166 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
November 12, 1887. 
drainage is in good order. Soft rain-water is always to 
be preferred to tap-water where obtainable. 
Ventilation. 
The importance of proper ventilation is but too 
frequently overlooked when plants are grown inside the 
window, either uncovered or in window cases, whether 
indoors or out. A free circulation of air in the case of 
most plants, is secondary only in importance to a free 
admission of sunlight. When simply stood in the 
window, the sashes during the day should be open top 
and bottom, the wider the better—in summer, at least. 
The room-door in all cases should be closed, so as to 
prevent anything like a draught, which is highly 
detrimental to plant life. A concentration of the evil 
is produced when the window is but partly opened 
while the door of the room is at the same time kept 
open. Where Wardian or other cases, bell-glasses, 
&c., are used, ventilation in the earlier parts of the day 
would secure a change of atmosphere, draw cff and 
sweeten its saturated and stagnant condition, and prove 
highly beneficial to the health and vigour of the 
subjects grown in such confined areas. 
Winter Treatment. 
During the inactive period of vegetation, less atten¬ 
tion will be required than in summer, for various 
reasons, and the duties of the cultivator will then be 
of a more special kind, requiring equal, if not greater 
skill to preserve his favourites than during the warmer 
period of the year, when damp and frost are out of the 
question. A frequent mistake is to consign Fuchsias, 
Pelargoniums, and such-like things, as one would bulbs, 
to a cellar or other dark place so as to be out of the 
reach of frost ; this is not only unnecessary but in¬ 
jurious, as a certain amount of growth is made by all 
evergreen subjects during winter, and light is necessary 
for its production. Bearing in mind the all-important 
subject of light, plants should be kept quite as near 
the glass in winter as in summer, and ventilation given 
in mild weather. In severe weather, or when there is 
a likely occurrence of hard frost, remove the plants 
from the window- and stand them where it is least 
likely to reach them. If they should, by mishap, get 
frozen, remove them to a cool place and plunge the 
tops in cold water, so that they may gradually be 
thawed without the use of either natural or artificial 
heat, as that would immediately prove disastrous by 
the rupture of the cellular tissue of the leaves. 
Fog constitutes another enemy to plant life, as 
London inhabitants well know ; and when such occur 
the windows should be kept closed to prevent its 
ingress. Watering at this period requires more skilful 
and practical attention, both on account of the com¬ 
parative inactivity of the roots and growth in general. 
It must be given, however, in the case of indoor plants, 
and as effectively as in summer when done at all, so as 
to ensure an even condition of moisture. Except in 
the case of moisture-loving subjects, such as Ferns and 
other evergreen plants, the watering-pot will less fre¬ 
quently be called into requisition but never altogether 
discarded, except in the case of plants outside. 
Cleanliness imperative. 
Cultivators in general know how difficult it is to 
guard against insect pests that prey upon their plants 
everywhere, whether indoors or in the open air, when 
the conditions are suitable to enable them to carry on 
their depredations. To guard against these the greatest 
care should be exercised in maintaining a general 
cleanliness and suitable conditions to keep the plants 
under their care in a healthy vigorous condition, and 
ward off the insidious enemy. Improper ventilation 
and a dry condition of the atmosphere, or a crowded 
state of the plants themselves often engender and 
foster the increase of aphis, green-fly, red-spider, or 
thrips, according to the subject grown. The aphis is 
most prevalent, and must be destroyed or the plants 
will be ruined. Fumigation is the most effectual 
remedy, and this must be done when the foliage is in a 
dry condition, by enclosing the plants affected in a 
close case or vessel of some kind, and filling the latter 
with Tobacco smoke. 
The same may be done when plants are infested with 
thrips ; but those suffering from red-spider may have 
their tops immersed for a time in a bucket of water, so 
that every part of the foliage may be covered. Moisture 
is detrimental to and destroys this pest in a short time. 
Evergreen plants, with foliage of a leathery texture, 
should occasionally be sponged with clean water, or, 
better, with a mixture of soft-soap or Gishurst Com¬ 
pound, which will have the effect not only of destroying 
insects, but by keeping the leaves clean, will promote 
a healthy and free respiration and transpiration—at all 
times a most important factor in the well-being of 
plant life. Laying the plants on their sides and 
syringing heavily, or drenching overhead with the rose 
of a watering-pot occasionally, will greatly assist in 
keeping soft or small-leaved subjects clean. 
