354 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
February 6, 1892. 
is produced on young plants. As they get old the 
fruit gets smaller and more numerous, therefore a 
young plantation should be made every year, des¬ 
troying the oldest one. When the fruit has been 
gathered, and all runners selected that are required, 
the beds should be thoroughly cleaned and lightly 
forked over to lie for the winter. If the soil is poor 
a good mulching of short manure will be found 
beneficial, but if it is in good heart it will not be 
necessary. In the spring the beds should be hoed on 
every favourable opportunity to keep the weeds well 
in hand. As soon as the flower stalks show, a 
mulching of clean straw should be applied all over 
the beds ; it it cannot be spared to go over the whole 
surface it should be spread at least a foot round each 
plant. This will serve a double purpose, by keeping 
the fruit clean and protecting the roots from drought. 
In gathering the fruit great care should be 
exercised ; it is the most easily damaged fruit of 
which I know. The fruit should only be handled by 
the stalk, and put direct into the baskets in which it 
is to remain. Early morning should be chosen for 
gathering the fruit, as then the flavour and freshness 
so peculiar to the Strawberry is fully retained. 
Birds are very troublesome when the fruit is ripen¬ 
ing ; the only remedy is to net the beds. The nets 
can easily be removed to gather the fruit, and then 
replaced again. In wet seasons slugs do great 
damage to the fruit; they can partly be prevented 
by having plenty of mulching, and if some of it has 
been put through a chaff cutter and cut into 2 in. 
lengths, it will greatly check their progress. 
Varieties. 
Of these there is a great number of excellent ones 
now in cultivation, but as they vary so much in 
different places, it would be almost impossible to 
name a limited number for cultivation. Is it advis¬ 
able to grow several until a selection can be made of 
the most suitable. The following are twelve varie¬ 
ties of the best now in cultivation ; they are named 
in their order of ripening Noble, King of the 
Earlies, Vicomtesse Hericarte de Thury, President, 
Sir Joseph Paxton, Sir Charles Napier, Countess, 
James Veitch, British Queen, Eleanor, Waterloo, 
and Elton Pine. 
Raspberries. 
The cultivation of the Raspberry is simplicity itself, 
and there is no doubt but that it receives the worst 
treatment in the majority of gardens ; this should not 
be so, as it w'ell repays for 'any extra attention be¬ 
stowed upon it. It belongs to the genus Rubus, and 
is a native of Great Britain, though it is not to be 
found veiy plentifully in a wild state now. The 
fruit is largely used for cooking and preserving; it is 
also valued for dessert, especially the yellow 
varieties. A rather damp situation suits the Rasp¬ 
berry best, and if it is a little shaded it will not be a 
very serious drawback. 
Propagation is best effected by suckers, which are 
produced plentifully by most varieties. Suckers are 
sometimes produced a good distance away from the 
stools ; these can be dug up with a good root, and 
make by far the best plants. Short-jointed, well- 
ripened canes of about 3 ft. high should be selected 
for planting. Autumn is the best time for making 
new plantations, the stools should be 4 ft. apart each 
way. Three suckers are sufficient to form a stool, 
planting them in a triangle about 6 in. apart. When 
there are sufficient canes at command this is the 
best plan, but two will do if they are scarce. 
Before the spring the .canes should be cut down 
within 6 in. of the ground, to encourage the pro¬ 
duction of young canes the following summer. The 
plantation should receive a good mulching with farm¬ 
yard manure before the warm weather sets in, as the 
most important roots are those near the surface, and 
must therefore be protected from the drought. If 
more than five or six suckers are thrown up they 
should be reduced to that number, as it is very un¬ 
wise to grow a lot of canes to be cut up in the 
autumn. Seldom are too many canes produced the 
first year, but if they are they should be instantly re¬ 
moved, so as to concentrate the strength into those 
retained. The summer treatment consists in keep¬ 
ing the ground free from weeds, and if the weather 
is very dry a good soaking with water will be very 
beneficial. 
