April 29, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
329 
disposed to share in the pleasures of gardening, and they 
enter with great zeal into the particular branch of the pursuit 
that commends itself to their taste and support. 
The Royal Horticultural Society, that has now been 
established upwards of three-quarters of a century, should 
have headquarters of its own convenient both as to site and 
structure, and if a determined effort be made to that end the 
means for accomplishing it will be forthcoming when it is 
made known that the whole resources of the Society will be 
devoted to the work it was established to promote. 
PROFITABLE GARDENING. 
( Continued from page 2SG .) 
Violets. —For the past six years I have strongly advised tny 
friends to “go in for Violets,” and I am pleased to say those 
who have taken my advice are well satisfied with the result. 
Not only have the beds of Violets proved very remunerative, 
but they have also served the £ood purpose of finding occasional 
and at times daily employment for numerous men, women, and 
boys at a time of year when other work is not always plentiful. 
I am not prepared to advance any statistics, neither are they 
necessary for my purpose, but 1 can truthfully assert that it is 
hardly possible to grow too many, as they are extremely popular, 
and retailed at Id. per bunch they usually sell rapidly. You 
may vary the size of bunch, or say from twelve to twenty blooms, 
according to the quantity of Violets available, but as a rule the 
price must not be advanced or they will not sell. The grower 
supplies the retailers at the rate of sixteen bunches to the dozen, 
or for Is.—that is to say, when a dozen is ordered four bunches 
are given in, and this may or may not be all the profit the 
retailer gets over the transaction. Properly treated a few rows 
of Violets will usually yield an astonishing number of blooms 
during the winter and early spring months, while an acre or two 
of them will furnish enough bunches for a large town. It may 
be that in time there will be many grown, but according to my 
present experience there is plenty of room for beginners, as I 
find that if they cannot all be sold in our neighburhood, there 
are plenty in other large towns ready to receive supplies of 
them. 
Any ground that suits Strawberries will grow Violets equally 
as well, both delighting in fairly rich loamy soil. On very light 
loose soils it is useless to make the attempt unless its character 
can be changed by the addition of heavy loam or pulverised clay. 
If planted on rich loose ground they grow too strongly, and are 
not sufficiently hardy or fioriferous in consequence, while the soil 
must be sufficiently holding or but little progress will be made, 
red spider being in the ascendant. The well exposed beds are 
usually the hardiest, but this past winter the conditions have 
been reversed, and it is only those among the fruit trees from 
which they received some protection that have bloomed freely. 
Even the latter no more than paid their way, and by this it will 
be seen that there is a certain amount of risk to be run by those 
who grow Violets extensively. At present the variety known as 
the Czar is most generally cultivated, and under good culture 
these grow to a good size, but in time Victoria Regina will replace 
it. Now is the time to divide and replant all Violets that have 
done flowering, and every strong crown properly trimmed of all 
runners and firmly dibbled out in good soil will soon grow to a 
good size. In the open fields they may be disposed 12 inches 
apart each way, and need not be disturbed for two years. On 
our strong and rather rich ground we plant them 15 inches apart 
each way, and these are unprofitable after the first season, con¬ 
sequently the whole of ours have to be replanted every year, 
though not necessarily in fresh positions. Where they last for 
two seasons half of the ground should be planted every year, 
or, as it happened last summer in the case of a friend who 
replanted the whole of his stock, a wholesale failure may result. 
As a rule Violets may be planted in succession to almost any 
crop without manure being added to the ground, but they 
impoverish the ground very much, and if replanted in the same 
position a dressing of solid manure in preference to artificial 
should be given. During the summer they are benefited by a 
mulching of either short manure, leaf soil, spent tan, short grass 
from the mowing machine, or even common garden soil, this 
being applied either before the ground has become dry or directly 
after a soaking rain. If no mulching is given the flat hoe must 
be run among them occasionally, and if the season is hot and 
dry an early soaking of water is necessary. In all cases all 
superfluous runners should be trimmed off and weeds kept down, 
the aim being to secure stout crowns and healthy, though not 
over-luxuriant foliage. During a mild winter a continuous 
supply will be produced, and it must be a very bad winter if they 
prove unprofitable. It is almost needless to add that the blooms 
should be nearly, but not tightly, bunched up with two or three 
well-matured leaves with them. 
Frame V iolets. —In the case of open-air Yiolets there is, 
as I have shown, a. certain amount of risk to be run, but with 
those under frames there is none at all, as the blooms are available 
for several months during the winter and are eagerly bought up. 
