September 5, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
11 
Nicotiana affinis. —There are some half-dozen 
varieties of the common Tobacco plant in cultivation, 
mostly natives of South America, and much used at the 
present time in sub-tropical gardening, for which 
purpose their stately habit of growth renders them 
very attractive and useful. I first saw the subject of 
this note in a tradesman’s window last autumn, and 
was struck with its beauty as a window plant, it was in 
November, and was then flowering freely. But a few 
evenings since, a gentleman living near to Wroxham 
Bridge, invited me into his garden to see a bed of it 
which he had near to his house. It was sheltered all 
round by shrubs and tall growing plants, and was a 
mass of bloom. The flowers are white, something like 
a single Petunia, but with a long tube, and most 
deliciously scented ; indeed the air was full of its rich 
perfume. The bed in question is about six feet long, 
and perhaps two and a half feet wide. The flowers 
close during the day, and open in the evening, just 
as I saw it. The ground had been well broken up for 
it, and richly manured, and well it repaid its owner 
for the trouble.— T. W., August 29th. 
Casuarina equisetifolia.— In the conservatory 
at Abflour House, Craigellachie, there is a handsome 
specimen of this interesting tree some 10 feet high, and 
exceedingly graceful in habit. It is, I understand, a 
native of the South Sea Islands, the Indian Archipelago, 
and Australia, where it is known as the Swamp Oak, 
and is seldom seen in this country, and especially in 
such good condition as the specimen at Abflour. The 
Abflour Estate was purchased a few months ago by J. 
R. Eindlay, Esq., proprietor of The Scotsman, and is 
one of the most picturesquely situated properties in 
Banffshire. These gardens, I believe, are to undergo 
extensive alterations, and though at present there is a 
handsome range of fruit and plant houses, a large 
increase is to be made in this department. When the 
additions and alterations are made, this will be one of 
the finest residences in the North of Scotland. — D. P. L. 
Mushroom Beds out-of-doors. This is a 
good time to collect some short stable manure and 
horse-droppings, with -which to make up beds out-of- 
doors, for producing Mushrooms next spring, and 
throughout the summer months. The manure should 
be turned over a few times when a sufficient quantity 
of it has been collected to make up a bed, to allow the 
rank heat and steam to escape therefrom, after which, 
the bed, or beds, can be made up against a south wall 
in a dry situation, where water will not lodge at the 
base. The beds should be made about 4 feet wide and 
2 feet high at the wall, and the wdiole should be 
trodden firmly together and spawned when the heat 
has declined to 70° and subsequently be cased over 
with soil sufficiently moist to yield to the pressure 
of the spade. The bed should then be covered with 
long dry litter, over which a few pieces of board should 
be placed to keep it in position. Failing the wall 
accommodation, the bed can be made in the shape of a 
potato clamp—say, 4 feet wide and 3 feet high in the 
centre, in any available spot where the ground is 
higher than its surroundings, to prevent the lodgement 
of water, and where this does not exist a few bundles 
of faggots placed under the beds will answer the same 
purpose. In making the beds in the open air, drive a few 
stout stakes into the ground along the line where the bed 
is to be made, about 6 feet apart both sides, and inside 
these, as the bed is being made, a series of boards or 
slabs about 6 inches wide should be placed, thus form¬ 
ing a sort of box for the manure, with sufficient space 
left at the top to form a foundation for the mould used 
in casing the beds. The latter as indicated above, 
having been previously well trodden and beaten into 
shape with a four or five-pronged fork and spawned, 
should then be cased over with soil capable of being 
beaten firmly together, and thatched over with a foot 
thick of litter, which ’should be made secure with 
several lengths of tar-string, to prevent its being 
removed by rough winds. This done, the beds so made 
will require no further attention until spring, except to 
see that the covering is not displaced, and the results 
will more than compensate for the labour and time of 
waiting. —R. TV. Ward. 
