214 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 14, :88ft 
much above 85° ; but when they are fairly established and the pots 
are being filled with roots, the bottom heat should be lessened till 
finally discarded altogether, when the Yine will be 6 or 7 feet high. 
Plenty of air be given now on warm days, leaving a little top ven¬ 
tilation on all night after the canes begin to ripen. 
In hot weather the man in charge of pot Vines must be on the 
alert; if he happen to miss watering one it is almost sure to be caught 
if the sun is bright. They require a good soaking when watered, 
not little and often. For liquid manure we find none better than 
sheep manure, not too strong, given about twice per week when the 
pots are nearly filled with roots ; Beeson’s manure is also good for 
a change. I must say a word about syringing, but we do very 
little of this unless we see a trace of red spider, which soon 
attacks weakly plants, especially if they are neglected any time in 
watering. Black Hamburgh and Buckland Sweetwater cannot do 
with syringing at all, it soon causes the under parts of the leaves 
to blister badly. I do not recommend syringing a house of Vines 
at night if it can be avoided. The atmosphere should be kept 
moist by frequently damping the paths, but a gentle syringing 
in the morning when warm with chilled water will prove much 
better than at night, especially if about twice per week a little 
weak cow manure water is used, say one pint to a gallon of clear 
water. There is one thing I must mention as regards the ripening 
process, that it is very essential and conditional for the Vines to 
be in good health to secure well ripened canes and plump buds.— 
A. C., Chilwell. 
TUBEROUS BEGONIAS. 
In several respects these are much to be preferred to some other 
popular greenhouse plants. Their foliage is quite beautiful ; their 
flowers are now large in size, of good form, and the colours, no 
matter how rich they may be, are never glaring, but always refined. 
Then we can stow them away in autumn, and leave them until late 
iu spring if it so pleases without their taking up space or giving 
trouble ; and though I have seen it stated that they are not suited 
for decorative purposes when cut, that is not correct, as I find them 
at once distinct and good for this purpose. Their one drawback is 
the want of scent, and on that account ladies, however much they 
admire their beauty, do not take to them so much as if that almost 
indispensable quality were possessed by them. They are so easily 
procured from seed that I have no doubt many people content 
themselves with seedling plants ; but where only a limited number 
is grown in pots I think it much better to grow named varieties, 
and from these seedlings can be raised. Of the single sorts I have 
grown I can recommend Her Majesty, Princess of Wales, Princess 
Victoria, J. L. McFarlane, Marquis of Bute, Mrs. Weeks, Empress 
of India, Mdlle. Pessoneau, Princess Beatrice, Torey Laing, Ball of 
Fire, and L’Abbe Froment as being very good. New doubles are 
being brought out in such numbers that in due course one may be 
able to procure some of them, as prices cannot always rule as high 
as now ; but for the present we must be content with some of the 
older varieties. By-and-by no doubt the habit of the plant will be 
considered, as it is very important that double varieties should be of 
a sturdy upright habit, so that the blooms may not be hidden from 
view. Some of the prettiest are small-flowered, and none more so 
than Davisi lutea fl.-pl., a most brilliant plant; Thalie is whitish with 
small flowers ; Octavie Malet, white, good habit; General Chanzy 
and Le Grand Citoyen, both good upright-growing sorts, with 
flowers not large. Large-flowered varieties worth growing are 
AV. Bealby, Rosamonde, Clemence Denizard, Madame de Dumast, 
Blanche Jeanpierre, Suzanne Hachette, Leon de St. Jean, Mons. 
Chevreul, Rosette, Gabrielle Legros, Sebastian Bach, and Goliath. 
The plants may be started in the pots in which they were grown 
the previous year, but the method I have followed gives quite as 
good results, and saves much space and labour. An inch and a half 
of leaf soil is placed in the bottom of a cutting box, the tubers are 
then shaken out, and placed quite close together on the surface of 
the leaf soil, just a little of the same material being sprinkled 
between them ; the whole is then slightly moistened, and a thick 
layer of moss laid over all ; the box and its contents are placed 
away under a stage in a stove, where in a short time the latent buds 
become active. If the stock is desired to be increased the tubers 
may be cut up in pieces, each with one or more started buds, being 
careful to cut round the outside of the tuber, so as not to destroy 
any buds which are growing in the middle out of sight. If these 
pieces are very small it will be necessary to prepare some small pots, 
and fill them with a compost of equal parts of loam, leaf soil or 
peat, and sand, into each of which the section of a tuber is to be 
planted, leaving the growth well above the soil. A stove tempera¬ 
ture is necessary to cause roots to form quickly ; should, however, 
large plants be wanted the tubers are to be left in the boxes until 
well furnished with roots and foliage, and from these transferred to 
their largest pots. 
