878 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 8, 1899. 
ingr, or any other form of decoration, while in the conservatory it 
13 light, graceful and effective when associated with flowering 
plants. It rarely exceeds 18 inches in height, and plants in 5-inch 
pots will carry from four to eight of their spreading spikelets. It 
will last in presentable condition in rooms for two months provided 
the plants have not been pushed forward in brisk heat and are 
taken into the rooms as soon as the flowers show. In a light position 
the flowers even will there continue to come forward up to a certain 
8 age. 
Plants can be raised by division and seed, the latter being 
decidedly the quickest method, and better specimens are obtained 
than by division. I have never seen seeds offered for sale, though 
they are produced freely. The plants for seed be.aring should 
be placed in a light sunny position in the greenhouse or outside 
during the summer ; early in the year in an intermediate tempera¬ 
ture. Directly the seeds are observed to fall the spikelet should be 
cut, and the others as they become ready. If they are sown at once 
disappointment will follow, for they are certain to decay. They 
must be thoroughly dried on a shelf or in the sun where they will 
ripen. After they reach this stage they may be sown, or can be 
stored away until spring. The seeds are small, brown and hard, 
and are two or three weeks in germinating. They can be sown 
with the husks attached, as these soon decay in the soil—when 
sown in this manner they are a little longer before the seedlings 
appear. The seed may be sown in pots or pans in fine soil and 
should be lightly covered. A good watering is necessary, and the 
soil must be kept moist, as the seeds being very hard they will 
otherwise lie for a long time before they commence growing. The 
pans may be placed in any warm moist atmosphere where the 
temperature is about G0°. Place them in the greenhouse or any 
position under glass, but the warmer the house the greater their 
progress in their early stages. The present is a good time for 
sowing seed, and the plants so raised will be in condition for 
decorative purposes from the end of November until the close of 
March. To have plants for decoration all the year sowings should 
be made now, again in May and during September. 
When the plants are large enough they can be pricked off 
2 inches apart into boxes containing a compost of fine loam and 
leaf mould in equal proportions, with a liberal addition of sand. 
For a fortnight afterwards they may remain in the temperature 
in which they have been raised, and should then be removed to 
a temperature 5° to 10° lower. In this position they will grow 
sturdily, and can remain until they are becoming crowded, when 
they may be placed singly into CD’s (.3-inch pots). A pit where the 
temperature is about 50° will be suitable if they are near the glass 
and standing on a moisture-holding base. The pit or house selected 
for them must be kept close until they have commenced fresh root 
activity, then air may be gradually admitted and increased daily 
when the weather is fine, free ventilation being necessary to keep 
them sturdy. By the time they fill these pots with roots artificial 
heat will be no longer needed, and the plants will have commenced 
to push up growth from the base. They should not be allowed 
lo remain in the small pots long enough to become unduly crowded 
with roots, or they will be checked and fail to make satisfactory 
progress. 
When ready place them into 5-inch pots, one “crock” at the 
base being ample. This time the soil may consist of two parts 
loam to one of leaf mould, one-seventh of decayed manure, and 
sufficient sand to render the whole porous. Press the soil firmly 
into the pots, and stand the plants in cold frames. In potting be 
careful not to break their foliage. Keep them close again for 
about a fortnight, and then gradually harden to cool airy treat¬ 
ment, closing the frames only at night. When they are once well 
established and growing freely they will be better than in the 
frames, but not before the end of June. Stand them on a bed of 
ashes, and be can ful not to crow'd them. 
During August those that are needed for throwing up early 
should be selected from amongst the others, and will comprise 
the strongest and best plants. These should be placed in frames 
or in the greenhouse, where the ventilators can be closed at night, 
or partially so, to bring them on a little faster than those outside. 
No attempt, however, must be made to hurry them. In the follow¬ 
ing months, when the nights begin to be cold, the whole of the 
plants should be returned to frames where they can have protection 
at night when the temperature falls low. By the middle of 
October place them where they can be protected from frost. It is 
a good plan to sort them at this stage, placing them in different 
positions where the temperature during cold nights will range from 
50° to 40°. Keep some in a temperature intermediate between the 
two. The object is to bring them forward gradually. If they 
are kept close the foliage is drawn weakly and breaks and falls 
about, while the spikelets that are thrown up are weak and poor in 
comparison with those allowed to grow and develop steadily from the 
first to the last. It is much better to keep them advancing slowly 
than to hurry them and then try to retard them. If they are 
removed direct from heat to a cool house, their appearance will sooa 
be destroyed by the foliage becoming spotted. The same takesplace 
when they are placed in rooms from brisk heat ; in fact, plants that 
have been hurried are next to useless for such positions. 
