August 29, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
827 
The Rose Bloom.— After a season of Rose 
blooming such as we seldom see, they have rather 
suddenly ceased to flower, but after the copious 
showers which have fallen of late, young growths 
are being formed and are becoming studded with 
buds in great profusion. Boul de Neige—a most 
useful white—has been notably fine this year, and is 
again clothed with flower buds almost as thickly as 
ever. It would be well, however, to thin them out in 
due time, as such heavy flowering would materially 
injure the plants for flowering next season. We have 
found that nothing helps Roses to carry heavy loads 
of flowers better than giving them a good mulching 
of rich cow manure mixed with soot. The surface 
soil is well removed from the roots, the manure 
spread over them, and a neat covering of the soil 
placed over all. This I have found always answers 
better than coating the surface of the soil with 
manure; by leaving it exposed much of its virtue 
is lost.— Stirling. 
Early Peaches for the North.— In northern 
districts, such as Dunkeld for instance, early varieties 
of Peaches are mostly grown as they ripen well on 
open walls, and are well flavoured, where Peaches 
will do at all. But in some cases later kinds are 
cultivated, and they often do well as regards cropping 
and the size and colour of the fruit is concerned, but 
the flavour—well most that have been sent for my 
opinion were insipid and flavourless, certainly not 
suitable for dessert, and for jam or preserve making 
not equal to ordinary plums. Where a framework of 
glass can be placed over such sorts as Hale's Early 
for a first gathering, Violette Hative as a second 
crop, and Sea Eagle for the latest, no one need have 
much difficulty in obtaining a supply of fruit for 
weeks in succession. The two last-named sorts must 
be included amongst the hardiest and heaviest 
cropping sorts I have ever seen.-— Stirling. 
THE MOUNTAIN 
PARSLEY AT HOME. 
As the popular name would indicate this elegant 
little fern is most at home amongst the mountains, 
and like most mountain wildings it dislikes the 
relaxing atmosphere of the lowlands and the confine¬ 
ment of hothouses and Wardian cases, although it 
may be coaxed into good behaviour under either of 
these conditions. It has various popular and 
scientific names, all indicating its habitat, its general 
appearance or some character which it may possess, 
The name now most generally recognised by botanists 
is Cryptogramme crispa; but others still frequently 
adopt Allosorus crispus, and the older botanists call 
it Pteris crispa, from the fact that it is allied to the 
latter through the medium of Pellaea and Llavea. 
The most notable distinction lies in the fact that it 
possesses two kinds of fronds, fertile and barren. 
Both kinds are three or four times pinnate, but the 
segments of the fertile frond are narrow and pod¬ 
shaped owing to the edges being strongly revolute, 
while the segments of the barren frond are obovate- 
cuneate. So great is the difference in general ap¬ 
pearance that amateur growers are often puzzled 
with the plant and reckon that they have got two 
kinds. 
Other popular names it possesses are Rock Brake, 
in allusion to its habitat, Curled Brake, in reference 
to its appearance, and Parsley Fern, from its 
resemblance to a tuft of Parsley. Those who 
attempt to accustom it to artificial treatment will 
find that it succeeds best on a rockery amongst 
stones in a cool position, shaded from the sun, but 
fully exposed to light and. in no way overhung by 
trees. In the drier atmosphere of the southern 
counties, a northern aspect is the best that can be 
chosen for it, as the drying influence of exposure to 
sun can then be avoided. Notwithstanding this, it 
is impatient of superfluous moisture at the roots, a 
fact which the careful cultivator should remember 
when he grows it in pots or in Wardian cases. 
There is a North American form of more sturdy 
habit and another from the Himalayas, where it 
ascends to an altitude of io.oooft. to 15,000 ft. The 
typical form is found all over Artie Europe, and on the 
mountains southward. In Britain it is confined to 
mountainous districts, and ascends to 3,500 ft. in the 
Highlands. I have seen it in great luxuriance in 
some of the rocky gullies and glens of the 
Grampians, where the botanist would get very 
fastidious in his selections of specimens owing to the 
quantity at command and their fineness, every bush 
or clump appearing still better than its neighbour. 
