60 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
September 28, 1889. 
Mr. "Watson, sen., now of Bowes Park, Wood Green, 
Middlesex ; Mr. H. Davis, of Camberwell; Mr. W. G. 
Head, of the Crystal Palace ; and the Rev. F. Freeman. 
I have to thank all these gentlemen and many others 
for their friendly help, and also the members of the 
horticultural press, not forgetting" Mr. Libby, of the 
American Garden, Hew York. 
-«*$<-«- 
The Amateurs’ Garden. 
--i-- 
Myrtles. 
There are two very distinct forms of the common 
Myrtle—namely, the broad-leaved and typical kind, 
and a narrow-leaved variety. Many consider the latter 
the best, but it is all a matter of taste, for a well-grown 
specimen of either is decidedly ornamental. They 
may be grown as semi-globular standards or as pyra¬ 
mids, and look well in either case ; but the pyramids 
are certainly the prettiest, and generally the most 
difficult to maintain in perfect health in that form, 
because they are liable to lose the bottom leaves and 
branches if the plants are grown in a house or position 
where they cannot obtain the full advantages of light. 
The best way to treat them is to stand the tubs or pots 
in which they are grown in the open air during the 
summer on either side of a door or giteway, where 
their beauty and bright appearance will be much 
appreciated. They should be pruned with a knife, 
never with the shears, otherwise half their beauty is 
lost. All that is necessary is to cut back the rampant 
shoots, so as to maintain the symmetry of the bush. 
When so treated they will Hover beautifully during 
summer. Grown out of diors the leaves will assume a 
s ib-leathery character, which will emble them to pa j s 
the winter indoors without lodng their foliige or 
becoming disfigured so much as if always grown indoors. 
Fuchsias. 
Old plants of Fuchsias, whether grown in the green¬ 
house or window, and which have finished flowering, 
should now be placed out of doors to thorougly ripen 
their wood. They hit better be pruned after, not 
before the fall of the leaf, to avoid starting the buds 
into fresh growth. Less water may be given, but it 
must not be entirely withheld, otherwise the younger 
roots will perish, and ripening will be less complete 
than when the withdrawal is gradual. Younger plants, 
and those still yielding a supply of bloom, may be 
retained so long as they prove useful by affording 
variety in the greenhouse. 
Begonia Weltoniexsis. 
The hardiness and bemty of this garden hybrid, 
together with the simplicity of its management, are 
qualifications of no mean value in recommending this 
plant to the attention of all who have the accom¬ 
modation of a greenhouse, frame, or simply a window. 
It should be re-potted in the spring of each year just 
after growth has commenced, and with that exception 
it requires no further attention than to see that it does 
not get dry. Being of dwarf, compact and bushy 
habit, it requires no staking, tying or training, and 
when kept clear of dust, always looks fresh and pretty. 
The leaves are of a beautiful light green, with red 
nerves and petioles, while the shoots are also red. 
The flowers are small, but numerously produced, and 
of a beautiful rose or pink colour. The rootstock is 
fleshy or tuberous, and should be kept rather dry in 
winter. 
Wardian Cases. 
Some who have not yet gained the necessary experience, 
find a difficulty in the matter of watering their plants, 
either giving too much or falling into the equally bad 
mistake of giving too little, so that the plants get 
starved, withered up, or discoloured. A happy medium 
should be observed, and the faculty to do that can only 
be acquired by experience. Ferns should always be 
watered when the soil gets dry, and this can easily be 
ascertained by scrutinising it with the eye or even by 
feeling it with the finger ; and by either method the 
cultivator will learn the state of matters with accuracy. 
Evergreen Ferns should be kept moist all the year 
round, and will, of course, require less in winter than 
in summer ; but for all that it will soon result in the 
loss of the foliage or the death of the plant if allowed 
to get dust dry for any length of time. If any of the 
deciduous kinds are grown, they will now be losing 
their leaves or very soon will. Amongst these are the 
numerous varieties of the Lady Fern, which go to rest 
as early as any. Then there are the Bladder Ferns, 
species of Cystopteris, and others, ill of which are 
pretty on account of the delicacy of their plumy green 
fronds in spring. Ho alarm need be felt at their leaves 
now assuming a yellow hue, but merely wait until they 
are quite dead and then remove them, waiting without 
anxiety until the crowns burst forth afresh in spring. 
