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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 6,1887. 
The district was infested with all kinds of reptiles and insects, 
amongst snakes the deadly cobra playing a distinguished part, being 
frequently found coiled np in some snug corner of an outhouse or 
bungalow. From 6 to 7 feet is the usual length of this reptile, and when 
seen in a state of irritation with its hood expanded is remarkably hand¬ 
some. As is well known, this SDake is worshipped by the Hindoos, and is 
never wilfully destroyed by the higher castes. Its image is carved in 
granite at every temple, and the live animal, if met in the path by a 
Hindoo, is sure to receive a profound salaam, and to find an easy way of 
escape. Some idea may be formed of the number and variety of the 
snakes inhabiting this part of India, when I state that I once saw a collec¬ 
tion exhibited by Colonel Beddome on the Neilgherry Hills, consisting of 
upwards of 300 distinct species, all collected in the Madras Presidency. 
The white ant is found all over the district, rearing its wonderful 
dwellings in the jungle sometimes to a height of from 10 to 12 feet, and 
looking like huge trunks of trees in the process of decay. These earthen 
dwellings, or at least that part of them which appear above ground, are 
formed by the dust of the earth and moisture secreted by the insect 
itself, and withstand the continuous beating of the south-west rains with¬ 
out crumbling in the slightest degree. These mounds are frequently 
broken up and used by the native bricklayers in making roofing tiles, as 
the best and least porous material obtainable. The destructive powers of 
this marvellous insect is almost beyond belief. It will destroy almost 
everything it comes across not containing life, and always working in the 
dark and under cover of its earthen tunnels, which it forms in the course 
of its progress. One exception to this rule, however, I must relate. It 
was in Tinnevelly and in broad daylight, I saw innumerable white ants 
issuing from a hole in the ground, without the usual shelter of their 
tunnels, cutting off short pieces of green grass and returning with them 
to the hole, for what purpose remains a mystery to me to this day. The 
belief amongst naturalists being, I think, that the white ant never uses any 
other substance for food than withered and decayed matter. Very 
shortly after I had completed the building of my bungalow and had gone 
to live in it, I found to my dismay on rising one morning several mounds 
of earth under the dining table, varying from 2 inches to 12 inches in 
height. On kicking these over the secret was disclosed. I had built my 
wattle and daub mansion on the top of a huge underground white ants’ 
nest, and the insects had come up to partake of the cow dung coating on 
the floor, of which substance they are particularly fond. For a long time 
these hillocks were regularly removed each morning only to be renewed 
during the night, till a sound dose of paraffin oil settled the conflict.— 
Planter. 
(To be continued.) 
GROS COLMAN GRAPE. 
I have been greatly interested with the accounts published in recent 
numbers of the Journal of the wonderful samplos of the above Grape 
grown by Mr. Goodacre of Elvaston Oastle, particularly the berry figured 
on page 567 of Journal of December 23rd, and your remarks thereon. I 
have more than once had occasion to admire the splendid fruit exhibited 
by Mr. Goodacre, who has undoubtedly proved himself one of our fore¬ 
most and most successful fruit growers, and deserves great credit for 
producing such a wonderful bunch of Gros Colman. 
The figure represents the exact size of the largest berry. At first 
sight it does not appear so much larger than ordinary Gros Colman 
berries, but when measured it proves to have been a very large berry 
indeed ; but, to my mind, the size of berry is not the most extraordinary 
feature of this wonderful bunch, but its weight. You report it as 7 lbs., 
and containing only sixty-eight berries. Is there not a mistake regarding 
its weight ? Gros Colman is a heavy-weighing Grape I know, but I can 
scarcely credit ten berries weighing over 1 lb. of the size indicated, and 
shall be glad to hear more on the subject from those responsible for 
weighing it. I have this season seen many hundred bunches of Gros 
Colman quite as large in berry as this from Elvaston, but very far from 
equalling them in weight; and anyone who called at the Tweed Vine¬ 
yard, Clovenfords, this season would have seen the same. Thousands of 
bunches are there grown annually for the London market, and one of 
their large 200 feet houses was most remarkable for the enormous size of 
the berries this season. Many berries which I was privileged to inspect 
and measure were nearly 5 inches in circumference. The average size of 
berries in the whole house—which I daresay would contain about 2000 
bunches—would be 4i inches in circumference. 
About the finest Gros Colmans I have seen—for size of bunch, berry, 
and finish—were exhibited at the Fruit Congress held in Edinburgh a 
twelvemonth past last November. They were grown and exhibited by 
Mr. Murray, of Park Hall, near Falkirk. Most extensive vineries have 
recently been erected there, and Grapes are there cultivated to a very high 
state of perfection indeed. 
I visited these vineries last August, and there saw, what appeared to 
me, a rather novel method of treating Gros Cflman to prevent its tender 
foliage being scorched, as we too often see. The practice adopted by Mr. 
Murray, who is an able gardener and a Grape-growing enthusiast, was 
simply lateral extension in the truest sense of the term. In the same 
house are growing Vines which had been pinched in the ordinary way, 
others pinched but once, and still others never pinched at all, but allowed 
to ramble at will, and presented a perfect thicket, some shoots even grow- 
ing out of the top ventilator. The contrast in the foliage was most 
marked. The pinched Vines presented the usual red, scorched-like 
appearance in the foliage, while the unpinched ones were perfectly green 
and not a single red spot perceptible, and the bunches, which were very 
large ahfi handsome, were swelling their berries quite as well as those on 
the pinched Vines. Mr. Murray believes that Gros Colman, being such a 
gross grower, should Dot be checked by pinching but as little as possible. 
