June 12, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
651 
This sometimes rather shortens the time during which 
they continue attractive ; but in favourable seasons 
this disadvantage is avoided. It is surprising how 
rapidly the Wistaria increases. Its branches extend to 
a great length in one season’s growth, if the plant be 
thriving well, and it is not uncommon to see specimens 
with stems exceeding 100 ft. in length. Young plants 
can be purchased so cheaply that it is scarcely worth the 
trouble of propagating ; but anyone who wishes to try 
the experiment can easily do so by layering the young 
branches, covering the whole of the stems except the 
growths at the nodes, and roots are then freely formed. 
A relative of this, named W. frutescens, is rarely seen. 
It is a much smaller grower than W. sinensis, and has 
it flowers tinged with blue. W. consequana and Glycine 
chinensis are only synonyms of W. sinensis.— G. 
Strawberry, Grove End Scarlet. —This old 
variety is seldom seen in cultivation now, but though 
it is only of second class quality, it is an excellent pre¬ 
serving variety, and being very productive is well suited 
for small gardens. It will also succeed in soils in which 
some of the higher class kinds fail to give constant 
satisfaction. It is a very old sort, and in some places 
is the only one used for jam making.— J. 11. 
Cuckoo Spittle. —This so-called insect deposit is 
thus named evidently because it prevails during the 
Cuckoo season. It is very prevalent this year, and it 
may be taken for granted that the drought of last year 
very materially helped the production of the fly which 
generates these spittle insects. Entomologieally, the 
name of the insect is Tettigoria spumaria. Eggs are 
probably deposited by the tiny flies early in the year, 
and in the junctions of leaves which spring from the 
stems. When the egg is hatched, the larvse, or hopper, 
as some prefer to call it—for it is a perfectly-formed 
insect with a beetle-shaped body, and endowed with six 
tiny legs—is said to perforate the stem of the plant or 
bush upon which it is hatched, and extracting the sap, 
forms the frothy envelope in which we see it so abun¬ 
dantly now. That such is the case I cannot doubt, 
as having gathered a Mule Pink-stem upon which was 
an insect, I cleansed it from the spittle, and could then 
discern, close to the base of the sheath or leaf projecting 
from the stem where the insect was, a tiny perforation, 
just as if made by the point of a fine needle ; that 
was, in my estimation, proof positive. Still, others, 
and “Puzzled” included, may examine for themselves. 
During the month of August the insects are found in 
pairs on the plants they frequent, and being then fully 
grown, are also found to be endowed with long back 
legs, by which they are enabled to leap freely ; hence 
the appellation “hoppers.” Without doubt, the best 
method of dealing with the pest is to gather or wash 
the spittle and insect from off the plants as far as pos¬ 
sible. It seems odd, however, that our soft-billed birds 
do not do this work for us ; but they are not quite so 
grateful or useful in good work as they might be. — A. D. 
Late Broccolis. —I am indebted to Mr. R. Gilbert 
of Burghley Gardens, for a good intention, and to some 
one else for the failure of its realisations. Mr. Gilbert 
has kindly sent me to cook and taste a head of his 
late Victoria Broccoli. The kind seems to have been 
of such delicious quality, that even uncooked it excited 
the palate of some person through whose hand it 
should have passed, and thus found its way into other 
pots than mine. The loss is great, because there are, of 
course, no other such delicious late Broccolis as the 
Victoria, and no gardens in which these valuable 
members of the Brassica family can be produced in 
such perfection as Burghley. There are not a few of 
these late Broccolis in existence, more or less good, and 
nearly all seem to have grown out of that fine old late 
kind, Cattell’s Eclipse. It would have been a matter 
of exceeding interest could we have traced in any way 
the origin of that old variety, and possibly with some 
knowledge of the parentage of Late Queen, Model, 
Victoria, and others, have evolved a very pretty 
pedigree. It is obvious, however, that we have a long 
Broccoli season now, for if we start with the Autumn 
Giant, really a tender Broccoli, we have about eight 
months of the year open to a Broccoli supply, and 
Cauliflowers can easily make good the summer inter¬ 
regnum. But this eight months s upply, it must be 
admitted, reads better upon paper than it looks in the 
garden. Many a gardener would gladly give almost 
anything to have a Broccoli that did really take up 
the season as soon as Autumn Giant and protecting 
kinds are past, but if he trusts to Snow’s Winter White, 
too often he finds that it is unreliable, is either untrue, 
or fails him at the most trying part of the garden year. 
