876 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
February li, 1888. 
HORTICULTURAL “TIPS” FROM 
KEW. 
It would seem, from recent utterances, that as the 
botanical science at this scientific play-ground of a 
privileged few grows weaker, the desire to dabble in 
horticultural matters grows stronger. Last week, in a 
contemporary, one of the regular penny-a-liners whose 
mission it seems to be to puff up Kew and its doings at 
all seasons, winds up a note concerning a Kew-stricken 
example of the pretty Tryphia secunda, noted in our 
columns in such eulogistic terms at p. 312, by Mr. 
James Hall, of Port Elizabeth, under its true scientific 
name of Holothrix, with the denunciatory remark that 
“ Horticulturally it is worth knowing only that one 
may avoid it.” 
Unfortunately for the writer, the plate in Thesaurus 
Capensis, t. 105, which so many have admired, and the 
better knowledge of those who have seen the plant 
well flowered in this country, as well as the evidence of 
the fine dried specimens in the botauical department of 
the British Museum, and the opinion of our corre¬ 
spondent Mr. Hall, tend to give the lie direct to his 
assertion, unless the whole host of lovely little plants, 
such as Eorget-me-nots, Soldanellas, Violets, and such¬ 
like pretty things, are to be swept away to please the 
writer of the note in question, who would probably be 
happier in a market garden than in one devoted to 
botan}\ even though the quality of the science might 
be tempered to suit his tastes. 
The Cape bulb house at Kew is always a melancholy 
sight. Few flowers ever appear, and—as in the present 
instance—the plants which have sufficient vitality to 
attempt to flower have to suffer for their temerity, 
unless it suits the regular chroniclers to turn on the 
poetic tap. It would be extremely interesting to know 
how many bushels of Disas, Satyriums, and other 
lovely things, not being able to produce flowers, have 
found a weary resting-place or an early grave at Kew, 
where whims and hobbies ride rampant. Some time 
ago we saw the Nepenthes, or Pitcher Plants, there 
being treated to “ their natural climate” in a kind of 
Turkish-bath-like scullery, with canvas in front of 
them. Thence they were removed to a sort of bakery, 
where they went through various evolutions in stickiness, 
and ultimately found their way to the rubbish-heap, 
there to keep company with the remains of enough 
good and new things to make the fortunes of half the 
nurserymen in the country. 
With reference to the things frequently noted from 
these expensive gardens it is impossible to avoid 
noticing the discrepancy between the names of the 
plants in the gardens and those in the adjoining 
herbarium, and we shall avail ourselves of an early 
opportunity of giving a few examples, and asking why, 
in the face of this, some regular central authority should 
not be established at the useful botanical department of 
the British Museum. Mr. Carruthers is well known as 
a good worker ; he is always to be seen when wanted 
without the oriental hocus-pocus necessary to see anyone 
in authority at Kew. Mr. Carruthers is also free from 
the plotting and counter-plotting which seems so much 
to affect the Kew establishment; and we think in these 
hard times the public money should not be wasted on 
establishments for coteries and cliques, but placed as 
much as possible under the control of our national in¬ 
stitution, and spent for the public good. Were such 
an economical arrangement carried out, Kew, and 
such of its staff as were retained, might be handed over 
to the School Board for the purpose of affording 
technical horticultural education. It would be vastly 
more useful to the State then, than can honestly be 
claimed for it now. 
-s- 
POTATO PLANTING. 
The time is near at hand for the planting of Potatos 
for the general crops, and with that fact in mind, an 
excellent opportunity is now offered for consideration as 
to the best methods of planting. An open dry winter 
has so largely favoured the preparation of the soil that, 
assuming no great rainfall occurs directly, the planting 
should be conducted with greater ease than usual owing 
to the highly pulverised condition of the soil. For 
that reason, no doubt—so far as large breadths are con¬ 
cerned—the dibber will be largely employed, because 
the labour of planting is accelerated by its aid. It 
may be that the dibber is a primitive implement, but it 
is none the less exceedingly useful. We have not yet 
found a substitute for the smaller forms of this tool in 
relation to the putting out of Cabbages, Lettuces, and 
myriads of other plants, and just in the same way it is 
hard to excel it in the planting of large breadths of 
Potatos. The dibber can be employed only on light 
well-worked soil with any degree of facility ; whilst on 
that of a wet or clogged nature it would be manifestly 
harmful. Perhaps it may be said that Potatos should 
not be planted on such soils, which is correct ; but 
wet springs will convert usually good Potato soil into 
clay, whilst in some cases growers have no choice but 
to plant in stiff clayey soil or not at all. 
