662 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
June 16,1894. 
The leaves of Ulmus campestris Rosseelsii aurea 
are remarkable for their small size and golden hue. 
U. c. purpurea has deep purple leaves, and those of 
U. c. variegata are variegated with creamy-yellow. 
The pendulous Mountain Ash has long drooping 
branches, and its near ally, Pyrus vestita, is notable 
for the size of its hoary leaves. Well-established 
bushes of Rosa rugosa alba are flowering freely. 
Towards the north-west end of the grounds is an 
avenue of the late-flowering Syringa grandiflora, 
alternating with newly planted pillar Roses. Another 
avenue consists of several very beautiful varieties 
of Weigelias, now in full bloom, varying from deep 
crimson on the outer face to pure white. The inner 
face is always the paler, being usually of some 
shade of rose mixed with white. Near the same 
place is a recently planted collection of Scarlet 
Chestnuts, American Thorns, Weigelias, and others 
mostly arranged in avenues. A heavy crop of hay 
has been cut off the ground occupied by these fine 
collections of trees. All the gardens, collections, 
and indeed the whole of the grounds, is under the 
direct superintendence of Mr. Charles Dixon, so 
that his time and attention is fully occupied by his 
multifarious duties, and yet he manages to keep his 
trees, shrubs, and other subjects all duly labelled. 
-- 
GRAPES WITHOUT FIRE HEAT. 
There are many instances to be met with where 
Grapes, either from choice or necessity, are expected 
to be grown without artificial heat, and those in 
charge of such places, or amateurs who grow their 
own, have a more difficult task to accomplish than 
those who have ample means of heating at their 
command. Yet in ordinary seasons, with a fair 
amount of sunshine, grapes- of very presentable 
appearance may be produced by careful attention to 
a few leading principles that should govern the 
course of action taken by those so circumstanced. 
Let us first take a glance at two principal causes of 
failure that often occur under the conditions stated, 
viz., the attacks of mildew and red spider. As 
regards the first of these, all the Vines under my 
charge for a long series of years having been per¬ 
fectly free from it, I fear I have contracted an 
uncharitable frame of mind towards those who are 
less fortunate, and am apt to describe the attacks of 
mildew as resulting from their own mismanagement 
or negligence. 
I have not for many years used one ounce of 
sulphur either as a remedy or a preventative against 
mildew. At the same time I readily admit that to 
keep vines free from it without the occasional use 
of fire heat is a matter of some difficulty, and that 
in very wet, cold seasons, it is almost impossible. 
Yet by skilful management and careful attention it 
may generally be avoided if the causes conducive to 
the growth of mildew be guarded against. These are 
the maintenance of a too stagnant, damp atmosphere 
followed up by the sudden admission of cold air 
through the front lights creating cold draughts 
during the earlier stages of growth. To be on the 
safe side never admit air from the front lights till the 
berries commence colouring, and then do it 
gradually. When they arrive at this stage they are 
not so susceptible to the attacks of mildew and a 
freer admission of air becomes a prime necessity for 
the ripening alike of fruit and wood. 
Another predisposing cause of mildew arises from 
the careless and too free use of the syringe. I never 
use it on Vines after they are in flower, and may 
remark that at the present time I have a vinery in 
which the Grapes are at present stoning where the 
Vines have not had the syringe plied upon them 
since they came into leaf, and they are perfectly free 
from both red spider and mildew. The presence of 
both are courted by careless airing. Never allow too 
sudden and great rises of the temperature before 
admitting air, and do it cautiously, only giving 
sufficient to keep down the temperature to 75 ° to 
80 °. The sudden admittance of copious draughts of 
cold air does much to check and stunt the young 
growths, and to do anything having this tendency is 
simply courting failure. Never give air freely till 
colouring commences, and do not under any circum¬ 
stance admit it from the front lights. 
Till then the amount of ventilation required will 
depend very much upon the aspect of the house and 
whether it is glazed with large or small panes. 
