April 22 . 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
49 
and such a soil is adhesive loam. Mind, adhesive 
loam; not loam in a state of adhesion, that is another 
thing. And here lies the fact,—the melons require 
moisture at root, but not in the air. In such soils, 
j filled in when dry, and in that state even trod or rammed 
j close, one good watering of liquid manure, when the 
fruit is large as hen’s eggs, will almost suffice the whole 
season. As for atmospheric moisture, that should be 
j applied in proportion to the beat and the condition of 
i the weather. In ordinary seasons, they require little 
| artificial aid this way in the dung frame; and as for 
| syringing, to keep down the red spider, we protest 
| against it, as sulphur applications will effect that with- 
I out compromising the atmospheric conditions. Melons 
I ripening should have abundance of air ; in other words, 
they should not ripen too fast; the excitement this way 
should not overmatch the degree of solar light. 
We may now advert to the insect tribes which most 
infest the melon—the tlirip and the red spider. For 
the former, we do not know if anything better than the 
plan broached some time since by our friend Appleby, 
whose great experience in every department of garden¬ 
ing entitles whatever is recommended by him to serious 
consideration. His recipe was for a minute species of 1 
tlirip, which infests some of the orchids, such as the 
Dendrobium mobile fimbriata , &c. The tlirip family, it 
is well known, are most numerous, and, like the fungi, 
each family, or order of plants, would seem to have its 
own “ retainers ” peculiar, it may be, to each. His plan 
was a fumigation, in which sulphur and tobacco were 
combined. However, this is a nice point to handle, and 
requires much caution as to the use of the sulphur, 
especially in so small an affair as a frame. As for the 
tobacco, it may be used as is usual in fumigating pro¬ 
cesses ; and for the sulphur, perhaps, the best way would 
be to mix a handful of it with about a gallon of new 
sawdust, the whole put in a box, or pot, and a some¬ 
what hot brick plunged overhead in the material. 
Let those who would try this plan first practice under 
a hand-glass; practice simply on the life and well-being 
of the plant, and thus grope their own way. Sulphur, 
like fire, is either a useful friend or a most dangerous 
enemy; and men of the soundest ideas (even our clever 
coadjutor, Mr. Fish) approach the subject with caution. 
As for the red spider, we must advocate our old plan of 
painting the inside of the frame before the plants are 
inserted, with a clay and sulphur mixture; in fact, just 
such as we have always found effectual on the peach wall. 
Such may be repeated when the melons are swelling. 
For kinds suitable to the amateur, or, indeed, any one, 
we should say the Beechwood, Snow’s, the Bromham 
Hall, Terry’s, and Cuthill’s scarlet flesh, to which may 
be added the Trentham hybrid. R. Errington. 
NOTES ON SPECIMENS IN REGENT STREET. 
Onje of the best growers in this country told me the 
other day, that all the forced hyacinths he had seen 
round Loudon this season, and he is an extensive 
forcer of them himself, were not so strong as they 
usually are, and if the same thing happens in the open 
ground, both of us concluded that the cause must be 
attributed to some peculiarity in the weather in Holland 
during the last month of May, when the bulbs were in 
full leaf. If they had been overtaken by a long course 
of dry weather at that critical period, or forced beyond 
their natural powers by the continuance of dull, rainy 
weather, either way would account for any deficiency in 
their strength this season. One of our correspondents 
complained the other day, that his hyacinths, which he 
bought for sixpence the root in Covent-Garden Market, 
did not bloom at all to his liking, and he thought the 
fault must be in his own way of treating them—a very 
natural conclusion, if we only look at the surface of the 
thing, but an erroneous one, nevertheless. 
If wo simply guard against too much confined heat in 
forcing hyacinths, we may rest assured that all the other 
bad points in our worst kind of treatment will hardly 
tell against them this season; they will come up as fine 
and strong in water-glasses as they would in the best 
prepared compost, in fresh moss, or in pure sand the 
same, so that the whole secret of blooming hyacinths, as 
well as most other bulbs, depends on how they were 
grown and ripened the year before; and this should be 
familiar to every one who attempts to grow bulbs. We 
may have a splendid bloom this year, and, therefore, 
believe that our management must of necessity be 
perfect, or how else are we to account for so fine a 
bloom; yet we may be giving the wrong treatment all 
the while, because the effect of present treatment, as we 
have just seen, will not be apparent till next year. 
Hence the necessity of being very cautious from whom 
we buy any kind of bulbs whatever. First-rate dealers 
send their orders every year to Holland, and the growers 
there know, that unless they send over first-rate articles 
they will lose their best customers. People here, who 
understand the meaning of economy to be good manage¬ 
ment, go to the first-rate houses for their bulbs, with 
which they never get disappointed; whereas, a great 
number of people believe that economy means cheapness, 
and run after the scamps who gather up the thousands 
of cast off bulbs among our own forcers and prime 
growers, who care not a fig for a root after the first year. 
The finest collection of forced hyacinths I have seen 
for years, was exhibited the other day before the Horti¬ 
cultural Society, in Regent-street, by Mr. Appleby’s 
employers, and in the lecture about them, it was men¬ 
tioned that the same firm were in the habit, for years 
past, of treating the Society by similar contributions. 
As soon as I could elbow my way to the table, after the 
meeting broke up, I made the following notes, and if I 
made any mistakes, Mr. Appleby can put me right, as I 
suppose he must have got them all committed to memory 
long ago. I did not see him at this meeting, and if he 
did not call before the members assembled he lost a 
great treat; I refer to a lovely new Phalcenopsis, called 
Lobbii, from the Messrs. Veitch, of Exeter; it was a very 
small plant, newly imported, and hardly recovered from 
the long journey, yet it produced a nice spike of charm¬ 
ing white flowers, having the lip, or lower part, of a 
beautiful purplish-red colour; it was deliciously scented, 
and the great lecturer said that it was so difficult to 
give names to the different kinds of scents in flowers, 
that he would not attempt to name what this was, so 
we shall only say it was very sweet. There was another 
fine orchid in the room— Dendrobium macropliyllum — 
the smell of which, when we heard of it, made some of 
us shrug our shoulders and think of the doctor—it was 
exactly the smell of medicinal rhubarb. 
But to the Hyacinths: the most marked one, because 
it is quite new in colour, is called Unique, a single flower, j 
and the nearest thing that I can compare it to is a pale 
crimson mezereon; there is not another hyacinth like it, 
or near to it in colour; in the open ground it will very 
likely be of a still higher colour, and I would advise 
every one to order a root of it early next autumn, and, 
indeed, of all that I am going to name. The best single 
white, and the best of all hyacinths to force early 
because it will stand more heat than any other sort, is 
called Grand Vainqueur; the next best forcer is a single j 
blue, called Emicus, or Emicaus; but the best blue, as to 
colour, according to my view, is one called Prince of 
Sax Weimar; Charles Dickens, is another fine shade of 
blue, say, Neapolitan-violet blue; Laurens Roster , a | 
dark blue, very fine; Richard Occur de Lion , another 
fine blue of a different tint; Alpheus, the best scarlet; 
and Prince Albert, the best dark—it has a black metallic 
