64 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Janutry 27, 1687. 
be obtained in a state which will not damage the roots of the Roses 
)f it should come in immediate contact with them. 
It is not easy, on any land, to make the soil too rich for Roses. 
There are some happy individuals who are so situated that it is only 
necessary for them to plant their Roses in the original soil, and 
without any manure being added, to reap a rich harvest of flowers. 
But this can only be possible on a virgin soil, and for a short period, 
for no matter how well filled a purse may be, it only requires time 
to empty it, and the same remark applies to land from which crops 
of any kind, te they Roses, or Turnips, or anything else, are 
removed year by year, without anything in the shape of manure or 
plant food being added or returned to it. 
If the soil on which it is intended to plant Roses be good old 
pasture—that is, virgin soil, for the first season nothing will be 
necessary beyond a dressing of farmyard manure ; but when exhi¬ 
bition is intended, or where the very best results are looked for, 
some more concentrated stimulants will probably be required. 
These, and the usual methods of applying them, w'ill be referred to 
later on. 
It happens sometimes that a piece of heavy land, from its 
Situation, cannot be drained, and in tins case the only way to get 
over the difficulty is by growing the Roses on raised beds. These 
should be constructed to have not less than 2 feet of soil. The 
walls or sides may be made of brick or stone, or turves (sods), or 
larch poles driven in side by side, and if the beds were large, drains 
would have to be put in above the level. If the beds were small, 
(5 or 9 inches of broken bricks or stones would be sufficient, these to 
be spread over the bed, or space intended for the bed, as a founda¬ 
tion, before the soil was put in. Holes would require to be left in 
the walls at intervals along the base if mortar were used, otherwise 
in winter the bed might become little better than a dam or reservoir, 
in which the roots of the plants would perish. 
While I was writing these remarks, I was asked, “What is 
loam ? ” and as I am writing for beginners, I will endeavour to 
explain the term. Loam, then, is the top spit of a pasture; for 
choice, a pasture which rests on clay. Johnston, in his work on 
agricultural chemistry says, “ A mixture of sand and clay with a 
little lime I would call a loam, and if much lime were present I 
would call it a calcareous loam.” Loam, if good, is generally of a 
rich brown colour, sometimes yellow, soft and silky to the touch, 
and should be full of fibre, the dead and living roots of the grasses, 
&c., winch formed the pasture. 
I spoke of replacing the original soil in detached beds with 
something better. It will not be out of place here to give my 
idea of what a Rose soil should be. 
One load of top spit from clay pasture, 
Half a load of old farmyard manure, 
One barrowful of old slaked lime, 
One barrowful of small charcoal or wood ashes, 
One barrow ful of half-inch bones. 
—D. Gilmour, jun. 
(To be continued.) 
GROS COLMAN BERRIES. 
Discussions are beneficial so long as they remain reasonable and do 
not drift away from the original subject. I have made some careful 
measurements of Grape berries, which I send to show the absurdity of 
the comparisons some of your correspondents make in connection with 
the Gros Col man berry, fig. 84, lastvol. To illustrate the matter plainly 
1 will take first a berry of Mrs. Pearson, 1 inch in diameter, 3 inches 
circumference, seven-eighths of an inch cube. Secondly, Lady Downe’s, 
berry 1 inch in diameter, 4 inches in circumference, and exactly 1 inch 
cube. Thirdly, the Gros Colman, fig. 84, If inch diameter, 5 inches 
three-sixteenths circumference, 1 inch three-eighths cube. Now we 
find it will take exactly two Mrs. Pearsons to make one Lady Downe’s, 
and a fraction more than two and a half Lady Downe’s berries to make 
one of our Gros Colman. Or to make it plainer still, it would take fifty- 
two 3-inch berries to make tv'enty-six 4-inch berries, and a fraction more 
than twenty-six 4-inch berries to make ten of our Gros Colman berries ; 
yet, according to some of your correspondents, these ten would only 
make 13 ozs. ; but it is pretty generally known that Grapes lose weight 
after the fall of the leaf, especially where much fire is used, or when 
the Grapes are cut and bottled ; but if cut in November, as was our 
Gros Colman, they would not be far short of" the 10 ozs., as before 
stated. 
One good turn deserves another, and as I have taken some consider¬ 
able trouble for the sake of this discussion, I hope “ D. B.” will say 
where berries the size of fig. 84 can be found. Gros Colman does re¬ 
markably well hereabouts, and I quoted Mr. Elphinstone’s success simply 
in corroboration of my statement, but if there are finer Grapes somewhere 
else I shall be glad of the opportunity of seeing them. “ D. B.” does 
well to keep his name in the shade, as some' of the unemployed wou’d 
ask him to be satisfied with the handling of 1000 bunches per da", as he 
must sadly monopolise the handling of Grapes in this country at the 
rate of 2000 bunches per day.—J. F. Goodacue, Etvaston. 
