538 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 23, 1887. 
from sucli kinds as Gloirc de Dijon and others, are 
always strong, and generally flower from every eye 
along the stem. Teas planted out should also be 
pruned directly-they have flowered, and a free use of 
the knife will cause them to throw strong growths 
from the base. From strong ripe wood a flower from 
two-thirds of the buds—if tied down horizontally, as 
recommended, during their resting season—may be 
expected. 
Hardening Off. —This applies to plants that have 
been treated to artificial heat, and are required to he 
placed in a lower temperature to ripen their growth, 
and give them that rest which is so essential to plant 
life. To accomplish this, Roses in pots are placed 
outside after being gradually inured to a temperature 
almost equal to the external one. There should be a 
place looked out for them about the end of May or 
during the following month, where they will enjoy full 
sun. The pots should be plunged, covering the surface 
of the soil and rims of the pots with 1 in. of ashes or 
some other moisture-holding material. If in a damp 
condition when plunged they will require little, if any, 
attention in the way of watering, as evaporation will 
be arrested to a very large extent. 
Should the weather be unusually dry, a few plants 
can be examined, and if they are likely to suffer a good 
watering should be given. They should never be 
allowed to become dust-dry at the roots. By the end 
of October these plants will need protection, and can 
either be placed thickly together in cool frames, or in 
houses where there is not heat enough to excite growth. 
F orcing. —Much of what is termed inside cultivation 
could have been brought under this heading, as, 
properly speaking, Roses flowered under glass out of 
season are all forced. The season commences in October, 
or as soon as those outside are over, and from then 
until Christmas a supply of bloom can be cut from 
young plants rooted the autumn previous. In 
November the Rose house proper should be started, 
keeping it closed for a week or so, afterwards warming 
the pipes to maintain a temperature of 50° by night, 
with but little alteration till Christmas, when a rise of 
5° may be given every fourteen days until the end of 
January. The temperature at that time should range 
from 58° to 60° by night, with a rise of 10° by day, or 
more, from sun heat. 
To follow these a batch of pot plants should be placed 
in the earliest vinery or forcing house, and, if practic¬ 
able, the pots should be plunged in gentle bottom heat. 
Any house will answer for forcing, provided the 
requisite heat can be maintained, combined with light 
and moisture. At intervals of about three weeks a 
fresh batch of pot plants should be introduced into the 
forcing house. In many gardening establishments 
early pot Roses are much valued for conservatory 
decoration, and may be used with equal advantage for 
the ornamentation of rooms. 
During the forcing season great care should be 
exercised in ventilating, syringing and watering. If 
batches be introduced as advised, a supply of bloom can 
be kept up with ease until May. Gloire de Dijon by 
this date will be ready outside, provided they are 
trained against a wall in a warm and sheltered position, 
and others will follow maintaining the supply until 
October. On all fine days a little ventilation will do 
good, if only for an hour. Cold draughts, however, 
must be strictly avoided. On the morning of fine days 
the plants should be dewed over with the syringe, or, in 
anticipation of a fine day, the paths should be well 
damped down, and the plants given a more liberal 
syringing. The house should be closed again by two 
o’clock, the paths again damped, and the plants dewed 
over. Damp the house according to the weather. On 
dull days but little water should be used. This refers 
to early forcing, say to the second week in February. 
About this time the plants begin to look green, and the 
sun increases in power, when the syringe should be 
used twice a day to keep down aphides and encourage 
healthy growth. As the season advances syringing and 
ventilation will need attending to earlier in the day, 
and left on until later in the afternoon. Should there 
be a too great influx of bloom the house can be kept 
cooler without injury, which will improve the blooms 
both in colour and substance. 
By the end of May the Rose house will have finished 
its work in the way of bloom, and also made much 
growth for another year’s supply. The side sashes 
may be left 1 in. open by night, and abundance of air 
allowed during the day. By the end of June a 
thorough system of ripening and hardening the growth 
should be induced. The plants will continue growing 
for seven or eight weeks, and all the ventilation 
possible should be given, leaving the house open day 
and night until necessary to start it again, frost only 
being excluded. The syringe should be kept in use 
until the leaves begin to fall rapidly. Whilst the 
plants are at rest the house should be thoroughly 
cleaned, and, when convenient, painted, which will 
add much to the welfare of the plants. 
