January 20,1887. ]' 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
43 
the Giant Rocca is the best of this section, but being flat in form 
and very often mixed in colour we prefer Giant Zittau and the 
Excelsior for autumn sowing. The general aim is to secure very 
large Onions, but excepting for exhibition they are not so useful as 
those of a medium or small size, and the latter are always the best 
for keeping. 
New varieties of Parsnips a v e not plentiful, and no one appears 
to attempt to produce fresh ones, and it is probably well known 
that it would be a difficult matter to equal The Student and Hollow 
Crown as standard varieties. The Turnip-rooted Parsnip is not so 
much grown as it should be in shallow soils or in gardens where the 
soils cannot be turned up to any great depth, and it is not so apt to 
rust in late autumn or winter as the deep-rooting sorts. Good 
garnishing Parsley is always in demand, and the most beautiful and 
useful variety we have tried is Carter’s Fern-leaved. The old 
variety known as Myatt’s is the next best. 
In coming to Peas we reach one of the most important sections 
of all summer vegetables. New ones are offered to the public in 
large numbers, the majority of which are not improvements on 
preceding sorts, but with so many new ones to select from there 
are some of high merit, and amongst early varieties Carter’s 
Lightning is the earliest by several days of any we have tried. 
Sutton’s Royal Jubilee is another new one of the highest merit. 
It is now being offered for the first time, but we had the pleasure 
of trying an advance packet in 1886. It is an enormous cropper, 
the pods are the largest of all, they fill freely, and the flavour is 
first-rate. It has a constitution which resists drought and mildew 
to a wonderful extent, and amongst a batch of twenty-four varie¬ 
ties it was the last to cease bearing. Wordsley Wonder is a prodi¬ 
gious cropper, excellent in quality, and a first-rate main crop 
variety ; Yeitch’s Prodigy is another with distinct qualities of the 
highest oi’der ; Messrs. Carter’s Telegraph, Telephone, Stratagem, 
and Pride of the Market are not superseded as reliable main crop 
sorts ; Duke of Albany is a wrinkled Telegraph, and Sutton’s 
Latest of All is the best late variety ; Ne Plus Ultra is still grown 
in some gardens and it is very good in quality ; Yeitch’s Perfection 
is another old sort which has not been wholly discarded. 
Wood’s Early Frame is our earliest Radish, and Carter’s new 
Knickerbocker is the largest variety. It is a new one of promise and 
would be a grand one for market purposes. The Holborn Crimson 
Marble is excellent for summer and autumn use, and the China 
Rose is the best of all for standing +he winter in the open air. 
Savoys merit special attention, but they are often sown too 
early, and many of them are over before the severe winter weather 
sets in, which is a mistake, as they are a true hard-weather vegetable. 
The Drumhead is too coarse ; Green Globe is better, and Webb’s 
Little Wonder is better still, as it grows so compactly and is of 
excellent quality. It is a decided improvement on Little Pixie, 
Tom Thumb, or King Koffee, and for a gentleman’s table or an 
amateur’s garden it is recommended. Saisafy and Scorzonera are 
only represented by one variety in each section. The Round 
Spinach for summer and the Prickly for winter are the only good 
and leading sorts. 
Turnips are being : mproved annually, and those which were 
regarded as being the earliest a few years ago are now far behind. 
The Extra Early Milan is the earliest of them, a fortnight before 
any other sort. Then comes Sutton’s Early Snowball, tender, 
juicy, and handsome, followed by Yeitch’s Red Globe, which may 
still be grown as a valuable main crop sort ; Chirk Castle is ex¬ 
ceedingly hardy, and so is Orange Jelly. The Swedish variety is 
also most useful from now until April. 
Of Tomatoes we have grown upwards of fifty sorts, and the 
trial of them was one of the most interesting we ever conducted, 
but the varieties we grow for profit are not numerous. Webb’s 
Sensation is very fine. It is a most abundant bearer of large 
finely formed fruit of superb quality. Hackwood Park is another 
grand sort, and Sutton’s Reading Perfection is of the same type, all 
being much in advance of any known a few years ago. The Chis¬ 
wick Red is much smaller in fruit, but exceedingly productive, and 
Carter’s Greengage is not surpassed in flavour. We have given up 
the Stamfordian as being a shy fruiter and unprofitable. President 
Garfield is too coarse. Red Currant is only ornamental. Of 
Vegetable Marrows we only grow one, and that is the free-fruiting, 
high quality variety recently introduced under the appropriate 
name of Pen-y-byd.—A Kitchen Gardener. 
I*.S.—I am not surprised that the vendors of Cauliflower 
Eclipse should have a good word to say for it. Veitch’s Autumn 
Giant requires no defence, and I think King of the Cauliflowers 
will hold its own when generally cultivated.—A. K. G. 
