THE GARDENING WORLD 
January 17, 1891 
314 
The Amateurs’ Garden. 
SEASONABLE WORK in the GARDEN. 
Dipladenias.—Old plants of this class should ba 
re-potted when they commence to grow. The amount 
of fire-heat given during the past six weeks may have 
contributed to this state of matters, and when such is 
the case, potting should no longer be delayed. Train 
the shoots to wires as they grow, and keep them from 
coming in contact with the frozen or freezing glass. 
Caladiums.—"Where a large number of these are 
grown a batch should now be started for early work, 
not forgetting the small decorative kinds, such as 
C. argyrites and C. minus erubescens. The compost 
used may consist of turfy loam, fibrous peat, leaf-soil, 
and well-decayed manure in equal parts, with plenty 
of sand to keep the whole open. 
Gardenias.—For successive batches of Gardenias 
select those having the more forward buds, and put 
them in a house where they will receive plenty of heat 
and moisture. They should now come on more freely 
than the first batches that were placed in heat. 
Soil for Potting.—A stock of peat, loam and 
manure should be kept in the sheds some time previous 
to potting at this season of the year, so that it may be 
in a tolerably dry condition and quite free from frozen 
lumps ; in fact, a better plan would be to place a 
quantity in a pit or warm position for some time 
previous to using it, so that its temperature may rise 
near to that of the soil in the pots containing the plants 
to be operated upon. 
Allamandas, Clerodendrons.—Plants that re¬ 
quire shifting should have this operation performed 
now. If already in large pots, and the soil in good 
condition, the plants need not be interfered with, but 
fed with liquid manure during the growing season to 
assist them in flowering. Young plants may be potted 
on as they require it to encourage strong growth. 
Temperature.—Ho appreciable rise should yet be 
given in the stove -while the severe weather lasts. It 
will be quite sufficient to maintain it as near 60° as 
possible during the night, keeping Nepenthes and 
similar tender subjects at the warmer end of the house, 
until matters improve out-of-doors. 
Cinerarias.—Plants in flower wiil be found useful 
in the conservatory. Great care will have to be taken 
in transferring them from one house to another during 
frosty weather, for no plants suffer in a shorter space of 
time, by being exposed to a frosty air; means should 
therefore be devised of covering up the plants while 
they are being conveyed to th“e show house. 
Annuals in Pots.—"Where quantity and variety of 
flowers are required for the conservatory early in the 
year, a sowing should now be made of Ten-Week 
Stocks, Rhodanthe Manglesi, and Mignonette. 
Show and Fancy Pelargoniums. —Give con¬ 
stant attention to the training of the earlier potted 
plants, and if they are required very early in the 
season, a little extra heat may be given them. If the 
late-flowering batch have not received their final shift, 
the matter should be seen to at once. Fumigate 
occasionally to keep green-fly in check. 
Chinese Primulas.—In order to flower well, 
these should be kept in a house with an intermediate 
temperature, and as near the glass as circumstances 
will allow. In a house of mixed plants, no better 
situation can be given them than on the front benches. 
Be very careful that only those plants which actually 
require it should be watered, otherwise they may be 
liable to damp off at the collar. With so much hard 
firing, however, a considerable amount of watering will 
be rendered necessary. 
"Vineries.—On account of the continued severity of 
the weather, hard forcing must not be resorted to. A 
clearer sky, however, prevails than did some weeks ago, 
and the increased light will help to strengthen the 
Vines. If the Yines are in flower or setting fruit, it 
will be quite sufficient to maintain a night temperature 
of 60°, with a corresponding rise by day. As the buds 
begin to swell in the house started about the beginning 
of the month, gradually increase the temperature. 
Fruit Trees.—In districts where the weather is not 
so severe as in the south, any pruning that may still 
remain to be done should be pushed on as rapidly as 
possible. On fine days during a thaw, pruning may be 
carried on in order to get the work as forward as cir¬ 
cumstances may permit. The wheeling of manure on 
to the ground will occupy the time to advantage. It 
may be distributed and dug in when open weather 
comes. 
