166 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[November, 
ing, a sure sign of starvation. Exhaustion 
often arises from the too free use of gross 
stimulants, sometimes from badly-drained bor¬ 
ders, but from whatever cause it arises there 
is no remedy but going to the root of the 
evil, and that is at the root of the Vine, and 
at the fall of the leaf is the proper moment ; 
take every particle of old soil out; see that 
the drainage is all right; rearrange the roots, 
and fill in with the compost suggested. 
If the production of first-class Grapes is 
the object, moderate sized borders should be 
adopted. Every particle of loose and un¬ 
occupied soil should be removed every autumn, 
and replaced by fresh compost. Every inch 
of the border should be as thoroughly occupied 
by roots as the pot of a well-grown pot Vine, 
and if it is not, depend upon it all is not right. 
See to it, therefore, that this is the case, and 
then any amount of feeding either by liquid 
or rich top dressings may be applied during 
the growing season. 
In the case of Vines which are forced early 
and have their roots outside, it is necessary 
that the roots should be suitably protected, 
but avoid building dunghills over them. For 
Vines started after the beginning of the year 
simply a good mulching is sufficient, and this 
should remain on during the summer to pro¬ 
tect the roots—which should be encouraged to 
the surface—from damage by drought. Except 
in the case of badly drained borders I should 
never use any means of keeping off rain, 
which I consider at all times rather beneficial 
than otherwise, except perhaps in the very 
late house where Grapes are expected to hang 
through the winter. But in all establishments 
where Grapes are the order of every day in 
the year, the borders of the very early and 
the very late houses should be inside. I be¬ 
lieve in inside borders, and especially for the 
queen of all Grapes, the Muscat of Alexandria, 
Escholata, &c., which if they are to be had in 
perfection must hang for months after they 
are what might be called ripe. These glorious 
Grapes, and indeed all our fine late Grapes, 
should be ripened early if they are expected 
to keep well. They take so long to ripen that 
they must be got to work early. It is a bad 
practice to attempt to keep them back. I 
should like to see them all at work by the 
middle of January or at latest the beginning 
of February. To have to resort to extra 
firing during the summer and autumn means 
thrips and spider, and all their concomitant 
evils. — Henry Eckford, Boreatton Park, 
Baschurch. 
NEPENTHES RAJAH. 
V E are indebted to Messrs. Veitcli & 
Sons, of Chelsea, for the use of the 
figure here introduced of what is 
assuredly one of the finest of the 
known Pitcher plants. It is, indeed, prob¬ 
ably the grandest of them all, and is one of 
the most striking vegetable productions 
hitherto discovered, as remarkable in its 
way as the Rafflesia. Arnoldi, another Eastern 
vegetable wonder, the Nepenthes now under 
notice being a native of Borneo, and hence 
selected to bear the title of Rajah Brooke, of 
whose services to science in its native place it 
thus becomes commemorative amongst botan¬ 
ists. 
Like the other species of this genus, A. 
Rajah is a plant of erect subscandent habit, 
the stout stem reaching in its wild state a 
height of four feet. The leaves are from one 
to two feet long, oblong-lanceolate, smooth on 
the surface, very leathery in texture, and 
having the nerves indistinct. The broad 
ampullaceous pitcher is six inches in diameter, 
and a foot in length, furnished with two fim¬ 
briated wings in front, covered with long rusty 
hairs above, and studded with glands within. 
The recurved margin of the pitcher is one 
and a half to two inches broad, scolloped into 
bold undulations, and the lid is suborbicular, 
ten inches long and eight inches broad. The 
flowers, which as in the other species are 
individually not very conspicuous, are pro¬ 
duced in racemes two feet long. 
The plant, as we have said, is a native of 
the island of Borneo, where it is found on 
Mount Kina Balon at an elevation of 5,000 
feet. It has been introduced to this country 
by the Messrs. Yeitch & Sons, who have ex¬ 
hibited young plants, and thus shown that it 
is amenable to cultivation. The plants thus 
exhibited were awarded a First-class Certifi¬ 
cate by the Royal Horticultural Society. It 
may be grown with every facility in a moist 
stove, where other forms of this genus, now 
becoming numerous both in the shape of 
species and varieties, can be successfully 
cultivated.—T. Moore. 
