268 
The gardening World. 
December 26, 1885. 
of frost or cutting winds. Keep down runners, and 
you will be rewarded with abundance of blooms during 
some of the dullest months of the year. I grow over 
a dozen sorts, but find nothing equal to Marie Louise 
or De Parme for frames. I have had a large number 
in pots this season, and they look really charming 
when they are well flowered, and when each bloom is 
carefully and neatly tied out to a little wire stake. 
The foliage of each of the sorts named is of charming 
shape, and has a rich gloss. In order that you may 
judge of the success of the above method, Mr. Editor, 
I have pleasure in sending you a bunch of my blooms, 
which please accept as a Christmas button-hole.— 
A Somerset Amateur. [We congratulate our corre¬ 
spondent on his success as a cultivator of Violets. He 
has sent us a bunch of fine blooms, large in size, pure 
in colour, and delightfully fragrant. As a button¬ 
hole for Christmas this will remind us of the sender 
and other absent friends of Thf. Gardening World, 
and (dare we say it in a whisper ?) they will not be 
forgotten !—Ed.] 
Green Peas in November. -Messrs. R. B. 
Laird&Sons, Edinburgh, inform us that they have heard 
from a gentleman in the West Highlands, that his gar¬ 
dener sent to table a dish of green Peas on November 
5th as good in quality as those obtained in July. If 
the gentleman is still living of whom the story is told, 
that his partiality for green Peas was so strong that 
he follow'ed them up from the first crop in the sunny 
south to the last obtained at Aberdeen in October, he 
should make a note of the West Highlands as a likely 
place to contribute to his enjoyment of the luxury a 
few weeks longer. 
The Edinburgh Apple Conference.— Your 
contributor “X. Y. X.” has not taken the trouble to 
search deeply for information regarding the work done 
at Edinburgh, If he will wait until the report is pre¬ 
sented, he will find that much practical good will result 
from the meeting, as the council have a mass of in¬ 
teresting and useful matter in hand which is in course of 
“digestion.” To his remarks as to the jurors being in 
a “ maze,” allow me to say that had “ X. Y. Z. ” been 
there until dark on Saturday, he would have seen that 
they had not neglected their duty nor lost themselves. 
—One who was there. 
Christmas Roses. —If these charming plants 
are wanted for any decorative purpose indoors they 
must, of course, be potted, but, if for cut bloom only, 
they should not be disturbed. I have to-day cut about 
fifteen dozen for house decoration. We grow them in 
good land, and mulch them yearly. When we see the 
flowers breaking up in the centre, we put propagating 
cases over them, they are then kept from the weather ; 
the flowers open pure white, and the trouble of potting 
is avoided. Christmas Roses are one of those things 
that do not like to be disturbed at the root, unless you 
want to increase the stock. My opinion is, “let them 
alone.” I have every respect for “R. D,” and am 
perhaps treading on dangerous ground, nevertheless, 
I am [writing from experience.—if. Gilbert, Burghlcy, 
Dec. 21st. 
Harbinger Primrose.— This day, December 
21st, we picked our first batch of this truly charming 
winter-flowering plants. We have about 300 in pots, 
lifted in October, and placed in cold frames and cool 
houses near the glass. They keep on blooming until 
March. Last February I had a span-roofed house full. 
This house is close to the garden doors, and the plants 
took the people by storm. The very best advice I can 
give to all my friends is, always to have something 
imposing close to the entrance of the garden— the first 
peep is the peep.—if. Gilbert, Burgliley. 
---- 
PLANTS FOR TABLE ORNAMENT. 
(Cmtinued from p. 245. ) 
PaNDANL’S JAVANICt'S VARIEGATES AND P. VEITCHII 
are both very useful subjects for table decoration, and 
make much more graceful plants if they are propagated 
from small offsets. The best position to grow them is 
on a shelf in the stove, as if kept close to the glass and 
fully exposed to the sun, the variegation becomes much 
brighter than where they are grown in a shady position ; 
they should be kept moderately dry. If grown on too 
vigorously they soon lose that graceful habit which is 
so essential in a table plant. 
Pandanus graminifoi.ius. —This, when well grown, 
makes a very light and graceful plant; arid as-it is of 
slow growth, plants that have attained a useful size 
will do much service before getting too large for the 
purpose. 
Jacaranda mihoszefolia.— This is an exceedingly 
light and graceful plant, although it is riot often met 
with in good condition. It well deserves attention, as 
when well grown it makes a very handsome plant. It 
should be grown in the stove, and succeeds best in light 
peaty soil. 