Plants that have done duty and faded need not be thrown out, 
although this is the best plan, as they are so easily raised from seed. 
They can be trimmed, leaving all the foliage that is good, cutting 
the spikes away, and if placed in heat they will soon throw up again 
from the base. They will do so twice during the next season, but 
if kept in the same pots the spikelets will be weaker each time, and 
the foliage will be defective at the base. If they are retained when 
growth is observed issuing from the base they should be transferred 
into a size larger pot. 
All that is necessary to say about the watering is that from_ tha 
time the seed is sowm the soil should be kept moist. The syringe 
may be freely used through their various stages, especially during 
the summer, because they are liable to attacks of red spider. If 
they are liberally watered and freely syringed this pest will give no 
trouble. When they are housed avoid placing them on a dry 
stage. All the feeding necessary is soot water in a clear state.— 
Northerner. 
THE BRITISH FRUIT GROWERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The Executive Committee of the above Association held a meeting 
in the Horticultural Club room. Hotel Windsor, on May 1st, T. Francie- 
Rivers, Esq , in the chair. A number of members having been elected,, 
the Hon. Secretary announced that Mr. Shirley Hibberd had consented 
to give a paper on the Origin of the Cultivated Strawberry at the June 
meeting. The proposed report on the Present Condition and Prospects- 
of Fruit Culture was discussed at some length, and letters were read 
approving of the scheme. The Duke of Bedford sent a cheque for £25, 
and Earl Fortescue wrote as follows :—" I heartily wish you success in 
your work. I have long been of opinion that fruit culture may be 
largely extended in Great Britain and Ireland with advantage to the 
owners and occupiers of land and to the general public. Your Associa¬ 
tion has been rendering a real public service both by directing public- 
attention to fruit culture for profit in this country, and by helping to 
dispel the erroneous idea too freely circulated respecting the enormous 
returns obtainable from a small capital emploj'ed in fruit cultivation.. 
Your report truly observes that much harm has been done by ill- 
informed advisers, for fruit-growing cannot be made to pay a fair profit 
without practical knowledge of the work, starting with a carefully con¬ 
sidered scheme, and sound judgment in carrying it out.” A sub-com¬ 
mittee was appointed to prepare a scheme to deal with the matter. 
Mr. L. Castle submitted a note upon Paris green as an insecticide for 
special application to fruit trees, and described some experiments. The- 
strongest mixture of this poisonous substance appeared to have no direct 
effect upon caterpillars, and it is only when it is lodged on the surface- 
of the leaf and consumed by them that it becomes destructive. It hatF 
little or no effect upon the leaves as tried, and except when the mixture- 
is not properly stirred there seems little danger in this respect. Experi¬ 
ments were also tried upon plants in pots to ascertain if any ill effect 
was produced by the Paris green passing through the soil to the roots p 
but the plants were quite uninjured, and being insoluble it is not takers, 
up by the roots. It was mentioned that Miss Ormerod had kindly sent 
much information upon the matter, including her recent Report upon 
Injurious Insects. A large fruit grower a'so wrote as follows:— 
“We have a plentiful crop of caterpillars ; we are, however, vigorously 
attacking them with Paris green, London purple, and quassia. We can 
hardly determine yet which will answer best, but the quassia appears tn 
be quickest in its action, as it kills by contact, but with the other two- 
you have to wait until they have consumed the poison.” 
CLASSIFICATION OF PICOTEES. 
(^Continued from page 304.') 
Mr. Dodwell to Me. Horner. 
I AM greatly obliged by your most interesting letter of the Cth p 
especially for the permission you gave me of using it in the in¬ 
terests of our common brotherhood, and as I think none of your words 
should be lost, I propose to ask the editors to give them to the public, 
with the few remarks I hope may follow. I am gratified to note your 
acceptance of the proposed recasting of the Picotee section by marginal 
breadth, and I humbly trust I may truthfully aver I hold with you in 
its entirety the same floricultural faith. We stand one and indivisible 
on the same immutable law, so ably expounded by Mr. Jeans, and, 
happily, no longer a virtually buried book. You do me only justice in 
assuming I have no fear of the clap-trap of our critics. I would bend 
neither to the raging “ of the heathen,” nor to the sometime vain imagin¬ 
ings of our own “ people.” We differ, I proudly believe, upon no cardinal 
point. If we seem to diverge it is not upon principle, but upon questions 
of expedient practice, and even upon these questions I believe wherever 
we could bring them to practical test we shall be found in substantial 
agieement. Fifty years ago, before the growers of the north and of the 
south had a practical knowledge of each other, there was endless con¬ 
troversy upon the asserted difference of the flowers and the estimates of 
