January 23, 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
323 
especially in February, March, and April. Vases 
filled with one colour of these and forced Spiraea 
japonica are bright and attractive, and in passing I 
might add that the Spiraea just named cannot well 
be grown too extensively, the foliage, as well as the 
flowers, being serviceable. The same remarks apply 
to the Lily of the Valley. Roman Hyacinths, again, 
are very easily forced, it being possible to keep up 
a succession of bloom from November to March 
inclusive. Hundreds and thousands of these might 
well be grown where cut flowers are in great demand, 
but I have no great liking for the large-flowering 
double and single Hyacinths. The Polyanthus Nar¬ 
cissi are also serviceable for pot culture, none so 
much so, perhaps, as the Paper-white. Freesias 
(notably F. refracta alba), again, though less well 
known, are decidedly serviceable, and what adds to 
their value is the fact of the pots of bulbs increasing 
in value and usefulness the longer they are kept. 
These will eventually become as common and popular 
as Roman Hyacinths, or, it may be, more so, as the 
latter have to be replaced at a considerable expense 
every year. Of other deciduous bulbous-rooted 
plants, Lachenalias must not be omitted. They are 
not so generally admired as many of the preceding 
kinds are, but they are decidedly serviceable. The 
flowers travel well and keep fresh in a cut state for 
several days. Some of the best are L. Nelsoni, aurea, 
tricolor, and luteola. 
Few now-a-days attach any value to Camellias 
other than the old alba plena or any other good white 
variety, and these are principally in favour with 
florists who have a good demand for wreaths and 
crosses. Azaleas are better appreciated, though 
these are of little or no value for packing; but the 
single and double white varieties are invaluable for 
home use. The beautiful and very sweet-scented 
hybrid Rhododendrons are also bad travellers, and 
it is worthy of note that very few flowers that have 
to be cut with a hard stem or length of ripened wood, 
ever last well in a cut state. This is the case with 
the hardy Rhododendrons, whether flowered under 
glass or otherwise, and the equally-gorgeous forced 
deciduous Azaleas are really anything but service¬ 
able. Lilacs keep fairly well for a few hours, the pure 
white forms being of the greatest value. A fairly 
good substitute for the latter will be found in one of 
the Bladder Nuts, Staphylea colchica, this forcing 
readily, and lasting for two or three days in a cut 
State. The same plants may be flowered for several 
years in succession, and this cannot be said of Lilacs. 
Of the various hardy, or nearly hardy shrubs and 
plants that are amenable to forcing, none can be 
said to rival Roses, and of these the Teas and Noi¬ 
settes are by far the most serviceable. The Hybrid 
Perpetuals can be flowered well in pots, but they 
only give one crop of bloom each spring, and the 
blooms soon lose colour and fall. One noteworthy 
exception to this rule is found in La France. 
Of greenhouse plants, the most prominent place 
must be given the Carnation. More serviceable 
flowers than these could not well be grown, and I 
can quite see the force of building houses princi¬ 
pally or solely for their culture. Many such are 
now to be met with, light airy structures suiting them 
well. The perpetual flowering varieties yield blooms 
throughout the late autumn, winter, and spring 
months, and these are available and much sought 
after for a variety of purposes. There is now quite 
a rage for the Souvenir de la Malmaison, this being 
the most fashionable of all Carnations, and just 
coming well into flower. A few dozen plants are 
thought nothing of, and I could name many private 
places where the stock consists of from i,ooo plants 
upwards, these filling one or more houses specially 
designed for them. Unfortunately, Carnations 
generally, and the Malmaison in particular, are liable 
to be overrun by a deadly fungus, with which in not 
a few places it has been found impossible to cope. 
There is a wide difference between Carnations and 
Arums, or, more properly speaking, Ca.Ha (Richardia) 
aethiopica, but the latter is also a very profitable and 
serviceable flower. It is effective in groups of 
pot plants, and is a noble vase flower. It is a com¬ 
paratively easy matter to have it in bloom from 
Christmas to long after Easter. Imantophyllums, 
notably I. miniatum and varieties, are also very 
serviceable warm greenhouse plants, and very gay in 
their season. Strong plants produce a fairly long 
succession of flower scapes, the masses of orange- 
red flowers being very effective in vases or otherwise. 