Lilium auratum. —The value of this handsome 
golden-rayed Lily from Japan, as a decorative plant, 
is well illustrated by half-a-dozen specimens now in 
bloom in Mr. H. M. Pollett’s conservatory at Fernside, 
Bickley. Last autumn, Mr. Pollett purchased six 
bulbs, a good fair sample, which were potted in the 
usual way in 32-sized pots. At the present time, two 
of them with single stems, bear fourteen and thirteen 
flowers respectively ; two others, with two stems, bear 
twenty-nine flowers each ; another, with two stems, 
has twenty-four blooms ; and one, with three stems, 
has twenty-one flowers, or a total on the half-dozen of 
153 blooms. The new bulbs will soon be in the 
market, and intending buyers would do well to get 
their supplies as early as they can, but not to pot them 
up at once. Through potting them before they have 
had time to “sweat,” many Lily bulbs rot, to the 
great disappointment of their owners. The way to 
treat them is to put them for a time in the open air, 
under a covering of a few inches deep of cocoa-nut fibre 
refuse, to acclimatise them, as it were ; and then to 
pot them in some good loam, leaf-soil, well-decayed 
manure, and sand, just when the young roots commence 
to make their appearance. It is also desirable that the 
bulbs should be put nearer the bottom of the pots than 
the top, and to pot them tolerably firm. 
Onion for Sowing Now. —Your Rochdale cor¬ 
respondent, who enquired at page 811 of the last 
volume for information as to the best Onion for autumn 
sowing, cannot do better than sow the Giant Rocca. 
I have tried several, and found this the mildest 
flavoured, is hardy enough, grows to a large size, and 
transplants better than some I have had.— 0. Oswald. 
Mushrooms, eatable or poisonous?— Con¬ 
sidering the importance of the subject, I do not consider 
your article sufficiently clear. One reads at page 805, 
“ In attempting to discriminate the good from the bad, 
one of the chief points to be observed is the colour of 
the spores or seeds. This observation is very easily 
made, as the spores are, as a rule, the same in colour as 
the gills beneath. Agarics or Mushrooms may have 
spores either white, pink, purple, brown, or black, and 
there are both good and bad species belonging to each 
set.” How, then, is the test of colour to be applied 
and what is to be observed ? I note too, that Agaricus 
saponaceus, at p. 805, and Agaricus nebularis, at p. 
820, are not poisonous or eatable, which is an. oversight 
which might entail serious consequences. There are 
only six described. Why should not the question of 
food or poison be marked to these as to the others.— J. 
[In answer to our correspondent’s remarks, we have 
to say that spores colour alone is not a distinguishing 
mark between edible and poisonous fungi, but that it 
is essential in the first place to determine the spore- 
colour before the structural points are observed. To 
distinguish edible from poisonous fungi, three observa¬ 
tions are essential, viz.:—1, Spore-colour ; 2, Structure ; 
3, Habitat. In our two short articles, all these points 
are adverted to. Spore-colour is generally taken first, 
just as one has always to determine whether a flowering 
plant is an Exogen or an Endogen before proceeding 
further. In many fungi the odour and taste when raw, 
are important factors in the determination of the name ; 
we have referred to one of these characters under 
Agaricus saponaceus. Agaricus saponaceus is not edible, 
Agaricus nebularis is edible, both are correctly described 
in the articles. By an oversight of the printer, two 
illustrations on p. 820, viz., Agaricus procerus and 
Agaricus melleus have their names transposed. The 
letter-press, however, obviously sets this right, as the 
three sections of Agaricus melleus are referred to. — Ed. ] 
Nigella damascena.— Of the many hardy 
annuals which are now grown for the embellishment of 
the borders, and at the same time to give flowers for 
cutting purposes, this old-fashioned one deserves to be 
more generally grown than is now the ease. As is 
well known, many things of this class are more showy 
in the borders than Nigellas ; but then, when they 
come to be arranged in vases or epergnes, or any other 
receptacle for holding cut flowers, its peculiar light 
blue flowers, as it were, dropped into a cushion of 
Fennel-like foliage, makes it at once a light and at¬ 
tractive subject, and fit for any but the very choicest 
arrangements. I find it does better during wet than 
very dry weather. It has often puzzled me why its 
common names, viz., Love-in-the-Mist and Devil’s 
Bush, should be so diverse.— E. D. 
The formation of borders for hardy Fruit 
Trees. —This was the subject of a paper read flxy Mr. 
