November 21, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
179 
water pipe to give a little warmth on dull days and 
cold nights, until thoroughly established. 
Growers for market, who produce the plant by 
thousands annually, as far as I know have confined 
themselves entirely to the pot method of culture. 
which no doubt answers their purpose best. As we 
are now in the midst of its flowering season, it has 
been thought a fitting opportunity to furnish a few 
details of culture that may be carried out in the open 
air one third of the year in our Lancashire climate. 
To some of you the plants' requirements are pretty 
well known, and all of you I am sure must have 
admired its beauty, and recognised its utility for 
making button-holes, ladies’ sprays, and other floral 
devices. I have said that we are in the midst of the 
flowering season of the Bouvardia, and probably 
more plants may be seen in flower at present than 
any other period of the year, but with plenty of 
labour and ample accommodation, plants may be 
had in flower every month in the year by propagat¬ 
ing at different times, and attending to potting and 
stopping the shoots. 
Growers holding such envious positions as to be 
able to carry out such a system of culture need no 
advice from me, nor is it my intention to offer any, 
but shall confine my remarks to a batch of plants 
likely to suit the convenience of the majority of my 
hearers, and requiring no more attention than a 
Fuchsia or a Pelargonium, and the only time that 
they need more heat than these common plants is 
from November until they finish flowering, which 
may be in January or February, much depending on 
the time they were last stopped. 
Now, or when the plants are in flower, is a good 
time to make a start in their culture, as the varieties 
which take the purchaser’s fancy’ may be selected. 
From this date (the first week in November) they 
will do in a temperature of 45° to 50° at night until 
February, when after they finish flowering, allow 
the soil in the pots to get moderately dry before 
turning them into the greenhouse. Ours are stored 
in the corner of a house where Calceolarias, 
Cinerarias, and other cold loving plants grow, but 
the Bouvardia through being kept on the dry side 
never suffers. If we wished the plants to flower in 
August or September, we would not move then into 
the cooler house, but prune them after a short rest 
and push them on, but as we avoid the use of pots 
exceeding 6 in., by starting the plants in March or 
April even the pots become full of roots early enough, 
and the plants persist in flowering, and to continue 
pinching after the food supply is exhausted in the 
pots means weakly growth and small flower heads. 
At the end of March or during April the plants will 
be disposed to start into growth, and they must be 
pruned to two or three joints off the base. Arrange 
them where they will not catch a draught and 
sprinkle overhead once or twice daily with the 
syringe, or a can with a fine spreader on. They do 
not like the dry open staging at this period, and 
their wants would be better met if they could stand 
on an inch of ashes. To meet this arrangement the 
open stage for the time being might be covered with 
slates or boards to support the ashes, which should 
in the first instance be passed through a half-inch 
sieve, and after through a finer one, in order to get 
out the dust, the overhead damping ,of the plants 
will help to keep the ashes moist, and create a cer¬ 
tain degree of atmospheric humidity which will 
prove most beneficial in a house that may be 
naturally dry, necessarily so for other subjects. 
The fine silky young roots are so delicate and 
susceptible of injury from sudden extremes that I 
should like the pots to stand on ashes, or some 
moisture holding material at all times in preference 
to the open stage. After the plants are fairly 
broken, or have pushed young shoots half an inch or 
an inch long, turn them out of the pots they are in, 
shake the soil away from the roots and cut some of 
the strongest of these, then pot into as small pots as 
they can be conveniently got into, using a compost 
of three parts sandy loam and one leaf soil, or such 
a compost as has been found to suit Fuchsias or 
Pelargoniums, for surely a plant that will make 
willow like growth in an open border when forced 
by summer heat cannot want a complicated 
mixture. 
After potting they may be returned into the house 
they were in, and if cautiously watered they will do 
well, but a closer atmosphere and a higher tempera¬ 
ture would prove conducive to earlier root formation, 
with more vigorous growth, ^s a rule opr plants 
receive none of these auxiliaries, but are located in a 
span roofed house with ends north and south until a 
frame on a gentle hot-bed can be got ready for them, 
and if circumstances always permitted the frame 
would be the place we would always select for them 
after being potted. Here they may remain until the 
end of September, and as they grow the frame must 
be raised to allow head room. From June to 
September, or when taken indoors, the lights are off 
the plants night and day except during a prolonged 
downfall of rain like what we have experienced this 
season, then they are used to throw off the wet. 
