776 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 4, 1894, 
resorted to. but this should not be commenced till 
the latter part of March, or early in Aoril, as some¬ 
times we have bid weather in the former month 
which would ‘■eriously affect plants unduly fed If 
at the time of planting any were put too deeply into 
the ground, the soil should be taken from them early 
in spring, before bulbs begin to form, or they will 
not be able to swell, and will, on that account, be 
thick-necked. The cultivation of the Onion is simple 
enough with those who have a deep retentive rich 
loam, but with those who have to deal with poor 
shallow, gravelly soil the case is quite different, with 
such, much extra labour is needed if extra-sized bulbs 
are to be had, for such ground soon becomes ex¬ 
hausted, and therefore requires constant attention if 
the crops are to be kept growing.— Kitchen Gardener. 
Bush Marrows. 
Though well known in France, the Long White and 
Long Green Bush Marrows, so very distinct in 
habit from the ordinary trailing varieties, have not 
yet come into such general use in our gardens as 
their merits deserve. The stems do not run, but re¬ 
main short and thick, and the fruits are longer than 
those of the ordinary Marrow, but always eaten 
when short and very young. Indeed, this is an im¬ 
portant point to attend to, as if left to grow to any 
size they do not continue cropping so continuously 
as when constantly cut young. There are thousands 
of gardens, limited in area where the ordinary trailing 
Marrow would be somewhat of a nuisance, owing to 
the amount of space it takes up, in which the bush 
varieties, owing to their compact growth, would be 
a real boon, and we strongly recommend a trial of 
them. The green or the white fruited forms may be 
grown according to taste ; they are earlier in coming 
into bearing than the trailers, and would seem to do 
best when planted closely together in triangular 
groups of three plants, when they will scarcely ex¬ 
ceed a yard in diameter. The market growers 
plant them mixed with a fair proportion of the green 
to the white one. 
- 
ONION CULTIVATION IN 
EGYPT. 
The Onion crop of the valley of the Nile is of great 
importance, and brings an increasing amount of 
money each year to Egypt, as Onions are shipped in 
immense quantities to England, France, and other 
European countries, and to the United States, where 
they find a ready sale at good prices. The quality is 
stated to be so excellent, that efforts are being made 
in other countries to grow Onions from Egyptian 
seed. The United States Agent and Consul-General 
at Cairo says that in all departments of Egyptian 
agriculture, watering is accomplished by means of 
irrigating from the Nile, either directly or from 
canals. The more popular Egyptian Onion, known 
as Baali, is grown in yellow soil, sparingly watered 
while the bulbs are maturing that they may stand a 
lengthy sea voyage with little risk of sprouting. 
There are two stages of cultivation, the first covering 
the season of the sprouts for transplanting. Towards 
the end of August or the beginning of September, 
the land intended for the Onion crop is irrigated 
from the Nile. After letting the water run off, it is 
left to dry until the first ploughing, when the plough¬ 
shares penetrate not deeper than four fingers' 
breadth. All clods of earth are broken up and pul¬ 
verised, and the land is divided into plots about ten 
feet square, and stirred lightly with a mattock—the 
favourite implement of an Egyptian farmer, which 
is double-headed, one side being broad, like an adze, 
and the other like a pickaxe. The seed is then 
scattered freely and evenly, at the rate of about two 
bushels to the acre. 
After sowing, a plank is passed lightly over the 
soil to cover the seed and bring the plots to the 
same level. The plots are then irrigated, the islets 
along the Nile being irrigated four times and the 
raised land six times. The first irrigation takes 
place immediately after sowing, and the water is 
completely absorbed; a second, and very light 
watering, is given, as soon as the plants appear 
above ground, and the borders of the plot are 
sprinkled. If the seed is planted in raised land, 
manure is applied, but if sown in low ground there 
is no need of manure ; the Onions ripen in the first 
fortnight in October. The second stage covers the 
period from the transplanted sprouts to the mature 
Onions. Land intended for Baali Onions is soil of 
good quality, with no weeds or grass, or yellow land 
of the same qualitv, and damp enough to allow the 
crop to grow and ripen. It is irrigated in S“ptember, 
and it is ploughed three times, the ploughshare pene¬ 
trating to a depth ot about eight inches. After the 
third, and last ploughing, the Onions are set out 
in furrows at a distance of 4 in. apart. The fur¬ 
rows resemble wheat furrows, and the earth covers 
the Onions in the second furrows. In ploughing the 
last time, the cultivator plants the bulbs in the fur¬ 
row ; the plough, returning in the second furrow, 
covers them. The stalks, or tops of the seed Onions, 
emerge from the soil to a height of four fingers' 
breadth or more. Every twenty days the weeds are 
pulled out, in order that the Onions may be clear and 
allowed to develop. 
