290 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 9, 1892. 
those planted on May 31st ; 69J cwt. above those 
planted on June 14th; and no less than 105 cwt. in 
excess of those planted last of all. Putting the 
average value at 50s. per ton, the first planted ex¬ 
ceeded the fourth by /13 2s. 6d. per acre. 
“ We may conclude therefore,” says Mr. Malden, 
“ with the following advice to growers : — Plant the 
early varieties of Potatos in March, or as early as 
possible in April. Finish planting all varieties in 
April; but if it is necessary to plant in May, by all 
means choose a late variety; and of late varieties 
choose Imperator if possible, and have them well 
moulded up.” 
AN ABSTRACT VIEW OF 
HORTICULTURE. 
{Concludedfromp. 274.) 
It may be said that the earth of its own spontaniety 
furnishes a large amount of food for man and beast, 
but there are no human beings known on the earth, 
even in the central and darkest portion of Africa but 
who till and sow for their means of existenc®. No 
doubt in the primitive state of the world when land 
was plentiful and thinly populated, the strain upon 
the cultivator was not what we find it to be. But 
whatever may have been the case in the primitive 
world, we know what its state is to-day, with its 
teeming populations bidding fair to cover the 
earth's surface. Man has to work to live, and live 
to work. Every year, larger productive energies 
have to be put forth to meet the world’s require¬ 
ments in the matter of food, and in those larger pro¬ 
ductive energies you have to bear your part. 
You have also to contribute very largely to the 
clothing of the world, and every year new fibrous 
plants are being discovered and utilized for supply¬ 
ing the world with clothing, and the whole earth 
is put under contribution to this end. But 
this feeding and clothing of the world does not 
exhaust the importance of your work. Most of the 
dyeing materials known to the world belong to the 
vegetable kingdom, and of course may be justly 
claimed as your produce. Of course I am aware 
that of late years mineral dyes have come largely into 
use, principal amongst which are the Analine dyes ; 
but these are only of recent introduction, and even 
they are of vegetable origin, for they are, as we know, 
a product of coal, and coal being of vegetable origin, 
it follows, of course, that they owe their origin to 
the vegetable kingdom, and* therefore, are of what is 
your craft. 
Another and perhaps the second in importance of 
all these items in respect of usefulness, is that part 
of your work which concerns the production of drugs. 
The world has to be kept in health, and in this 
the horticulturalist’s art has to perform a most import¬ 
ant part. We have quite sufficient to show that, in the 
production of drugs, the gardener’s art supplies one 
of the greatest remedial agencies known to the world 
for alleviating human snffering. It does not affect 
the case to say that the gardener would be of no use 
without the chemist, but it is quite certain that the 
chemist would be of little use unless the cultivator 
preceded him. 
Now the last of the heads upon which I have to 
speak, is a very agreeable and attractive one, namely, 
the sure and certain return with which nature 
rewards those of your craft who faithfully and 
diligently seek it. There is no royal road to ex¬ 
cellence in any honourable pursuit; those who 
would succeed must labour diligently and intelli¬ 
gently, without which the result can only be failure 
and disappointment; and if this is true in the 
ordinary walks of life, it is pre-eminently true in 
respect of your profession. 
With the gardener’s work, when every possible 
care and skill has been used, there must always 
remain a degree of uncertainty as to result, seed may 
be wrong, climactic conditions may be adverse, and 
a number of unforeseen and unexpected circumstances 
may arise to cause failure ; but if skill and care are 
used there is no uncertainty about it. 
