January 18, 1896. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
323 
rising to 65° by day. Air may be given as soon as 
the thermometer reaches this, but must be taken off 
early in the day. In fact, the house should be shut 
up not later than 2 p.m., in order to imprison part of 
the sun’s heat. SyriDging will, of course, be con¬ 
ducted at the same time. As the Fig always 
produces more satisfactory crops when the roots 
have a rather confined run, they will soon exhaust 
the supply of water in the soil when they are active, 
and thus care must be taken to see that they are not 
allowed to suffer for lack. Only clear water must be 
given, however, for a time at least, as the application 
of stimulants only favours the production of over- 
luxuriant growth at the expense, usually, of the 
cropping qualities of the trees. 
Later Houses. —The pruning and cleaning of the 
trees in these must be pushed forward as expe¬ 
ditiously as possible if press of work has prevented 
their being attended to before. The branches should 
be washed once or twice with a solution of Gishurst 
Compound, three or four ounces of it dissolved in 
tepid warm water, making an excellent wash. As 
the wood will be likely to swell considerably during 
the course of the coming season the ties must on no 
account be made too tight, otherwise they will have 
to be gone over and loosened presently. 
Peaches and Nectarines.— The trees in the 
early house will now be expanding their flowers 
pretty freely, and the syringe will have been, as a 
matter of course, laid by for a while. The atmo¬ 
sphere must be kept a great deal drier than it has 
been up to the present. The temperature during the 
night may now range from 53 0 to 55°, rising to 65° by 
day. A little air should be given as soon as the 
thermometer stands over 6o°, although draughts 
must in all cases be avoided. The trees must be 
gone over daily between the hours of 12 noon and 
2 p.m., and the expanded flowers lightly brushed 
over. A camel’s-hair brush is as good as anything 
for pollenising purposes, as it is soft and light, and 
thus in experienced hands the transference of pollen 
from the anthers to the stigma may be effected 
without the bruising of the latter, which is so 
prejudicial to the welfare of the immature fruit. As 
soon as the trees have set their fruit the morning and 
evening syringings may be again commenced. Dis¬ 
budding may also be started at a fairly early date, as 
it can soon be seen which shoots are going to prove 
superfluous. It is not wise to allow the young 
growths to reach an advanced state and then to 
remove a large number of them all at once. This is 
sure to result in a serious check to the tree that is 
treated, or rather mistreated, thus. 
Succession House.— The present is a very good 
time for starting a succession house. The trees will 
have been pruned, cleaned, and tied, and the borders 
put to rights previously. For the first week or two 
the thermometer may be kept up to about 45 0 by 
night, rising to a little over 50° during the day with 
air. Syringe as usual night and morning until the 
trees are in flower. 
Strawberries. —As soon as the- plants composing 
the earliest batch are in bloom, the pollenising 
brush may be advantageously employed in assisting 
the flowers to set well. Do not be too premature 
in the use of artificial stimulants, as if these are 
given at a too early stage they, combined with the 
use of the artificial heat and the scarcity of light, only 
induce the production of soft leaf tissues, weakly 
stems and flower scapes, and inferior fruit. The use 
of the syringe is an important item in the programme, 
as it is only by its regular employment that the great 
pest of the Strawberry, viz., red spider—can be kept 
down. 
Succession batches of plants must be introduced 
into heat as required. If there is not a sufficiency of 
pit-room to accommodate them, shelves in vineries or 
Peach houses that are being started may be utilised 
with the best of results, for in such places the plants 
get the moist atmosphere and steady temperature 
that they love. It is true that the Strawberry will 
bear forcing fairly well, but the more gradually the 
plants are brought on, especially in the earlier stages, 
the better will be the results. 
Melons.— The material for making up a bed to 
accommodate these must be prepared without delay. 
A mixture of stable litter and leaves of the late 
season’s gathering gives the best results, as the 
fiercer but less lasting heat of the one is tempered, 
and rendered more lasting by the other. The mix¬ 
ture will require to be well turned twice or thrice 
before using, allowing'three days or thereabouts to 
elapse between each separate turning. In making 
up the bed the fermenting matter must be trodden 
as firmly as possible, to allow for subsequent shrink¬ 
ing ; otherwise the plants will be much farther re¬ 
moved from the glass than is good for them. 
Seed may be sown at once Small thumb pots 
should be used, a single seed being placed in each. 
A bottom heat of 70° Fahr., and an atmospheric 
temperature of 70°, will be necessary to insure 
prompt germination. When the plants are through 
the soil the watering must be carefully performed, 
and always in the mornings. The water should be 
soft, if possible, and of the same temperature as the 
atmosphere with which the leaves of the plants are 
in direct contact.— A. S. G. 
--j-- 
THE ORCHID HOISES. 
The Weather. —So mild is it at the time of writing 
that but for past experience one would almost be 
tempted to get on with the potting of various sub¬ 
jects which appear by their activity to be quite 
ready for a shift. But so changeable is our 
climate that perhaps before this is in print we might, 
but for the hot water appliances, be at the mercy of 
Jack Frost. 
Disas.— There are some Orchids that may be seen 
to forthwith, of which Disas are some of the best. 
They might justly be termed greenhouse Orchids, 
and should be grown by everyone that owns a green¬ 
house. When well grown they increase rapidly, so 
that with a few plants to start with one might 
easily work up a stock for themselves in a few 
seasons. They are best grown in pans, which 
require to be well drained, as they are great lovers of 
moisture at the roots when growing. 
Compost.— This should consist of good peat with 
the fine particles left in, with bits of sandstone, 
sphagnum moss, and a little well-rotted cow manure, 
but no leaf mould, as they do not do well in this. 