They should also be ready for use the latter part of 
September in case of frost occurring. 
I find the plants do fairly well in a cool green¬ 
house during October, but such a structure with 
sides east and west, and the roof partly covered 
with creepers, is not the accommodation I should 
select. I prefer a house, if a lean-to, facing south 
with a temperature of 45® at night, not so freely 
ventilated, and with a more humid atmosphere than 
that of a cool greenhouse. In such a house or a 
span-roofed, one facing north and south, the plants 
will be quite at home until they have finished flower¬ 
ing, which may extend to the end of February. 
Propagation is effected by cuttings, and for this 
purpose one or more plants of each variety 
should be introduced into a temperature of 60° to 
65 9 in February, if the plants are expected to make 
decent flowering specimens the same year. As soon 
as the young growth is long enough to make cuttings, 
take them off with three or four joints and insert 
three or four in a thumb pot, and when rooted, pot 
either singly into small pots or later into larger ones 
without disturbing the plants, which of course will 
produce a much larger specimen. The following 
year the plants may be separated and potted singly. 
A close-fitting frame or case with bottom heat of 
about 75 0 to 8o Q is essential for propagating to pre¬ 
vent the cuttings flagging, as well as the young plants 
for a few days after they are potted, or until estab¬ 
lished. Root cuttings are easier managed than tops, 
and will grow under a handlight on the stage in the 
stove. If the stage be an open one, a board or a 
slate, the size of the handlight, covered with ashes 
or cocoa-nut fibre should be temporarily introduced 
for the pots to stand upon. 
For root cuttings select the oldest plants, turn 
them out of the pots and shake the soil away from 
the roots, and cut the strongest of these into pieces 
1J in. long, cutting the upper end square and the 
other obliquely, for without some mark it is difficult 
to distinguish one end from the other as they lie 
on the potting table. Fill the requisite number of 
small pots with light sandy soil, and dibble the 
cuttings either thickly or three in a pot, and when 
rooted treat as advised for top cuttings. The general 
treatment of the cuttings need not be particularised. 
Suffice it to say that their requirements differ but 
little from a batch of Fuchsia cuttings at that season 
of the year, and the grower who can propagate and 
grow the one can do the other. The after-treatment 
will consist in potting as required, and pinching the 
points of the shoots every three or four joints in 
order to induce a bushy habit and the production of 
a greater number of flower heads. The latest date 
for potting will be July, and pinching must be dis¬ 
continued in August. 
Naturally the Bouvardia is a clean plant and is 
seldom infested with insect pests, but if introduced 
into the company of plants noted for their association 
with mealy-bug, then it becomes one of the most 
troublesome subjects to deal with, the bug soon 
finding its way into the points of the shoots 
and the flower heads. Except on one occasion, and 
that years ago, the Bouvardias under my car.e have 
been free from this pest, and rather than be bothered 
with them, I, in that instance, threw them away and 
procured cuttings from unaffected plants. Conse¬ 
quently I am not in a position to give advice as to 
its destruction without injuring the plants. It is 
always risky to apply powerful insecticides to soft, 
woolly-leaved plants like the majority of the Bou¬ 
vardias. With the method of culture that I have 
detailed, I do not think the mealy-bug will give 
much trouble. Greenfly will sometimes make its 
appearance on the plants when in the warmest tem¬ 
perature, but it can be readily got rid of by fumiga¬ 
ting in the usual way, and without injury to the 
flowers. Since the introduction of the Bouvardia 
from Mexico more than ninety years ago, hybridizers 
have given us several beautiful varieties, the following 
of which are my favourites :— Elegans, Hogarth and 
Dazzler, scarlets ; The Bride, Vreelandii and the 
species Jasminiflora and Humboldtii Corymbiflora, 
all whites ; the latter possessing a most pleasing 
fragrance. The double-white Alfred Neuner and 
the pink form of President Garfield should also be 
represented in the most limited collection, 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN, 
Concerning Potatos. 
