240 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 19, 1889, 
in manure that has been properly prepared than when neglected. 
If left long exposed most of the more valuable elements escape, 
and removing such manure to the land is like taking your purse to 
the bank with no money in it. How many think of this ?” Is not 
this an admission that stable manure as usually applied to the land 
is very uncertain ? 
I am well aware of the great value of stable manure and of its 
abundance and cheapness in London, which may explain why so 
little artificial is used in proximity to the metropolis ; but the 
country generally has not a supply either so abundant or cheap, 
consequently there artificial manure is much more economical, for 
it is far from exaggeration to assert that 1 cwt. of a properly com¬ 
pounded artificial manure is more than equivalent to 2 tons of the 
best stable manure ; it produces as good or better crops and does 
not impoverish the land. The vulgar error as to impoverishment 
originated from the improper use of nitrogenous manures, such as 
sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda by themselves ; even 
when so used they impoverish the soil only in the sense that they 
enable what is in it to be taken out in a shorter time. No land can 
be cropped continually without impoverishment if the phosphorus, 
potash, &c., taken away in the crops be not restored to it. If 
phosphorus, potash, &c., had been added to the nitrogenous 
manures there would have been no complaint of impoverishment.— 
Edmund Tonks. 
The eighth volume of Mr. B. S. Williams’ Orchid Album is just 
completed, and contains forty-eight excellent coloured plates of 
even more varied character than the preceding volumes. Twenty- 
seven genera are represented, some of the largest having several 
plates each ; thus there are four Cattleyas, six Cypripediums, four 
Lidias, six Odontoglossums and four Oncidiums. The illustration 
of Odontoglossum Harryanum is a good one, but that in which 
Odontoglossum eugenes is depicted is exceptionally beautiful. 
The colouring in all has been very carefully done and the plants 
are faithfully represented. The descriptive and cultural notes are 
full, practical, and useful. 
DENDROBIUM3. 
As these complete their growth it is important more light and 
air be admitted to the plants to harden and ripen their pseudo¬ 
bulbs. Frequently they are kept after they have lengthened out 
their growths in too close and too moist an atmosphere, which has 
the effect of starting them again into growth. This is not all, for 
the foliage often commences dying towards the tips prematurely. 
This is unnatural, and should be prevented. Plants that lose their 
foliage in the manner indicated seldom mature their pseudo¬ 
bulbs as thoroughly as they ought to do. Betain the leaves 
upon the plants until they assume a ripened hue, and then turn 
yellow and die away naturally. Evergreen species are often 
seriously disfigured by half of their foliage dying away through 
being grown in an atmosphere that is overshaded and nearly at the 
point of saturation. The moist atmosphere and liberal supplies 
of water that these plants need during active growth have in many 
cases led to excess. In all cases where growth is complete and 
ripening has commenced do not withhold water suddenly so as to 
check them, let the supply be gradually diminished, and the same 
care should be taken in giving them a lower temperature. Plants 
of D. crassinode that have been grown in a moderately light drv 
structure have made thick firm growths 18 inches to 2 feet long, 
and are now being fully exposed to the sun in a cool house where 
air is admitted abundantly during the day. D. Wardianum we are 
exposing in vineries for the present, where the foliage is thin and 
light can penetrate freely to the plants. D. nobile and its forms 
are standing on a moisture-holding base in the greenhouse fully 
exposed —that is, all that have completed their growth. 
Such species as D. moschatum, D. Calceolus, and other strong 
growers require thorough ripening, and in crier to accomplish this 
they must be freely exposed as early in the season as possible— 
directly, in fact, that they have lengthened out their growths and 
attain a little solidity. The free-growing D. chrysanthum is 
charming when well and profusely flowered, but when subject, as 
is too frequently the case, to stove treatment the whole year through, 
the flowers are few in number in comparison with plants that are 
given distinct seasons of growth and rest. When kept in the stove 
this plant is almost a perpetual grower, and increases rapidly, butt 
its growths soon become thin and puny. There are two distinct 
forms of this plant, the one having longer and thicker pseudo-bulbs- 
than the other, and flowers for 18 inches or more of its length.. 
The flowers are the same. The stronger grower is deciduous, while- 
the other under the same treatment retains a portion of its foliage. 
The one shows its flowers as soon as the growth attains a fair 
amount of solidity, the other not until it is ripened and has lost' 
its foliage. Where growth is completed give the plants the same 
treatment as D. Wardianum, and prepare them for a thorough! 
season of rest.— Orchid Grower. 
IN THE MIDLANDS. 
SMITHS’ OF WORCESTER. 