Varieties. —A few of the most useful hybrid per- 
petuals are A. K. Williams, Mareehal Vaillant, Beauty 
of Waltham, Captain Christy, Due de Rohan, Edouard 
Morren, General Jacqueminot, Hippolyte Jamain, 
John Hopper, Jules Margottin, La France, Madame 
Lacharme, Merveille de Lyon, Mrs. Jowitt, Louis van 
Houtte, and Marie Baumann. Tea-scented :—Alba 
rosea, Anna Olivier, La Boule d’Or, Catherine Mermet, 
Comtesse de Nadillac, Mareehal Kiel, L’Etoile d’Or, 
Isabella Sprunt, Madame Willermoz, Reiue Marie 
Henriette, Souvenir d’un Ami, Safrano, Innocente 
Pirola, Gloire de Dijon, Devoniensis, Souvenir d’Elise, 
Niphetos, and Madame Falcot. 
A most useful bloomer is a white cluster Rose, 
called “The Pet,” which blooms well during the dull 
season, and yields as many as fifty to sixty blooms on 
a growth, which, although small, are useful. 
A good number of Mareehal Niel and Gloire de 
Dijon should be grown in pots, these being two most 
useful varieties. They should be encouraged to grow 
quickly by being kept in brisk heat until they receive 
their final potting in July, and from the moment they 
are struck the growing point must be kept straight— 
in other words, they should be treated like young 
Vines, and never allowed to run to side growth. 
Directions as to sjuinging, watering and potting 
recommended for Roses in general apply equally to 
these. As soon as the roots begin to make headway 
into the new compost after their final shift into 9-in. 
pots, they should be gradually hardened off, and sub¬ 
sequently placed against a south wall (outside) to 
ripen their growths, which will be from 13 ft. to 18 ft. 
long. 
They should be housed about the end of October, 
before there is danger of severe frost; and before doing 
so it is well to determine how they are to be trained, 
whether under the roof of a house or round four or 
five stakes placed near the edge of each pot. The 
latter plan is preferable, as they can be conveniently 
handled for any decorative purpose. 
Before being staked, however, all the pruning these 
plants need should be done. This consists of cutting 
2 ft. or 3 ft. of green unripened wood from the end of 
each. Bending them round stakes causes almost every 
bud to break, and from two to four dozen blooms may 
reasonably be expected from a plant well grown. Most 
Rose growers are aware of the difficulty in getting 
Mareehal Niel to survive many years on account of 
canker ; certainly, its blooming qualities are good, and 
for beauty it cannot be surpassed. 
Insects. —No sooner does the bud burst into growth 
than there is a small green maggot or caterpillar ready 
to devour it. This insect seals the leaves together by 
a glutinous web, in the midst of which it lies con¬ 
cealed, and feeds on the young foliage and flower-buds 
in their early stages of development. A pinch with 
the finger and thumb is the best method of destroying 
this troublesome pest. For green fly or thrip fumi¬ 
gation is a good remedy, or syringing the foliage two 
or three successive evenings with a solution of J oz. of 
soft soap and 1 oz. of Gishurst Compound to a gallon of 
water. With a handful of sulphur added, this mixture 
will destroy mildew or red spider ; but the best of all 
insecticides is to keep the plants growing and healthy 
by a free use of the syringe. 
Although I have detailed the culture of Roses prin¬ 
cipally in a house expressly devoted to them, it must 
not be assumed that they cannot be grown in other 
structures. Any house will suit where light and air 
can be freely admitted to them, and the amateur or 
cottager possessing a small greenhouse of the rudest 
construction may manage successfully a plant or plants 
of the ever welcome queen of flowers. 
-- 
ZEA MAYS. 