Gooseberries and Currants.—When pruning 
Gooseberries of dwarf and pendulous habit, attention 
should be given to the gradual elevation of the bush by 
cutting to a bud pointing upwards, or by pruning back 
to ascending shoots and cutting away all those which 
lay spreading on the ground, Shorten back the 
terminal shoots according to their strength. Red and 
White Currants may be treated likewise. Where 
Black Currants have got crowded, the best plan is to 
thin them out, cutting away the older branches and 
encouraging the production of young ones. 
--> 15 -'-- 
Hardening Miscellany. 
Tomatos in January. 
It may interest you to know that I have had a succession 
of Tomatos from July to the present time. I gathered a 
dish of fine fruits on Christmas Day, and another one 
on New Year’s Day, and have still some fine fruits 
hanging on the plants, which are growing in a span- 
roofed house, and on the single stem system. They have 
attained a length of 13 ft., and commenced bearing 
within 9 ins. of the base, and have borne regularly 
upwards to the tips.— E. Symonds, The Gardens, 
Aldringhum, Suffolk. [Our correspondent has favoured 
us with a sample, and we must compliment him on 
their fine quality for the season. The variety is 
Daniels’ Crimson Queen.— Ed.] 
The New Fog Annihilator. 
Having had ample facilities lately, as you must admit, 
for testing my new fog-annihilating system of venti¬ 
lating plant houses, you may be interested to know 
that it is completely successful, and that by its means 
I can prevent fog from injuring plants while admitting 
air to the houses either by night or by day. Anyone 
who may be interested in the matter can see the system 
in operation at any time. Although living in the 
centre of Stepney, I can show anyone who may favour 
me with a visit that my Orchids have not lost a 
leaf or bud .—Charles Toope, Stepney Square, Stepney 
High Street, E. 
Layering Chrysanthemums. 
•I am much interested in Mr. Glasscock’s system of 
dwarfing Chrysanthemums, and wish to try it next 
season. Will he tell me whether, in layering, he cuts 
up the stem to a joint as with Carnations, or simply 
pegs down the shoot to a pot without slitting. I have 
never layered Chrysanthemums, and do not quite 
know how to do it. Also will he say whether he leaves 
the pots sunken until housed. I shall feel greatly 
obliged for any hints.— L. U. 
Dinner Table Decorations. 
I should be obliged if any reader of The Gardening 
'World would enlighten me as to the present fashion 
in table decorations. Having been for five years in a 
situation where there was nothing done in this way, I 
am quite in the dark as to the present style. Having 
just entered a new situation, I find I shall be called upon 
very often to show my skill in that branch of a 
gardener’s duties, both at home and in London during 
the season. 1 am told that tracing on the cloth with 
Fern fronds, leaves, &c., is the thing. If any brother 
gardener would inform me what is the best to use for 
that purpose, and how to trace, whether in designs on 
the cloth or in a zig-zag fashion round the dessert 
dishes, and whether the decoration should be high or 
flat, I should be thankful.— W. A, 
Apple, Calville de Prairies. 
The above is now a comparatively old Apple, for it was 
described in detail by A. Royer, in the Annales de 
Pomologie Beige, in 1854. Nothing certain is known 
of its origin ; neither have the other leading pomologists 
either on the Continent or in this country, noticed this 
variety. According to Andre Leroy, the name should 
be spelt Calleville, after the name of a town in 
Normandy, which is supposed to be the birth-place of 
the first ribbed Apples. In spite of the assertion of 
several old pomologists, the name continues to be 
written Calville in the catalogues. The tree is very 
fertile, vigorous, and when grafted at the ground level, 
it produces straight stout stems, susceptible of attaining 
the dimensions which always distinguish that variety 
in the orchards. It is said to be little liable to canker, 
and very hardy. The fruit can be utilised in autumn, 
and keeps well into the winter. The skin is clear green, 
changing to a whitish yellow when mature, lightly 
washed with red, which sometimes becomes intense. 