They are worthy of more extended culture than is 
at present accorded them. Cinerarias and Calceo¬ 
larias are very showy pot plants, but of no-value 
whatever in a cut state, the same remarks applying 
to the single Chinese Primulas, but the old semi¬ 
double white form of the latter ranks among the 
most serviceable plants that can be grown. Persian 
Cyclamens are also serviceable, the flowers travelling 
well, and in small glasses, mixed with elegant 
greenery, are very effective. 
Among heat-loving plants the first position may 
well be given to the Eucharis, including the old E. 
amazonica and the newer E Candida and E. San- 
deri. Where there is a good batch of healthy plants 
there are nearly always a few or many flowers 
available, and these can be put to a variety of uses. 
Pancratium elegans is less valuable in some respects 
and more so in others. It requires very similar 
treatment, and the beautifully white sweet-scented 
and very elegant flowers are largely used in bouquets, 
wreaths, and vases. Steplianotis floribunda is omit¬ 
ted from very few collections of plants, but it cannot 
be said to be particularly serviceable. Dipladenias 
and Allamandas, if trained to the rafters, yield large 
numbers of flowers, and in the autumn they are of 
good service for table decoration. Ixoras are less 
often met with, but they can be made to flower 
almost continuously, and their bright orange-red 
flowers are very effective in a cut state. Bouvardias 
require less heat than Ixoras, and are more service¬ 
able. Fewer Gardenias are grown than formerly. 
They require to be kept very clean, must have a strong 
heat, and the flowers do not travel paticularly well. 
Euphorbia jacquiniaeflora is both an old favourite 
and a most desirable stove plant. It produces grand 
branches, closely furnished with small scarlet flowers 
which last remarkably well on the plant or in a cut 
state. Bougainvillea glabra is usually grown in 
plant stoves, but if given a place in a warm green¬ 
house or conservatory the flowers would be of a 
richer colour and more serviceable. Orchids are 
nearly all serviceable.— Field. 
SCOTTISH NOTES. 
Hawick Horticultural Association.— The first 
meeting of the session was held on January 15th, 
when the president, Mr. J. Forbes, Buccleuch 
Nurseries, delivered an address. After reviewing 
the work of the past session he congratulated the 
members on the amount of work done and the lively 
interest that had been taken in the proceedings, as 
was evidenced by the spirited manner in which the 
discussions were invariably entered into. The young 
members of the association he advised to study their 
business and to study it well if they meant to excel 
in it. He believed there-was a time when any tall 
strapping fellow with a spade in one hand, a rake in 
the other, and a blue apron tied in front of him in 
the orthodox manner, who could perform certain 
mysterious antics was considered a properly con¬ 
stituted gardener ; but those things had passed away 
for ever, and those who only possessed such creden¬ 
tials were not in the running. A well-cultivated 
mind and abundant experience is wanted now. Any 
man may be considered a good gardener, and he may 
do fairly well, until things begin to go wrong. It is 
then that the battle begins, and where the full 
measure of a gardener's capacity is discovered. He 
had heard a number of old gardeners say that the 
race of gardeners is degenerating, and that when in 
the usual course of Nature the older men pass away 
their places can never be worthily filled ; but he did 
not believe that. There are as capable and as well 
trained men in the ranks now as there ever were ; 
but this is an age of amusement, and a large number 
of our best trained young men unfortunately allowed 
themselves to get in the swim of it and go with the 
current. Let them drop that, and study chiefly 
what they can turn to good account in their future 
lives. It was the man who was capable who 
elbowed his way to the front and kept there, and not 
the one who trusted to the length of his tongue. 
Mr. Forbes was warmly thanked for his address. 
