1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
43 
Forced Hybrid Roses. 
J. L. B., Massachusetts. — What varieties of 
Hybrid Remontant roses are best for forcing ? 
Are they very profitable ? 
Ans.—T here has been a decided change 
in the attitude towards forced Hybrid 
Remontant roses. Twenty years ago, 
the greatest floral luxury in Winter was 
a hunch of Jacqueminot roses, and the 
first in the market brought extraordi¬ 
nary prices. This led to the forcing of 
other Remontants, and for several years, 
the business was very profitable to those 
who succeeded in it. Favorite varie¬ 
ties were Anna Alexieff, which, though 
not so fine a flower as some others, was 
satisfactory for early forcing ; Anne de 
Diesbach, Paul Neyron, Mabel Morrison, 
Baronne de Rothschild, Mine. Gabriel 
Luizet, Mrs. John Laing, Ulrich Brun¬ 
ner. But the increase in fine Hybrid 
Teas gave an abundance of large roses 
which flowered for a long period instead 
of giving a single crop of bloom, and 
these rendered the forced Remontants 
far less profitable. The Meteor practi¬ 
cally drove the Jacqueminot out of the 
Winter market, while American Beauty 
took the place of the other Remontants. 
Though the other Remontants secured 
large prices at one time, the heaviest 
crop usually appeared during Lent, when 
the price of flowers usually drops. At 
the present time, we should not consider 
the forcing of Hybrid Remontants for 
cutting at all profitable. These roses, 
however, brought into bloom for sale 
as pot plants prove quite profitable for 
Easter sales. All the varieties named 
are good for this purpose, though Mabel 
Morrison and Baronne de Rothschild, 
both very beautiful, are susceptible to 
mildew. Ulrich Brunner, with its bril¬ 
liant cherry-red flowers and fine foliage, 
makes a very handsome pot plant. Anne 
de Diesbach, Anna Alexieff and Paul 
Neyron are very good for this use. 
Tropical Pitcher Plants. 
A correspondent in Ohio asks whether 
the East Indian Pitcher plants are sim¬ 
ilar to the wild native variety, and if 
they are easy to grow under ordinary 
house conditions. Both questions must 
be answered in the negative. 
There are several native Pitcher plants 
found in the United States ; the Sarra- 
cenias, extending, in several varieties, 
from Canada to Florida, and the remark¬ 
able California Pitcher plant, Darling- 
tonia, which is closely allied to the Sar- 
racenias. The variety common through 
the North, where it is known as Hunts- 
man’s-horn and Side-saddle flower, is 
Sarracenia purpurea. The leaves are in 
the form of hollow tubes or pitchers, 
winged down the front, and having a 
rounded hood at the top that suggests a 
raised lid. The foliage is green, shaded 
with maroon or purple mottlings. The 
flower, indescribably odd in shape, is 
bronzy-maroon and green. A very har¬ 
dy plant, it is admirable for the edge of 
a stream or pond. If planted with live 
sphagnum moss, in a rather shallow pan, 
and freely watered, it makes an interest¬ 
ing house plant for a cool room. 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adm. 
The tropical Pitcher plants are Ne¬ 
penthes, and belong to a totally distinct 
family. They are stout, shrubby climb¬ 
ing or sprawling plants from the East 
Indies, Borneo, Java, Singapore, Mada¬ 
gascar and China. Unlike the Sarra- 
cenias, the pitchers form an adjunct to 
the leaf, instead of being the leaf it¬ 
self. The leaf is thick, leathery and 
strap-shaped, having at the tip a stout 
tendril, from which the pitcher is pend¬ 
ent. The pitchers vary in shape, but 
most of them are like a stout, rounded 
jug without a handle, the tendril attach¬ 
ing them to the leaves cxxrving up from 
the bottom. Down the front are two 
wings or frills, extending - lengthwise, 
and bordered with hairs. At the top is 
a perfect lid, hinged at the back like the 
lid of a syrup pitcher. The mouth of 
the pitcher is bordered by a smooth, 
sloping process, and the interior is lined 
with stiff little bristles, pointing down¬ 
wards. The pitchers vary in both size 
and color, in the different varieties, some 
being - mottled or suffused with bronze, 
deep red or purple, and there is, also, 
quite a wide valuation in shape. These 
plants could not be grown under ordin¬ 
ary house conditions, because in addi¬ 
tion to warmth, they require a very 
moist atmosphere, with bottom-heat. 
Even an ordinax - y warm greenhouse 
would be useless ; they need what florists 
call a stove. In addition to the natural 
varieties, a number of interesting hy¬ 
brid Nepenthes have been produced in 
cultivation. 
