260 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOOIST. 
[November, 
financial success, tlie nett profit being £1,000. The disposal of this sum, to the 
best advantage for horticulture, is under consideration, 
— m. Hooibrenk’s process for facilitating the Fertilisation of Plants 
has, according to the report of M. Beer, been successfully tried in the Botanic 
Garden, Vienna. The process consists in touching the stigma of the flower, 
just before it blooms, with a pencil dipped in honey, or, better still, wiOi honey mingled with 
the pollen of the plant which is being operated on. The process has succeeded admirably, 
it is stated, on fruit-trees, and even on certain particular branches of trees which had never 
borne ; on the portions thus treated, fruit formed in natural course, while other parts re¬ 
mained in their normal condition. The effect may be explained by supposing that the honey 
retains the pollen-grains on the stigma, and thus favours the formation of the indispensable 
pollen-tubes. 
- ®HE Eclieveria secunda glauca^ so useful as a decorative bedding-plant, 
tliough comparatively hardy, will only last through an exceptionally mild winter. 
A continuous rain, especially when the plants occupy a low wet position, does 
them much hai*m; and when frost succeeds rain, they become completely destroyed. The 
best way to winter it is to take off the side-shoots and off-sets in August, and plant them 
closely in shallow boxes, placing them in any out-of-the-way place where they can be kept 
free from frost, and pretty dry. Now that succulent plants are becoming to be so generally 
employed in decorative gardening, this valuable Echeveria has come to play a most important 
part, and it is in some cases necessary to winter it in large quantities. At Heckfield Place, 
Hants, the seat of Viscount Eversley, an ingenious method of wintering the Echeveria has 
been resorted to. On the south front of some of his greenhouses a lean-to pyramid of soil was 
thrown up, 9 in. to 12 in. deep at the base, tapering at the top, and about 3 ft. in width. The 
chief part of this bank was made up of cinder-ashes, with a covering of soil, and the exterior 
was built up of Echeveria secunda glauca, laid on their sides, in rows close together, the roots 
covered with the soil next the ashes. In this way a large number can be stowed away and 
wintered with safety. In rainy weather the water falls away from the leaves and does not 
rest on them ; the plants are always comparatively dry, and thus the injury from frost is 
reduced to a minimum. 
- J®[edical autborities ascribe to the Tomato the following very important 
qualities :—1. The Tomato is one of the most powerful aperients of the liver and 
other organs ; where calomel is indicated, it is one of the most effective and the 
least hurtful medical agents known. 2. A chemical extract will be obtained from it that will 
supersede the use of calomel in the cure of disease. 3. Diarrhoea has been successfully 
treated with this article alone. 4. When used as an article of diet, it is almost sovereign for 
dyspepsia and indigestion. 5. It should be constantly used for daily food; either cooked or 
raw, or in the form of catsup, it is the most healthy article now in use. Tomatos may bo 
preserved by slightly scalding and skinning them and putting them into bottles ; these being 
set in boiling water for a few minutes, and corked and sealed, the fruit will keep as long as 
desired, and if eaten when first opened will have the same taste as when just picked from the 
vines. A better way, perhaps, is to peel the Tomatos, boil them slightly so as to expel the air, 
and then put them in heated bottles and cork at once. All depends on the exclusion of the 
air. The more perfectly this is done, the longer the fruit may be preserved. 
- ®wo kinds of Poplar, very common on the Continent, Populus nigra 
and P. canadensis^ the latter the most prevalent, are easily distinguished at the 
early leafing period, a fact which maybe turned to account by planters. P. nigra 
has dark green foliage, w'hile its confrere P. canadensis has the leaves of a pale yellow-green, 
with a russet tinge. In groups of the latter, where specimens of the former happen to be 
dotted with it, the effect is described as striking. The same contrast is observable between 
P. canadensis and the Lombardy Poplar, which is by some regarded as a variety of P. nigra. 
- -- Kf, after flowering, the decayed remnants of the Double White Pocket 
are cut away, leaving the flower-stalks intact, and these are then carefully bent 
down, and layered in some fine soil, they root readily. The consequence is, that 
very flowering-stem becomes a very strong plant by the autumn. The general rule is to 