The fronds are usually described as 2 in. to 4 in. 
long, and this may possibly be the case with English 
specimens, but amongst the Grampians they may be 
had by the armful 12 in. to 16 in. long or more. The 
finest plants are those which grow amongst loose 
stones, or peer out from beneath the edges of huge 
boulders that have rolled down from the mountains 
or sides of the rocky crags ages ago, or even quite 
recently, for they are continually undergoing demo¬ 
lition and disintegration. The epithet of everlasting 
hills is more imaginary than real, and more in ac¬ 
cordance with the notions of the poet than the 
geologist. The localities where the Mountain Parsley 
finds a secure retreat’and happy home are more 
familar to the shepherd and sportsman than to the 
dealer in ferns or the hawker with his basket, other¬ 
wise the fate of one of the most elegant of our native 
ferns would soon be sealed. 
Having the above fact in view I hesitate to give 
localities, and hope that the day is far distant when 
they may be eradicated or subjected to wholesale 
uprooting. Owing to the height of the rocks and 
the narrowness of the gullies at the bottom of which 
a stream runs, the Mountain Parsley gets com¬ 
paratively little of direct sunshine, but there being no 
trees anywhere near a full share of light is enjoyed. 
At places the plants grow in isolated tufts amongst 
the finely crumbled debris ever rolling down from 
the steep heights above, and frequently necessitating 
the elongation of the rootstock in order to keep the 
crown n6ar the surface. At other places huge 
boulders in such quantities have rolled down that 
the stream is choked up and entirely concealed, the 
water reappearing again lower down the valley. 
From underneath the edges of these boulders, but 
always where the roots are in a comparatively dry 
medium, the most luxuriant masses of the fern creep 
outward so as to expose themselves to the light of 
day. Everything else is suggestive of barrenness, 
and moss scarcely grows on the dry, rolling 
boulders.— S. 
MUSHROOMS IN A FRUIT 
ROOM. 
Mushrooms in a wine cellar, Mushrooms in a Fruit 
Room, Mushrooms in a cupboard, Mushrooms under 
a table—well, Mushrooms may be grown almost 
anywhere now-a-days—so different to some thirty or 
forty years ago when their production in gardens was 
such an art, and the secret considered such a mystery 
by our fathers. A bed had to be made—then impor¬ 
tant were the preparations ! A box had to be taken 
to a dry place near the stables, the droppings 
collected free from straw and litter, put on the floor 
of a shed, and turned over every day to dry, until 
they were considered just right for making up ! 
What a bother! 
Now we simply go to the yard once a week, and 
take away all the manure we can get except the lon¬ 
gest of the litter, and putting it into a heap turn it over 
a few times to let the rank heat escape. I have no 
regular Mushroom house now, but early in May 
made up a bed roughly under the shelves in our fruit 
room, and some seven weeks after spawning began 
to gather the delicious “Buttons "and “ Grillers," 
and have been gathering ever since. I often think 
what a difference there is in the quality of the spawn 
we buy now, and that which we got in my younger 
days. Gardeners have much to be thankful for in 
the fact that every respectable seedsman takes a 
pride now in the quality of the Mushroom spawn he 
sends out. That which I have used this year came 
from the Messrs. Daniels’ of Norwich, and it is 
very good. 
