128 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ August, 
of fluid into them. A writer who signs himself 
“Scotia” finds it a remedy or preventive to crop 
more heavily than in the case of most other sorts, 
which may generally he done, as there is rarely any 
scarcity of incipient bunches, and to give no water 
after the berries show the least tinge of colour, 
indicative of ripening. Mr. Ward, of Longford 
Castle, has adopted the following plan with good 
results:—Just before the berries begin to colour, 
the shoot was cut “ nearly half through,” between 
the branch and the joint preceding it, the super¬ 
abundant sap, which, he says, is without doubt the 
cause of cracking, being carried off by means of this 
cut. Mr. Ward also recommends heavy cropping. 
— ©he new Todea rlumosa is a very pretty 
seedling sport of Todea, which has been raised 
in the nursery of Messrs. Yeitch and Sons, of 
Chelsea, where a considerable number of plants of 
identical character, but differing from the supposed 
parent, have been obtained from a sowing of Todea 
superba. Possibly they are accidental hybrids, 
brought into existence by the casual intermixture 
of spores of some other Todea with those which 
were ostensibly sown. It is of dwarf compact¬ 
growing habit, and of a pale-green colour. The 
surface of the fronds is moderately bristling with 
the small, erect segments, as inT. intermedia, but the 
fronds are shorter and more ovate than in that 
plant, while the woolly rachis and stipes are also 
wanting. The fronds are recurved and the pinnae 
are recurved, while the ultimate segments are erect 
or turned up. It is a pretty dwarf-growing addition 
to these pleasing cool-house Ferns, and from its 
small stature will be an admirable subject for grow¬ 
ing in a Ward’s case. 
— were agreeably impressed last 
spring with the completeness of the arrange¬ 
ments made for Storing Tubers of Gloxinias 
and other Gesneraceous Plants in the great 
horticultural establishment of M. Louis Van 
lloutte, of Ghent. A long room, provided with 
several tiers of stages, was completely filled with 
tubers of all sorts and sizes in the most perfect pre- 
'servation, and in numbers so astounding that we 
forbear to quote how many are in this way stored 
annually. With us too often the returning spring 
finds the tubers either rotted, or parched up, or— 
etherealised, gone ! This often results from keeping 
them in too high a temperature—from 70° to 80°, 
which is much too hot. The secret of M. Yan 
Houtte’s success in their preservation is, that they 
are not subjected to extremes of any kind ; they are 
dug up and turned out with their roots and leaves 
attached, and such of the soil as will hang about 
them, and they are allowed to dry very slowly, 
surrounded by these i:iipedimenta. During winter 
the bulb-store is kept at about 50° F. The result 
is that the roots turn out plump and fresh, when 
required for planting. 
— ©he Souvenir de Malmaison Carna¬ 
tion deserves a place in every garden where 
cut flowers or choice decorative plants are in 
request. The blooms are extremely large, and of 
a very delicate flesh-colour. Young plants are pre¬ 
ferable for pot-culture; those struck in May from 
soft side-growths, in a brisk bottom-heat, flower 
within twelve months. They should be potted off 
into 3-in. pots, in a compost of fibry turf and dry 
cow manure, and as soon as they are well rooted 
transferred to cold frames, in which they are set on 
coal ashes, the lights being drawn off entirely on all 
favourable occasions. Tn August they should be 
shifted into 5-in. and G-in. pots, great care being 
exercised in watering, as if at all soddened, or the 
drainage imperfect, the plants are liable to die off. 
Green-fly must be guarded against by fumigation 
or the use of tobacco-water. During winter they 
should be kept in a light, well-ventilated house, 
with intermediate temperature. Such plants, if 
successfully handled throughout, develope splendid 
heads of bloom. 
— ©he varieties of Oalochortus, wliicli, as 
well as those of Cyclobothra elegctns , are very 
numerous, are reproduced almost entirely from 
seed, in the wild state. These plants, Mr. Elwes 
notes, though able to resist a greater degree of 
cold than they are likely to get in England, 
require the protection of a frame to bring them 
to perfection, as the leaves are produced in 
winter or very early spring, and if exposed to 
the weather get much injured. They grow more 
robustly and more freely if planted out than in pots, 
and unless the soil is very warm and dry, are best 
taken up about the end of July, and kept dry till 
October before replanting. They seem to make few 
or no offsets, but in the axils of the branches small 
bulbs are often formed, and if the weather is hot, 
seed is produced in abundance. A more beautiful 
class of plants, he adds, I do not kuow, and though 
the individual flowers do not last long, a great suc¬ 
cession is kept up on one plant, and by having a 
good number of species the bloom is protracted 
from May till August. 
— ©he Journal of Horticulture records 
that Erica candidissima is of great value as a 
decorative plant when flowered in a small state. 
This free-growing and floriferous Heath is highly 
worthy of being grown in quantity where chaste 
white flowers lasting long in beauty are in demand, 
plants grown in five-inch pots producing four to 
eight spikes densely laden with white waxy flowers. 
©bttuavg* 
— ftdR. William'Holmes, of theFrampton 
Park Nursery, Hackney, died on June 29, aged 
57. . He was born at West Ham, on September 
26, 1820, and was a florist by instinct, having had 
from his youth a real enthusiasm for florists’ flowers, 
the Dahlia being one of his first pets. In 1818, he 
became gardener to Dr. Frampton, at Hackney, and 
was soon known as a successful grower and ex¬ 
hibitor of Dahlias, Chrysanthemums, Pansies, 
Gloxinias, Pelargoniums, &c. When Dr. Frampton’s 
establishment was broken up, Mr. Holmes com¬ 
menced business as a florist, designating his estab¬ 
lishment “The Frampton Park Nursery.” He was one 
of the earlier promoters of the National Floricultural 
Society, established in March, 1851, and was a con¬ 
stant censor at its meetings; while, in conjunction 
with Mr. It. James, he originated the Stoke New- 
ington Chrysanthemum Society. He was formerly 
a frequent contributor to the garden periodicals, but 
latterly became mixed up with parochial affairs, 
having been vice-chairman of the Hackney Board of 
Guardians and churchwarden of St. Luke’s Church, 
in which capacities and by his personal friends 
he was alike esteemed, for his manly and straight¬ 
forward business-like character and genial manner. 