Do not hesitate to apply water now if necessary, and 
ventilate early in the day to dispel superfluous moisture 
and help to harden the fronds of the evergreen kinds 
before winter. When the day gets warm, close up the 
case again if stood in a window. 
Cucumbers in Frames. 
When these have been fairly well attended to during 
summer, and the fruits removed as they become fit for 
use, a goodly number of young ones will still be 
showing, and, unless the weather prove exceptionally 
cold, they will yet attain a useful size, if the frames 
are kept nearly closed, except in the middle of the day, 
when ventilation may be given if the sun is bright. 
Cover up the frames at night with mats to maintain 
as much warmth as possible. Frosty nights may 
frequently be expected now. 
Scarlet Runners. 
At scarcely any time of the year have Scarlet 
Runners looked more promising than at present, 
owing, no doubt, to the warm and sunny weather we 
have been enjoying since the beginning of the month. 
A great quantity of fruit is still in course of formation, 
and to prevent the plants being injured at night by 
frost, some covering of a dry and light nature, such as 
tiffany or similar material, might be thrown over the 
plants at night when there are signs of frost. By this 
simple means the supply of Beans will be greatly 
prolonged. 
-- 
Gardening ITiscellany. 
Spinach and its Substitutes. 
I once sent you a communication under this title, in¬ 
stancing Round and Prickly Spinach, Giant Orach, 
Spinach Beet, Hew Zealand Spinach, and Good King 
Henry. How let me add to the list another well-kno wn 
plant, which is an excellent, if not the very best, sub¬ 
stitute for the real article, the use of which as a culinary 
vegetable is, I think, little known. I refer to the Ice 
Plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum). Its use in 
this way is by no means a new idea, as my first acquaint¬ 
ance with the subject dates back about thirty years. 
Some of your readers who grow it for garnishing pur¬ 
poses may be glad of the hint that they have an excel¬ 
lent substitute for Spinach at hand and not aware of its 
good qualities. We find here that it is preferred to the 
Hew Zealand Spinach because of its more delicate 
flavour, and I think many would like it better than 
ordinary Spinach because the peculiar flavour charac¬ 
teristic of that plant is less marked in the Ice Plant. 
It should be cooked and served up in the same manner 
as Spinach. When gathering it we take the points 
and leaves only, avoiding the thick stalks, although 
they too will boil quite tender, but to some extent they 
spoil the colour by rendering it of a paler shade of 
green. — IF. B. G. 
Fruit Trees and a Warm September. 
Fruit-growers are, no doubt, congratulating them¬ 
selves on the exceptionally fine weather for the ripening 
of the wood of fruit trees. In most cases this may 
hold good, but at the same time many of those that 
ripened early started into growth a second time, and 
have not only made growths that we can hardly expect 
to be properly matured, but some varieties are pushing 
their flower-buds to an alarming extent, and should 
the weather continue mild for some time the flowers 
will expand and consequently be quite useless. Already 
many of the buds of Stone’s Apple, which we noted in 
the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at 
Chiswick, are so far advanced that the individual 
blooms may be counted. It is naturally an early 
Apple, ripening in September, and remaining in season 
during October and Hovember ; but why it should be 
more advanced than earlier kinds is difficult of ex¬ 
planation. Both wood and flower-buds are on the 
move, so that a heavy crop next year can hardly be 
expected, notwithstanding the tendency of this variety 
to produce fruiting spurs. — F. 
A New Insecticide and Liquid Manure 
Distributor. 
