Jun8 21, 1386. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
517 
dull wet weather, when the trees will require to be syringed so that the 
foliage gets dry before night. Forcible springings are usually sufficient 
to keep red spider in check, but if it get a footing it must be dislodged 
of taken in time there is no better plan than syringing the leaves with a 
softsoap solution, 3 ozs. to the gallon, and scale may be removed from 
the wood by using a brush. Painting the pipes with sulphur is an 
effectual remedy. The pipes should be heated to over 160°, and whilst 
hot painted with sulphur brought to the consistency of cream with 
skim milk. The house should be closed, the foliage dry, and the pipes 
kept hot for an hour at least after the sulphur is applied. They should 
then be allowed to gradually cool, syringing forcibly the following 
morning. 
Temperature and Ventilation .—Artificial heat will not now be neces¬ 
sary unless the weather is unusually cold and wet, then fire heat will be 
necessary to maintain a night temperature of 60° to 65°, and 70° to 75° by 
day. Ventilate early, especially on bright mornings. Keep through the 
day at 80° to 85° with sun, and close sufficiently early to run up to 85° 
or 90°, or even 95°, providing plenty of atmospheric moisture. 
Succession Houses. — Fruit Ripening. — With the fruit changing 
colour afford more air, insuring a .circulation constantly, and a free 
movement of the atmosphere, by top and bottom ventilation, whenever 
circumstances allow. Gradually reduce the moisture, keeping it from 
the fruit, and exposing the fruit as much as possible to the full influence 
of light and air. A well-ripened Fig is delicious, whilst a badly ripened 
one is the most insipid of fruits. Lessened supplies of water will be 
needed at the roots, but they must not be allowed to suffer, therefore keep 
the soil moist, and the surface should be occasionally damped, indeed, it 
must be kept moist so as to preserve the surface roots. In order to keep down 
red spider, a thorough washing may be given the trees after the fruit has 
been closely gathered, and this repeated each time the fruit is gathered 
will keep the insects under until the crop is gathered, when more radical 
means can be employed for its eradication. If done sufficiently early on a 
fine day the fruit will not be in the least deteriorated, but the water must 
be soft, clear, and tepid. 
Trees Smelling their Crops .—Mulch the borders with short manure 
2 or 3 inches thick. Water through the mulching with tepid water, and 
in the case of trees carrying heavy crops and not having a tendency to 
over-luxuriance with liquid manure. It is hardly possible to over-feed 
Figs in well drained, properly constituted borders, and with the roots con¬ 
fined to limited areas. Wide, deep borders of rich material are great evils, 
and very unsatisfactory in results. The trees grow beautifully, but that is 
the extent of their utility. Syringe twice a day in fine weather, and 
always in good time in the afternoon, closing the house at the same time, 
and so as to gain enough sun heat to rise up to 90° or 95°. As the fruit 
approaches ripening admit a little air at the top of the house before night¬ 
fall. The grand secret of avoiding scorched leaves and scalds of all sorts 
is early rising, early ventilation—moisture deposited through the night 
dissipated by the rising sun. Evaporation, elaboration, and assimilation 
should always be sought in the day by commencing ventilation early, 
increasing with the sun’s power, and growth sought by staying evaporation 
and restoring the wasted energies of the plants by a genial atmosphere, 
which is best effected in the early part oE the closing day by sun heat 
and a moist atmosphere. This insures rest at night, the temperature 
being allowed to fall to a safe minimum. 
Late Houses .—Figs are not so much grown in cool houses as they 
deserve. The fruit is of the most wholesome kind, and they make a grand 
addition to desserts. Narrow borders of calcareous soil well drained, and 
a light well ventilated structure, afford excellent results. The chief things 
are to grow thin, feed highly, ventilate early, and utilise sun heat by 
early closing. Keep the growths thin, stop at the fifth leaf— i.e., side 
growths, and keep the borders well mulched and watered. The trees will 
ripen one full crop in August, after which it is advisable to let the shoots 
grow up to the glass so as to get the young growths well ripened. 
Melons. —Houses and Pits Cleared of fruit .—Prompt decision must 
be made as to whether the plants are worth keeping for a second crop. 
If the plants are healthy, and not infested with red spider, they may be 
reserved for a second crop, in which case growths should have been re¬ 
tained and encouraged in the latter stages of the first crop, and a good 
set will have been secured in these whilst the structures were kept drier for 
the fruit ripening. The old growths in this case should be cut away, but 
not all at once, as that would give a iheck, reserving the best of the 
growths, and any cuts that bleed should be dried with quicklime. Remove 
a little of the surface soil, and supply s m- lumpy loam. Soak with tepid 
water, and follow at once with ttpid liquid manure. Mulch with short 
manure collected, spread in a shed, and turned over two or three times 
before using as a mulch for the Melons, and are best given a little 
and often, Tather than a heavy mulching all at once. If kept moist the 
roots will soon spread in the loam. Thin the fruits to half a dozen, or 
apportion the numbeT to the vigour of the plants ; but as the fruit does 
not attain to so large a size as the first crop, and as this will be the last 
crop off the plants, more fruits may be taken than is advisable for the first, 
especially when a second from the ame plants is desired. Allow a fair ex¬ 
tension of fresh growth, especially if the plants have to be grown on 
before fruit can be had, as not all varieties are amenable to the con¬ 
tinuous system of cropping, and in that case it will be necessary to secure 
a good growth, and then seek a good set by a drier atmosphere. 
