Jane 17, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
493 
in which war, however, they answer very well. Care should be taken to 
keep the moss thoroughly moist. Weak liquid minure in a clear state 
■and tepid may be given whenever water is required by immersing the 
mossed balls of roots. 
Small plants for table and other decorative work can be had by layer¬ 
ing the runners in the summer as advis9d for Violets in pots. These 
■lifted in autumn, the soil washed away, a piece of charcoal wrapped in a 
little moss, the roots spread over it, covered with moss, and secured with 
•wire, may be treated as advised for the larger plants. When furnished 
with fresh leaves and flowers they are charming for decorative purposes. 
The system is applicable to all kinis of Violets, but the best are Russian. 
Floribunda (Boothby), Victoria Regina, White Czar, and argenteaeflora, 
with Odoratissima of the single varieties. Ofthe doubles, Patrie,and Double 
Russian of the dark blues; of Neapolitan vars. New York, De Parme, and 
White Neapolitan. 
Securing Violets in Winter by other Means .—Plants lifted in autumn 
with balls of earth, and planted in the borders of fruit or plant houses, 
which, though unsuitable for gnwing the plants, will by the shelter and 
immunity from frost have the flowering accelerated. They may be packed 
in leaf soil on the border with a board or boards on edge supported by 
pegs driven in the border. Peach bouses and orchard houses may be 
named as suitable structures for Violets, but any houses from which frost 
is excluded but otherwise kept cool are suitable. Plants in flower may 
also be had by lifting with roots and packing them in boxes in leaf soil, 
and placing in frames, or houses where there is a gentle heat well up to 
the light, from which they can be withdrawn when in flower, mossed, and 
used for mixing with other subjects in house decoration. 
Plants can also be lifted and placed at the foot of walls or fences with 
•a south aspect, planting in leaf soil well mixed with the soil, and giving a 
good watering to settle the soil about the roots. They may be covered 
with handlights, and given air on all favourable occasions, and protection 
given in severe weather, some useful sweet flowers will be obtainable 
when there are few or none other to gladden sight and sense. Plants 
placed at the foot of walls or fences with a warm aspect will come in much 
in advance of those in the open, and in the case of Neapolitans they may 
survive when those in the open are too much damaged to give flowers of 
value or any at all through frost, which is very destructive of Violets, 
especially in low or flat localities inland. Violets like hills and sea 
breezes, in fact warmth without air is positively ruinous, and equally 
disastrous is drought; therefore, plants in front of walls must have the 
soil kept moist, and no coddling allowed under any circumstances. 
PkopAGATINg Violets. —Violets are increased by seed, some coming 
true, which more particularly applies to the species, garden varieties being 
very sportive when raised from seed ; by runners, suckers, and cuttings. 
Seed .—Flowers fertilised in spring ripen the capsules of seed in summer 
-or autumn, but some autumn flowers ripen the seed pods m spring. Only 
the single varieties seed. Some of the semi-double varieties, however, afford 
seed sparingly, as Parmrcensis plena and White Neapolitan. The seed 
should be gathered before the capsules burst, which may be ascertained 
when about to take place by the changed colour of the seed pods, they 
becoming much paler or a creamy white. Laid on a sheet of paper or on 
-shelves they soon shed the seeds, if kept dry and cool. They may be 
sown as soon as ripe in beds outdoors, and covered about a quarter of an 
inch deep with fine soil. If sown early in autumn or early in September 
they will germinate at once, and in that case are best sown in cold frames, 
■in pans, or boxes. They should be kept moist, well up to the glass, and 
ventilated freely on all favourable occasions. In spring, when well 
■hardened, plant in lines IS inches apart and 1 foot asunder in the rows. 
This is for garden varieties of Czar, which is a seedling of Giant, and Giant 
a seedling of the Russian, but species need only ha re the rows 12 inches or 
15 inches apart, and 3 inches less in the rows. Well attended to they will 
Rower the ensuing season. 
Spring is, however, the best time to sow Violet seed, it being kept cool 
and dry over the winter, or it may be sown in autumn, in which case the 
plants usually do not appear until the following spring. March is a good 
time to sow the seed. The seed should be scattered thinly. When the 
plants show the second leaves prick them off about 3 inches apart, water, 
and shade until established. Transplant to their flowering quarters before 
they become crowded, duly attending with water, &c. The strongest will 
flower the following season, but some will need to remain another year 
and be treated as established plants before they flower in character; 
indeed, they ought to be kept a year after they flower if at all worthy, as 
the first blooms are not nearly so good on the seedling as those borne by 
"the parent subjected to cultivation by its suckers or runners. Tender 
varieties should be wintered in frames. Except for the raising of improved 
varieties the raising of Violets from seed is not advisable, as they are not 
so floriferous and do not afford such fine bio >ms as plants from suckers or 
runners. By selecting plants that show improvement in the blooms and 
saving seed from them, much further progress can be made ; but taking 
Princess of Prussia (Lee) as a fair example of what a Violet should be, or 
even Odoratissima (Lee), very few seedlings indeed pass muster, and such 
-only are worth continuance. 
