THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 8, 1860. 
85 
spring. If borders are what they ought to bo, it is iny firm 
belief that for forcing Vines it is the best plan (the roots being 
outside), to cover the border thickly with a dry thatching at the 
end of August whilst warm, and so to cover it that the surface 
may be a smart incline, and be finished in thatching manner. 
Now for a few words about Peach and Nectarine forcing. We 
hear annually complaints about the fruit falling off, and folks are 
much puzzled to account for it. I have had many inquiries from 
amateurs loud in their complaints of such mishaps, but this has 
been chiefly confined to their orchard-houses. Many of these 
persons, not understanding as gardeners do the character and 
value of root-action, are not qualified to cultivate fruits in pots. 
With gardeners of the old school it was even asserted that a few 
degrees in excess of heat would cast them at certain stages; but 
I have never found them so highly susceptible. Mine always 
hold fast, and I never concern myself about their falling off, It 
is probable that the evil must be sought at the root—the first 
thing to consider, but generally made the last. There is not 
anything more easily grown than Peaches and Nectarines if a man 
really understands their exact nature and habits ; but this, I fear, 
is only attainable by long experience combined with sound dis¬ 
crimination. I recommend those who have anything to learn in 
their culture, to pursue the Summer pinching system in preference 
to disbudding. This I speak with regard to ordinary trees. 
When, however, trees make too little wood through ago or hard- 
bearing, reverse the practice. R. Eerington. 
inches deep every time, and you will never want for flowers in 
nine-tenths of all the gardens in all the towns in the three king¬ 
doms. If the soil is poor, and is liable to increased poverty by 
the voracious roots of old trees and young Lilac and Lilac-like 
bushes, give it an annual dressing of decayed dung in October 
and November. Let twenty inches deep be the shallowest dig¬ 
ging, and let that be done at mucking-time again soon after 
Christmas, and again in March, tumbling up every particle of 
the soil to that depth each time, and beating the lumps to powder 
or to pancakes for the next frost to penetrate. Choose a dry 
surface the last time before sowing or planting, and rough-rake 
the top with a wide-toothed rake, such as would leave lumps as 
large as Broad Beans, and bury the raked-off lumps in the back 
of the border; never take anything away, except large stones, 
and the roots of perennial weeds. Mr. Beaton’s garden is in the 
very centre of smoke, flame, and steam-hissing, yet no plant 
under the same latitude but does better in it than in most gar¬ 
dens in the couutry. But forty inches are his regular depth for 
digging it, and he never uses any fertiliser but strong liquid 
manure, and that only from the 1st of <J une to the last of August. 
But any square in Loudon would do as well as his plot under 
the same treatment.] 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
REPORT EBOM THE COUNCIL TO THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING, 
MAY 1, 1860. 
THE SPERGULAS AS SUBSTITUTES FOR 
GRASS. 
I send you a small plant and shall be obliged if you will tell 
me whether you think it worth growing as a Spergula. It grows 
abundantly in this garden, but I have never noticed it before, and 
do not know the flower.—J. J., Asbmieken. 
[Your plant is Spergula subulata, not pilifera, and not more 
than one in ten times has pilifera been sent to us true. So that 
nine dealers out of ten must, necessarily, deal out the wrong name ; 
but, as luck would have it, we consider the mistake, or, what 
some might call it, the fraud, is a fortunate circumstance, for we 
ourselves prefer subulata on most common lands to pilifera , not 
that there is the smallest difference in the general looks and in 
the feel under foot of the two kinds, but in July when the plants 
are in bloom, pilifera is “ one white sheet of bloom,” while subu- 
lata h a very spare bloomer. We plant every piece which is sent 
to us, and a stranger to the mystery might pick out Beven kinds 
just now in our bed, but the difference is in the different localities 
from which the plants came. The very finest sample we have is 
from Hammersmith, from “ G. D.,” who says it came “ spon¬ 
taneously” to the extent of some rods, and “ is the mo9t lovely 
green he ever saw, and looks the same all the year round, and 
walking on it in frosty weather does not mark it so much as it 
does the grass.” 