Last Saturday afternoon Mr. Samuel H. Stoll invited 
the whole of the committee and other officers of the 
Preston and Fulwood Horticultural Society to his 
residence, Linden House, Hooklands, Fulwood, to 
witness a practical trial of his patent insecticide and 
liquid manure distributor. The appliance is a cylinder 
about 4 ins. in diameter, and 18 ins. long, in three 
divisions or cells, with holes at the bottom of the first 
and third divisions, and at the top of the second. Each 
end is furnished with a screw to connect hose pipes to 
the service pipe and for delivery. In the centre of 
each cell is a hole 1 in. in diameter, fitted with a screw 
cap, and through these holes the cells are charged with 
the insecticide. The water enters at the bottom of 
cell Ho. 1, passing through the holes at the top of Ho. 2, 
and out at the bottom of Ho. 3. The cells were 
charged with mixtures of 7 lbs. soft soap, and 2 lbs. of 
sulphur, Quassia chips and soft soap, Eucalyptic soap, 
Calvert’s Carbolic Soap, and Bitter Aloes and soft soap, 
in succession, and a tumbler placed at the mouth of 
the delivery pipe showed that the water was as well 
impregnated with the insecticide as if it had been mixed 
in a pail. Sulphide of potassium was placed in 
perforated tubes fitting into the charging holes, and 
the water after passing over it showed in the tumbler 
that it was of the necessary strength. In each cell 
there is a wooden ball, which by the force of the 
water is continually moving, and assists to mix up the 
insecticide with the water. An iron tank in three 
divisions, on the same principle as the cylinder con¬ 
nected with the water supply, held manure, and the 
division next the delivery pipe, charcoal, which assists 
to clear the water. The apparatus was highly approved 
of, and is likely to be of great service where there is a force 
of water, and there is no reason why it should not be 
connected to a garden engine. It has also been sug¬ 
gested that it may be useful to extinguish fires if the 
cells are charged with a suitable preparation, which of 
course must not be affected by water ; but of this and 
other matters I leave Mr. Stoll to speak for himself, 
which I hope he will do in your columns before long.— 
IF. P. li. 
Anthemis tinctoria. 
This beautiful Composite is naturalised in several parts 
of Britain, but is not aboriginally a native. It might, 
however, be more frequently cultivated in borders and 
on rockeries, for which it is admirably adapted, owing 
to its semi-procumbent habit, and to the fact that it 
may be inserted amongst stones and rocky ledges in 
moderately dry places, where it will continue flowering 
during the greater part of summer and autumn. The 
leaves are finely and twice divided into acute segments, 
and are more or less covered with silky or grey hairs. 
Every shoot terminates in a large bright yellow head 
of flowers with a golden disc. When met with in a 
wild state it seems even more handsome, because little 
expected, and apparently too fine for a British weed. 
The most of our Composites are either weeds with 
insignificant flower-heads, or are coarse and rampant 
like the Thistles, Inula, Helenium, the Burdock and 
Petasites. The Chrysanthemum, the Daisy, and some 
others are, of course, exceptions. Anthemis tinctoria 
may be propagated by division, seeds, or cuttings, the 
finest plants being obtained by the two latter methods. 
In some soils it is short lived, almost like a biennial, 
but normally it is perennial. We noted it in the 
gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, Chiswick. 
Watsonia iridifolia O’Brieni. 
The leaves of this beautiful Irid are long and ensi- 
form, like those of W. rosea, and the stems are of 
similar length and strength. On the top of the latter 
the flowers are arranged in a rather close, distichous 
spike. They are large and pure white, with long, 
slender, curved tubes and broad overlapping segments. 
The anthers of the stamens only are of a different 
shade, being of a pale creamy yellow. It is said to be 
the only pure white Iridaceous plant, most of the 
other white flowers having so much yellow, brown, or 
purple suffused or striped on the white ground. A tall 
spike was shown by Mr. James O'Brien, Harrow-on- 
the-Hill, at the last meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, when a First Class Certificate was awarded to 
it.' 
Coleus Cleopatra. 
The original seedling of this variety was shown at the 
Royal Horticultural Society on the 17th inst., together 
with a cutting struck from it. The latter had by far 
the larger leaves, the lamina measuring from 6 ins. to 
9 ins. in length, and from 5 ins. to 7 ins. in width. 
They were also the more brightly coloured, the centre 
being green, while all the rest was of a rich crimson 
clouded with gold. On the old plant, the golden hue 
was by far the more prominent, but definite lines as to 