To show how profitable they are, 1 may mention that a friend 
recently gathered eighty-six bunches of about nine blooms or 
less in each from a three-light frame at one time, and took them 
to a town in a colliery district where he attends weekly. No one 
asked the price of them, but in about two hours they were quietly 
“ collared,’’ and the orthodox price—viz., one penny, paid. 
Rather larger bunches sometimes fetch 3d. and 4d. per bunch, 
but those who have a quantity to dispose of are advised to sell 
the cheap bunches and get rid of them rapidly. The sort known 
hereabouts as Marie Louise, but which happens to be the New 
York, is most profitable in frames, and I find Comte de Brazza’s 
White or Swanley White nearly as fioriferous and, being pure 
white, decidedly of the most value. De Parme appears to be a 
strong grower and the blooms are larger and have longer foot¬ 
stalks than Marie Louise, and may eventually replace it. King 
of the Violets is a fine dark blue variety, and the rather scarce 
though very old Tree Violet produces its richly coloured blooms 
very freely during the winter and well into April. All these are 
doubles, belonging principally to the Neapolitan section, and 
they are much more profitable than single sorts for frame 
culture. 
To the ground intended for double Violets we usually add a 
good dressing of either fine manure, old Mushroom-bed refuse, 
or leaf soil, this being forked into the surface in preference to 
digging it in freely. For the benefit of the inexperienced it 
should be mentioned that double Violets are not grown constantly 
under glass, but are prepared in the open ground, and either 
covered with frames or lifted and planted in pits or frames. The 
ground should be well worked, the position being fairly open and 
sunny Strong old plants may be freely divided, every strong 
crown properly trimmed and dibbled out growing into a strong 
p'ant during the summer. Ours are disposed about 9 inches 
apart each way, at which distance they well cover the ground, 
and may therefore be either covered with frames or lifted and 
replanted in pots. They are in other respects treated similarly 
to the singles, though in hot positions frequent syringings 
benefit them, and this in order to prevent the ravages of red 
spider. Late in September or early in October is the time to 
lift or to protect, and they should be planted in good loamy soil, 
just clear of each other and not more than 6 inches from the 
glass. Shallow frames are best for covering the plants where 
they are grown, and failing these the plan mentioned by Mr. 
Oliver on page 290 is to be commended. They require plenty 
of light and air on all favourable occasions during the winter; 
indeed, unless the ventilation is well attended to they are liable-- 
to damp off wholesale. On fine bright days the lights ought to 
be drawn off them, care also being taken to protect from severe 
frosts.—I. M., Somerset. 
ON THE ROOT-STRUCTURE AND MODE OF GROWTH 
OF primulacea: in relation to cultivation* 
[A paper prepared for the Primula Conference, April 21st, by Dr. M. T. Masters.] 
For practical purposes it is very serviceable to consider a living plant in- 
the light of a piece of mechanism, constructed and put together to do certain 
work as efficiently and as economically as circumstances permit. The com¬ 
parison may serve our purpose without it being necessary to point out 
where it fai's, and wherein lies the great difference between a machine 
begotten of its predecessors, and who had the like structure and endow¬ 
ments with itself, self-sustaining, supplying its own power from sun and air 
and water, built up and adapted by itB own energy, and one constructed by 
the art of man, dependent on artificial means for its support and its power, 
and with no innate faculty of self-adjustment to varying circumstances. 
Availing ourselves, therefore, of the comparison, we may proceed to discuss 
what it is our machine is called on to do, how it is enabled by its conforma-, 
tion to do what is required of it, and, incidentally, how we mty help or mar 
its action. The Primulaceas will afford us as good illustrations of these- 
matters as any other family of plants. It is the group which is expressly 
selected to furnish a text for these remarks, and which, moreover, are, as- 
prescribed, to be limited to a part only of the machine—the root. It is 
permissible, however, on such an occasion to use the term root in the broad 
sense in which it is usually employed by gardeners, and not in the more 
accurate and strictly limited sense in which it is made use of by physio¬ 
logists. 
* For the communication of numerous specimens illustrative of these notes I am 
specially indebted to Mr. Dewar of the Royal Gardens. Kew, Mr. Barron of Chiswick, 
Mr. Correvon of Geneva, Mr. Douglas, and other friends. For some of the drawings 1 
have to thank Mr. Bandgren of Kew. 