Apart from the oddity of their shape, 
the Nepenthes possess an additional in¬ 
terest to scientific investigators; they 
are suspected of being carnivoroixs, or 
rather insectivorous. The pitchers al¬ 
ways contain a colorless, sweetish li'quid, 
which is very attractive to insects. Flies 
and other insects enter the pitchers to 
drink of this, and rax*ely succeed in es¬ 
caping. They appear to become intoxi¬ 
cated, and fall into the liquid that at- 
ti - acts them. They cannot climb out, 
because the bristles on the walls of the 
pitcher pi-event this. That the liquid is 
the product of the plant, and not water 
accidentally caug'ht. is proved by the fact 
that baby pitchers, with the lids not yet 
unsealed, contain the liquid. The insect- 
catching propensities of the Nepenthes 
have been the subject of reseax - ch on the 
part of many scientists, Darwin being 
among their investigators. The Nepen¬ 
thes is not alone in its bloodthirsty 
pi-opensities; not only our wild Pitcher 
plant, but also the little Sundew and 
Venus’s Fly-trap, are suspected of a 
propensity for animal food. All these 
insectivorous plants are denizens of 
damp and swampy places, usually where 
they are heavily shaded and cx*owded 
by other growth, so there seems reason 
to suppose that the insect-catching is 
for the pxirpose of supplying more nitro- 
gen. This peculiarity affords a wide 
field for study and investigation. 
Seasonable Rotes. 
Cannas may be sown during Januai - y 
and February. The seed is vex*y hard, 
and it is well to soak it in hot (not 
Macbeth’s is the only lamp- 
chimney advertised. 
What of that ? 
It’s the only make worth . 
advertising. 
Write Macbeth Pittsburgh Pa 
$1 Raisin Seeder lor 50c. 
Postpaid. Before this we sold 
to jobbers for 50c., and waited iX) 
days for our pay. They sold you 
for $1 cash. Send us the order 
now, and we will save you half 
the price. Guaranteed to seed one 
pound of raisins in Uve minutes. 
Simple to use, easy to clean 
Special Teums to Agents. 
EASTON SPECIALTY MKG.CO., 
04 Federal Street, Boston, Mass. 
boiling) water for several hours, or file a 
bit of the hard covering off. Another 
good practice is to slice a bit of the shell 
off with a strong knife, holding the seed 
meanwhile with a pair of pincers. Many 
of the florists sow these seeds in flats— 
shallow wooden boxes—containing one 
inch of soil and one inch of sand. Cannas 
do not always come true from seed, but 
the old Mme. Crozy usually does. 
Cyclamens may be sown in January 
and February, and again in July and 
August. Sow in light soil, with good 
drainage, covering the seed one-eighth 
inch, and keep in a temperature of GO 
degi’ees. A good sti'ain of seed should 
be selected. There ax - e two improved 
types of the Persian Cyclamen now 
grown, C. Pei’sicum g-iganteum and C. 
Persicum grandiflorum ; the latter is con¬ 
sidered the better by most growers rais¬ 
ing for market. 
Pot lilacs, now being forced, must have 
a vei - y moderate temperature, or the at¬ 
tempt will be unsuccessful. The heat 
should not go above 55 degrees in the 
day; 50 to 55 degx-ees is about right. 
Many of these little pot lilacs are upon 
privet stocks ; when on their own roots, 
they ax - e usually dwarfed by pot culture. 
This is a good time to make cuttings 
of Zonal Geraniums; there should be 
good growth for px - opagating on young 
plants rooted last Fall. At this season, 
the cuttings should i - oot well, if potted 
firmly in ordinary soil, in a two-inch 
pot, instead of being put in sand in the 
cutting bench. These cuttings will i - oot 
without bottom heat; an ordinary house 
where the night temperature is about 50 
degrees will do. The young plants from 
which the shoots wei - e taken for cuttings 
should branch out and make nice, bushy 
specimens by planting-out time. 
Fuchsia cuttings made now have an op¬ 
portunity to grow before warm weather, 
which has a tendency to stunt the young 
plants. They should be rooted in sand 
and, if they can have a bottom heat of 
about 65 degrees, in a house at 50 de 
grees, the conditions are vex - y favorable 
Petunia and Verbena seed may be sown 
now. Verbenas have suffei’ed very badly 
fi’om rust for several years, and for this 
reason, many florists prefer raising them 
from seed, rather than taking cuttings. 