( To be continued. ) 
-- 
NOTES ON BOUVARDIAS. 
A beautiful and representative collection, in the 
shape of trusses of bloom, was exhibited by Messrs. J. 
Yeitch & Sons, Chelsea, at Kensington on Tuesday 
last. They afforded an opportunity both of making a 
collection or a selection of the best varieties to be grown 
for general and decorative purposes. The double 
varieties were represented by Alfred Neuner, white, and 
President Garfield, pink, both extremely useful for cut 
flowers, lasting a long time in perfection. 
For affording a great quantity of cut bloom, and 
consequently testifying to their usefulness for decora¬ 
tive purposes, the recently certificated scarlet-red 
President Cleveland, Dazzler, rose, Yreelandi, white, 
Elegans, large and scarlet, and Longiflora flammea, 
flamed rose, are all worthy of the attention of those who 
require a supply of cheerful and acceptable flowers at 
this season of the year. Amongst Bouvardias the pale 
yellow-flowered B. flava is novel and by no means 
common ; while Leiantha has small but bright scarlet 
flowers ; and B. triphylla has somewhat larger and 
very attractive scarlet tubes with a rose-coloured limb. 
Delicacy of colouring is secured in the large-flowered 
pink, Priory Beauty, the flesh-coloured Umbellata 
carnea, the white U. alba, and in Maiden’s Blush, 
a useful free-flowering kind, whose name is expressive 
of the colour. 
Eeine des Loses or Queen of Roses also indicates its 
general appearance, while its flowers are of medium 
size compared with Intermedia, whose flowers are 
large and pink. An old variety named Hoggarth, with 
rosy scarlet flowers, is also well known to those who 
have grown this class of flowers for some time. Rosea 
oculata has large flowers of a white or very faintly blush 
colour, deepening in the throat or eye to a rose tint. 
These eighteen varieties are not only very showy in 
themselves, but quite distinct either in the size, colour, 
or general shape of the flowers. 
- =->*<«- - 
THE KITCHEN GARDEN IN 
AUTUMN. 
The months of November and December have been 
rightly denominated the “dull days before Christmas,” 
when hardy plants in the open air exist, yet can hardly 
be said to grow, but which are maturing and preparing 
for the time, a few months hence, when the general 
awakening will come once more. One writer has said 
that this is the time to review- the affairs of the garden 
in detail, because it is a period when the pressure of 
work is not severely felt ; and by the affairs of the 
garden he instances such a thing as making a list of 
any plants and seeds that may be required, noting at 
the same time any that did badly, and were dis¬ 
appointing in regard to quality. Amateur gardeners 
can sometimes derive great benefit from looking back 
upon their methods of culture, and by doing so discover 
where mistakes have been made. 
The closing days of the year are short, and all the 
daylight they yield is needed by working men especially 
for their daily labour. There is but little time that 
the cottager cm give to his garden, except on moon¬ 
light nights. A great deal can be done while the moon 
is near and at the full, and the weather is favourable. 
Trenching and manuring can be done under the moon¬ 
light. Cottagers experience some difficulty in getting 
manure at times, and happy is he who has convenience 
for keeping a pig. A good deal of garden refuse can be 
thrown into the stye, and when it is occasionally taken 
out and placed in a heap for a time, good fertilising 
material is had. Road-scrapings, the turf-parings from 
road-sides, the soil taken from ditches, &c., are all 
valuable ingredients in forming a manure-heap. Even 
if no animal manure can be had these last make a 
valuable dressing,- and especially so when mixed with 
the ashes from burnt refuse. Calling upon a gardener 
the other day, who has to deal with a rather stiff soil, 
I found he had well manured and trenched all pieces of 
his kitchen garden as they became vacant, which he 
would not require until the spring, laying the soil up 
rough in ridges. He said that by doing this the 
getting in of crops in spring was greatly facilitated, and 
those of a better class were also had in consequence. 