We arc about to have a report of twelve months’ progress of 
the pilifera variety of Spergula from Forest Hill, and from the 
nursery of Mr. Summers, and we shall strongly recommend Mr. 
Summers to give up pilifera in favour of subulata, on all but 
very clayey laud, unless we hear of something more very de- | 
cidedly in favour of pilifera. When pilifera is grown on very 
rich land it loses its distinctive mark of the awn at the end of the \ 
leaf; in that state all the botany on earth could not distinguish 
it from subulata, unless they were in bloom together, or grown 
under glass. Now that they are both in full growth it is mere 
waste of time to send specimens to us, as the two will give their 
distinctions under a bell-glass in a few days. Subulata runs on 
the surface fast enough ; pihfera grows upwards only.'] 
FLOWERS FOR TOWN GARDENS. 
A constant subscriber to The Cottage Gardener would be ; 
very much obliged to the Editors if they would inform her what 
flowers flourish best in a town garden; and whether Verbenas 
and Hollyhocks will succeed.—A. S. P. 
[Verbenas do not do well in town gardens. Hollyhocks do 
tolerably well, if the ground is rich and well trenched. Every 
kind of Scarlet Geranium does well in towns, also China Asters 
and the best Larkspurs. But it is not the confinement, or the 
smoke, or soot, which hurts town gardens so much as the wretched 
ecratchings called digging and the roots of treos. Dig twenty 
When the Society last assembled on an occasion of the present 
kind, it was the unpleasant duty of the Council to announce 
that their attempts at improving the financial position of the 
Society had been attended by no success. They had to report 
an income, which, though reviving, was still so inadequate that 
the liabilities had increased within the year by above £600, and 
that the necessity of selling the house in Regent Street, and all 
that it contained, in order to reduce the debt bearing interest, 
which in the beginning of 1859 amounted to nearly £8000, ex¬ 
clusive of above £2700 of simple contract debts, had become 
t urgent. Such being the result of the most strenuous efforts on 
the part of the Council to revive the Society, it became evident 
that retrenchment in every direction had become so inevitable, 
that it was proposed to bring the expenditure down if possible to 
£1800 a-year, of which Chiswick was to receive £1300 ; and if 
this lias not been wholly effected, it has been because the sudden 
alteration in the prospects of the Society rendered it indispensable 
to engage in expenses which would have been needless had cir¬ 
cumstances remained as they were. 
Great retrenchment in a public body was, moreover, too dan¬ 
gerous a course to he permanently adopted. It could only be 
effected by inaction. The income at the disposal of the Council 
was placed in their hands for the purpose of actively promoting 
the interests of the Fellows, and was not likely to be maintained 
unless that purpose, which was incompatible with excessive 
economy, was fulfilled. 
The Council, therefore, while reducing expenditure in every 
direction as a temporary expedient, anxiously occupied themselves 
with the task of discovering in what way the income of the Society 
might he so increased as to enable them again to venture upon 
measures more conducive to its general interests. A Garden 
accessible without trouble or expense, in which the progress of 
Horticulture should be shown, not merely by what it might it¬ 
self contain, but by the results of the advancing skill of others 
exhibited within it, was clearly indispensable. The time had 
passed when monthly meetings in a small room in a London 
street would satisfy'the expectations of the public. It was 
necessary to exhibit gardening on a great scale, and on its own 
ground. The Garden at Chiswick was no longer able to supply 
that want. Inaccessibility, according to modern notions, and 
original faults of construction, had rendered it useless for ex¬ 
hibition purposes, and a large annual pecuniary loss. Neverthe¬ 
less the principal income of the Society from the year 1832 had 
been derived from Chiswick, either directly or indirectly, and 
the Council felt persuaded that if some other garden, more 
favourably placed, and constructed with all the advantages of 
modern skill, could be obtained, the utility and prosperity of the 
Society would rise higher than ever. 
While endeavouring to find a site near London fit for this 
purpose, the Council learned that Her Majesty’s Commissioners 
for the Exhibition of 1851 were contemplating the appropriation 
of the central part of their land at South Kensington as a Garden, 