Replanting in Houses , Pits, and Frames .—IE the plants are not in 
condition for carrying a second crop clear them out at once, removing the 
soil, and the heat being had from fermenting materials remove a portion 
of it and add some fresh, mixing it with the fresher of the old, which 
will revive the bottom heat sufficiently for young plants. Cleanse the 
house or structure thoroughly, much success depends on a good start. 
Plant on hillocks or ridges, or a couple of barrowloads of soil will grow a 
large plant, and it saves much trouble afterwards. Ram the soil firm, 
and when warm plant the Melons. Shade from bright sun for a few days, 
and maintain a moist atmosphere, but ventilate freely. 
Plants Setting Fruit ,—Artificial ventilation is not so essential now 
as early in the season. Insects of various kinds visit the flowers, and 
although humble bees and hive bees make most of the staminate flowers, 
they make mistakes and enter the pistillate arid so effect fertilisation, 
rendering varieties of Melons very sportive and as plentiful as Black¬ 
berries in autumn. If, as there sometimes is, a difficulty in getting 
Melons to set in frames, apply good linings, and admit air freely, ventilating 
a little at night, so as to prevent the deposition of moisture on the 
blossoms, as to set the pollen must be dry and the stigmas not destroyed 
by moisture. Keep the foliage fairly thin, but it is not advisable to use 
the knife much during setting ; still, light and air is essential. Avoid 
giving water if it can be helped, yet the foliage must not flag. 
Plants Smelling their Crops .—Add fresh soil to the ridges or hillocks 
as necessary. Syringe plants in houses at closing time, and damp well 
down in the morning, and in the evening of hot days. Afford liquid 
manure copiously, always weak and tepid. Afford supports to the fruit 
in good time, placing slates under those in pits or frames. Keep the 
foliage fairly thin, avoiding too distant trimming, as allowing a large 
amount of foliage to be made and afterwards have to reduce it in quantity 
gives a serious check, and prolific of gangrene or gumming. Ventilate 
early or at 75°, keep through the day at 80° to 90° as sun avails, and close 
so as to run up to 95° or even 100°, with plenty of atmospheric moisture. 
A little ventilation about C p.m. will allow the temperature to fall 
gradually, any vitiated air escaping. As the fruit approaches ripening 
reduce the water at the roots, but not to flagging, and admit a little air 
constantly, withholding water from the fruit. Cracked fruits are mostly 
a consequence of a moist atmosphere at night. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Stephanotis floribunda .—How frequently these are condemned as 
being non-floweriDg varieties when the fault is entirely due to the system 
of culture that is practised. Those that have failed to flower in the past 
may be turned into the mo3t profuse flowering plants if the proper treat¬ 
ment be given. To flower Stephanotis abundantly it must not be grown 
in a close, moist, too warm, shaded atmosphere. Under these circum¬ 
stances it will grow, but certainly fail to flower. If the resting and 
winter treatment has been right, and the plant is afterwards grown with 
its shoots trained close to the glass, fully exposed to the sun, and air when 
the weather is warm admitted daily, large trusses of flowers from every 
point of the wood are certain. Old wood well ripened will flower freely, 
but for a long succession of bloom the young growing shoots have to be 
relied upon. All who have plants in shady moist positions should expose 
them at once to the sun, and they will be certain, before the season closes, 
to have a good quantity of bloom from the young wood made very shortly 
after exposure. During bright hot weather air should be freely admitted, 
and light shade for two or three hours on hot days will be beneficial 
rather than otherwise, but, if this cannot be judiciously done without 
overshading, it had much better be dispensed with. It i3 unnecessary as 
far as the plant is concerned, but it assists in the preservation of 
the bloom. If the plant grown is confined at the roots it must be 
liberally fed with stimulants to encourage growth, for without fresh 
growth the supply of flowers soon fails. A good mulching of decayed 
manure on the surface of the soil will prove very serviceable, and the 
roots will quickly take possession of it. Artificial manures applied to the 
surface are also good, in fact this is the only form of feeding we practise. 
It is a great mistake to suppose that this plant will only flower freely 
when confined in a pot or box and throughly crammed with roots. When 
properly grown as regards light, air, and a moderately dry atmosphere, it 
will flower most profusely with considerable liberty at its roots. The 
Stephanotis, when the flowers are required for cutting, should always be 
grown where it is possible to syringe freely twice daily. If the plant is 
clean to commence with, it can easily be kept free from bug by this 
method. 
Taberncemontanas. — With the flowers of these plants there are 
generally produced numbers of young growths, which in a large measure 
hide the flowers. This is not the only drawback, for these growths rob 
the flowers very much. This can be prevented by their removal as soon 
as the flower buds are visible and growths are sufficiently large to be 
picked off. Fine large flowers are the result of this practice, and they 
open together much better than when the growths are allowed to come 
away naturally. There need be no fear of injury to the plants by this 
treatment, for they are certain to break back, and invariably produce 
more growths than if the first ones that started away had been allowed 
to remain. Young plants are of great value for various forms of decora¬ 
tion when subjected to this treatment. They can be grown into bushy 
little specimens, which flower as freely as plants of a larger size. \\ hen 
plants have ceased flowering they may be pushed rapidly into growth and 
assisted by the aid of liquid or artificial manure to the surface if confined 
at their root. 
Ixoras.— Plants of a young vigorous nature as they cease flowering 
should have their strongest shoots tied out, and the remainder cut back 
according to their length. If pushed again into growth in a moist close 
warm atmosphere they will soon commence rapid growth, which ll 
ripened as made by exposure to the sun and air they will flower freely 
again in due time. Young plants make stronger and much longer growth 
than old ones that have become woody and somewhat stunted. They 