Everything being ready, carefully turn them out, 
and if the stock is to be increased the small suckers 
may be taken off as the work proceeds. At this 
early stage you can, with a little experience, tell the 
flowering growths, so that it is possible to make up 
a good pan or two, which will be much admired 
when in bloom. 
Watering.— If the compost at the time of potting 
be moderately moist, as it should be, no water will 
be required, other than what is supplied by syringing 
overhead on bright days, until they have made a good 
start, when they will require liberal trealment. 
Position. —There is no better place for the plants 
during winter than the cool end of an ordinary 
greenhouse, where they should be accommodated 
with a bed of coal ashes to stand on. This prevents 
them from becoming unduly dry. When fire heat is 
used here they may remain until such times when a 
cold frame would be preferable, which with us is 
usually at the end of March. Here they remain 
until in flower, which, if all has gone well, will be 
about July. They require shading during bright 
sunshine, and plenty of moisture about the walls to 
do them well. The lights may be removed at night 
on all favourable occasions. 
Insects. —Green fly, thrip, and red spider attacks 
them, but not very often if the atmosphere is kept 
sufficiently moist. One or two dippings in tobacco 
water during the early spring will generally serve 
to keep these pests in check. 
Temperatures. —Very little fire is required to 
keep the temperatures right during the day, and at 
night care must be exercised, or they will range 
higher than is needful thus early in the new year. 
— C. 
--a-- 
(§ leanings pjom fh$ UDorlfc 
uf Science 
The genus Vanilla—At a meeting of the Linnean 
Society on December iyth, Mr. R. A. Rolfe, of Kew, 
gave an abstract of a paper entitled “A Revision of 
the Genus Vanilla," in which some fifty species were 
enumerated, seventeen of which were described as 
new, though five of them had been previously con¬ 
fused with older forms. The plants in this genus 
were described as tall forest climbers, some of them 
leafless, found almost fhfoughout the tropics, though 
generally somewhat local in their distribution. Of the 
species described, twenty-nine were Amercan, eleven 
Asiatic, and ten African. Six of the American 
species were stated to have aromatic fruits, and 
three are well known in commerce, although only one 
of them, Vanilla planifolia (often confused with other 
species), is largely cultivated as an economic plant. 
Mr. Rolfe gave an account of the morphology and 
mode of fertilisation of the genus, its affinities and 
geographical distribution, and an enumeration of the 
species with descriptions As- indicating a still 
imperfect knowledge of the genus, he remarked that 
it was even now uncertain to what species the 
Peruvian plant with aromatic fruits belonged, which 
was noticed by Humboldt more than eighty years 
ago. The paper was illustrated by a series of 
carefully-made drawings. 
Ants as cultivators.—For some time past it has 
been recorded by Belt and Moller that certain ants 
in Central America and Brazil cut down and collect 
pieces of leaves in their nests for the purpose of 
growing fungi. Whether they do this on purpose 
may remain an open question, but that they do 
collect leaves, or such portions of them as they can 
readily carry away, is readily granted, and that the 
fungi which grow upon them are eaten by the ants. 
From this point of view certain naturalists look upon 
the ants as gardeners. Mr. Swingle has noticed that 
a similar custom prevails in colonies of Atta tardi- 
grada near Washington, and possibly similar habits 
may yet be discovered amongst other species of ants 
when the observations of naturalists have been 
brought to bear upon them. 
Bush fires in Australia.—Our readers are 
familiar with the descriptions of forest fires in 
America, and when a “ bush fire ” is spoken of in 
Australia it practically means the same thing. Now, 
this is just what occurred in Queensland and New 
South Wales in September last, which corresponds 
to winter in that part of the world. Drought had 
never been so severe in the memory of the white 
inhabitants. Tne result was that fires broke out 
here and there until an area of 300,000 square miles, 
or something like it. was involved. Bush, copseland. 
grass, and forest all came under the devastating 
influence of the fire. Giant trees of 200 ft. in height 
or more, caught fire and burned to the top notwith¬ 
standing the fact that the first 100 ft. of the trunk 
might be bare of branches. The Eucolypti or gum 
trees burn like pitch so that they can get totally 
destroyed by these bush fires. Needless to say the 
pasture has all been destroyed within the range of 
these fires so that there was a great scarcity of 
fodder, and cattle and sheep were dying wholesale. 
Towns and villages were often under danger. 
Streams in many cases had dried up under the 
influence of the drought so that gardening in many 
cases had to be carried on under great difficulties. 
Fruit trees had nevertheless blossomed profusely ; but 
unless rain should intervene, the prospects were that 
the fruit crop would be diminished or an entire 
failure. Vegetables were scarce and poor for the 
reason already given, for the soil was dust-dry. Those 
who kept bees found that the stores of honey were 
good, as the bees managed to find nectar-yielding 
flowers notwithstanding the drought.. The winter, 
such as it is there, had been severe although dry, 
and the bees remained active throughout. Orchards 
of groves of Orange trees constitlite a large propor¬ 
tion of the fruit crop in the districts affected by the 
fires. v 
Coloured Lights and Vegetation.—The re¬ 
markable influence of different coloured lights on 
vegetation has induced M. Zacharewicz, Professor 
of Agriculture at Vaucluse, to cultivate Strawberries 
under variously-hued glass. The following are the 
results :—Ordinary glass gave the best and earliest 
fruits. Under orange glass the Strawberry leaves 
grew so disproportionately that the size, quantity, 
and earliness of the fruit were injured. Finally, 
violet glass gave more berries ; but they were small, 
inferior in quality, and late. Accordingly, it would 
seem that to far as this delectable product is con¬ 
cerned, nature cannot be improved upon. 
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full particulars, address—Mesllla Val e.y Irrigation Colony, 34, 
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