As we have Broccolis enough and to spare through the 
usual season, and even of later ones, cannot some 
enterprising raiser, such as Mr. Gilbert, endeavour to 
provide us with one or two good hardy kinds, which 
shall fill up the void too commonly found between 
Christmas and the end of February? All late Broccolis 
are long on the ground, hence it is only in gardens 
where there is ample space that gardeners can afford to 
grow them. It is a long season from March to the end 
of May or beginning of June. Cannot some one also 
give us a kind that may be sown at midsummer, 
and need only to be planted out in August ? The heads 
may be small, perhaps, but thicker planting can correct 
that defect.— A. D. 
Old Asparagus Beds. —It may not be a matter 
of common knowledge amongst the majority of your 
readers, that this estimable vegetable will continue in 
a good bearing condition for a great many years ; much 
longer, in fact, than is generally supposed. In going 
through the gardens at Norton House, Warminster, 
some few days ago, I was struck with the quantity of 
Asparagus fit to be cut on three long beds, each 4 ft. 
wide, and on inquiring as to their age—at the same time 
thinking in my own mind that they had not been 
planted very long—was surprised to hear that they were 
forty years old, and this I was assured was no haphazard 
statement, but a positive fact. The crop was certainly 
a good one, and led to further inquiries as to treatment 
which briefly stated is as follows :—The beds receive an 
annual dressing in the autumn of half rotten manure, 
and an occasional top-dressing in the spring of salt, the 
plants are allowed to shed their seed on the beds, and 
no trouble is ever taken, so I am told, about pulling 
up or thinning out the young plants. Assuming such 
to be the case, it goes without saying, that the original 
plants with which the bed was planted, must have long 
since been turned into manure for successive generations 
of plants. Truly then, this, we may say with Spencer, 
is a case of the “survival of the fittest,” and of the 
weakest going to the wall.— J. H. 
Bossisea linophylla. —A distinct and beautiful 
member of the pod-bearing family is Bossitea linophylla, 
a native of Western Australia, which yields us many 
interesting plants, including some others of the same 
genus. In a small state these are pretty, but when of 
good age and size, say from 8 ft. to 10 ft. high, well 
clothed with growth andflowers they are extremely hand¬ 
some. A specimen of this kind can be seen in the tem¬ 
perate house at Kew, which has for some time, in my 
opinion, been one of the chief ornaments of that structure. 
The plant is over 9 ft. high and 5 ft. in diameter, with 
slender drooping branches and linear dark green leaves 
1^ in. long. The flowers are produced freely in the axils 
of these, thus clothing the branches for the greater part 
of their length ; the colour is a bright yellow with a 
blotch of bright red at the base of the standard and 
wings, and though the flowers are small individually, 
they have a good appearance owing to their numbers 
and brightness. — Visitor. 
Camellia japonica, var. Red Waratah.— 
In the same house as the above is a grand example of 
this old Camellia, which is 12 ft. high and nearly 20 ft. 
in diameter ; it has been flowering superbly this season, 
the huge bush being covered with its bright red double 
flowers. These are somewhat curious in possessing 
large outer guard petals and a number of very small ones 
clustered in the centre. Being of strong free growth 
it appears to be suited for large conservatories. — Visitor. 
The Common Radish. —Of the vegetables culti¬ 
vated for salads, few are so generally grown as the Radish, 
and none are more wholesome, for it shares largely in 
the special properties of the Cabbage family to which 
it belongs. It has now been grown in this country 
for a great length of time, being described by the old 
herbalists to whom also the long and the round varieties 
were known. As to the origin of these two forms, or 
indeed, respecting the origin of the garden Radish 
generally, the evidence is scanty and by no means 
conclusive. Botanical writers tell us that it is from 
Raphanus sativus, but so long 'lias it been cultivated 
in European and Asiatic gardens, that it is scarcely to 
be found in a wild state, and then in many cases it is 
probably an escape from cultivation. ¥e have in our 
own country an undoubtedly wild species, Raphanus 
raphanistrum and some experiments have been under¬ 
taken at various times to prove that the garden Radish 
is merely a cultivated form of this. Those of M. 
Carriere, of Paris, showed very clearly what changes 
can be effected in a short time, for by growing R. 
raphanistrum from seeds in various soils he succeeded 
in obtaining fleshy roots possessing the same pungent 
taste as the ordinary forms. There is also a slight 
difference in the capsules of the two supposed species, 
but it has been observed that in many instances where 
the garden Radish has reproduced itself from self-sown 
seed these peculiarities have been lost to some extent, 
and the capsules approached those of R. sativus. These 
matters are interesting as indicating the changes effected 
by culture, and how difficult it is to determine the 
precise origin of plants that have been in gardens for a 
considerable time.— K. 