It would be interesting to know what some of our fruit growers think 
of this practice, which until last August I had neither seen nor heard 
of.—D. B. 
BODVARDIAS. 
Among the host of flowering plants of all descriptions which our 
gardens possess now few perhaps are so really beautiful and so useful, and 
at the same time so generally admired, as the Bouvardia. On their beauty 
it is needless to offer comment, since they are on every hand always among 
the favourite flowers of the day. Of their usefulness few are better aware 
than the bouquetist, whose office it is to produce artistic work in flowers 
with the least possible material ; and whether for ballroom bouquets or 
for buttonhole work they are always useful, and specially so in winter. 
In fact, in winter they may be said to be really in season, not because 
they cannot be had at any other time, for they may where they are grown 
in quantity and judiciously managed be had in flower all the year round, 
but because in summer there are so many good and choice flowers to be 
had possessing lasting properties to a far greater extent than Bouvardias, 
which suffer in a cut state in an incredibly short space of time ; not so, 
however, in the autumn and winter months, during which time they con¬ 
tinue to produce their charmingly compact and useful trusses of flowers, 
which are borne in profusion so long as the plants are kept in a sufficiently 
warm temperature to perfect the bloom. The effect of a few pips of the 
brighter-coloured varieties is simply charming when interspersed in a care¬ 
ful and tasteful manner among other flowers in any floral arrangement, and 
few flowers are more chaste or beautiful in the bridal wreath or bouquet 
than the pure white varieties ; in fact, they are admissible in any arrange¬ 
ment. 
It is surprising if we look at market plants as a whole how widely the 
manner of their disposal differs. For example, we will take Cyclamens, 
Mignonette, Hydrangeas, and the like, which are annually sold by tens of 
thousands in our larger markets as pot plants alone, while the number of 
Bouvardias and some others which are sold in this way is but a unit com¬ 
pared with the above. The actual demand, therefore, for pot plants is 
small, while the demand for the flowers is at all times during 
the autumn and winter large. Cyclamens also are in great demand 
as cut flowers as well as in pot plants, and invariably realise good 
prices. It is within the recollection of all when the Bouvardia was a very 
imited group indeed, and even now the number of really good varieties is 
anything but extensive, for progress with them is slow; still there is a 
wide field open for extension with improvements, and who can predict 
what may transpire ere this nineteenth century closes ? But turning to 
the cultural side of the question we find quite a revolution, as formerly 
they were grown continuously in heated structures, which rarely resulted 
in good presentable or bushy plants fit for decorative purposes, and more 
frequently were composed of two or three sucker growths from the base, 
and a few pieces of wiry flowerless wood surrounding them. Not so, how¬ 
ever, with the present system of culture for market purposes. We cannot 
but rtmark upon the admirable manner and uniform growth in which 
some growers turn out their plants ; indeed it is not too much to add 
that the market grower has in many instances been the instructor of the 
gardener by showing how some of our most valuable winter flowering 
plants may be grown to perfection in an incredibly short space of time. 
So it is with the Bouvardia, which having emerged from our stoves and 
plant houses during the summer, now finds itB way into the open air either 
grown in pots plunged in cocoa-nut fibre refuse, spent hops, or the like, 
or otherwise planted in the open ground. Whichever plan is adopted 
the plants cost considerably less in attending them, they make a cleaner 
and healthier though sturdier growth,[and what is more than these, at least 
from a pecuniary standpoint, you get well matured wood, which is a sure 
forerunner of abundant bloom. 
Dwelling for a moment on the planting-out system for Bouvardias, 
I may remark that it is an excellent plan for ensuring an abundant supply 
of these choice flowers during the summer and early autumn months, and 
the quantities of bloom they thus yield are made doubly valuable by the 
fact of their being hardily grown, and flowers do not suffer so quickly 
or to the same extent as when gathered from plants grown in glass 
structures. To ensure a yield of bloom in this way it is best to secure 
some of the earliest flowered batches of the previous winter, and which 
have produced the earliest batches of cuttings in spring, and plant them 
in a well prepared border, choosing a rather warm and sunny position, 
The dense bushes they will form during the season, and the quantities of 
bloom they produce in the greatest possible profusion, will be a 
surprise to all those who have not as yet tried the plan, and those 
who have tried and know its value will not readily lose sight of it. 
I strongly advocate its general adoption where choice flowers are in 
demand at all seasons, for I know of no other plant among greenhouse 
shrubs capable of producing such great quantities of useful bloom for so 
lengthened a period as these Bouvardias when thus treated. I remember 
the first Bouvardias I saw thus treated, beautiful dwarf miniature bushes 
laden with flowers. In all these were several hundred plants of the 
leading varieties only, and which had been little or no trouble ever since 
they were planted out; and the quantity of bloom which had been 
gathered from these plants had been considerable. These [were from 
plants which had done duty the previous autumn and winter as pot 
plants, and so good was the prospect of another winter’s bloom from them 