They like an open compost, and the soil not too much firmed, 
and in potting it is a good plan to keep the upper portion of the- 
tuber above the level df the soil. Good plants can be grown on. 
from pieces of tubers with one to three growths, shifting as required 
till 6 or 7-inch pots are filled. If the point of the growing shoots, 
is pinched out above the third or fourth flower bud the flowers will 
be increased in size, while the under portion of the stem will throw- 
out young growths, which later on will produce a fine crop of 
flowers. For a few years past I have filled a cool Orchid house 
with these, the Orchids being transferred to cool brick pits until 
autumn ; a slight shade is put on the glass and the atmosphere kept 
moderately moist, and treated thus the plants do very well, especi¬ 
ally as towards autumn a little heat is allowed them. They are 
rather impatient of manures, and when any is applied it must be in 
very small quantities ; but if seed pods are not allowed to re mail v 
on the plants they will continue in good condition without any 
manure. AVhen a few seeds are wanted two capsules to a plant 
are quite enough to leave.—B. 
GARDENERS AND THEIR SOCIAL POSITION. 
I wish “ A. D., Feltham ," was absolutely right in the position he 
takes up as to the law which gives gardeners who reside in a house on 
their employers’ estate a right to a municipal County Council vote as- 
well as a parliamentary one. My experience is, however, all the other 
way, and my reading of revising barristers’ decisions confirms my 
experience. Perhaps 1 can make more clear the law as I understand it, 
and the law I have had to submit to, if I give the incident of my attempt 
to secure my municipal vote. I shall not give names nor places, as they 
have nothing to do with the fact. My situation is on a gentleman’s, 
estate close to one of the large midland towns, and when the borough 
was extended some years ago this estate was included. 
Being interested in the School Board election I made a claim for my 
municipal vote, and was allowed it. I enjoyed it for two years. A sharp 
contest revealed the side I was on, and at the next registration I was- 
objected to by the opposite side. The revising barrister was obdurate 
to my appeal that my house was rated, and laid down the law that any 
servant, public or private, who occupied a residence by reason of his. 
employment, came under the service franchise, and had only the 
parliamentary vote. I had to submit, though I protested most 
strenuously. I stirred up locally a good deal of excitement on the 
subject, and feeling that I had some ground to stand upon I got myself 
placed on the overseers’ list for the next registration, only to be again 
objected to. I consulted the agent on our side, whose reading of the law 
of service franchise was the same as the revising barrister’s. Still I was 
not satisfied, and being anxious to get at the bottom of the business 
with an opinion from the other side I wrote to the newspaper representing 
that side under a nom de plume as follows What is the service- 
franchise, and why is it ? ‘ Claim your votes,’say the agents. Well, we 
do, and what are we told ? 4 You live on So and so’s estate, and you 
can only have the parliamentary vote, not the municipal one. You go¬ 
on List No. 2.’ ‘ What for V say we. 1 Oh, you come under the 
service franchise 1’ 4 What is the service franchise V we ask, and we 
get a lot of law talk which we do not understand. Is it that because a 
man occupies a house on his master’s estate he is partially disfranchised 
by being deprived of his municipal vote ? That the law allows a man to> 
be a householder with a vote for a Member of Parliament who legislates 
for the whole country, but does not allow a man to be a householder 
with a vote for those men who legislate for things at home, and things- 
that touch him most closely. Is this so, really ?” 
My letter brought out a reply from the agent of the opposite party 
to mine as follows :—“ I have seen the letter inquiring as to the service 
franchise. Permit me to explain that, prior to the Franchise Act of 
1885, men who occupied their houses as a necessary consequence of their 
employment were disqualified for both parliamentary and municipal 
votes, because they did not 4 occupy as owners or tenants ’ as required 
by law, but were held to be merely the representatives of their employers 
who were considered the legal occupiers through their servants. The 
Act of 1885 provided that servants inhabiting houses, or parts of houses, 
in which their employers do not reside shall be ‘deemed to be tenants’ 
for the purpose of the parliamentary franchise. The municipal dis¬ 
qualification, however, still continues. It is an absurd distinction, but, 
like nine-tenths of the laws affecting the franchise, however, it is the 
result of piecemeal legislation. Our policemen are now in a similar 
position, and, like your correspondent, doubtless wonder why.” 
This reading of the law was confirmed over and over again at our 
registration, and also, as far as my reading went, at other registrations- 
all over the country. Now that, by the municipal law being carried) 
out in the election of county councillors, more people are disfran¬ 
chised by that law, interest is being excited concerning it, and the- 
powers that be may in time, perhaps, be induced to alter it. The whole 
question of the franchise needs revision, and a simple and general rule 
as to elections needs adoption. As it is now there is one mode of election 
for members of parliament, one for town councillors, one for school 
boards, one for boards of guardians, and, indeed, a different one almost 
in every election.—N. H. P._ 
Me. Alfeed Bishop evidently does not like criticism of his own 
writings, but he does not appear to consult the feelings of members of 