-- 
FLOR ICULT URE. 
The Royal National Tulip Society. —The Tulip 
has been to the fore at Manchester during the past 
week, for the annual exhibition of the above society 
took place in the Botanical Gardens, at Old Trafford, 
on Saturday, the 5th inst., and notwithstanding that 
the season has been a trying one, there were a great 
many more flowers than we had expected to see. A 
few were large, the majority small, not having reached 
their full size. At Carnforth, in North Yorkshire, the 
Rev. F. D. Horner is much earlier in getting into 
bloom than Mr. Samuel Barlow, at Stake Hill, who 
was able to show a few flowers only, and had to be 
content with small ones. His beds are unusually late, 
and will scarcely be more than at their best a week 
hence. The few cool days previous to the show had 
retarded the flowers considerably ; still, taking into 
consideration the disadvantages of the season, the show, 
was, on the ivliole, satisfactory, and the number of 
exhibitors unusually large. 
As is usual, a line of tables was placed along the 
centre of the large show-house, and there the flowers 
were arranged. Judging is alwa} T s a somewhat slow 
process, and judging Tulips especially is a serious 
business in the estimation of the northern florists that 
are selected for the purpose. The flowers are carefully 
scanned, their defects as well as their good qualities 
considered, and if mistakes occur, they do not arise for 
want of due consideration on the part of the censors. 
The Rev. F. D. Horner, Lowfells, Carnforth, was in 
excellent form, showing flowers of large size, and, with 
but few exceptions, in excellent character. There were 
eight stands of twelve blooms, two feathered and two 
flamed in each class, and Mr. Horner’s premier dozen 
consisted of—bizarres, feathered, Commander and Dr. 
Dalton ; bizarres, flamed, Sir J. Paxton and Orion ; 
roses, feathered, Nancy Gibson and Annie McGregor ; 
roses, flamed, Annie McGregor and Mabel; bybloemens, 
feathered, Mr. Cooper and Talisman ; bybloemens, 
flamed, Talisman and Duchess of Sutherland. Second, 
Mr. James Thurstan, Merriedale, 'Wolverhampton, 
with bizarres, feathered, Asclepius and Sulphur; 
bizarres, flamed, Dr. Hardy and Sir Joseph Paxton; 
roses, feathered, Mrs. Thurstan, and Modesty ; roses, 
flamed, Mabel and Lady C. Gordon; bybloemens, 
feathered, seedling 39/3 and Adonis ; bybloemens, 
flamed, Talisman and Constance. Mr. D. Woolley, 
Millgate, Stockport, was third ; Mr. W. Kitchen, 
Marple, fourth ; and Mr. John Wood, Royton, near 
Oldham, fifth. There were eight stands of six 
varieties, one feathered and one flamed in each class, 
and here Mr. Horner was again to the fore with 
bizarre, feathered, Masterpiece; bizarre, flamed, 
Orion; rose, feathered, Modesty; rose, flamed, 
Mabel; byblcemen, feathered, Mrs. Cooper; by- 
blcemen, flamed, Duchess of Sutherland. Mr. D. 
Wooley was second, with bizarre, feathered, Sir J. 
Paxton ; bizarre, flamed, the same; rose, feathered, 
Julia Farnese, with a very heavy feather, and Mabel ; 
byblcemen, feathered, seedling; byblcemen flamed, 
Adonis. Third, Mr. J. Thurstan ; fourth, Mr. J. 
Wood ; fifth, Mr. W. Kitchen. There was a similar 
class for half-guinea subscribers, and seven stands 
competed. Mr. H. Housley, Stockport, was first, with 
bizarre, feathered, Royal Sovereign ; bizarre, flamed, 
Sir J. Paxton ; rose, feathered, Leah ; rose, flamed, 
Triomphe Royale ; byblcemen, feathered, Violet Ami¬ 
able ; byblcemen, flamed, Lord Denman. Second, Mr. 
R. Wolfenden, Royton, near Oldham, with bizarre, 
feathered, Masterpiece ; bizarre, flamed, Excelsior; 
rose, feathered, Heroine ; rose, flamed, Mabel; byblce¬ 
men, feathered, Violet Amiable ; byblcemen, flamed, 
Lord Denman. Third, Mr. A. Fearnley, and fourth, 
Mr. A. Prescott, both of Lowton, near Leigh. 