So familiar is the above designation of a famous nursery, and so 
naturally does it come to the lips and the pen, that the “ precisely 
proper ” may stand aside for once, and the popularly expressive take- 
its place for the purpose of this brief description. No one, presumably,, 
who is interested in horticulture, and having an hour to spare in the 
historic city, would fail to run down by tram or otherwise to the great 
and diversified nurseries of Messrs. Richard Smith & Co. at St. John’s^ 
Those who have been before will be ready to go again and be gratified, 
while those who have not yet had the privilege of seeing what is to be 
seen there may make up their minds to be astonished. It is not too- 
much to say that “ Smiths’ of Worcester ” is one of the great nurseries 
of the world, and its owners rank amongst the most enterprising p 
indeed, it is a combination of enterprise with excellence that has made 
the business what it is to-day. 
On intimating to a leading gardener in the Midlands my intention- 
of calling at Worcester, he at once said, “ Certainly you should not 
leave the county without seeing Smiths’; it is a splendid nursery, as 
much like a gentleman’s garden and pleasure ground as a trade estab¬ 
lishment, in respect to its cleanliness, order, and the high culture dis¬ 
played everywhere.” I found the description correct. Under glass and 
outside, in the plant, evergreen, deciduous tree, and shrub departments ~ 
in the extensive acreage devoted to fruit trees, Roses, and Dahlias, all 
was alike satisfying, from whatever point of view regarded. 
“ I suppose you do not want to go all over the nursery,” observed 
the courteous attendant, quickly adding, “you can if you like, you 
know ; but 1 fear you would find it fatiguing.” No doubt he was right- 
The central walk flanked with borders of choice evergreens is, I think,, 
more than a mile and a half long, and there are dozens of parallel 
paths, and dozens more of cross sectional alleys for passing between the- 
trees, making in the aggregate forty-two miles of walks that traverse- 
the 2C0 acres of the enclosure. 
And yet within the present century the foundation of the gigantie- 
business was laid in a plot of four or five acres. Now about the same 
extent of ground is occupied with low pits and frames, in which small 
choice evergreens are raised and established in pots in scores of thou¬ 
sands—Ivies, Euonymuses, Elaeagnuses, Hollies, Aucubas, rare Conifers,. 
Acacias, Libonias, Choisyas, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Clematises, and 
various others, all “ sized,” so to say, and attractive by their freshness- 
and uniformity. Then there are the houses, thirty of them, one being 
nearly 400 feet long, and one or other of them containing plants of 
every description in demand in gardens. It is evidently a great plantr 
manufactory, reminding in some respects of the Belgian establishments, 
but far larger, and in every way better than the great majority of them.. 
A glance suffices to show the superiority of the Azaleas and Camellias- 
to the pampered and fed-for-sale continental plants, which can scarcely 
be kept alive after the first season, while the home-raised and differently 
grown, with fair treatment, go on improving, and are deckledly the- 
cheaper in the end. This purchasers appear to be finding out, for the- 
demand is ever increasing. 
Amongst other plants which catch the eye in passing are some hun¬ 
dreds if not thousands of Pimelea spectabilis rosea—models in healtk; 
and symmetery, a houseful of that not easy to raise plant Phoenocoma 
prolifera Barnesi, a great block of Libonia Penrhosiensis which places the- 
more familiar L. floribunda quite in the background, a similar bank of' 
Statice Butcheri, decidedly one of the best of the genus and of green¬ 
house plants; a houseful of seedling Lapagerias, several distinctly' 
meritorious ; numbers of the bright yellow Cassia corymbosa, flowering- 
in 5-inch pots ; and in contrast a spkndid collection of Ferns, including 
a houseful of Adiantum farleyense, but not a houseful of the recently 
certificated Pteris tremula Smithiana, with its crested fronds, which we 
may be sure will be increased as rapidly as possible, and 1 no doubt 
wanted as fast as it can be provided ; a number of plants of the free 
and elegant Asparagus comorensis, an advance on A. plumosus nanus. 
Such are some of the plants that arrest attention under glass, but not 
less so perhaps than the 0000 Vines in pots that will soon be ready for 
distribution. 
But large as are the stocks of different kinds of plants in pots that 
are in chief demand, the chiefest are the Clematises. Surely this must 
be the great emporium of these handsomest of hardy climbers. The 
majority are plunged over the rims of the pots in the open quarters, 
sturdy, hardy, ready for delivery and planting. Whence such numbers 
go every year is a marvel, but they do go. Thousands are already sold, 
and only await the condition and time when they can best be despatched 
to the purchasers. Numbers smaller are coming on, and amongst those 