The late varieties prove to be wonderfully good, and 
singularly free from disease. Two of the best sorts 
are The Gentleman and Sutton’s Magnum Bonum. 
The Gentleman is a new kidney-shaped variety, which 
I had from Messrs. Veitch & Sons. It is very hand¬ 
some, most prolific, and free from disease; flesh- 
white, and mealy when boiled, and of first-class 
quality. Magnum Bonum, I find, still resists the 
disease better than any other late Potato we grow in 
the fields. On our cold, clay soil, we have a splendid 
crop of fine tubers, free from disease, and of 
high-class quality.— William Smythe, The Gardens, 
Basing Park, Alton. 
Two new Potatos. 
Renown. — This kidney variety is oblong, slightly 
flattened, blunt at both ends, pale pink, and slightly 
rough on the surface, with very shallow eyes. 
Characteristic specimens measure 3 J in. to 4J in. long, 
and about 2Jin. wide. The variety is a second early 
and has resisted disease as well as Magnum Bonum 
or King of Russets. It is a cross between Purple 
King and Lye’s Perfection. 
Advance.— The tubers in this case are round, 
slightly flattened, of good average size, white, slightly 
scurfy on the surface, and has very shallow eyes. It 
is very early, a good cropper, and a cross between 
Reading Russet and Schoolmaster. Both Potatos 
were shown by Mr. James Lye, Cliffe Hall Gardens, 
Market Lavington, Wilts, at the Aquarium Show last 
week, and received Certificates of Merit. 
- ■ — *- £ »— - 
©leanings ft; nut flic IDmtltr 
of Science. 
Introduction of British Plants —Through the 
post-glacial ages the vegetation of our islands be¬ 
came richer through the transport, by water and air- 
currents, and by birds of additional species. At no 
time can it be said that this influx has stopped. In 
a flora entirely derived from nearer or more remote 
lands we must include all plants which have reached 
our shores, whether early during the ice age, in the 
ages intervening, or quite recently in our own day, if 
such additions are independent of human agency. 
The existence of the American Eriocaulon septangu- 
lare, With., on the western coasts of Scotland and 
Ireland — the only member of an extra European 
order, which is found nowhere else in Europe — is no 
doubt due to the agency of some American bird. It 
is included in our native flora, as Anacharis Alsinas- 
trum, Bab., should also be, though it has been added 
to our flora in our own day. This plant was 
first observed in County Down about 1836, and made 
its way to England in 1841. There is no evidence 
to show, and no reason to suppose, that its presence 
in Ireland was due in any way to the agency of man. 
—IF. Carruthers, F.R.S., in Proceedings of the Linnaan 
Society. 
Disease of the Plane Trees —M. H. Moerman, 
inspector of plantations at Ghent, throws some 
doubt on the statements of M. de Nobele, as to the 
malady of the Planes on the Continent being caused 
by the fungus Gloesporium nervisequum, and says 
that nothing is yet less certain than the cause and 
nature of the malady ; nor does he think that the 
spores have been conveyed from tree to tree by the 
clothes or bill-hooks of the pruners, but by the 
wind, seeing that the most widely separated trees 
are often those most severely attacked. M. H. de 
Bosschere, director of the public gardens at Antwerp, 
has noticed the disease ever since the memorable 
winter of 1879-80, and believes that severe cold has 
much to do with the rapid spread and intensity of 
the malady. Trees raised from seeds seem most 
liable to disease, the nearer that they approach in 
character to the typical Platanus orientalis. On the 
other hand, P. o. acerifolia, or the London Plane of 
this country, and there called P. occidentalis, is 
considered much hardier and more disease resisting. 
M. H. Moerman observes that seedling trees, espe¬ 
cially those in the more exposed places at Ghent, have 
suffered in the same way as those at Antwerp. He 
therefore considers it advisable to abandon trees 
raised from seeds, and to plant only those raised 
from cuttings and layers taken from perfectly hardy 
subjects. He advocates judicious pruning, and 
ameliorating the conditions of growth generally in 
preference to spraying with sulphate of copper, 