Scottish Horticultural Association.— The 
annual general meeting of the Scottish Horticultural 
Association was held at 5, St. Andrew Square on the 
I2thinst., Mr. W. M. Welsh presiding. The prin¬ 
cipal office-bearers were elected as follows:—■ 
Honorary president, the Duke of Buccleuch and 
Queensberry ; president, Mr. W. M. Welsh ; secre¬ 
tary, Mr. R, Laird, 17, Frederick Street ; and 
treasurer, Mr, A, Mackenzie. It appeared from the 
treasurer's report that the balance in hand on 
account of the Chrysanthemum shows was now ove 
^500, and that the balance on the ordinary busines 
of the Association was over ^40. The report of the 
secretary showed a total membership of 440, over 20 
new members and seven life members having joined 
during the year. It was agreed to hold another 
Chrysanthemum show, on a similar scale as the last, 
on the 17th, 18th, and 19th November of this year. 
_ ♦ 
©leanings from flje IBtrrUr 
of Science, 
Effect of Exposure on Leaves.— A paper on 
this subject was read at a meeting of the Linnean 
Society by G. F. Scott Elliot, M.A., B.Sc., F.L.S., 
and is recorded in the journal of that body, Botany 
No. 196, Mr. Scott Elliot, in common with other 
observers, finds that the amount of leaf-surface on 
plants growing in fully-exposed positions is reduced, 
and that the breadth is more or less increased re¬ 
latively to the width, and leaves also tend to increase 
in thickness under these conditions. The explana¬ 
tion is that exposure to bright sunlight has the effect 
of promoting transpiration, and the greater loss of 
moisture caused thereby prevents, so to speak, the 
amount of growth which would take place in shel¬ 
tered or even shaded positions. The epidermis of 
plants in dry deserts and on the bare sands of the 
sea-shore always tends to thicken. Weisner has 
shown that the internodes or spaces of the stem 
between the leaves of the Dandelion get elongated 
when the plant is grown in a moist atmosphere with¬ 
out the bracing influence of a free play of air. The 
rate of transpiration, under those conditions, is very 
slow. Mr. Scott Elliot made a large number of ob¬ 
servations and measurements on the leaves of grasses 
and other plants in Madagascar, and the results con¬ 
firm the above statements. The measurements were 
made on two sets of plants, one in sheltered or 
shady positions, and the other in dry places fully 
exposed to sunlight. 
Wireworms are hard to kill.—Numerous 
experiments have been made in America, as reported 
in Bulletin 33 of the Cornell University Agricul tural Ex¬ 
periment Station, for the purpose of determining a 
practicable method of destroying wireworm at various 
stages of its existence, and on a large scale, such as 
might be undertaken by farmers in their wheat and 
corn fields. The undermentioned are the results of 
the experiments made upon wireworm in the larva 
state, which of course is the most destructive to 
plant life. Two sets of cages were filled with soil 
and planted with seeds of Indian Corn. The seeds 
in the experiment cages were coated with some 
poisonous material, and the others used in the natural 
state by way of check. A number of larvae were 
put into each cage, and their behaviour watched. 
The seeds in one series of experiments were coated 
Paris Green and flour, and the experiments were 
extended over nearly two years. The results were 
that the poisonous coating to the seeds retarded 
germination, but did not seem to injure the larvae 
even when they ate the seeds. Somewhat similar 
results attended the coating of the seeds with tar. 
Germination is retarded, and it was found that wire- 
worms would attack the seeds even when completely 
coated with tar. In other trials the seeds were 
soaked in solutions of salt for 10 and 18 and 20 hours 
respectively before planting, and they were greedily 
devoured by the wireworms which suffered no injury. 
Sulphate of iron or copperas was used for soaking 
the seeds, in a series of trials extended over two 
years, but the larvae ate and destroyed the seeds 
without injury to themselves. Seeds were soaked in 
chloride of lime and copperas, and planted on April 
27th, along with others that had not been treated. 
The seeds were destroyed in both cases before germi¬ 
nation by the 15th of May, and the larvae showed 
no signs of injury. Seeds soaked in kerosene oil 
fared in the same way in the course of a month. 
Spirits of turpentine were used in another case, but 
neither prevented wireworms from eating the seeds, 
nor did it injure them. What appeared to be more 
drastic measures were then undertaken. Some seeds 
were soaked for iS hours in one part of sulphate of 
strychnine to 400 parts of water, and in another 
trial some seeds were soaked for twenty hours in one 
part of strychnine to 200 parts of water, and then 
planted. The poison neither prevented the woripj 
from eating the seeds, nor did it injure them, 