The fruit is also of first quality, and may be used either 
for kitchen or dessert purposes. Owing, however, to the 
softness of the flesh, and the fineness of its epidermis, it 
does not carry well to market. There is a highly- 
coloured figure of it in the Bulletin d'Arboriculture de 
floriculture, dee., for December last. 
Poison in Food Plants. 
Some of the most valuable productions, like the 
"White Potato, the Tomato and the Egg-plant, are 
the results of development in a family which pro¬ 
duces the Tobacco, the Jamestown "Weed and the 
deadly Nightshade: and still more singular is it 
that edible innocence in a product may be intimately 
associated with a poisonous element in the plant. 
Starch-yielding tubers may even be in themselves 
an association of simplicity and venom, and we find 
in the Cassava, from which Tapioca is obtained, the 
soluble elements of the tuber being poisonous, and 
the insoluble Starch edible. In the White Potato we 
have a Solanum which has poisonous Sprouts and 
fruit, with a valuable and innocent tuber or subter¬ 
ranean root-stock. The poison, Solania, is found in the 
White Sprouts of the tuber and in the green seed ball 
or fruit, but not in the tuber as prepared by boiling o- 
roasting. Solania is not a powerful poisoD, and one of 
very uncertain strength. The Tomato plant contains 
Solania, while the fruit, which has the same unpleasant 
odour, is free from it. Three deadly poisons, among the 
most potent of all active vegetable principles, are 
obtained from some of the Solanacea—namely, Nicotia, 
from Tobacco ; Dataria, from Stramonium, and Atropia 
from Belladonna. One drop of pure Nicotia will kill a 
large dog in a few minutes, and the other two are 
fatal in minute quantities.— Dr. Harris, before Penn - 
sylvania Horticultural - Society. 
Artificial Production of Rain. 
The question as to whether rain can be produced 
by artificial means is to be tested by the United 
States Government. On the motion of Senator C. B. 
Farwell, of Illinois, a clause was added to the Appro¬ 
priation Bill, which provides that, under direction 
of the Forestry Division of the Department of 
Agriculture, 2,000 dollars shall be expended in 
experiments having for their object the artificial 
production of rainfall by the explosion of dynamite. 
In a communication from Senator Farwell the fol¬ 
lowing theories are advanced :—“My theory in regard 
to producing rain by explosives is based partly 
upon the fact that after all the great battles fought 
during the century heavy rainfalls have occurred. 
This is historical and undisputed. Senator Stanford, 
one of the builders of the Central Pacific Railway, 
informed me lately that he was compelled to do a 
great deal of blasting through a part of the country 
where rain had never been known to fall in any useful 
quantities and where it has never rained since, and 
that during the period of blasting, which was nearly a 
year, it rained every day. I feel almost convinced that 
rain can be produced in this way. The dynamite 
could be exploded on the ground or up in the air, and 
I think I would prefer the latter. The experiment 
should be made in eastern Iowa, Colorado, or in 
western Kansas, somewhere along the railway, and my 
own idea would be to begin early in the morning and 
explode continuously for seven or eight hours.” 
Keeping - Cut Flowers Fresh. 
Many expedients have been tried to preserve cut 
flowers in a fresh and presentable condition for 
the longest possible time. If the ends of the stems 
are cut under water at intervals of a few days, 
the flowers will remain fresh for a much greater 
length of time. Changing the water will also be 
beneficial. The cleaner and softer the water is so 
much the better, and possibly the best that could be 
used is rain-water or distilled water. The former 
would be the more easily obtained. If collected off 
the roofs of houses in town, the first washings of the 
slates or tiles should be avoided, particularly after fog, 
because a great amount of soot and other filth will be 
deposited, which must first be washed off with rain of 
some duration. A supply of clean soft-water might 
then be collected and stored away in some vessel in a 
dark place, and covered over to keep it clean for use 
when wanted. By the use of this, flowers in vases 
may be kept fresh in some cases for three or four weeks. 
