288 
forms, in which they are represented as fuscous or yel¬ 
lowish.” 
Javanese Medinilla ( Medinilla Javanensis). — Bota¬ 
nical Magazine , t. 4569.—At page 215 of the fifth volume 
of The Cottage Gardener, Mr. Appleby has given the 
history, cultivation, &c., of three Brazilian and one Java 
species of this delightful genus of Mouili-stamens (Melas- 
tomads). This, which we are now to chronicle, is also 
from Java, as the specific name implies, and if less noble 
than Medinilla magnifica, from the same island, still it 
supports the very favourable opinion of gardeners 
respecting the beauty and free habit of the family; 
besides which, if it should turn out that this fine ever¬ 
green stove plant retains the habit of flowering in the 
winter, as it first did in the stoves of the Messrs. Rollin- 
son, at Tooting, this quality, of itself, will soon gain it 
an admittance into the more select collections in this 
country. Messrs, ltollinson have also imported another 
species, named M. crassifolia. 
The genus was named by a French botanical traveller, 
named Gaudichaud, who did not explain the meaning of it, 
but it is supposed to be a commemorating genus, that is to 
say, to record a person’s name. It is referred to a section 
of Melastomads (Melastomacere), which is named Mi coni ads, 
after Miconia, an allied genus, by Ruiz and Pavon. In the 
Linmoan system it stands in the first order of the tenth 
class, Decandria Monoygnia. According to Dr. Blume, a 
Dutch botanist, who studied and wrote much on the plants 
of Java, the bark of Medinilla is employed as an emol¬ 
lient, and also for poultices; the berries are wholesome, 
but not very palateable, like some others of plants included 
in this large Natural Order. Blume, who named thirteen 
genera of eastern Melastomads, named the Medinillas 
Ilypenanthe , now one of three synonyms of the genus. 
Stem, four-angled; leaves, stalkless, pointed egg-shaped, 
strongly five-nerved, dark green above, pale red tinged 
beneath ; flowers , in panicles at the ends of the branches ; 
calyx top-shaped, with five small teeth, pale pink; petals 
five, rosy ; stamens ten, with piu-ple anthers.—B. J. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
Vine Borders —Although much remains to be said 
as to the compost-yard, the collecting and conservation 
of manures, vegetable and organic matter in general, 
as well as inorganic, materials, we must beg to hand 
[August 7. 
them over to a future opportunity, inasmuch as we are 
particularly anxious to say something about the forma¬ 
tion of vine borders—a proceeding of some importance, 
and by far better carried out in the mouth of September 
than any period of the year. Dryness, as before observed, 
is indispensable to the chopping and working of the 
materials, which, if they be proper for the purpose, will 
require to be thus handled. 
The end of August, then, and September, offers by 
far the best opportunity for these proceedings. Soils 
are at that period, even if much rain has prevailed, in a 
highly mellowed state, through the solar agencies; and 
may, consequently, he handled in any way without the 
danger of destroying their mechanical texture, or, in 
other words, of closing up their pores. 
Thorough Drainage, in the most full sense of the 
term, is now well known to be the only successful 
foundation for good vine culture. Without this, it is in 
vain to talk of composts; and, indeed, we have been 
often exceedingly annoyed to hear persons, from whom 
better things might be expected, talking of their splendid 
vine borders; such, perhaps, being mere pits of soil, 
gorged with rank manorial matter, ready, in their first 
stages of decomposition, to skin over, or close up, the 
interstices of the drainage material. One of the most 
ruinous mistakes, in our opinion, and one very frequently 
committed, is the sinking a deep hole for the border. 
Border, indeed! why not call it a vine pit. Indeed, 
this is not a question of bottom drainage alone; there 
is another and a graver point involved in the matter, 
and that is, the mellowing of the soil as accomplished 
by atmospheric influences. No man can suppose that 
five feet deep of soil, thrust into a damp pit, can so 
readily receive the ameliorating and fertilising effects 
of the air, as two feet of the same piled above the ordi¬ 
nary level. Now to be entirely below the level, and 
entirely above it, are, of course, the very polar extremes 
of border making; and we have put the case in strong 
relief in order to show the great importance of attending 
to levels. So we may see that it is not a question of 
mere quality in the soil, into which position the question 
has been but too frequently narrowed, but of permeability 
to the atmosphere; preserving and guaranteeing that 
free and open mechanical texture in the soil which the 
vine delights in. 
It has been repeatedly urged in these pages, that when 
parties are building vineries, too much caution caunot 
he exercised in establishing such a fioor-level as will 
enable the border-maker to keep his border well up. 
Where vines are planted outside the house, it is consi¬ 
dered indispensable that they enter the house either 
immediately on the surface, or just below it. Certainly, 
it is bad practice to suffer any portion of the stem to 
remain above the level, exposed to the vicissitudes of 
the atmosphere. It is plain, then, that this surface 
must bear a given relation to the ground level; and that 
relation should be such as will enable the operator to 
keep the volume of his border a proper height above the 
surrounding natural levels, in order that bottom water 
may pass away with facility, that the border may, at 
least, not he made a recipient of water from contiguous 
surfaces; and that it may be freely exposed to a liberal 
circulation of air; the latter, it is obvious, tending to a 
dissipation of surface moisture, and better carried out 
with high levels than with low. The higher the floor¬ 
line, then, the higher may the border be carried, and 
vice versa. 
Our readers will mostly know, that in setting out a 
new building, it is the practice to assume a “ floor-line,” 
so called in practice; this acts a similar part with 
respect to the ground plan as a scaffolding does to the 
building, and thus the floor-line of a hothouse generally 
means the highest general level inside. Steps may be 
made to descend from this in various directions; but this 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
