March 26, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
475 
the cultivation of British and half-hardy exotic Ferns 
for outdoor decoration in summer than is the case at 
present. 
Sparrows and Crocuses.— Where sparrows 
abound, especially in the neighbourhood of London, 
they annually prove a great pest to gardeners and the 
keepers of gardens. Besides destroying bush-fruits, 
especially Gooseberries, they attack Crocuses with great 
persistence and determination, destroying the flower- 
buds as they appear above ground. The yellow ones, 
being the earliest, suffer most; but other kinds do not 
escape their ravages. Mr. Wright, of Devonhurst, who 
is greatly plagued with these birds, says the stamens 
seem to be the coveted and dainty morsels sought by 
the marauders. To get at this, of course, the whole 
upper part of the flower is destroyed. The young 
leaves and flower-buds of Polyanthus are also devoured 
or pulled to pieces. 
Adiantum Farleyense. —Plants of this lovely 
Maidenhair Fern will be just commencing to throw up 
their new fronds. This is a good time to pot them, 
and also to make any additions to the stock by dividing 
the crowns. Plants that are intended to be grown on 
into larger specimens will simply require potting into 
good rough material, selecting a few that have the 
greatest number of crowns for division. It is not 
advisable to divide the crowns into too small bits, 
provided a great quantity are not wanted ; but if a 
good plant is split up into three or four pieces, it will 
have a better chance of success than when cut up so 
fine. The safest plan to adopt in this matter is to cut 
the ball of rhizomes through into as many pieces as you 
require to make plants. Insert a good crock between 
each cut, and dribble a bit of sandy leaf-soil into the 
opening made along with the crock ; cut through the 
,erown deep enough to thoroughly sever it, and let the 
plant remain for a fortnight before finally pulling 
the divisions apart. By cutting through in this 
manner it causes new fibres to start away from the 
crowns ; and in pulling the plants to pieces they do 
not feel the effects of the division so much as if they 
had been both cut and pulled to pieces at the same 
time. After potting they must be kept shaded and as 
close as possible for a few weeks, to cause the plants to 
establish themselves. Where quantity is wanted in 
preference to quality, the plants can be cut up much 
finer, pulled to pieces at once, put into pots as small as 
convenient, and placed in a warm case, either in the 
stove or propagating house, where they will soon 
establish themselves. All the varieties of Maidenhair 
Ferns that do not produce themselves from spores 
freely may be similarly treated as soon as they show 
signs of pushing up their new fronds ; but where they 
come freely from spores, it is folly to split up old 
plants, for in all cases the seedlings will make superior 
plants.— W. G. 
Deutzia gracilis. —A number of large plants of 
this useful forcing shrub at Gunnersbury Park, Acton, 
have not been repotted for the last eleven years. Then- 
healthy condition, and the amount of flowers obtained 
from them annually, is surprising considering the great 
length of time they have been in the same pots. They 
are fed with manure-water when coming into bloom, 
and carefully tended afterwards while making their 
new growth—not put in some out-of-the-way corner, as 
is frequently done. 
Lady Downes and Muscat Grapes. —Your 
correspondent, Mr. James B. Biding, p. 456, does not 
consider that Lady Downes and Muscats would be 
“favourable company.’’ After an experience of growing 
them in the same structures, and of course under 
precisely similar conditions, for a period of twenty-five 
years, I consider them most suitable companions. 
There is no Grape with which I am acquainted, except 
Gros Colmar and Black Morocco (the latter said to be 
one of the parents of Lady Downes), which requires a 
longer period to come to perfection than Lady Downes, 
or enjoys a greater amount of heat during the ripening 
period. Treated under such conditions the flavour 
approaches perfection, and the keeping qualities are 
greatly enhanced. We have often kept them as late 
as May in good condition, long after the Muscats, 
under similar treatment and in the same house, had to 
be used. I have exhibited Lady Downes in June in 
very fair condition, after being treated with high 
Muscat temperature, and from the warmest end of a 
Muscat house, from which the latter were supplied 
early in September. Last year some four or five kinds 
of Grapes, which were ripened in a house, three-fourths 
of which were Muscats, kept to the end of April, but 
Lady Downes and Alicantes were by far the best. At 
the present time, March 22 nd, we have Alicantes which 
were ripened along with Muscats ; they were from 
supernumeraries, but are still plump and fresh.— 
Caledonian. 