TABLE PLANTS. 
On page 587, last vol., Mr. C. Orchard contributes a useful article 
under the above heading, and also gives a list of plants suitable for 
table and room decoration. I do not think the list complete without a 
few more which he has omitted, and which, with your permission, 1 will 
mention. 
In Crotons the two most handsome and best suited to the purpose 
that I am acquainted with are C. Johannis and C. Warreni. The first 
when well coloured is very graceful. I have plants of it as yellow as 
gold, scarcely any green at all in them ; it is much brighter than either 
C. angustifolius or Chelsoni. C. Warreni is larger and heavier, but 
when placed on the centre of a large table it is very effective. Now is 
a very good time to take the tops off such plants as are too tall, and 
if placed in a strong bottom heat in the propagating case they* will 
root quickly, and in a few months will make good plants again. Having 
rather a large demand for table plants I take care of the old stumps, as 
they soon break again and make two or three growths, which are taken 
off when strong enough and rooted. 
Dracaenas rank next to Crotons, and the narrow-leaved arc preferable 
to the broad-leaved varieties. Those mentioned by your correspondent 
are good, but I think D. Willsi stands unique. It has a splendid 
arching habit, only the margins of the leaves being coloured but very, 
bright ; it looks quite majestic. Nigra rubra is a good companion to it. 
Ringing the stem with a knife and mossing it is the best means of pro¬ 
pagation. The stumps may be taken care of for the same purpose as 
the Crotons. The stems when cut up are a long time making plants. 
Palms cannot be despised for decorative purposes, and in addition to 
those mentioned by Mr. Orchard, Phoenix rupicola and Daemonorops 
fissus may be named. The former is a long time before its real beauty 
is developed. To those part of whose duty it is to produce handsome 
table plants I would say, Include the above-mentioned, and they will be 
sure to please. 
I may say that I have taken first honours several times in succes¬ 
sion at shows where the competition has been keen, and the above- 
named have figured prominently amongst them.—R. M. 
FORCING FRUIT. 
The forcing season has now commenced, and the head gardeners’ 
anxiety has increased, therefore at the present time all young' 
gardeners should try their utmost to do their work to the best of 
their ability, for by so doing they will not only help their superior 
greatly, but themselves in more ways than one, as I am sure any 
head gardener would encourage his assistants when he sees they 
are doing their utmost to help him at this critical time. 
In the first place, ventilating is a very important point which 
should be thorougly understood, for many a young gardener loses 
the confidence which his chief would have placed in him otherwise 
by not being able to keep the temperature of a house near the mark. 
Anyone in charge of houses should always keep a sharp look out as 
to the weather, for at this time of the year it is very changeable; 
and many a bright day succeeds a dull cold morning, but as a rule' 
it is easy to guess in the morning what the weather is to be for the 
day, therefore the man in charge should employ fire accordingly. 
Often when the temperature of a house is rather low in the morning 
and the pipes not very warm, the young gardener raises the fires 
quickly and gets the pipes very hot, taking no notice of the weather 
outside as long as he raises the temperature inside, and then when 
the sun appears he finds that he cannot keep the heat down unless 
air is admitted very freely, which is detrimental to plants at 
this time of the year. If the morning is frosty, followed by a 
bright day, it is advisable not to have the pipes very hot, but have 
them warm and wait for the sun to raise the temperature to the 
required point ; it is advisable to admit air early in the morning 
and not wait until the temperature is up. By so doing a steady 
heat can be maintained through the day with only a little air until 
the afternoon, when the house should be closed with good heat . 
both by fire and sun for an hour or so, when slight ventilation may 
be afforded. 
Many gardeners do not believe in night ventilation, but I think 
it is beneficial in all fruit houses, especially for Strawberries. 
Speaking of Strawberries, perhaps a few remarks might be useful to 
beginners and amateurs. In some cases where Strawberry forcing 
is carried on to a large extent they have houses on purpose for them, 
solwhen once in their places there is no shifting them about ; then 
the house can be maintained at the right temperature with ease, but 
in most places the Strawberries have to be forced on shelves at the 
back of vineries and Peach houses. When first brought in from 
their winter quarters they should have all decayed leaves removed 
and their drainage looked to. The pots must be washed. Where 
convenient it is greatly to the advantage of the plants to place saucers 
filled with good loam with a dash of Beeson’s manure in it under 
the pots, and it will be found the roots will soon find their way into 
it; but great care must be taken not to shift the plants from the 
saucers when required to remove them to other quarters. Watering 
is one of the chief points in Strawberry growing. The plants must 
never suffer by want of water, but at the same time great care 
may be taken not to make the soil sour. 
At first the temperature should be 40° to 45° by night and 50° to 