I said seed may be wrong, and I am afraid that 
this is unfortunately a pretty frequent source of vexa¬ 
tion and disappointment. Not unfrequently when 
the seed germinates it turns out something very 
different from and inferior to what it was described 
to be, This is bad enough, but as it frequently does 
not germinate at all, the vexation and disappoint¬ 
ment are tantamount to the fact that in many cases a 
\yho!e season is lost, I do not know where the fplt 
of all this lies ; but I do know that it is a very seri¬ 
ous fault and one that ought to be remedied. I 
should be very sorry if any one hearing this state¬ 
ment should use it as a cover and excuse for failures, 
which after all may be due to shortcoming on the 
part of the gardener. I am of course certain that no 
man having the love of his profession at heart would 
do so ; but it might be used as an excuse for all 
failures, and this of course would not be just. For 
the proper and successful raising of plants from seed 
the gardener has first to make himself acquainted 
with the conditions of germination which apply to 
each specific case, and if he is intelligent he will soon 
discover that all germination springs from a process 
of fermentation set up by the three factors of air, 
heat, and moisture, and he will also discover the 
necessary amount of heat and moisture to apply for 
the purpose he has in view. Sometimes the sun sup¬ 
plies the required amount of heat, then he sows his 
seed out of doors ; at other times it does not, and then 
he has to apply artificial heat indoors, but the pro¬ 
cess in both cases is precisely the same. 
But after all the chief factor in the case, particularly 
as regards indoor work,is the gardener’s ceaseless and 
persistent attention ; he must never forget that he is 
trying to do in one house many things which by 
nature belongs to other and probably very different 
climates; and he can only expect to succeed in this 
by an intelligent knowledge of the conditions to 
which a plant is subject in its native habitat, and by 
adapting his treatment of it as nearly as he can to 
that of nature, 
Granted that the seed is good and that the 
gardener displays skill and assiduity in his treat¬ 
ment of it, Nature is bountiful and the crop shall 
not fail. The earth teems with vegetable riches, and 
you have only to deal consistently with Nature and 
she bursts forth in all her wealth of luxury, that there 
may be seed to the sower and bread to the eater, for 
our physical requirements, and a boundless wealth of 
beauty for our mental requirements—//, J. Rome, 
PLANTS AND THE FOG. 
The fogs which prevailed not only in London and 
the suburbs but also over a great part of the country 
for some days previous to and on Christmas Day, 
were sufficient to remind us that we are not to escape 
this winter any more than on former occasions from 
such visitations so destructive to plant life. Novem¬ 
ber and December were wonderfully open and mild, 
with a clear sky, so that there was an abundance of 
bloom. Chrysanthemums were perhaps the chief 
sufferers from damp, yet not a few growers have still 
a remnant of flowers to show, especially where they are 
grown for cut flowers with blooms of moderate size. 
It is quite evident that the destructive nature of fog 
is due to the deleterious ingredients contained in the 
smoke, which was unusually bad during the recent 
visitation, for it prevailed only a few days and proved 
more destructive than mere darkness could have 
been expected to do. It is high time that something 
were done to mitigate the smoke nuisance, if that is 
within human power to effect. 
Orchids. 
The flowers of this class of plants go 'off wholesale 
when visited with smoky fogs of only a few days’ 
duration ; bnt there are certain genera that sooner 
show it than others, and in some instances particu¬ 
lar species go off quickly. Fortunately but few 
Cattleyas come into bloom at this season, so that so 
far their flowers may be reckoned safe. The Calan- 
thes, including C. Veitchi, C. vestita, and the 
numerous garden hybrids, were amongst the first to 
suffer. The thin substance of the flowers is no doubt 
the cause of their delicacy; the segments of open 
flowers were quite shrivelled up by Christmas Day, 
and unopened buds became yellow. On the con¬ 
trary, however, the leathery flowers of Cypripediums 
suffered severely, although not all to the same extent, 
In a densely populated London district the flowers of 
C. insigne were completely destroyed, and by the 1st 
of January the unopened buds appeared as if they 
had been dipped in boiling water, In the suburbs, 
however, we noticed a fine batch with open flowers 
in apparent good health. Others that quickly suc¬ 
cumbed weraC. villosum, C, Harrjsianum, C. grande, 
and others. In some places C. Schlimii proved very 
delicate, while hybrids of the C. Sedeni type (of 
which the former is one of the parents), including 
C. Sedeni, C. calurum, C, candidulum, etc., passed 
through the ordeal fairly well' The ’same may be 
said of C. vexillarium, and C. callosum is perhaps 
as hardy as any. They behave differently, however, 
in different localities, according to local influences 
and the temperature in which they are kept. A low 
temperature is most conducive to their welfare. 