In the case of dry loose soils, the little treading or 
pressure incidental to dibbling is helpful in solidifying 
the ground ; and if the holes be of equal depth, as is 
the case when the implement is wielded by an expert 
worker, and the sets are good and even, the growth is 
also very good and even—indeed, every plant shows 
through within a week from the breaking through of 
the earliest. Planting with the dibber follows either 
the furrows, as left by the plough, or, if the soil has 
been previously levelled and harrowed, the line. After 
the sets have been dropped in the holes are filled up 
with the hoe, and the harrow is run over the surface of 
the soil, thus leaving it smooth and neat. The loose 
surface enables flat hoeing to take place easily, and the 
soil is light and loose when the inevitable earthing is 
begun. Planting the Potatos behind the plough in 
the hard-bottomed furrows is not a desirable method. 
Of course, the sets are all laid at even depths, and, if 
placed one side of the furrow, the soil lies lighter over 
the tubers than if placed in the middle. The hardness 
of the subsoil, incidental to constant ploughing, is a 
serious drawback, but is less harmful when a subsoiler 
has followed the plough ; that, however, too rarely 
occurs. On the wffiole, the plan is better in the case of 
stiff soils than is dibbling, but may in such instances 
be termed a necessary evil. 
In the ploughing in of Potato sets it is not an in¬ 
frequent practice to see long manure forked or raked in 
upon them before the next and covering furrow is 
ploughed over. That is poor practice, and much 
inferior to the wiser one of burying the manure first as 
deeply as possible, and then dibbling the sets in upon 
it. Still better is it to plant Potatos in soil which has 
been well enriched for a previous and diverse crop. 
Specially good for Potatos is a green crop turned in as 
manure, as that immediately becomes converted into 
active nutriment. Late sown Turnips, Rye, Tares, 
Mustard, or any similar vegetable, constitutes, when 
buried early in the spring, substantial and holding 
manure for Potatos, and also helps to keep stiff soil 
open and porous. In field culture there still remains 
the plan of opening furrows with the moulder plough, 
putting in the sets, and covering up by splitting the 
ridges back again with the same implement. In this 
case the sets must inevitably rest upon the hard base 
left by the moulder, whilst the working of horses and 
men with the plough amongst the newly planted sets 
is certain to be injurious. Throughout the metro- 
politau market field area nearly all the Potato breadths 
are planted by means of the dibber, the soil being 
deeply worked, well-manured, and pulverised first. 
It is, of course, difficult to plant large tubers in 
holes', and especially kidneys ; but then in fields the 
sets are usually of seed size, whilst where big tubers 
have to be employed, they are cut into respectable 
dimensions for planting. Turning to garden methods 
it is less needful to plant rapidly, as the breadths are 
comparatively small. If the soil be light and deeply 
worked, as all garden soil should be, the plan of casting 
out a shallow furrow 5 ins. deep with a fork, laying in 
the set, and going on to the next in the same way is 
a very good one, especially where patent manures or 
leaf-soil is strewn in with the sets. With soil, which 
is less highly prepared, planting may proceed with the 
digging, a furrow being drawn out with a hoe at due 
intervals, the sets laid in, and then buried as the forking 
goes on. This sort of planting is apt to lead to rather 
deep burying, and may be an evil, as the sets have to 
throw up such long shoots ere leaves can be formed. 
Very deep planting is of little value. It is preferable 
to plant about 5 ins. below the soil, having good sets, 
which have been stoutly sprouted, and giving ample 
space between the rows for moulding. 
In the case of stiff soils, well ridged up during the 
winter for Potatos, it is a good plan to bury a little 
short manure in the furrows, dig it well in, draw a 
drill with a hoe 3 ins. deep, lay in the sets, and then 
cover up, putting in the loose soil from the ridges. The 
forking and levelling of these may be done admirably 
after the Potato tops are well through in the rows. 
Where breadths of ground have been dug earlier, and 
simply await planting, the dibber can be employed 
with great advantage, as the work is then rapidly done. 
Except in case of necessity, however, it is a mistake to 
leave the planting of robust sorts to the latest period. 
As these will lie dormant for some five or six weeks 
after planting in March, the sets are safe in the ground, 
the very earliest sorts being placed in at leisure later 
on.— A. D. 
GARRYA ELLIPTICA, &c., AT 
BANNOCKBURN. 