In sowing Petunias, if one of the com¬ 
mon strains of seed be purchased, buy 
the double in preference to the single 
varieties. A very lai’ge percentage is 
sux*e to come single, but the colors are 
usually much better than where single 
seed is bought. The singles often include 
a great many pale washy tints. Double 
Petunias are reproduced with absolute 
certainty from cuttings, but they vary a 
good deal from seed, although modern 
seed selection has greatly improved their 
stability. The Petunia has vei - y tiny 
seeds, which need the slightest possible 
amount of earth over them. The earth 
in the seed pan should be very fine, very 
smooth, and well watered before the 
seed is sown. If cai - elessly watex*ed after¬ 
wards, the seeds will be washed all 
about. A plan adopted by some florists 
is to lay a thin cloth over the top of the 
seed-pan until the seeds have germin¬ 
ated ; this is kept continually damp. 
This is a good plan with many fine seeds. 
Smilax may be sown now, for planting 
under glass in the summer. Within the 
next two weeks, Gloxinia and Tuberous 
Begonia seed may be sown, if desired, 
but tubers of both these plants are now 
bought so cheap that it hardly seems 
worth while for amateurs to go to the 
trouble of raising them fi’om seed. 
Kidney and Bladder Troubles Quickly Cured. 
You May Have a Sample Bottle of the Great Discovery, 
Dr. Kilmer's Swamp-Root Sent Free by Mail. 
Men and women doctor their troubles 
so often without benefit, that they get 
discouraged and skeptical. In most such 
cases serious mistakes are made in doc¬ 
toring and in not knowing what our 
ti - ouble is or what makes us sick. The 
unmistakable evidences of kidney trouble 
are pain or dull ache in the back, too 
frequent desire to pass water, scanty 
supply, scalding irritation. As kidney 
disease advances the face looks sallow or 
pale, puffs or dark circles under the eyes, 
the feet swell and sometimes the heart 
acts badly. Should further evidence be 
needed to find out the cause of sickness, 
then set urine aside for 24 hours; if there 
is a sediment or settling it is also con¬ 
vincing pi - oof that our kidneys and blad¬ 
der need doctoring. A fact often over¬ 
looked, is that women suffer as much 
from kidney and bladder trouble as 
men do. 
Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp-Root is the discov¬ 
ery of the eminent physician and scien- 
tist, and is not recommended ;for every¬ 
thing, but will be found just what is 
needed in case of kidney and bladder dis¬ 
orders or troubles due to weak kidneys, 
such as catarx-h of the bladder, gravel, 
rheumatism and Bright’s Disease, which 
is the worst form of kidney trouble. 
The mild and extraordinary effect of 
this gx*eat remedy is soon realized. It 
stands the highest for its wonderful 
cures. Sold by druggists, price 50 cents 
and $1. So universally successful is 
Swamp-Root in quickly curing even the 
most distressing cases, that to Pi - ove its 
wonderful merit you may have a sample 
bottle and a book of valuable informa- 
tion, both sent absolutely free by mail, 
upon receipt of three two-cent stamps 
to cover cost of postage on the bottle. 
Mention The Rural New-Yorker, and 
send your address to Dr. Kilmer & Co., 
Binghamton, N. Y. The fact that this 
liberal offer appears in this paper is a 
guarantee of_genuineness. 
P 
VICTORIES.^* 
FOUR MEDALS—3 Gold and 1 Silver, World's Centennial 
Cotton Exposition, New Orleans, 1884. 
HIGHEST AWARDS—Nebraska Agricultural Fair, 1887. 
DIPLOMA—Alabama Agr'l Society, Montgomery, 1888. 
AWARD— Chattahoochie Valley Exposition, Colum- 
bu s, Ga., 1888. ___ 
HIGHEST AWARDS—St. Louis Agricultural and 
M echanlcal Association, 1889 ._ 
GOLD MEDALS and 6 DIPLOMAS—World’s Colum- 
bian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. 
HIGHEST AWARDS—Western Fair Association, Lon- 
don , Canada, 1893, _ 
SIX GOL D MEDALS a nd Diplomas—Cal. Midwinter Fair '94 
SILVER MEDAL—Industrial Exposit ion, Toron to, Canada, 1895. 
345,584 Home Comfort Ranges .Sold to Jan. lst,’97 
f??~Range illustrated sold throughout the United States and 
the Canadas at a uni form price from our ow n wagons. 
Made of open hearth, cold rolled steel-plate and malleable 
iron —will last a life-time with ordinary care. 
RT 
WROUGHT IRON RANGE CO., 
Founded 1864. Raid up Capital $1,000,000. 
Factories , Salesrooms and Offices: ST. LOUIS, MO., and TORONTO, CANADA. 
Western Salesrooms and offices: DENVER, COLO. 
IWWe manufacture and carry a complete stock of Hotel Ranges and Kitchen goods; also the 
inequaled HOME COMFORT STEEL FURNACES. Write for catalogue and price#. 