PEAT FOR ORCHIDS. 
Noticing your correspondent, Mr. Bardney, in last week’s paper 
(page 41) questioning the value of the tough old rhizomes in Orchid 
peat, w r ill you permit us to express the conviction that these are really 
detrimental to the quality of the peat, and also injurious to the roots of 
the Orchids when in contact with them. We are able to give two 
reasons for holding the above opinion, and both extend over a range of 
twenty years’ experience in handling large quantities of Orchid peat. In 
the first place it is not difficult to observe that the old rhizomes are 
hollow or partly so, as the pithy cells shrink when dying and leave a 
vacuum within the outer bark of the rhizomes. These hollow spaces 
with the decaying pith act in the same way as pieces of sponge, the 
materials themselves being slow to decompose, and the quantity of water 
they absorb stagnates in them. Hence it is a sure source of fungoid 
growths, besides being otherwise an obstacle to active and healthy root- 
action. In the second place the demand from experienced grow'ers of 
Orchids for bracken peat, “ tough as a mat, but free from old root- 
stalks,” and the fact that we have never yet had a complaint regarding 
such peat, are sufficient reasons for forming a conviction that the old 
rhizomes are not liked by Orchid growers. Orchid peat must, we take 
it, be full of fine tough fibre, free from earthy and peaty soil, light and 
porous, and free from old tough roots. Peat moss similar to the peat 
moss litter has been tried for Orchids, but users of it have found that it 
held too much stagnant moisture, and therefore prevented the necessary 
action of the air. The value of high-class peat depends on two things— 
freedom from old rhizomes and toughness of the fibre.—W. Wood and 
Son. 
VARIETIES OF LAI LI A ANCEP3. 
One of the best of the winter flowering Orchids is Laelia anceps, and 
now so many beautiful varieties are in cultivation it is easy to make up 
a charming group with them. The long scapes appear very graceful 
arching over other Orchids and Ferns, and a most pleasing effect can be 
produced in a house by a tasteful arrangement of this kind. Baron 
Schroder has an admirable collection of varieties, and the flowers he 
recently exhibited at South Kensington indicated how vigorously and 
w'ell the plants are growm at The Dell. At the sale rooms during the 
past few weeks numerous plants of good varieties have been noted, and 
those with large well-formed flowers command substantial prices. 
L. anceps Dawsoni still keeps the lead for beauty of form, the breadth 
of the petals and the general substance of the flowers being remarkable. 
The pure white L. anceps alba will rank next in the estimation of many 
growers. L. anceps Williamsi has beautifully proportioned flowers, 
white, veined with red in the throat of the lip ; and L. anceps Percival- 
liana, which is tinted with purple, is another notable variety. Two of 
these at Kensington were selected for special honours—namely, L. anceps 
.Stella and Sanderiana. The principal distinguishing marks of the 
former are, the broad Dawsoni-like petals, the lip veined with crimson, 
having a yellow ridge in the centre and tipped with crimson. L. anceps 
Sanderiana is somewhat of the same type, having very large flowers, the 
sepals and petals broad, the lip veined with Ted, yellow in the centre and 
tipped with red. There are many intermediate unnamed-forms, besides 
the rich crimson or purple-coloured varieties, and it is not surprising that 
they are all such favourites. 
ORCHID SALES. 
The rooms in Cheapside and King Street, Covent Garden, arc 
crowded at almost every sale, and it is evident that the number of those 
who take an interest in Orchids, either as cultivators or purchasers, are 
still increasing. At one sale last week there were between seventy and 
eighty persons present, and a large proportion of these were purchasers. 
It was thought a year or two back that the popularity of Orchids was 
declining ; this however is very far from being the case, as they are 
continually gaining fresh patrons and losing very few. Orchids are now 
recognised as useful as well as ornamental plants, and the florists are 
beginning to find their flowers almost indispensable. 
GLAZED POTS FOR ORCHIDS. 
These have been praised by some cultivators and condemned by 
others, and the old saw about “ doctors differing ” may be applied here. 
As far as my experience goes glazed pots are advantageous both to the culti¬ 
vator and the plants. Stove plants, greenhouse plants, and Orchids,have 
often been seen thrivingin glazed pots, and the labour saved in pot-washing 
in such cases is considerable. Rtcently visiting a gardening establishment 
where there was a large collection of stove and greenhouse plants and 
many Orchids, I asked what assistance the gardener had, and on being 
told, remarked that surely it was too little for such a quantity of glass 
and so many plants. “ Oh,” replied the gardener, “ I could not manage 
if the pots required washing, but you see they'are all glazed and give us 
no trouble.” 
Less labour is expended in watering plants in glazed pots. Then, 
what is uglier tl an a dirty pot ? and unless washed at least oiice a fort- 