The same discrepancy prevails amongst the Mas- 
devallias. M. Harryana, M. ignea, M. tovarensis, 
M. parlatoreana, and M. melancpus were amongst 
the first to suffer. The small flowered varieties, such 
as M. gibberosa, M. ochthodes, M. polysticta, M. 
pulvinaris, and others of that class, stood better ; but 
locality has probably to account for it. Odonto- 
glossum crispum, O. Pescatorei, and their varieties 
soon show the influence of the evil by their flowers 
and buds becoming limp and shrivelling up. O. 
maculatum stands well; and so do species of Stelis 
allied to the Masdevallias and having small flowers. 
The flowers of Oncidium tigrinum also shrivel up, 
commencing with the lip and extending to the sepals 
and petals by degrees. Other cool-house species 
whose flowers now appear as if they had been dipped 
in hot water are Coelogyne fuscescens, C. Massan- 
geana, Sophronites grandiflora (flowers and buds 
alike), Laelia Gouldiana, Trichopilia fragrans, 
Cyperorchis Masterii, and others. 
Subjects in the warm or East Indian house ha\ e 
in general fared very badly ; but it seems impossible 
to account for the discrepancies which occur. The 
buds of Aerides Leeana become brown or yellow 
from one end of the raceme to the other, while in the 
same house some of the buds of Saccolabium illustre 
will have become yellow and dropped from the 
middle of the raeeme; near by another plant will 
appear quite uninjured, The same may be said of 
Vanda Araeslana, when a large batch is inspected, se 
that there must be individual variation as to con¬ 
stitution. V. Sanderiana quickly succumbed, and 
the same might be said of the fleshy flowers of 
Angrsecum sesquipedale, which are peculiarly sensi¬ 
tive to smoky fogs, Others that may be placed here 
are Cymbidium Lewii, Ansellia africana, Dendrobium 
auperbiens, and D. formosum giganteum. 
Other Plants. 
The plants belonging to certain natural orders are 
sensitive to a diminution of light, to sudden changes 
of temperature, but more especially to the yellow 
smoke-laden fogs. The leaves of various Legumi¬ 
nous plants grown chiefly for the ornamental 
character of their foliage, and also those of the 
Acanthads, are very liable to drop. The flowers of the 
latter are also peculiarly sensitive to the same 
agencies and either shrivel up or drop off at the 
joints. Amongst these are the Aphelandras, 
Libonias, Ruellia Herbstii, R .macrophylla, Jacobinia 
carnea (even in a cool house), J. coccinea, and 
Dsedalacanthus macrophyllus, Many plants of the 
Gesnera family have also suffered the loss of their 
flowers, while the leaves become irregularly 
shrivelled and brown at the margins. Amongst them 
we noted Gloxinia maculata, Gesnera elongata, 
Naegelia and others. 
Curious to state, the leaves of Poinsettias have 
dropped wholesale, while the bracts, nearly as good 
as ever, now form a tuft on the top of long naked 
stems. Euphorbia fulgens is nearly in the same con¬ 
dition, as the few remaining leaves are yellow. On 
the contrary, plants belonging to the Rubiacese retain 
their leaves but drop their flowers ; and in the case 
of Ixoras the buds are more liable to fall away or be¬ 
come blackened than the flowers themselves. The 
usual plan is that the flower stalks become disjointed 
and the whole truss gradually falls away. I. macro- 
thyrsa, I. coccinea, and the garden hybrids are all 
alike. The same fate has overtaken Luculia gra- 
tissimainfull bloom, and Bouvardias in stove heat are 
also in a sorry plight, though those in greenhouse 
temperature in some localities seem almost as fresh 
as ever. All but the younger leaves of Impatiens 
Hawkeri have dropped. The winter-flowering Plum¬ 
bago rosea has been very disappointing, as the flowers 
and buds along the whole raceme have dried up and 
hang loosely. Scutellarias, Eranthemums, and 
Thyrsacanthus are also rendered useless. 
Winter-flowering and other Begonias have suffered 
severely one way or other. Such as Winter Gem 
and B. socotrana merely drop those flowers which 
are fully expanded, and in a few days fresh buds ex¬ 
pand and renew the appearance of the plant. Others 
suffer damage to the foliage, the whole leaf or only 
patches of it becoming limp and shrivelling up, 
Amongst these may be mentioned varieties of the 