In the second winter the canes should be short¬ 
ened according to their strength, strong ones may be 
cut down to 4 ft., and weak ones shorter. The fruit 
Will l?e borne on the branching which are produced 
on the canes. Raspberries can be trained in a 
variety of ways ; the prevailing system is to drive a 
stout stake into the centre of each stool, and loop all 
the canes to it at the top. But when tied in this 
manner, the young canes become crowded with the 
fruiting ones. Where the canes have pot grown too 
strong, arching is more serviceable, simply bending 
half the canes from one stool over to meet those of 
the adjoining one in a similar manner and tying the 
two together. In this way the young canes get more 
light and the fruit is not so crowded, nor are any 
stakes required. A good plan which I have seen 
adopted with marked success is to shorten two of the 
canes to 18 in., two more to 3 ft., and the remainder 
to 4ft. 6in., thereby securing a crop of fruit from 
the ground to the top of the cane. Raspberries can 
also be trained to horizontal wires, or wooden 
“cradles” made of laths ; when grown in this 
manner they must be planted about 1 ft. apart, and 
the canes cut down alternately to 2 ft. and 4 ft. 
The fruit should always be gathered when it is 
dry, and into punnets of two pounds. For dessert 
they must be gathered with the stalk, but for pre¬ 
serving they are better “slipped,” as it saves 
handling again. After the fruit has been gathered, 
the old canes should be cut out, and gently drawn 
down so as not to injure the young ones. By re¬ 
moving them now the young canes get better ripened 
with the increase of light and air. Raspberry 
quarters should not be dug with a spade, as it is a 
surface-rooting plant, and the more the fibrous roots 
are preserved the finer will be the fruit. 
Varieties. 
In Raspberries, like most other fruits, there is a con¬ 
siderable field to select from ; but the six named 
below are amongst the best now in cultivation, 
namely. Carter’s Prolific, Baumforth's Seedling, 
McLaren’s Prolific, Red Antwerp, October Red and 
Yellow Antwerp.— T. W. 
(To be continued.) 
-- 
A RUSSIAN APPLE. 
Mr. Charles Gibbs, of Abbotsford,Quebec, Canada, 
in a report presented to the Horticultural Society of 
Montreal upon the Russian Apples introduced by the 
Department of Agriculture of the United States in 
1870, describes 168 varieties of Russian Apples 
either introduced or cultivated in Russia. The 
Apple Antonovka, says Mr. Gibbs, is the queen of 
Apples of the steppes of Russia. The learned Dr. 
Regel, director of the Imperial Botanic Garden of 
St. Petersburg, adds: “It is the most highly 
esteemed, and the most cultivated in Russia.” One 
finds it at Valam, north of the province of St. 
Petersburg, along the Russian coasts of the Baltic. 
The trees are cultivated by hundreds of thousands. 
It is truly the queen of Russian Apples, for the table, 
for culinary purposes,'or the brewing vat. In cul¬ 
tivation it extends from the Baltic to Odessa, and 
from Ototchin to Jekaterinbourg. The fruit is of a 
beautiful pale yellow, ripens in August and Septem¬ 
ber, and keeps good until June of the following year. 
Others say it ripens in October, and keeps till July ; 
this would depend on the part of the country where 
it is grown. The form varies as often from round 
or flattened to conical, which is the predominating 
one. The flesh is semifirm, yellowish, and subacid. 
It is above all a fruit of the household for stewing or 
for drying ; and is a veritable Apple for the people, 
says Dr. Regel. The tree flowers late, is of great 
hardiness, and of moderate vigour. There is a fine 
coloured illustration of it in the Bulletin d'Arbori¬ 
culture, &c., for January. The figure reminds us very 
much of Golden Noble, and from the description of 
it we should imagine it would be suitable for the 
more northern parts of Britain, if not for the 
south. 
-- 5 -- 
SELAGINELLAS. 
(Concluded from p. 343 .) 
The undermentioned species are all cultivated 
more or less in British gardens, and some of them 
very widely, thus proving their utility for general 
decorative purposes and for exhibition. Selaginellas 
are more frequently seen on the exhibition table in the 
north than in the south, a fact that is to be regretted ; 
for where prizes are offered of adequate value to re¬ 
compense the grower in a measure, the Selaginellas 
often constitute a pleasing and attractive feature of 
tb'e show. Well-grown plants also provide hantj- 
some masses of ‘greenery for the decoration of the 
houses at home, including the shady parts of the con¬ 
servatory where flowering plants would be unsuitable 
and out of place. 