This beautiful and most useful shrub has for many 
years found great favour wherever it has been planted, 
and when well grown it flowers most freely in the dead 
of winter. Its long racemes of pendulous flowers hang 
gracefully over the foliage with pleasing effect, and we 
know many who use it largely for mixing with cut 
flowers, and hanging over the edges of vases and glasses, 
the effect is very pleasing. Where bulbs, such as 
gay Tulips, Hyacinths of all colours, and other flowers 
now so abundant enliven rooms, &c., the Garrya is a 
very effective adjunct for mixing with the usual foliage 
to show off such flowers. This plant is well known to 
be most serviceable on walls, and in some parts as 
specimen plants, standing singly. It is, however, for 
other reasons than the foregoing that we are induced to 
advert to this favourite shrub, having seen it in novel 
form—at least, to us—at Bannockburn as a hedge 
plant. In the garden of Colonel Wilson, a robust 
healthy hedge, about 26 ft. long, laden with long 
racemes of inflorescence, has a most pleasing effect, and 
though acting as a hedge, it is less formal than they 
generally are. The position being somewhat elevated 
and much exposed, is conclusive proof that this plant 
is thoroughly hardy even in this northern district. 
We brought a few flowers to compare with others which 
we have in sheltered positions, and the comparison was 
very favourable. The day (January 27th) being mild, 
and the sun shining very brightly, such a display of 
G. elliptica well repaid us for our journey to Bannock¬ 
burn. There were some other objects of interest in the 
grounds of View Yale. Colonel Wilson’s intelligent 
gardener pointed out a fine specimen of Araucaria im- 
bricata among a group of others, which it had far 
out-distanced in free healthy growth. The plant—about 
30 ft. to 40 ft. high—is growing over a stone drain of 
large dimensions, an 1 evidently derives great benefit 
from the position its roots have found. We once had 
excavations to make in connection with new buildings, 
and found several old wells, which though dried up, 
were as full of roots from Cedars of Lebanon as the 
space would hold. The trees are some of the finest in 
England, and no doubt derived great benefit from the 
snug quarters in the old wells. Though the position of 
View Yale is mostly facing northward, it is evidently 
favourable to fruit production, there being several 
dozens of goodly-sized Apple trees, which produce the 
best of fruit ; and it may be remarked, too—as we 
have formerly suggested—that if cultivators in the 
north are to be successful with orchard fruit, the trees 
must be kept thinly pruned. Those to which we now 
refer are very thin, upright, and clothed thickly with 
spurs from the base to the apex of the branches. 
The favourite kinds are Stirling Castle, Lord Derby, 
Ecclinville, Northern Spy, King of the Pippins and 
Ribston Tippin. We did not expect to get such a good 
report of the last-named kind in this part of the 
country. It is liable to canker in many northern 
localities, but on these slopes by the river Bannock no 
doubt the drainage is of the best, and the roots not 
entering a cold sub-soil may be supposed to act as a 
preventive to the deadly canker. Plums most cul¬ 
tivated are Victoria, Magnum Bonum, white, and 
Jefferson. There is much wisdom in retaining a small 
selection of kinds, in preference to a large collection, 
many of which often give indifferent returns. How 
well East Lothian and other Stocks do in some cold 
districts! At View Vale the plants from last season 
are in good health, and have barely ceased flowering. 
They are now loaded with opening flowers, and will ere 
long likely be a mass of bloom. In a neat little,range 
of glass the Esperion black Grape does remarkably well; 
this is a most useful kind, and if it does not hold the 
same rank as Black Hamburgh for flavour, it is valu¬ 
able for its hardy free-bearing character. The kind 
named in Hogg’s Manual is the one we refer to, as 
some others are under this name and are worthless for 
dessert purposes. One we had sent us was small berried, 
long, and tapering like Black Prince, but coarse and 
underflavoured like the handsome Gros Maroc. We 
grafted a Duke of Buccleuch on the vine, and it seems to 
do well on such a stock. There is much to attract 
visitors at Bannockburn apart from gardening, and the 
plains where “fierce Southron” and “hardy Scot” 
tried their deadly skill against each other. There are the 
vast manufactories of the Messrs. Wilson, who in their 
widely known firm have a colonel, a major, and a 
captain ; but their manufacture of famous carpets—or a 
selection of the grandest class of tweed cloth and 
tartans to be found anywhere—takes precedence of 
warfare now.— Caledonian. 