Packing Grapes. — I would gladly welcome any 
hints or suggestions on this important matter from any 
of your practical readers, who, like myself, have to send 
moderate quantities long distances by rail during the 
season. I have tried many of the usual methods of 
picking, with dried moss, cotton wool, and paper 
shavings, in boxes, and suspended in hampers, hut by 
all of them there is more or less damage to the bloom. 
I suppose there is really no mode of packing yet devised 
by which Grapes can be sent long journeys by rail 
without injuring the bloom. Any help towards so 
desirable a plan would be highly appreciated by a 
Working Head Gardener. 
Maranta Wars ce wiczii. —Year after year, with 
great regularity, about this time of the year, Mr. Hudson, 
Gunnersbury House, Acton, flowers this by no means 
common species. The bronzy and striped character of 
the leaves constitutes this an ornamental-foliaged plant 
of no ordinary value. The leaves themselves have long 
petioles, and are something injthe way of M. Yeitchii, 
but smaller and perfectly distinct. The dense cone¬ 
like inflorescence is conspicuous by the large pure white 
bracts subtending the flowers. The flower stem 
produces two large leaves at no great distance from the 
cone-like head, and from this the plant can be readily 
propagated after it has done flowering. 
Tree Pruning Extraordinary. —The trees in 
the neighbourhood of London are annually subjected 
to a systematic hacking, not to say process of destruc¬ 
tion. This is called pruning, but where the art is “ that 
mends nature ” it would be difficult to say. Such 
trees cannot be long-lived, yet we are so accustomed to 
blame the smoke and fogs of London, that we are apt 
to forget other evils which, if they are of minor 
importance, are the more deplorable because of man’s 
own making. A good illustration of these remarks can 
be witnessed at Turnham Green, by anyone passing 
along the High Road, Chiswick. The trees skirting 
the common have been lopped about in a manner that is 
painful to behold. Instead of being allowed to assume 
anything like a natural form, the so-called pruning 
they have received makes them appear more like 
inverted brooms worn to the stump, as used by the 
crossing sweepers, than trees. There is no lack of 
room, and there is no apparent reason for disfiguring 
the trees as they have been done.— Observer. 
Anemone, King of Scarlets. — A very 
pleasing effect may be produced by these hardy 
flowers when grown in a cool house, as they are by 
Mr. B. Gilbert, Anemone Nurseries, Dyke, Bourne, 
Lincolnshire. A box of flowers sent us, accompanied 
by foliage, showed a most healthy development in both 
cases, and Mr. Gilbert says that from twenty to twenty- 
nine flowers and buds are produced from a single 
rhizome ; the flowers are double and of an intense 
scarlet internally, with a white base ; the stamens are 
short and purple, while the carpels are elongated and 
petaloid, producing the appearance of a tassel or thistle 
head surrounded by a scarlet cup. 
Lilium Harrisii (the Bermuda Lily) land 
its Adaptability. —Though this has been often 
referred to in your columns, too much commendation 
cannot be bestowed upon it. It is perpetual in growth, 
and I am inclined to think almost, if not wholly, hardy. 
I left a dozen in pots in a cold frame, where frost must 
have occasionally entered during the past winter ; but 
not one has been lost, and the majority are now showing 
flower-buds. I have a few of the most forward in my 
sitting-room window, and notwithstanding the dry 
atmosphere, they seem thoroughly at home there for 
the past month. They do best, like all Lilies, by not 
being over-potted, and with the soil not too wet or 
sodden. No other Lily increases so rapidly, and the 
young off-sets will bloom all the sooner by being potted 
on from size to size. None should be without this 
Lily.— W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
Nelumbium Seeds placed in wine-glasses full 
of warm water, and kept close in a propagating case, 
germinated in three days, and formed roots in a 
week.— G. B. 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
Orchids from Moat Lodge.— From Mr. R. 
B. Lemon we have received a box of Orchid blooms 
presenting some of the most striking combinations of 
gorgeous colouring and the wealth of floral beauty to 
be found in one of, if not the most popular natural 
order of plants. They were perfectly fresh, and in a 
capital state of preservation, but no names accompanied 
them, so that we cannot tell whether any varietal 
names were attached to some of the forms sent. 
