]20 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
f JIAV, 
since potatos average al)Ove ten shoots, and one only is recpiired for each plant; and to render 
the tubers available for uso as food. 
-- ^HE appearance of the 18th edition of Mr, Rivers’s Miniature FrniU 
’Garden (Longmans) is in itself a more potent recommendation of the work than 
any special words of ours could be. Yet we may say with truth that it is a good 
book, showing, in comparatively few words, that fruit-trees may successfully be cultivated 
in a smaller space than was formerly supposed to be possible, and thus, that even in a cottage 
or villa garden, a considerable variety of fruits may be grown to a high state of perfection, 
yielding far heavier crops than would be credited by those who are inexperienced in the 
matter. The chapters on the double grafting of fruit-trees, and that on cordon training, the 
latter by the editor of the present edition, Mr. T. F. Rivers, may be pointed out as particularly 
interesting. 
- Ln describing his mode of cultivating the Neapolitan Violet^ Mr. Ward 
writes:—Ohislehurst, in Kent, may be said to l^e the Violet garden of England. 
Every gardener in Ohislehurst and its neighbourhood devotes part of his time to 
the ciiltivation of Violets under glass, in pots, and planted out in the frames ; and it was 
when foreman in the gardens of Earl Sydney, near Ohislehurst, that I first saw the Violets 
cultivated to a large extent, and with great success under glass. The modus operandi is this:— 
In the first week in May we take off the runners, and plant in a north or an east border in 
rows 18 in. apart, the soil being pressed firmly. They receive a good watering, which must 
be repeated when necessary, and after they have started well into growth, and commenced to 
make runners, five of the strongest are selected and stopped at the points, all the others 
being cut away; these five are to become the crowns from which the flowers will issue, and 
from this time until they have done blooming they are kept stopped persistently. Early in 
September, the plants are taken up, with nice balls, and potted in a mixture of loam and leaf- 
soil,with sand sufficient to keep the whole porous. The young plants thus potted are transferred 
to frames, and plunged near the glass in either sawdust or leaf-soil. When they have taken 
root, they are subjected to the full rays of the sun, and soon after they throw up their 
flowers. Liquid manure is used occasionally, but not before the pots have become pretty well 
filled with roots. Many of the blooms thus produced are nearly as large as a two-shilling piece, 
Thomas Dickson died at Chester, on March 23, in his 42nd year. 
He was a partner in the firm of Messrs. F. and A. Dickson and Sons, and was 
the responsible head of the nursery department at Upton. The whole of his 
business life was passed at the Upton Nursery; and until recently, when his illness assumed 
a more serious nature, he took a very active part in the management of the nursery, and was 
well known and respected among horticulturists in Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Wales. 
- Joseph Hunt, Esq., died at High Wycombe, on March 23, at the age 
of 71. He was well known amongst the older fiorists as a successful grower of 
Tulips and Pansies, and as having effected very great improvements in the quality 
of the Sweet William from the florist’s point of view, so that Mr. Hunt’s strain of Sweet 
Williams enjoyed some years since a particularly high reputation amongst growers, on 
account of the advance made towards the production of smooth-edged flowers. 
- J«E. William Foster, nurseryman and seedsman, of Stroud, Glouces¬ 
tershire, died on March 31, in his 78th year. In early life' he came to London, 
and entered the service of Messrs. Gray and Sons, of the Brompton Park Nursery, 
where he stayed for some years; and subsequently commenced the business at Stroud, in the 
management of wffiich he took an active interest until within a few weeks of his death. 
- iWlB. M. Saunders, the well-known and widely-respected head of the 
firm of Saunders and Sons, died at his residence. Friars’ Walk, Cork, on April 3, 
Few men in the nursery trade in Ireland were more widely esteemed. 