Aralias. —These include some of the most elegant 
plants that can be found for the purpose. A. Veitchii, 
A. Veitchii gracillima, and A. elegantissima, are 
especially beautiful. A. leptophylla is also a useful 
Pandanus javanicus variejatus. 
species ; and to keep up a supply of plants of a suitable 
size, it is necessary to propagate annually. The three 
first named sorts can only be propagated by grafting, 
and the best stock to use is A. reticulata. This is 
easily propagated from cuttings ; and if the tops are 
saved when the plants are used for grafting, they will 
always give a successive supply of young plants. The 
grafts may be obtained by cutting down any plants 
that have become too leafy. One good plant will give 
a number of grafts ; the stem may be cut up into short 
lengths, say two eyes to each graft, or where it is 
required to make the most of the stock, they may be 
cut up into single eyes. In putting on the grafts they 
should be kept as close to the root of the stock as 
possible. The spring is perhaps the best time for 
grafting, though it may be done at any season of the 
year, provided the stocks are in a good condition. A. 
leptophylla may be propagated from cuttings; or, 
if good established stocks are at hand, plants may be 
obtained in less time by grafting. 
Dracaenas. —This valuable genus includes a great 
variety of useful plants, which are specially adapted 
for table ornamentation. D. terminalis is probably 
the most popular of the coloured-leaved varieties, it is 
of free growth, and generally colours well, the bright 
red leaves being very effective. D. Cooperi: This is 
rather more delicate than the above, but when well 
grown it surpasses it in beauty, the leaves being beau¬ 
tifully recurved gives it a very graceful appearance; 
There are many other beautiful coloured-leaved varieties 
which are very useful for the purpose, but the above 
named still remains the most popular for general use. 
Of the green-leaved sorts D. congesta is a useful species; 
D. rubra is also a popular plant, the sort usually met 
with under this name in market nurseries is somewhat 
different to the normal form. I do not know if it is a 
variety, or whether it is a distinct species, but it is 
certainly a much more useful plant.— A. Hemsley. 
(To be continued.) 
-- 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
Syringing Orchids. —This question may now 
be discussed with advantage, as any errors in dis¬ 
tributing water, in winter especially, never go un¬ 
punished. In my paper read at the Orchid Conference, 
in May last, I said Syringing a house of Orchids 
should never be done, and the syringes should be only 
used for moistening the staging and back walls, or 
doing any other w r ork on which it can be certainly 
employed without harm. "When used on the plants 
the operator cannot tell what he is doing, and in the 
hands of a thoughtless person the syringe is the most 
mischievous instrument ever introduced. There can be 
no rule for its use among Orchids as a means for dis¬ 
tributing water, and certainly no benefit that can be set 
against the loss of young growths and decayed flower- 
spikes which must follow an indiscriminate use of it.” 
Those words were addressed to amateurs whose houses 
are filled with mixed Orchids gathered from various 
parts of the tropics, and as they are rather sweeping in 
their character, I should like to give a few of my 
reasons for making them. 
Very soon after my initiation into the rudiments of 
Orchid culture—now just thirty years ago—I was 
struck by the ofthand manner in which the practice of 
syringing was referred to in writings on Orchids. Such 
directions as “Orchids should now be syringed three 
times a day”; “Aerides, Angriecums, Saccolabiums, 
Phalrenopsis, and all East Indian Orchids require 
syringing in winter,” and similar remarks, caused me to 
observe the working of the instructions, and I soon 
found that a large per centage of the deaths could be 
traced to following them, and that in the case of the 
strong growers which withstood it, the plants were what 
I call grown from the tops with the aid of the roots 
alone, and not from the bottoms and by the medium 
of the roots in the material in which they were potted 
or basketed as they are when the moisture above is 
reasonably restricted, and the roots drawn to seek it 
below, where once established they give a lasting support 
to the plants, not known* to those which are not well 
rooted in the pots. 
Seeing this and many other reasons, I gradually re¬ 
linquished the use of the syringe for any other than 
special work, and with a definite object which could be 
well controlled, and for many years I might be said to 
have discontinued its use (as its use is generally under¬ 
stood) entirely, and also induced many others to 
greatly restrict their operations with the syringe, and 
in every instance with good results. Nevertheless, in 
many places the evil was as bad as ever, and in 1876, 
when writing a series of articles for The Garden, 
respecting which I have many pleasant memories and 
interesting letters, I in no unmeasured terms condemned 
the manner in which the syringe was being used, that 
being, so far as I know, the first time anyone was bold 
enough to call attention to the matter. Coupled with 
the general increase of knowledge of the habits of 
Orchids, the result has been that from then the syringe 
has been more carefully handled, and many followed my 
extreme views on the subject and never used it on the 
plants at alL Now for a few of the counts on which 
the syringe may be arraigned. 
Frist, as I have said before, there is no rule for its use. 
It is alleged that baskets and blocks are benefitted by 
syringing, and for the sake ot argument (I do not admit 
it) let us say they would be at different times, each 
according to its season of growth ; but who, in syringing, 
is to pick out those wanting it, and leave those which 
do not ? Moreover, blocks and baskets are suspended 
in houses having plants in them on the stages below, 
and one needs have some.prospect of great benefit to the 
blocks, &c., to warrant one in subjecting the staged 