Houses having large squares of glass wall require 
earlier and proportionately freer ventilation than 
those with small panes, because from the greater 
number of laps these have through many of which a 
constant stream of fresh air is always passing, and 
these houses are more heavily timbered than more 
modern structures, so that they never get heated by 
the sun’s rays to the same extent as those do which 
have larger panes and heavier glass. Again, houses 
facing due south will require airing differently from 
those having an easterly or westerly aspect; those 
easterly will when the sun shines require airing being 
earlier in the morning and shutting up sooner than 
the others, whilst the westerly ones the airing will be 
done later in the morning and taken off generally 
later in the afternoon, at least during bright sunny 
weather. These remarks apply chiefly to bright 
weather ; during cloudy weather there will be little 
difference as to how soon in the day air is given or 
to the amount admitted. 
All possible use must be made of sun heat by 
taking off the air as soon as the diminishing force of 
the sun’s rays renders it safe to do so. There have 
only been a few days during the present season on 
which ours have remained open after three o'clock, 
which is our usual closing time, and only when the 
weather is exceptionally warm do I allow them to 
be open much after that time; but where a little fire 
heat is applied we give a little air again. 
To keep down red spider, well damp the staging 
and flooring during the prevalence of sunny weather 
and let it be done before the atmosphere becomes 
too dry and arid. The state of the weather and the 
condition and style of the house, whether well 
glazed and in good repair, aspect. Sec., must largely 
determine the extent to which damping down is carried, 
also remembering that an excess is a predisposing 
cause of mildew, whilst a too restricted use of water 
to maintain a healthy moisture in the air will be 
followed by the ravages of red spider. 
The grower of vines in unheated houses has a 
more critical path to tread in this respect than his 
more fortunate neighbour, yet at the same time he 
is, if anything, less likely to get spider on his Vines, 
because of the low night temperature they are often 
subjected to causing them to be wet with dew in the 
morning, for such is really the case when they have 
what is often called the bead on the leaf. This is 
a better antidote to spider than all the syringing it 
is possible to give ; at the same time it occasionally 
results in considerable damage being done if the 
sun gets too powerful upon them before the foliage 
gets dry and scalding takes place. As a pre¬ 
cautionary measure shake the r ods to dislodge the 
drops of water before the sun gets too powerful, and 
by a timely admittance of air the remainder will 
soon be dissipated. 
It will be observed that the two greatest evils the 
Grape grower has to contend with are brought into 
play by very opposite atmospheric conditions—red 
spider by too much aridity and mildew from a too 
damp, stagnant, atmosphere; so the grower 
must be on the alert to steer a happy medium 
between these two extremes. By a steady con¬ 
tinuance in this path his reward will be freedom 
from a source of great annoyance and anxiety. 
When the Grapes are coloured—which under the 
circumstances will generally be about the middle of 
August, when the weather is often the finest and 
warmest of summer and warm still nights prevail— 
air may be freely admitted through both top and 
bottom lights ; but should the contrary be the case, 
and heavy rains set in, the top lights should be closed 
sufficiently to keep out the rain, and air be admitted 
mostly from the front, the object being to keep the 
house as dry during cloudy wet weather as circum¬ 
stances will admit of ; this alike for the well being 
of the fruit and to hasten the maturing of the wood, 
for upon the well ripening of this the character of 
the coming year's crop largely depends. To assist 
these Vines also in ripening off the canes, besides close 
attention to ventilation, the proper shortening and 
thinning out of all superfluous growths must be seen 
to, and if the canes are at a fair distance apart, so that 
they are brought under the influences of both sun 
and air, all that it is possible to do without the assist¬ 
ance of fire heat will be accomplished. There are 
sometimes seasons when, from prolonged damp cold 
weather in the autumn, it is almost impossible to get 
the wood properly matured without the aid of fire 
heat, and if failure should ensue it may be from no 
fault of the grower but simply his misfortune if he 
has done his best.—IF. B. C. 
THE COCOANUT AND 
ITS FIBRE REFUSE. 
