62 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f January 24, 1889. 
height. The exceptions are when rather stale manure is used, and 
when the weather is very windy and cold, a covering being then 
necessary to prevent a rapid lowering of the temperature of the 
bed. In about a week after spawning it ought to be safe to mould 
over the bed, and this covering should consist of about 2 inches of 
fine fresh loam or loamy soil, only moderately moist, or otherwise 
when well beaten with the back of a spade it wall bind, and sub¬ 
sequently crack badly. Should the -weather be mild it is advisable 
to keep the holes through the centre of the bed open a few days 
after the beds are soiled over, and only a light covering of straw 
be given. In cold weather a thickness of 6 inches of strawy litter 
may be necessary, and double that quantity is sometimes needed to 
enclose and keep up the heat of the bed. The comparatively clean 
straw rejected when the manure was first sorted over, is most suit¬ 
able for covering ridge-shaped beds, this being really sweeter than 
hay litter, and less liable to become cold and wet. When the 
strawy litter is neatly disposed over the beds in the form of a 
thatch rain will rarely penetrate through it. We found on ex¬ 
amining our beds after the heavy rains in December lasl, the upper 
portion of the soil was too dry, and this was recently moistened 
through a thin layer of fresh stained litter, and again heavily 
covered. As a rule there is very little need of water at this time 
of the year, and a heavy supply should never be applied. The 
proper way is, gently syringe tepid water over a thm layer of litter, 
this soon moistening the soil underneath. One person only should 
gather the Mushrooms, as this obviates the necessity for uncovering 
space recently cleared. Cold winds are more injurious than frosts, 
and should be excluded as much as possible. Every would-be 
successful Mushroom grower ought to possess a copy of Wright’s 
Mushrooms for the Million.” — W. Iggulden. 
THE BUNDLE FAMILY AS A CLASS. 
Committees of societies might make an interesting class for the 
forthcoming exhibitions by providing a separate one for blooms of the 
Bundle family, consisting of Mrs. George Bundle, George Glenny, and 
Mrs. Dixon, stipulating that the blooms should be shown in threes, 
with, say, not less than 6 or 8 inches of stem, which would allow of 
some leaves to be attached, rendering the blooms all the more attractive, 
staging them in a similar way to that now employed with Anemone 
Pompons or single Dahlias. Complaints are often heard from admirers 
of this type of incurved flowers that their favourites are being pushed 
on one side for larger sorts. In this manner they would be retained, 
and stands arranged in the manner suggested would make an agreeable 
change to the stereotyped style now prevailing. Seldom are blooms of 
these varieties now seen at the shows owing to the rage for size : ex¬ 
hibitors know quite well that something more than pretty little blooms 
are required to win prizes nowadays at the leading shows. In no other 
manner that I can think of can a class be made so that these varieties 
can be retained as exhibition flowers. At the last Chrysanthemum 
Show held in Portsmouth a class was made for one dozen blooms each 
of the three varieties named. Although substantial prizes were offered 
only three competitors staged blooms ; these being placed on the ordinary 
sized exhibition stands, showed much more board than bloom, and 
failed in that way to create much interest. I throw out this hint as a 
suggestion to societies now forming their classes who are wishful to 
encourage Chrysanthemum culture in all phases and classes as far as 
circumstances will allow. The wording of the class might be in this 
way—Thirty-six blooms, to be shown in bunches of three blooms each, 
one bloom to a stem with foliage, to include Mrs. G. Bundle, Mr. George 
Glenny, and Mrs. Dixon only. Such a class would then leave the 
option to the exhibitor to stage the varieties as he chose, or according 
to circumstances at the time. Where it is stipulated that twelve blooms 
of each sort must be staged, competition is limited by reason that an 
exhibitor may have only, say, ten blooms of one of the three varieties; 
he then is debarred from entering the class, and perhaps the other 
blooms he may have are of the first order of merit, but by leaving it 
an open question competition is more likely to be extended. As the 
merits of either of the varieties named are similar when presented in 
equal condition, there should be no difficulty in judging such a class, 
which would give opportunities to those persons who are constantly 
bewailing the method of staging the blooms in existence generally at 
the present day.—E. Molyneux. 
CUTTING DOWN CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
1 THINK the system of cutting down Chrysanthemums will become 
more general each season, because it reduces the height of some varieties, 
and in some cases produces finer blooms. Your correspondent, “ A 
Notts Grower,” has given some useful information on the subject. He 
says Madame C. Audiguier has not done so well this reason cut down. 