Peter Fairgrieve, gardener, Dunkeld, read at a meeting 
of the Scottish Horticultural Association, held on 
Tuesday evening. If, said Mr. Fairgrieve, the ground 
is at all inclined to be damp, or the subsoil adhesive, 
by all means let the border be properly drained. After 
the drainage was finished, the best thing to do was to 
trench the entire border to the subsoil. With regard 
to the site, he thought sloping ground to the south a 
great advantage ; a dry bottom was indispensable; 
and it was necessary that the site should be protected 
from the north and east. Soil had a very great deal 
to do with the successful cultivation of all fruits, and 
he believed a good garden soil, properly managed, 
would grow most of their fruits most successfully. He 
did not think it proper to plant on the same place and 
in the same soil the identical fruit trees that were there 
previously. Referring to the danger of drought, he 
pointed out that a proper quantity of soil was a most 
important matter in the formation of a fruit border, 
and that, again, had to be determined by the nature of 
the soil and sub-soil. In thin borders roots suffered 
very much from drought in summer, but that evil could 
be met by deepening the border. Twenty-four inches 
of soil was not too much, if resting on the chalk or 
gravel. Less would do if the border rested on heavy 
impenetrable till. By regulating that matter properly, 
gardeners would be able to avoid the necessity of 
watering fruit borders out of doors. He knew of no 
fruit that suffered more from inatteution in regard to 
that matter than apricots. What was the border to be 
made of? For wall fruit generally, too much sand, 
clay, or dead, heavy loam was not desirable. Substan¬ 
tial loam was no doubt what was wanted for apples and 
pears ; but for plums, nectarines, peaches, and apricots, 
loam, ■with a little sand in it, was best. No doubt 
under circumstances different compositions might be 
adopted with success. Where the soil was a good fresh 
loam in its natural state, trenching was about all that 
was necessary. If a place was being newly constructed 
for the purpose of growing fruit, a first-class border 
being desired, and the natural soil not being suitable, 
either from its being too stiff or too sandy, the original 
soil ought to be taken away, and fresh soil introduced. 
Nothing would suit better than a nice maiden loam 
with the turf in it, especially when brought from the 
banks of a river. It would not be necessary to add 
any manure, as most likely the wood of the trees would 
be quite strong enough without it, but a little charcoal 
added would be advantageous. It would be desirable 
to give the border a slope to face the sun. A discussion 
followed the reading of the paper, and Mr. Fairgrieve 
received a vote of thanks. 
-- 
MAIDSTONE FLOWER SHOW. 
This annual exhibition is held in the spacious build¬ 
ings known as the Corn Exchange and Concert Hall, 
and fills here exceedingly well; but it is a matter for 
surprise that, with the numerous eligible out-door sites 
that exist in the neighbourhood of the town, the 
Committee do not hold their exhibition under canvas. 
The ten guinea prize offered for the best group of plants, 
arranged for effect, brought out five competitors. First 
honours were secured by Mr. Ocoek, gardener to Major 
Roberts, Snodland, with an exceedingly fresh arrange¬ 
ment, which formed a pleasant break from the some¬ 
what stereotyped style in which these groups are usually 
put up. Mr. Waterman, gardener to H. A. Brassey, 
Esq., M.P., Preston Hall, was second, and Mr. Fennell, 
gardener to Mrs. Cazalet, Shipbourne, was placed third, 
with a good group, a little heavy in the foreground. 
For nine foliage plants Mr. McKenzie, gardener to 
F. S., W. Cornwallis, Esq., Linton Place, was first with 
a grand lot, comprising Asparagus plumosus nanus, 
about 4ft. through, Croton Mortii, C. variegatus, C. 
Queen Victoria, all large and wonderfully well coloured, 
Alocasia macrorhiza variegata, Areca rubra, Kentia 
australis, Pandanus Veitchi, and Dicksonia antarctica. 
Mr. Ocock was secondjwith a very good nine, amongst 
them being a fine piece of the rare Dicksonia Smithii, 
Croton majesticus, very fresh and bright, and Alocasia 
macrorhiza variegata. Mr. Waterman was third, his 
best plant being Cycas revoluta. For the single 
specimen Mr. Waterman was first with Pritchardia 
grandis, and Mr. McKenzie second with a wonderfully 
high-coloured piece of Croton Andreanum. 
Cut Flowers made a large display. At this show 
the exhibitors of baskets of cut flowers make a great 
mark, none of the baskets being less than a yard in 
diameter, and usually very well put up. Mr. Luckliurst, 
gardener to the Misses Jones, Hayle Place, was closely 
run for first honours by Mr. Goddard, of Hunton Court, 