Land thrown up in this way “mellows” during the 
winter, and when the spring comes, and a dry day or 
two happens, sowing and planting can be proceeded 
with. All that is necessary is to level down the surface, 
and there is a friable and workable soil. If cottagers, 
among others, could realise something of the advantage 
derived from the autumn trenching of their spare 
ground, they would not leave so much of it untouched 
until spring, as many of them do now. 
It is, perhaps, not many cottagers who grow such 
things as Lettuces, Endive, and Cauliflower during the 
winter for spring use, but many amateurs do. There 
are some people who think that cottagers should not 
grow what they term the higher orders of vegetables, 
but I say, let everyone please himself, and grow what 
he likes best; and for my own part I like to see 
cottagers trying their hands at something out of the 
common way, because that indicates the possession of a 
spirit of enterprise, and an enterprising gardener is 
generally a successful one. The vegetables I have 
named need a little protection during a time of severe 
frost, and a little loose litter will be found very 
acceptable for the purpose. It can be taken off when 
not required, and stacked away in a tidy manner for 
future use, and there is no knowing how soon such 
protection may be needed. AYe are in the month of 
November, and that is a time of the year when sharp 
frosts happen.— B. D. 
-->X<-- 
THUJA GIGANTEA AS A TIMBER 
TREE. 
The timber of this tree, as produced in its native 
wilds, is, as everyone who had the privilege to behold 
the huge logs and well-dressed planks in the Canadian 
Court of the late Colonial and Indian Exhibition, of 
very superior quality, and held in high esteem for 
many constructive purposes, particularly by the cabinet 
maker and boat-builder in its native country. Being 
fine in t,he grain, of a desirable yellowish brown colour, 
easily worked, remarkably durable, and light in pro¬ 
portion to its bulk, it is extensively used in the 
manufacture of furniture, for shingles, household 
utensils, fencing purposes, and in the erection of 
houses and out-buildings. On account of its lasting 
qualities, but particularly- when subjected to dry and 
damp alternately, it has been used largely for piles, 
while many of the canoes and boats made on Vancouver’s 
Island are formed of this wood. It has been recorded 
that in the repairing of an old fort the only log found 
sound after twenty-one years trial was of the giant 
Arbor Vitae. 
Professor Macoun told me that the huge log exhibited, 
and which was no less than 21 ft. in girth, and taken 
from a tree 250 ft. in height, might be considered as a 
fair sample of what was produced under favourable 
circumstances, .and that the average dimensions reached 
by this stately fast-growing tree are but little less. 
The largest trees are usually hollow for a short distance 
up the stems, but even then the outer timber is per¬ 
fectly sound and well fitted for constructive purposes. 
For working into large pillars or columns it is peculiarly 
well suited, being so even of grain, susceptible of so 
nice a polish, and of a most desirable rich colour, 
qualities which were well set forth in the large and 
beautifully carved posts -which ornamented the Indian 
villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands. 
At Kew, in the Museum No. 1, are several interest¬ 
ing specimens of the wood, including a stave and 
several sections, as well as a hat, shawl, and mat made 
from the fibrous bark. This fibre of the inner bark is 
largely used by the Indian tribes, such as for making 
robes, and other articles of dress, ropes, and mats, 
these latter being used by T the natives for sleeping on, 
and for covering their legs when canoeing and boating. 
As to the value of the timber of Thuja gigantea 
produced in this country, it would yet be premature to 
speak with any amount of certainty, sufficient time 
not having yet elapsed since the introduction of the 
tree for the timber to be anything like matured. AVe 
have, however, both cut up and utilised the timber of 
trees of thirty years’ growth ; and on comparing this 
with such as was produced in its Canadian home, the 
differences were admitted by all who inspected the 
samples to be few indeed, the same yellowish tinge and 
compact, though light, nature being quite recognisable 
in the home-grown wood. A friend who cultivates this 
tree largely on an estate in the north of Ireland, and 
who, at our suggestion, cut up and utilised the wood of 
a large specimen, tells us that it is “firm and of good 
quality, quite upholding the published descriptions of 
foreign-grown timber of the same kind.” From present 
appearance, and judging by the many uses to which it 
is applied in its native country, there can be little 
doubt that the timber of this Thuja, as grown in the 