Runners .—Strong plants put out in April afford runners through the 
■summer freely. When they show the plant at the eud of the runner wire 
they may be layered in pots, and secured with pegs made of No. 14 
galvanised wire cut into lengths of about 3 inches and doubled like a hair 
,pin, having about half an inch space between the wire. The runners may 
also be layered in the soil, and kept moist they will soon root, about an 
inch of the runner wire being inserted in the soil and secured with a peg, 
When rooted, detach them and plant them in nursery beds in rows about 
<> inches apart and 4 inches asunder in the rows. Early runners will 
require more distance. Very late runners may remain on the plants until 
planting time in spring. Early runners in pots should be stood on a north 
border for a few days after being detached, and when recovered potted in 
5-inch pots and grown on in the open. They give some very fine flowers 
in winter treated as pot plants. Small varieties should only be given 
4-inch pots. Runners are the very best fur making fresh plantations, 
being preferable to suckers. 
Suckers .—There are most generally used for making fresh beds. They 
come from the stem below ground, and are detached in spring, and usually 
have roots. Some varieties have few offsets or suckers, most after a stock 
is formed afford sufficient for general purposes of increase ; but though 
a ready means of maintaining the stock, it is not so good a9 the despised 
method of following Nature, simply because it is handy and entails less 
trouble. Suckers are very often weak and drawn from being over¬ 
shadowed by the parent, and they sometimes so feel the loss of the shelter 
as to take very badly to their new quarters, being much affected by the 
exposed situation, going back instead of forward. 
Cuttings .—These are of two kinds—viz., rootless runners and rootless 
offsets or side growths. Rootless runners are common in spring on 
Neapolitan varieties. These detached in February or early March with 
about 2 inches of the runner wire, and cut transversely below a joint if 
there be one about that length, a little more or less not making much 
matter, from the runner plant or leaves at the end of the runners, and 
dibbled around the sides of pots, or in pans about 1^ inch apart in light 
loam and leaf soil in equal parts, with a sixth of sand, inserting them up 
to the leaves, and if placed in gentle heat, kept moist and shaded, 
they soon form roots. When hardened they can be pricked off in 
cold frames, and grown on preparatory to planting out in late April 
or early May. Late runners may be rooted in a similar manner, or kept 
over the winter in the cutting pots in cold frames they will root 
slowly but surely, being kept moist, plunged, and protected in severe 
weather. 
Cuttings of the tops or side growths root freely in gentle heat at 
any time, but preferably in September and March. Growths with an 
inch or two of stem and the crown or growing point are suitable, trim¬ 
ming off the leaves with a sharp knife, leaving those at the crown intact, 
and cutting transversely below a joint, insert up to the centre leaves, 
leaving them just clear of the soil. They strike equally well in a cold 
frame, but take a longer time. This method is available for varieties 
that do not afford runners freely, but the plants are not nearly so strong 
and healthy, being very liable to lose the centre or crown. Cuttings or 
runners should always be taken from healthy floriferous plants with 
flowers large in size and of fine form.— Viola. 
RED SPIDER ON MELONS. 
We have always been of opinion that, next to the destruction of the 
mealy bug on stove plants, that of the red spider on Melons is a subject of 
great difficulty. The golden rule is, in both cases—Try to keep the 
vermin away; as though certain extreme measures will annihilate both 
these pests, yet their destruction is rarely accomplished without that 
amount of injury to the plant which makes the cure worse than the 
disease. Nevertheless, as something must be done to save a crop of 
Melons, which the amateur prided himself upon as likely to produce 
something valuable, and which, hitherto, looked every way promising, 
when lo ! he is astonished or alarmed at seeing a few of the large leaves 
in the centre of the plant look rather brown or yellow ; and, on turning 
them up, he sees a thin film of spider-work stretching between the ribs 
and other portions of the leaf, and, to the naked eye, minute insects of a 
brownish red colour may be seen nestled here and there amongst the net¬ 
work, which they have drawn over their workings. This latter pest, 
whose powers of production would seem to set all calculation at defiance, 
exists in such a multitude of plants of various habits, that it may almost 
be called universal. A gentleman told me that he has discovered it on 
the leafless succulent plants of the Cactus family ; and we all know how 
much field Turnips are affected with it in hot seasons; and trees innu¬ 
merable, down to the very Box edging which margins our walks, being, 
in certain seasons, a martyr to it. Now, when we see it living and 
thriving on the hard leaf of Box, how much more likely is it to take up 
its abode and multiply on the more delicate foliage of an annual plant so 
tender as the Melon; so that we may fairly inquire if a perfect remedy 
be not an unsolved problem ? Nevertheless, we are far from giving it 
up, and as we have had much experience in the matter, we will give 
the result, with now and then a suggestion to meet individual cases, 
beginning first with what we suppose to be the causes which favour its 
first attack. 
We are led to believe that the larvae of this insect either lurk in the 
frame, or are carried thither by the winds, or some other of those agents 
which tend to multiply the species of the lower orders of vegetation, as 
well as of animals ; our first duty is, therefore, to check that if we can, 
on the good old golden precept that “ prevention is better than cure.” 
Washing well the lights and rafters is attended with benefit, and the same 
to the interior of the box or pit, with all its fittings ; after which the 
latter ought to be whitewashed with a compound in which lime and 
sulphur were mixed, with perhaps a little cow dung to make it adhesive. 
Bright sunny weather following after the plants have grown so as almost 
to occupy the whole of the frame, daily watering about four o’clock in 
the afternoon, and shutting up for the evening, will be of great service in 
preventing this pest, much more so than dusting with sulphur; this 
however, cannot well be adopted in all cases with those kinds called 
“ difficult setters,” consequently, while that process is in operation, the 