Zea Mays is generally believed now to be a native of 
some part of tropical America, probably New Granada; 
but, like other things of pre-historic cultivation, a haze 
of doubt hangs around its origin, and no botanist has 
been able to detect it with certainty in a wild state. 
This bespeaks a more or less ancient cultivation ; and 
the fact of its aboriginal home being unknown, also 
speaks of the protection it receives at the hand of man, 
and its present extensive distribution. Notwith¬ 
standing the fact that it was unknown in Europe before 
the discovery of America, many errors of nomenclature 
have arisen owing to its primitive source being unknown 
to early writers. The English names Turkish Wheat 
and Indian Corn as applied to Maize are as misleading 
as to its origin as the so-called Jerusalem Artichoke, 
which is a native of, or originated in North America. 
Since its introduction to the Old World many other erro¬ 
neous names have been given to it in as many different 
countries. Maize was introduced to Seville in Spain 
as early as 1500, and at a very early date into China ; 
but nothing proves that it was cultivated or known 
there previous to the discovery of America. Nor has 
it been found in the tombs of Egypt, which such an 
important article of food would have been if it had 
been an Old World plant. On the other hand, it was 
a staple product of agriculture from the La Plata valley 
to the United States when that continent was first 
discovered, and the tombs of Peru and Mexico con¬ 
tained ears or grains of that grass as the tombs 
of Egypt contained the Old World cereals. It was 
also closely identified with the religious rites of the 
aboriginal natives. Another proof of its antiquity in 
America is the number of cultivated varieties into 
which it has sported. Maize is monotypic genus and 
unique plant in its family, and was, probably, on the 
eve of becoming extinct before cultivation took it iu 
hand. Archreology is supposed to be the only means 
of unravelling the early history of Zea Mays now, as 
botanists scarcely hope to find it in a wild state. 
->S<- 
Stephanotis fioribunda. —I was much in¬ 
terested in “ W. G.’s” remarks on this plant in your 
issue of March 26th, p. 473, and I think his cultural 
directions excellent, but I must beg to differ from him 
when he writes that “people who assert that Stephanotis 
can be grown in a cool house are entirel\ T misleading 
the public,” as I have grown and flowered mine for 
several years in a house, the temperature of which is 
certainly cool, in fact, under 45° on many a cold night 
(I do not know if I might not say under 40° some¬ 
times). My plant is in a large pot just beneath the stage, 
through which it is brought and trained to some wires 
near the glass. Had your correspondent seen the plant 
last July and August, I do not think he would have 
written what I have quoted above. The plant was a 
mass of bloom, and some few sprays on the young wood 
were even in bloom in the beginning of October. Of 
course I do not mean for one moment to assert that the 
plant grows better in a cool than in a warm house, but 
that it can be grown and flowered well in a cool house 
is certain.— D. H. 
The New Double Victoria Violet. —This 
fine double purple "Violet, which was shown at the last 
meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, by Mr. 
Chambers, "Westlake Nursery, Islewortli, proves to be 
a chance seedling, and serves as another illustration of 
chance providing something good once more. This 
Violet, among other seedlings, came up near beds in 
which the single Tzar and the double Neapolitan were 
growing ; the seedlings were taken care of, but only 
one proved to be double—that named above, and that 
a flower of the highest quality. On examination it 
appears to possess a good deal of the character of the 
Neapolitan, and has its fine-flowering propensities also, 
but in a much larger measure ; the flowers are large, 
handsome, of a bright purple colour, and it is in all 
respects an excellent variety for pot culture. I think 
it will take the place of other double dark Violets.— 
R. D. 
Lamb's Lettuce. —How seldom it occurs to the 
minds of gardeners to utilise our native plants for the 
purpose of food ! The whole Brassica tribe may be 
claimed as British, seeing that they have originated from 
the wild Cabbage ; but it must be remembered that 
Brassica oleracea is a maritime plant, ill calculated to 
withstand the severity of our inland winters, and its 
constitution has also been altered in the garden forms, 
such as Cauliflowers, Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts. 
Lamb’s Lettuce, Valerianella olitoria, has been utilised 
as a salad for many years, but at the present day seems 