Amongst Dendrobiums were flowers of D. AYardianum, 
D. crassinode, D. nobile, D. aureum and D. Ains- 
worthii. The colouring in all the above was rich and 
good, constituting them what is termed in popular 
language good forms or varieties of their respective 
species. There was a fine large flower of Phalfenopsis 
amabilis, together with the flowers of the beautiful P. 
Schilleriana and P. Stuartiana. The latter measured 
across the petal only ^ in. short of 2£ ins. Some 
forms of the same species with panicled flower stalks 
we have measured elsewhere were only 1J by If ins. in 
diameter. A flower of the orange-scarlet Laelia harpo- 
phylla with its white-edged lip also accompanied the 
others. A raceme of Coelogyne cristata bearing six 
large handsome flowers appeared identical with C. c. 
maxima, but in the absence of pseudo-bulbs it is diffi¬ 
cult; to determine. Amongst Odontoglossums was a 
large handsome white form of 0. crispum with broad 
sepals and broad imbricate petals. It was pure white 
with the exception of three brown spots on the 
labellum, a yellow basal blotch on the latter, and 
some spots on the column. There were two fine forms 
of 0. Rossii majus, including 0. R. m. rubescens. The 
colouring was superb in both, and the latter had the 
usually white parts suffused with rose, and netted 
with darker rosy veins. 0. hebraicum with bright 
lemon-yellow flowers had the sepals and petals spotted 
or blotched with brown, and two blotches of the same 
colour on the labellum. The sulphur-yellow 0. c. 
flaveolum with three brown blotches on the triangular- 
ovate lip was also very distinct, beautiful and interest¬ 
ing, as showing the wide range of colour in the species. 
Erratic habits of Cymbidium eburneum 
Dayanum. —For several seasons this first-class 
Orchid has flowered most profusely here, and the blooms 
have been of the purest white till this season, when 
they have assumed a drab appearance with purple spots 
dotted over the flowers ; this refers to a fine plant 
which was in an 11-in. pot, with four crowns, but 
which is now divided into as many plants, and each 
placed in 8-in. pots and plunged in bottom heat. This 
year the plant was placed on the north side of the path 
of a span-roofed house, and, consequently, farther from 
the glass, but it could not have had less light or heat. 
A similar change of position given to Dendrobium 
"VVardianum has increased the size of the flowers, and 
the colour is deeper than formerly ; Cattleya Trianae 
are all lighter in colour, while remaining in the 
positions which they formerly occupied.— Caledonian. 
Orchids from Bohemia. —A very interesting 
box of Orchid blooms comes from Mr. B. Faus, Orchid- 
grower to Baron Theo. Hruby, Petschkau near Kolin, 
Bohemia. They were sent us through Messrs. F. Sander 
& Co., and have travelled the distance in admirable 
condition. Baron Hruby is a great enthusiast with 
Orchids, and has a fine collection. Yanda suavis 
Makoyana and V. tricolor pandurata are very hand¬ 
somely spotted, with deeply coloured lips, especially 
the former. Epidendrum aurantiacum has got the 
colour of E. vitellinum majus, but the structure is 
different; Oncidium Hrubyanum is a chocolate-brown 
species, with a curiously-lobed labellum, resembling 
some member of the lobster family ; Odontoglossum 
maculatum superbum is notable on account of the 
spotting of the petals and lip ; while 0. polyxanthum 
has a curiously boat-shaped or shell-formed labellum. 
A good-sized specimen of 0. ramosissimum must be a 
pleasing spectacle, for the flowers, although small, are 
numerous, white and beautifully spotted, In 0. 
Ruckerianum, 0. Andersonianum, 0. Alexandra 
guttatum and 0. A. fastuosum, we have four that vie 
with each other in their markings, spots, blotches and 
beautiful shades of colour. 
Sopbronitis grandiflora. —As an instance of 
the advantages to be gained by careful perusal of the 
articles in the horticultural press, a correspondent states 
that the pretty scarlet Sophronitis grandiflora would 
never succeed with him until he initiated the cool treat¬ 
ment and suspending near the glass recommended in 
our columns. At present it is one of the most beautiful, 
thriving and showy plants he has. 