Mushrooms, like most other things grown in 
gardens, have enemies to contend against, and the 
common enemy in £his case is the woodlouse. When 
these pests find a lodging they increase and multiply 
with wonderful rapidity, and in my case, before the 
Mushrooms appeared, when the hay was removed I 
could sweep them off with a hand brush in almost 
incredible quantities. I found a ready way of keep¬ 
ing them down, however, by putting a few large toads 
on the beds. They seem to be happy and contented 
enough under the covering, and it is quite amusing 
to see how they bury themselves in the soil and lay 
in wait for their prey.— T. \V. 
dM^antn from tl\§ IDorltr 
of Suertre* 
The Tunbridge Film Fern. —Hymenophyllum 
tunbridgense was so named because originally 
found in the neighbourhood of Tunbridge, Kent, but 
it also occurs in various parts of the United King¬ 
dom. In slightly varying forms it is also found in 
various parts of the world in widely remote countries, 
including the West Indies, Venezuela, the Azores, 
Madeira, Mauritius, New Zealand, Australia, Cape 
Horn, and elsewhere. A correspondent recently 
sent the New South Wales form (H. t. antarcticum), 
which also occurs in Van Diemen's Land. Our 
own H. \\ ilsoni is only a form of H. tunbridgense, 
and a well marked and easily distinguishable one; 
but the plants found in other parts of the world 
furnish so many intermediate forms that the two 
become joined. The New South Wales form differs 
but slightly from the typical H. tunbridgense, 
and is consequently classed under it. The pinnae, 
like the last-named, are pinnatifid on both sides of 
the midrib, and sparsely spinulosely serrated along 
the margins. The lower pinnae are shorter than 
those of the middle of the frond, thus giving tha 
latter a lanceolate outline, whereas the fronds of the 
typical British form are generally described as ovate, 
The two-valved involucre enclosing the spore cases is 
not so conspicuously toothed as in H. tunbridgense, 
It must no doubt be interesting to the colonists to 
find the Filmy Fern of their native country in their 
adopted home.— F. 
Proliferation of Scabiosa atropurpurea— 
It may sometimes strike observers as peculiar 
that Fritillaria imperials, Eucomis punctata, E. 
undulata, and other species should terminate in a 
tuft of leaves above the flowers. The Pineapple has 
the same peculiarity, and we cease to wonder at it, 
simply because common. Occasionally other plants 
depart from their normal character, and terminate 
in a tuft of leaves above or amongst the flowers, and 
we speak of it as proliferation. A case of this kind 
occurring in Scabiosa atropurpurea has appeared in 
a suburban garden. From the centre of a head of 
flowers a number of bracts attained an abnormal 
size—resembling a tuft of leaves. Now the bracts 
are actually modifications of the ordinary leaf type, 
and the only peculiarity in this case is that a few of 
the central or upper ones have hardly reverted to an 
ancestral condition. 
The Vapourer Moth—There is another species 
of Moth, known as the Cockney, but the Vapourer, 
or Orgyia antiqua of entomologists, has as much right 
to the epithet of Cockney, for it may often be seen 
in the streets of London flying or wheeling about in a 
desultory or erratic manner, as if it had no idea 
where it meant to go. Sometimes it may be seen 
resting on the glass of florists' windows, apparently 
looking at the flowers which it cannot reach. It is 
the male only which is capable, of enjoying life in 
this manner, for the female has only rudimentary 
wings, and is obliged to stay near the place where 
she was born. The larvae are both curious and 
elegant. The body is black spotted with pink or 
deep red, with two blackish pencils, or tufts of hair, 
pointing forward and seated just behind the head, 
and one close to the tail pointing backwards. There 
are also four shorter and compact, erect tufts on the 
back and which are ochreous, or sometimes brownish 
and almost black at the tips. The moth is a common 
one and sometimes very destructive, living on various 
trees and shrubs. Some large Morello Cherry trees 
in a suburban garden have been almost completely 
defoliated by hundreds of larvae this season, and 
hitherto they have defied all attempts to destroy 
them by means of insecticides applied by means of 
the syringe. The offensive hairs upon them prevent 
birds from eating them. Some insects, when 
removed from the plants on which they were born 
and applied to other plants on which they would live 
if they had been placed there at first, refuse to eat; 
but this is not the case with the Vapourer Moth. I 
supplied some of the larvm first with Hawthorn leaves 
and then in a few days after with Rose leaves, and in 
each case they were perfectly satisfied, and throve 
upon them. Hand picking, although tedious, is th§ 
surest and most effectual remedy.— J. F. 
