April 4, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
273 
•combination has an affinity for alkalis, might a little lime mixed not 
•prevent the trouble complained of t —W. T. 
Eably Rhubaeb. —Several of your correspondents think it an 
unusual occurrence to have Rhubarb fit for use unforced on February 
'20th. Permit me to inform them it is no novelty in Ireland. On refer¬ 
ring to my notes I find it was first pulled in 1888 on February 27th, and 
on the 23rd of that month in 1887. On the 25th of March, when visiting 
the fine gardens at Lough Cutra Castle, Co. Galway, I saw plenty of 
the Victoria Rhubarb, unforced, quite 18 inches high, and this after 
-several gatherings had been made. This variety Mr. Winkworth con- 
eiders the latest but one he has, while in your issue of the 21st, four days 
previous to my visit, another correspondent mentions this same variety 
as being then only commencing growth—I do not remember the exact 
words—fourteen miles from the Isle of Wight. I mention this simply to 
■show the difference in climate here and the localities where your corre¬ 
spondents reside. Last year we dug new Potatoes, Ashleafs, on May 17th, 
and gathered first crop Peas on May 26t'n. We have been cutting 
•Veitch’s Autumn Giant Cauliflower all the past winter up till a fortnight 
•ago by merely covering with their own leaves.— Handy Andy. 
CANKER IN FRUIT TREES. 
I HAVE read the discussion on this subject which is going on between 
“ W.” and Mr. Tonks with much interest, and have no wish to try to 
•convert them to my ideas. All we want to get at, I presume, is cause 
•and effect and a cure. I should like anyone to explain how it is 
"that I have been able to cure badly cankered trees without disturbing 
•the roots or adding fresh soil, except an occasional top-dressing of 
manure, without grafting a fresh sort on the stock ; and, also, if the 
■soil was lacking the necessary constituents when the trees were so badly 
•cankered, how the mysterious essentials were added to the soil to bring 
•them into health again. I make no pretence at being a scientific man, 
but I do claim to have used my eyes most diligently in trying to find the 
origin of canker in my own trees, and, as canker invariably commences 
at a bud or a spur, I traced that cause to insect life to my satisfaction, 
and the insects are so diminutive in some cases as to require by measure¬ 
ment 40,000 of them laid side by side and end to end to cover 1 inch square 
•of space on this paper. I claim to have cured my trees after obtaining 
this knowledge, and making use of it, on my insect theory.—J. Hiaii. 
Though I cannot fully answer Mr. Tonks’ telling rejoinder on 
page 250 this week, I think I have a shot or two in my locker that he 
will not entirely escape when the time comes for firing. We have never 
Teen in conflict respecting the great value of chemical manures, but my 
■experience with them on a Vine border with the roots 2 feet below the 
surface was not in accord with Mr. Tonks’ assurance that a “ sprinkling 
•of them with an ordinary rainfall will fertilise the soil at that depth or 
more, and increase the surface roots to a surprising extent.” Nitrates 
resulting from ammonia will slip down readily enough, but potash will 
mot with anything approaching the same celerity, and I believe the soil 
above the roots may be charged with it, while Vines and fruit trees 
starve, because it remains unappropriated. As a fact, I have gained at 
the least a hundred times more surface roots in one season bv soil 
renewal than were produced in five years by applications of suitable 
manures to the soil 2 feet or more above the main roots from which the 
tfibres issued. 
My chief object, however, in penning this provisional reply to 
Mr. Tonks is to notice his comments on one of my propositions. He 
writes, “ ‘ W.’ asserts that the healthy growth of a grafted tree is the 
•result of the graft reacting on the roots and restoring them from a checked 
;aud paralysed condition.” That is my belief, and it has been arrived 
at by root examination both before and after the free growth which 
•followed the grafting. Then Mr. Tonks goes on to ask, “ What caused 
The ill condition of the roots V’ and answers the question in these 
words, “ Not the canker, because according to ‘ W.’ this disease is the 
•consequence of the paralysis.” A smart deduction, I admit, but not 
•quite satisfactory. 
I fear I must have misled my acute friend by some unprecise 
expression. I never meant to say, and doubt if I did say, that canker 
•is the consequence of root paralysis when the trees arc in good soil and 
•the great majority of them healthy. I now say that the reverse is more 
in accordance with my views under those circumstances, and suggest 
•that canker is often aggravated by torpid roots. The seat of injury is in 
the branch or branches of many trees, though not all, and the greater the 
injury the greater the root derangement, and the more complete the 
arrestment of the roots the sooner the trees succumb to the evil, which 
spreads and eats them up. A strong growing hardy variety grafted on 
the weak summons by its vigour the torpid roots into activity, and they 
sramify and absorb the nutriment from the soil which there remained 
previously unused. In some soils, wet, inert, or containing injurious 
ingredients, nearly all varieties of Apples canker ; but that is not the 
•question. My remarks were founded on a clearly stated case in a first- 
rate fruit garden at Ipswich, where most of the trees are in the per¬ 
fection of health, a few only being attacked by canker, and these few 
are cured, or on the way to cure, for the progress is clearly visible, by 
grafting, and nothing else.—W. 
While on the discussion of canker in fruit trees it may not be out 
•of place to quote the following remarks of Darwin on the subject:—• 
■“ These root seions from Apple trees are frequently used in vegetable 
nurseries for the purpose of ingrafting upon, and are termed Paradise 
stocks by some gardeners; but are not liable to the canker like the 
grafts from those Apple trees which have been in fashion above a 
century, as these root scions resemble the trunk of the tree which 
produces them, not the ingrafted head of it, and thus may not have 
been many years from the state of a seedling vegetable.” It would, I 
think, be interesting to hear whether any experienced growers can bear 
testimony to this statement that canker is less liable on Paradise stocks. 
I observe that according to W.’s ” remarks this disease is the result of 
root paralysis. Linnaeus, Knight, and Darwin state that it is the 
result of old age, and is hereditary.—Li. J. 
SHORTIA GALACIFOLIA. 
We made a passing reference in our last issue to Shortia galacifolia, 
which was exhibited by Mr. Elwes before the Floral Committee on the 
2Gth ult., and which received a first-class certificate. We have now the 
pleasure of presenting our readers with a faithful portrait of this charm¬ 
ing and interesting plant. It is a hardy herbaceous perennial of a dwarf 
FIG. 41. —SHORTIA GALACIFOLIA. 
tufted habit of growth, with leaves and flowers as represented in the 
engraving. The latter are pure white, with a tinge of pink when about 
to fade. It is a native of the mountains of Carolina, and extremely 
rare. For a long period the only specimen living or dead known to 
botanists was the dried specimen in Michaux’s herbarium in Paris. Dr. 
Asa Gray, in a letter to Sir W. J. Hooker, published in the London 
Journal of Botany, relating an account of a botanical excursion to the 
mountains of South Carolina, says, in reference to this plant, “ We 
were likewise unsuccessful in our search for a remarkable undescribed 
plant with the habit of Pyrola and the foliage of Galax, which was 
obtained by Michaux in the high mountains of Carolina. The only 
specimen extant is among the ‘ Plant® incognitas ’ of the Michauxian 
herbarium in fruit only, and we were most anxious to obtain flowering 
specimens that we might complete its history, as I have long wished to 
dedicate the plant to Prof. Short of Kentucky, whose attainments and 
eminent services in North American botany are well known and appre¬ 
ciated both at home and abroad.” It has since been discovered in 
McDowell county, North Carolina, in 1877, by Mr. M. E. Hyarns ; and 