S. apus-.— Various names are given to this popu¬ 
lar and dwarf, dense growing species of a pleasing 
green ; amongst, others S. densa and Lycopodium 
apodum may be mentioned. Large pans of it are 
the most effective; and the soil in which it is grown 
may either be flat or elevated to form a rounded or 
even slightly conical mound. Owing to its dense 
habit and the soft nature of the stems and leaves, 
this species requires to be broken up and planted 
afresh more than once a year if pans of it are wanted 
at different times of the year. The pans can 
easily be renewed by pulling the plant into small 
pieces, and dibbling then in thickly all over the soil. 
When newly done up in this way in soil containing 
a considerable quantity of peat or well-decayed leaf 
soil, the pans with the Selaginellas should be placed 
in a close and moist atmosphere, with a genial tem¬ 
perature to encourage fresh growth. 
S. uncinata.— In gardens this is often grown 
under the name of Lycopodium caesium, doubtless in 
reference to the bright blue-green, or almost steel- 
blue colour of the foliage, and which is one of the 
most attractive features of the species. To bring 
out this beautiful hue in the greatest perfection, the 
plant should be grown in a moist, genial atmosphere 
and in a shady position. The stems are trailing, and 
attain a length varying from i ft! to 2 ft. On this 
account the species is well adapted for culture on 
conical mounds of soil kept in form by being sur¬ 
rounded with a conical framework of stout wire, or 
other suitable material of a durable nature. When 
the soil is once permeated with roots, there is no 
fear of the soil being washed out in the process of 
watering. The soil may be kept on the dry side dur¬ 
ing winter, but when so treated the whole must be 
done up afresh every spring. 
S. cuspidata. —Equally popular as the last, this 
has found its way into many private gardens all over 
the country. Its erect habit and tufted growth ren¬ 
ders it more suitable for potwork than in the case of 
S. uncinata. The stems of the type are generally 
about 6 in. or 8 in. long, narrow, and branched along 
the greater part of their length. The leaves are of a 
pale green, with white edges, and give to the plants 
their characteristic hue. The variety S. c. elongata 
is aiso well-known in gardens, and differs from the 
type, chiefly in the stems being about 1 ft, in length, 
Annual re-potting in spring is all that is necessary, 
and it may be kept in a greenhouse temperature all 
the year round, provided the atmosphere is tolerably 
moist during the growing season, 
S. caulescens. —The stems of this greenhouse 
species vary from 6 in. to 12 in. in length, according 
to treatment. The type is generally the tallest 
growing form, and is perhaps the least common in 
gardens outside botanical establishments, for the 
dwarfer and more compact forms are the most 
popular and most frequently cultivated in private 
gardens. S. c. minor seldom exceeds 6in. high, and 
is generally dwarfer when grown in a greenhouse, 
for which it is certainly well adapted. The foliage 
and stems in a dry atmosphere, exposed to some ex¬ 
tent to sunshine, assume a slightly reddish tint, but 
the other good points of the plant compensate for 
the lack of colour. The variety S. c, amcena, when 
grown in a stove at least, preserves a pleasing light 
green hue all the year round, and is in some respects 
similar to S. c. argentea. All the forms are well 
adapted for pot culture. 
S. \\ illdenovii. —Gardeners and cultivators gen¬ 
erally will persist in calling this S. caesium-arboreum, 
in reference to the steel blue colour of the leaves 
resembling those of S. uncinata, but in gardens 
known as S. caesium, and also to the tall nature of 
the plant. The stems vary from 12 ft. to 20 ft. 
according to the treatment given it, and the space at 
their command. The lateral branches or pinnae ara 
triangular and much divided, thus furnishing plenty 
of foliage to the long climbing stems, which should 
be trained to the rafters of a warm fernery or 
stove. 
S. Serpens. —Although not very extensively culti¬ 
vated at the present day, this is one of the oldest 
introductions as far as Selaginellas are concerned. 
The plant was cultivated in the days of Miller, and is 
notable for the change of colour that takes place in 
the leaves as the night comes on. With increasing 
darkness, they become pale or almost white, The 
