April 16, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
517 
SHOW, FRENCH AND FANCY 
PELARGONIUMS. 
(Concluded from p. 504). 
Good plants can be made tliat will give plenty of 
flowers from both Show, French and Fancy varieties. 
After the plants have almost finished their blooming 
period, water should be gradually withheld, but never 
allow the plant to suffer from the want of it. Do not 
allow the leaves to droop, or it will cause the wood to 
shrivel. The latter should just get nice and brown, 
when the plants may be cut down, and all the bottom 
part of the shoots can be cut up into lengths with two 
or three eyes to each, the flowering part at the top being 
of no use whatever. These cuttings may be inserted in 
sandy loam and leaf-soil, and will soon root if they are 
kept in the house where the plants have been growing; 
but they will root sooner if the plants could be put in 
a closer place, either a close cool propagating house, or 
on a shelf in an intermediate house. As soon as rooted 
the plants must be potted off into sixty-sized pots, and 
kept at an intermediate temperature till the roots show 
at the sides of the ; pots, when they should be gradually 
inured to as much air as possible. These cuttings 
should be got in not later than the end of July, and 
should be well-established in the sixty pots by the first 
or second week in September. The strongest should be 
potted into 5-in. pots by the end of September, and 
placed at once into their winter quarters—the same 
kind of position as recommended for the larger plants. 
The weaker ones can remain in the sixty-sized pot till 
the following February or March, when they must be 
potted into a larger size. 
They will soon make roots in the new soil, and 
become well established before winter sets in. Air 
must be given in abundance, and a little warmth in 
the pipes if the house is devoted wholly to these plants. 
After they have passed the winter safely, if the plants 
are w 7 anted to be made into larger specimens, they 
must be potted on into larger pots. In the case of 
those with only limited means to grow this class of 
plants, I should advise them always to grow young 
ones rooted early in the season, and not to trouble 
to keep older ones, for the young plants wfill always 
have the most vigour, and better repay the time spent 
in their culture. 
As regards the soil in which to pot Pelargoniums, 
we always use three parts of good friable loam, one part 
rotten manure, with a good sprinkling of sand. Into 
this mixture we add about a pound of Thomson s ine 
Manure for every four bushels of the soil, and mix 
them well together. This Vine manure should only be 
used when the plants are going to be put into their 
flowering pots. Always pot firm, and be careful the 
plants do not suffer for want of w T ater, or they will 
soon lose their bottom leaves, and this will cause them 
to appear leggy. 
Fancy varieties should have the warmest part of the 
house, and are rather more susceptible of over-watering 
than the other varieties ; and in potting, rather more 
sand should be used with a little less manure. As the 
plants of all the classes begin to show their trusses of 
flowers, they will be benefited by an occasional light 
syringing in the morning, more especially when the 
day is likely to be a fine one. 
In finishing up these few remarks on Pelargoniums, 
the person who intends to grow them well must take 
into consideration the locality in which he may be 
situated. Allowance must be made for the gardener 
living in the north. The latter will be obliged to 
keep his plants more under glass than the grower 
situated in the midlands or the south of England ; but 
let the grower be situated in what part he may, he 
must bear in mind the principal conditions to be 
observed in the successful cultivation of Pelargoniums. 
These are a south aspect, with abundance of venti¬ 
lation iu the house, and plants well established in 
their pots before the advent of winter. If not well 
established before this dreary period they will never 
make strong plants productive of much good. 
Should green fly appear at any time fumigate the 
house at once, for it soon spoils the foliage. This pest 
will generally make its appearance when the plants are 
sending up their trusses of bloom ; and at this time 
they should have two or three good fumigatings to 
thoroughly cleanse the plants before they come into 
flower, for as soon as they get into bloom no fumi¬ 
gation can be done without causing most of the petals 
to drop. 'When in flower they should have a slight 
shade to protect them from the fierce rays of the sun ; 
but as soon as the plants show signs of having almost 
finished blooming remove the shading, and expose them 
to all the light possible, to ripen the wood and fit it 
for flowering next season.— W. G. 
-- 
THE “ GUNNERSBURY ” BOILER. 
Few subjects have been more fully discussed in the 
gardening papers during the past few years than the 
heating of horticultural buildings. Boilers of various 
shapes and form have been placed before the gardening 
world, and each has generally received high praise for 
economy of fuel and power of heating any number of 
feet of 4-in. piping. Many of these boilers, owing to 
their complication or other easily-detected defects, 
have had but a short-lived existence. A boiler that 
has stood the test of time and still finds favour with 
many good judges is the plain saddle, and the many 
forms of it, such as the Terminal-end Saddle, the 
Witley Court, and the Gold Medal. 
The latter forms are now more frequently used for 
heating long ranges of glass than any other, and it 
would be interesting if we could get statistics giving 
the average existence of the various forms of saddle 
boilers. My own experience with these boilers—where 
Saddle axd Flue Boiler, with Rouxded 
"Waterway Bottom. 
there is no option but to charge them with hard 
wa ter—is that their duration in sound condition 
seldom exceeds ten years. Many cases have come 
under my notice where they have not lasted six years. 