Some "young inquirers on gardening matters ” (may 
their number increase !) are desirous of knowing 
what Cocoanut fibre refuse really is, and how it is 
prepared for use, if any preparation is needed. They 
see it in use in various ways in the garden, and they 
are actuated by a laudable desire to learn more of its 
nature than they at present know. As the Garden¬ 
ing World is the most popular weekly instructor on 
matters pertaining to gardening generally, they have, 
in recognition of this obvious fact, addressed their 
inquiry to us. We may say of this fibre that it has 
proved a most useful adjunct to the garden, and is 
employed there in many ways with advantage : as a 
plunging material, as a mulch, as a suitable covering 
for cutting beds in pits, as useful for mixing with 
potting soil for many subjects, and in other ways too 
numerous to mention. To borrow a simile from a 
well-known advertisement couplet—it has proved a 
boon and a blessing to gardeners; and he who first 
brought its usefulness into notice deserves well of 
Adam’s descendents. For aught we know to the 
contrary, he may have grown the Cocoanut in Eden, 
for we are without contemporary knowledge to the 
contrary. 
Cocoanut fibre refuse can scarcely be regarded as 
a fertilizer, yet plants root into it very readily— 
Primroses, Polyanthuses, and this class of subject 
especially. It is also a very useful material for uniting 
with and rendering more open heavy soils, and for 
mulching purposes in summer it is invaluable. One 
frequently sees it employed as a covering for flower 
beds, preventing the rapid evaporation of moisture 
from the soil which goes on during a hot summer 
day. 
Cocoanuts, or as they are generally termed in the 
trade, cokernuts, to distinguish them from the 
Theobroma cacao, which furnishes cocoa and 
chocolate, are shipped principally from Trinidad, 
Jamaica, Demerara, Tobago, several of the other sea¬ 
ward islands in the British West Indies, Ceylon, all 
round the coast of America, and the Fiji Islands. 
The quantity imported annually is so large as to be 
computed at twelve millions of fruits, though Mr. 
Leo Grindon, in an earlier statement, puts it at a 
lower number. " Nearly all,’’ states this writer, “ are 
retained tor home consumption, the confectioners use 
a few. In the fresh state no fruit brought from a 
foreign country is destined so emphatically, not for 
grown people, but for the children.” 
The tree producing this fruit (Cocos nucifera) is 
one jf the splendid order called Palms, by Linnaeus 
styled the " Princes of the Vegetable Kingdom " — 
plants in the aggregate of their fine characters truly 
royal, and in the aggregate of their varied usefulness 
unrivalled. Mr. Grindon forcibly describes the 
appearance of one of these Palms: " Instead of 
possessing boughs, twigs, and innumerable leaves, 
usually^small, the Palm is a living pillar, slender, 
cylindrical, and erect, and capable of attaining, in 
one species or another, the stature of sixty, eighty, 
a hundred, even a hundred and ninety feet. Not a 
single side-ways shoot ever breaks the upward line 
till the summit is reached, and then at last w’e have, 
the leaves—leaves as large as branches, and constitu¬ 
ting an evergreen and prodigious crown. Usually they 
are pinnate, sometimes fan-shaped ; when pinnate, 
the exterior half-dozen are prone to arch elegantly 
outwards and downwards. New leaves are constantly 
rising from the centre of the crown. The older ones 
die, though slowly, and the young ones take their 
place, the column, under the hands of its green arti¬ 
ficers, steadily ascending with measured and majestic 
pace. To a European visiting any tropical country, 
where Palm trees grow, the spectacle of a Palm- 
grove, or even of a single Palm, is always one of 
supreme interest and attractiveness. The great 
radiating coronet of leaves, and the lofty pillar stand 
out so distinctly from all surrounding vegetation as 
to catch the eye at once." 
The Cocoanut Palm will grow to a height of sixty 
to one hundred feet, and the pinnate leaves are about 
twenty feet in length, and sixteen to twenty in 
number. The flowering branches are five or six feet 
long, enclosed, while young, in a great sheath or 
" spathe.” A bunch of nuts isproduced every month, 
so that ten or twelve are generally to be seen upon 
the tree at once, every bunch consisting of eight or 
nine, up to twenty. The production commences when 
the tree is about eight years old, and continues foi' 
seventy or eighty years. 
