110 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ July, 
— ®he variety of Rhubarb called Stott’s 
Monarch grows to a very large size, as we 
learn from Messrs. Stuart, Mein, and Allen, of 
Kelso, who state that three stalks of this sort, grown 
at Edenhall by Mr. William Elliot, gardener there, 
weighed, without the leaves, 9| lb. The width of 
the largest leaf was 4 ft., length, 3 ft. 8 in., length 
of stalk, 24 in., circumference, 9 in. The weight of 
the largest leaf and stalk was 6f lb., and of stalk alone 
3f- lb. This variety of rhubarb is attracting con¬ 
siderable attention. 
— Jesses. E. H. Krelage and Son, of 
Haarlem, announce tire introduction of living 
bulbs of Narcissus canaeiensis, wbicb was 
not previously in cultivation in this country. It is 
a slender form of N. Tazetta, and appears to be the 
smallest-flowered form in the whole group. The 
plant grows about 18 in. high, the leaves very narrow, 
scarcely more than 1 in. in breadth, the scape slender 
and about equal to the foliage, bearing a 7-flowered 
umbel, the dried flowers barely f in. across, and 
having the cup or crown very much reduced, 
scarcely more than a line long, or about one-tliird 
the length of the ovate lance-shaped segments, the 
flower tube, extremely slender and about r r in. in 
length, having a peculiar enlargement or swelling just 
where it joins the base of the stellate limb. It well 
deserves culture, as one of the most elegant forms of 
a very beautiful group. This Narcissus is very scarce 
in its native habitat. 
— 2To kill Scale on Plum Trees, as well 
as on those with more tender bark, the fluid 
sold by Messrs. Ivillengrey and Jacques, Don¬ 
caster, as Soluble Phenyle, is recommended. The 
fluid should be used much diluted till a safe strength 
is found, but three tablespoonfuls in a gallon of 
water is suggested as being suitable for all the 
harder barks. It should be brushed on, or rubbed on 
with a flannel, which takes off quantities of the 
scale and the eggs, and the smell makes the rubbed 
bough very uninviting for insect deposit. It is 
necessary, however, to be careful, for if the fluid is 
allowed to drip about, it will kill the bit of the leaf 
that it lies on, though a little care will make all safe. 
— £[he Fuchsia Earl of Beaconsfield 
was raised some seven or eight years ago by 
Messrs. John Laing and Co., of the Forest Hill 
Nursery. Mr. Laing fertilised flowers of the old 
Fuchsia fulgens with the pollen of some of the best 
florists’ varieties of that day, and in due time raised 
about a hundred seedling plants, amongst which 
were some curious things not worth keeping, 
but amongst them was the subject of this note, 
which was certificated by the Royal Botanic Society 
on June 21st, 1876, under the name of Laing’s Hybrid, 
and again in July of the following year by the 
Floral Committee, under the name it now bears. It 
is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and most 
useful decorative varieties that we have. 
— t^HE pretty evergreen creeping-stemmed 
Begonia Comte de Limminghe is a charming 
plant for the winter and spring decoration of 
the hothouse. To get nice plants, cuttings should 
be put in in spring, singly, in small pots, and plunged 
in a little bottom-heat, when they will soon be fit for 
potting on into 5 or 6-in. pots—a size in which they 
will make nice plants about 2 ft. high and 15 in. 
through by the end of summer. A few stakes are 
required to train them round, the plant being other¬ 
wise of a pendulous habit. It should be kept in a 
cool light house through the autumn, and introduced 
to the stove or intermediate-house in December, and 
in five or six weeks will be nicely in bloom, when 
its profuse cymes of waxy salmon-coloured pale- 
edged blossoms are very attractive. 
— ®he ' lovely winter flowering alpine 
Saxifraga Bubsbriana is a very attractive 
object early in the year. The flowers, which 
are produced in great profusion, are pure white, 
borne on slender dull scarlet stems, arising from a 
dense csespitose tuft of greyish-silvery leaves. 
There is also a beautiful variety of it flowering most 
freely, S. Burseriana major, which is larger in all 
its parts, and bears blossoms fully twice the size of 
those of the ordinary typo; this will be a welcome 
addition to our Avinter-flowering rock plants. 
— ®he Japanese Diospyros Kaki has been 
experimentally planted in Algeria, and some 
time since, a sample of its fruits, which had been 
sent for tasting to the Central Horticultural Society 
of France, were pronounced uneatable. It was 
afterwards found, however, as is well known here, 
that to be good the fruits must be eaten when 
bletted, that is, in the same condition of ripeness as 
that in which Medlars are eaten. It is not, there¬ 
fore, surprising to learn that specimens from the 
same sample tasted six weeks later Avere reported 
to be delicious. The Kaki may probably be largely 
planted in Algeria, and prove a source of revenue to 
the growers in that colony. It appears that some 
varieties are more robust than others, proving hardy 
even where the sea freezes. The trees l’equire but 
little care. 
— ®hose troublesome little torments, the 
House Flies, can be kept in bounds by various 
means; but anything is better than poisoning 
them. A writer in the Albany Cultivator, who, for 
two seasons, tried fly-paper, lost her chickens about as 
fast as the flies, and the dead flies were lying every¬ 
where in the house, so as to become disgusting. She 
suggests that a tumbler of soapsuds, Avith a bit of 
pasteboard, smeared Avith sugar on the under-side, 
with a small hole the size of a three-cent. piece, will 
dispose of a good many ; and that a paste, made of 
a spoonful of resin, a spoonful of lard,- and two 
spoonfuls of syrup, simmered together, and spread 
thinly on papers, and laid on window stools and 
shelves, will catch a great many more, and they can 
be flung into the stove, paper, flies and all, and that 
is the end of them. 
— JFbom experiments made Avith. tlie Fir- 
tree Oil as an Insecticide, by Mr. Taylor, as 
reported in the Journal of Horticulture , it 
would appear that if used at a strength of J a pint 
of the oil to 4 gallons of Avater, and applied with a 
syringe or a vaporiser, it destroys green-fly, red- 
spider, the light-coloured green-fly of plum-trees, 
and the black-fly Avhich infests cucumbers and 
melons. At double that strength it makes a good 
wash for plant-scale if gently rubbed on by means 
of a piece of sponge or a soft brush ; and better 
than all, it effectually kills the two kinds of goose¬ 
berry caterpillar—all this without the slightest 
injury to the plants. The maker is Mr. Hughes, of 
Manchester. The odour of the oil is not unpleasant, 
it mixes readily with hot or cold Avater, has no 
sediment, and does not require washing off the plants. 