The weak point of all forms of the saddle is the foot, 
where the sediment rapidly accumulates; and though 
taps may be, and are generally, placed in this part of 
the boiler to run off the sediment, they seldom accom¬ 
plish it satisfactorily. 
After repeated failures with the Terminal-end Saddle 
and Gold Medal boilers, we were led to adopt a boiler, 
of which the accompanying engraving is a correct 
representation. It combines all the good qualities of 
the Terminal-end Saddle and the Witley Court without 
their defects, and surpasses both in heating power and 
long-lasting qualities. We have had three of them in 
constant use here several years, and we are more than 
satisfied with them, and confidently predict that they 
will not require replacing for at least twenty years. 
By adopting the water-way bottom we get rid of the 
sediment from the point where the greatest pressure is 
put upon a boiler, and it naturally passes to the lowest 
point, where there is least danger to the boiler from 
intense heat. This boiler should be set with a slight 
incline from back to front, and a plate should be put 
on at the lowest point, large enough to introduce a 
small hoe, by which means all refuse can be easily 
removed. 
The expense of fixing new boilers is always a serious 
item where economy should be the first thought of 
every good garden-manager ; and though this boiler is 
a trifle more expensive in first cost, we are satisfied it 
is the cheapest in the end. There are few occurrences 
in the practice of gardening more calculated to give a 
man the shivers than the sudden cracking of a boiler 
at a critical time (and they generally go at such-times), 
thereby endangering crops that have had months of 
thought and labour expended on them. It is with a 
view of lessening some of the anxieties of the forcing 
season that we have ventured to bring this boiler to 
the notice of your many practical readers.— J. Roberts, 
Gunner slury. 
-—- 
THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 
So late as March 25th, the schedule of prizes and 
arrangements for this jubilee year (1887) was Issued 
to the Fellows. It consists of thirty-nine pages, but 
what are they filled with! Certainly, in this year, it 
was expected that the council would provide at least one 
really good show 7 , but so far as I read it the council does 
not offer one single prize or make the slightest attempt 
to induce exhibitors to send their plants or flowers to 
South Kensington. If I am correct in this, how can 
the council expect the Fellows to continue their sub¬ 
scriptions, or the public or exhibitors to take any 
interest in the meetings of the society ? 
The schedule consists of prizes presented by Mr. 
Hartland for White Daffodils, the Auricula and 
Primula Society’s Show, the National Rose Society s 
Show, the Carnation and Picotee Society’s Show, prizes 
presented by the Veitch Memorial Trustees for Cypri- 
pediums, Mr. Roupell’s prizes for Hollyhocks, and 
prizes presented by Messrs. Sutton, Carter, W ebb, 
Fidler, Deverill and Wood for Cucumbers, Melons, 
Peas, Cauliflowers, Kidney Beans, Onions and Po- 
tatos, &c. 
Can the status of the Royal Horticultural Society 
descend to a much lower ebb ?—when the council have 
to depend upon the prizes offered by these three special 
societies to form the shows for their Fellows in return 
for their subscriptions—prizes that have been con¬ 
tributed by the members of these societies rather than 
their favourite flowers should not be exhibited. Is it 
not right to say, after this and the statement of affairs 
made at the last annual meeting, that it is quite time 
the Royal Horticultural Society should be reconstituted; 
that the society should have a home of its own, 
free from control from any save its own Fellows ; that 
a list of the Fellows should be annually printed , that 
the council should be nominated and elected by the 
Fellows ; that the fruit and floral committees should 
be nominated and elected by the Fellows ; that a 
settled plan of election ancl retirement of both council 
and committees should be made, say one-third of each 
should retire annuallj 7 ; that the fruit and floral com¬ 
mittees should choose their own chairman and vice- 
chairman (not have permanent chairmen, as at present); 
that the members of committees should be Fellows ; 
and that the awards of the committees should have the 
votes for and against published, so that the certificates 
could be estimated at their proper value by the public. 
These remarks are prompted in the hope that 
Fellows and lovers of horticulture will aid by their 
suggestions, and help to raise the society to w hat it 
should be, not only in name but in position—the Royal 
Horticultural Society.— H. Little. 
-—>X<~- 
Davallia caxariexsis. —When thoroughly ma¬ 
tured, the large finely-divided fronds of this green¬ 
house Fern are very endurable in the dry atmosphere 
of rooms, constituting another valuable quality in a 
Fern _ a n old inhabitant of our greenhouses and 
ferneries, and one that has seen much service in almost 
every garden. Mr. Addison, gardener at Merton 
Lodo-e, Chisw 7 ick, grows a number of specimens for the 
above purpose, and attributes only one fault to them, 
namely, the size of the rhizomes. These are of great 
thickness, densely covered with brown scales, giving 
rise to the popular name of Hare’s-foot Fern, ^ and 
proi’ect over and down the sides of the pot, rendering it 
difficult to accommodate the latter in the ornamental 
pots considered necessary in house decoration. _ These 
rhizomes are, moreover, sufficiently interesting in them¬ 
selves to claim attention at the hands of plant lovers. 