1 had the shoot of one plant of that variety broken last season about 
the end of May. On this plant the blooms were much finer, deeper, 
and better formed than those on the other plants which were not 
stooped. Cutting down wholesale will not answer, as some varieties 
are improved by it, while others would be nearly spoiled; therefore I 
think experience only will teach us which to cut and which to leave 
alone. I specially welcome any information I can get on the Chrysan¬ 
themum, as I am but a beginner in their cultivation.—G. Garner, 
Amberwood Gardens, Hants. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM SPORTS. 
I have read with considerable interest the remarks of Mr. Davis on 
pages 49 and 50, as to the colouring of Chrysanthemum flowers, and 
though I have read them over several times there are one or two state¬ 
ments that puzzle me. Will Mr. Davis be good enough to say by what 
process of analysis or reasoning he arrives at the conclusion that the 
original ground colour of the Chrysanthemum was white, and that 
yellow is but a secondary colour l His table does not prove anything. 
He next tells us that we shall “get to black,” and then says “black is 
but a dark purple.” How can black be a dark purple or the “colours 
red and purple ” be “ really the same 1 ” If black is but a dark purple, 
and red and purple are really the same, then by the same process of 
reasoning black is red, and red is black ! I have always been under the 
impression that the original colour of the Chrysanthemum was either 
yellow or green—certainly not white. If anyone will take the trouble 
to look they will find more or less green in all the so-called white 
flowers, and I do not think that white is any more the true original so- 
called colour of a flower than it is of foliage, which happens to have lost 
a large portion of its original colour. 
I believe red, blue, and yellow to be the three primary colours, and 
all colours in flowers are derived from some one or combination of those 
colours—two or more. Several years ago a clever paper appeared in the 
Journal on colours from the pen of Dr. G. M. Lowe of Lincoln, and in 
that paper he expressed the opinion, and adduced evidence to prove it, 
that green and not yellow should be classed as a primary colour. Dr. 
Lowe’s evidence and arguments were very strong, but did not convince 
me, nevertheless perhaps Dr. Lowe is right in Nature and in theory ; 
but-I know that in practice I require blue and yellow for composing any 
shade of green in art; as also I cannot obtain a true purple unless I 
have a combination of crimson and blue. No matter how deep the 
shade of crimson, it is not purple until I add more or less blue, conse¬ 
quently I cannot see how Mr. Davis can correct! y say that red is really 
the same as purple. Perhaps he will explain. 
I think that all flowers that are paler in colour than red, blue, or 
* yellow are deteriorating from their originals, even tbough their imme¬ 
diate progenitors may have been white.—J. 
DAMPING IN CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
Allow me to call your attention to the fact that with respect to the 
varieties I named at the National Society’s Conference as “ scalded ” by 
the sun, it should read “ E. Audiguier,” not “ E. Molyneux.” With 
respect to Perle Precieuse, although it did riot resist this form of 
damping, it is not to be discarded, for in my opinion it will make one of 
the best front row flowers we have, and I look forward to seeing it take 
a prominent place.—J. Doughty, Anqleij Pari; Gardens, Craiilrooh. 
NOTES ON VEGETABLES. 
The time is upon us again for making out the seed order, and by 
this time many will have sent theirs to their seedsmen. Last 
season was a very unfavourable one for trying the merits of new 
vegetables, and also of older sorts that had not been grown before. 
Of Pea3, I grew three early sorts—Yeitch’s Selected Extra Early, 
American Wonder, and William I. I made a sowing of each of 
the above on an early south border on February 7th. I also raised 
some of Yeitch’a Selected Extra Early and American Wonder in 
pots and boxes, and planted out on the same border on April 21st, 
and gathered the first dish from Yeitch’s Early on the 30th of 
June, but could have gathered a few days earlier only they were 
not wanted. Extra Early was a few days before American 
Wonder and did better. I do not intend growing the latter again. 
It is not productive enough. There was only about a week of 
difference between those sown in the open in February and those 
sown in heat and planted out. Yeitch’s Early I am growing again. 
It comes in about a week before William I., and though not 
such a good Pea either in productiveness or flavour, still it is worth 
growing for its early qualities. 
William I. did us extra good service lust season. We had 
two later sowings than those just mentioned, and these kept in 
bearing right through July. Indeed, if it had not been for this 
variety we should have had very few Peas all the summer. 
Yeitch’s Perfection, which succeeded so well in 1887, did not 
yield us a single dish last year, and we had very few from 
Champion of England ; and the same may be said of Telephone 
and Telegraph, also Dr. McLean, Duke of Albany, and Ne Plus 
Ultra. Just -when we were thinking we would have some good 
