may be a guide to its culture. It grows 
3 or 4 metes in height, terminating in a few-flowered umbel of 
charming rosy-lilac flowers resembling but larger than P. sibirica ; 
the blooms are over half an inch in diameter, leaves obovate oblong, 
tapering to narrow winged petioles, glabrous, and shiny on both 
surfaces. Native of the high mountains of Western Turkestan at 
7 to 12,000 feet above sea level. 
P. Palinuri, Petag — Of the few Primroses having a truly 
arborescent habit of growth, not even excepting the charming little 
Californian P. suffrutescens, none approach this gigantic species 
(which has been not inaptly compared to a luxuriant plant of 
Sempervivum arboreum), either in height or proportion of stem when 
it is allowed to fu’ly develope itself. It is perhaps the least amenable 
to pot culture of all the Primulas we are acquainted with, and 
although it may be had to do well for a year or so the final result is 
seldom if ever satisfactory, the flowering being much impeded. 
When bound in small confines of a pot the leaves curl, rust, and 
become disfigured, the plant being generally unsightly before flower¬ 
ing time, if it developes flowers at all. The real cause of this may 
have been insufficient food, as it seems to be a voracious feeder, and 
as large pots are required to grow it well this is not always con¬ 
venient where space under cover is limited. The best plan, it would 
appear, to get the full advantage of its flowers as it opens towards the 
end of February and beginning of March would be to plant it in a 
border in the conservatory as recommended for P. japonica If a 
sheltered spot can be found in the open it will do well ; and even in 
the ordinary border in late seasons it rarely opens its flowers until all 
danger is past. A sunny position should be chosen, and in the growing 
season it may be attended to with abundance of water. P. Palinuri 
is supposed to have something to do with the present development of 
the garden Auricula, as well as P. Auricula and P. pubescens, and as 
far as appearances go it is not at all unlikely. It has generally a 
stem rising several inches above the ground, deeply marked with the 
old scars of the former leaves, an inch or more in diameter, the fresh 
leaves forming tufts at the summit from 4 to 6 inches long, obovate 
spatulate, irregularly and deeply toothed at the margin, to where it 
tapers sharply to the base, glabrous (not shiny) and without farina on 
either side. The scape, instead of coming from the growing point, as 
in most of the others, proceeds from the base of the lower leaves 
carrying a head of from twenty to forty large pale or lemon yellow 
flowers, the calices densely covered with powder. A native of 
Palinuri,'near Salerno, Italy, and flowering March and April. 
P. Parryi, Gray .—Undoubtedly the handsomest of all the New 
World Primroses, and indeed comparing favourably with the much- 
esteemed P. japonica and P. nivalis. It was first introduced by Mr. 
Thompson of Ipswich about 1861, who distributed it freely, but with, 
out much success as regards cultivation, as it became almost extinct 
soon after, and was reintroduced a dozen years later by Mr. Back¬ 
house of York, and by whom it was flowered in 1871. We also saw 
it in flower in the new rockery at Kew last year. Perhaps the 
failures to flower, and even to grow it, may be attributed more to the 
want of water than adverse climate and other effects, for since 
following Dr. Parry’s directions, planting it beside a pool or stream 
in the coldest and most exposed place available, it has grown 
vigorously, and two of the two-year-old plants flowered last year. It 
supplies a colour much wanted in Primulas, and under the above con¬ 
ditions it gives no trouble whatever. It appears to be widely distri¬ 
buted, and from this fact Dr. Gray suggests the possibility of its 
being a form of P. nivalis, which indeed it much resembles. The 
, flower scape grows about a foot high from the middle of a dense tuft 