In the month of April the tops die, and the Onions 
are pulled, and when perfectly dry are packed in 
coarse sacks and sent to market. Baali Onions in 
their second stage are never watered directly. Miskaoni 
Onions absorb so much moisture from the frequently 
irrigated ground in which they grow that they are 
seldom exported. They are sown in the same way 
as the Baali, that is, the sprouts are used as seed, 
and any kind of soil can be used. The land is irri¬ 
gated at the beginning of Seotember, and, after the 
water has run off, it is left to dry until it can be 
ploughed. It is ploughed time, and divided into 
plots 10 ft. square, each furrow being a little over 
2 in. deep, and nearly 5 in. wide.The plants are laid 
in the furrows, at distances of 4 inches, and the 
water is immediately let in. The second irrigation 
takes place in twelve days, and the third in twenty- 
four days, after this the soil is watered every eight 
days, the ground is then left ten days without 
watering, and the Onions ripen and are unearthed; 
they are known to be mature when the tops become 
dry. The cultivator plants the sprouts in the fur¬ 
rows, head downwards, burying them to the depth of 
four fingers’ breadth,—SoctVfy of Arts Journal. 
- .im. - 
fARDENlNG fllSCELLANY. 
HOW I GROW HOYA CARNOSA. 
To make this old-established favourite grow freely 
and flower abundantly every summer seems to be an 
easy matter indeed. We have a nice healthy plant 
in our greenhouse that flowers very satisfactory 
every summer. In i8gi it was but a small piece in 
a 48-sized pot with three or four moderately strong 
shoots on it, and in the autumn of that year I trans¬ 
ferred it into a pot that measures 14 in. in diameter. 
The shoots now are 18 ft. long, and this morning I 
counted over eighty trusses of bloom on them. The 
compost that it was potted in consists of fibrous 
loam, peat, and leaf soil in equal parts, with a liberal 
sprinkling of Bedfordshire sand, which seems to suit 
its requirements admirably, as it makes very satis¬ 
factory progress every year. It is trained horizon¬ 
tally along wires about a foot from the glass in the 
roof of I he greenhouse. Shading seems very essential 
to the successful culture of this subject, A moist 
genial atmosphere seems far more suited to its 
requirements than a high temperature. What I 
particularly wish to say in reference to this plant is, 
that at present it is flowering for the third time from 
the same tips or foot-stalks of the old flowers. 
During the months of July and August, 1892, it 
flowered beautifully, and I stupidly picked off nearly 
all the tips or foot-stalks of the flowers, being then 
under the impression that if they were not removed 
they would prove detrimental to the well-being of 
the plant. However, more through carelessness 
than anything else, six or eight were allowed to 
remain, and I was surprised to see them all flower 
again last summer, and am equally surprised to see 
them all in bloom again at the present time. I also 
noticed that six or eight of the strongest tips that 
were produced on the young shoots that were made 
during March and April flowered twice during July 
and August last year, and are all in bloom again, 
which makes the third time for them to flower in 
two years.— J. Peebles, Hollydene, Bromley. 
ROSE MADAME BRUANT. 
This, we believe, is the first hybrid Rose which was 
raised from Rosa rugosa, and the cross was efl'ected 
in France a few years ago, the other parent being 
one of the Teas. Since then, however, a grower of 
Boston, U.S.A., has raised a single variety from R. 
rugosa, crossed with General Jacqueminot, with all 
the rich colouring of the latter variety. That under 
notice is semi-double and pure white, and is hand¬ 
some both in bud, half and fully expanded. The 
leaves are large, leathery, and rugose, like those of 
R. rugosa, and the vigour of the plant generally 
takes after that well-known Japanese species. 
Another valuable feature about it is that it continues 
to bloom like a Tea Rose from an early period of 
summer onwards. It is now flowering finely and 
bearing numerous long conical buds in the garden of 
W. Stopher, Esq., Bellaggio, Surrey. The variety 
is here grown in the dwarf or bush form, and does 
splendidly under those conditions, but we have also 
seen it worked upon stems and grown as a standard. 
The soil here is very heavy and inclined to clay, 
thereby making the Roses late although the garden 
is on the slope of the hill; it suits Roses very well, 
all the same, for the numerous beds towards the 
bottom of the garden are now oce mass of bloom in 
varied colours, the Tea Roses being the most con¬ 
spicuous at the present time. The vigorous growth 
of various shrubs show what can be done in the 
gardens of this comparatively new neighbourhood of 
homesteads and beautiful villa residences. 
CALANDRINIA UMBELLATA. 
Many cultivators have failed to get this plant into 
anything like good condition, and then lose it as a 
rule during the first winter it is out. Many attribute 
the loss to frost, which may be the case, on low-lying 
soil, even when that happens to be of a light and 
sandy nature. We were surprised the other day to 
see two fine patches of it, each nearly a yard long, 
in the garden of W. Stopher, Esq., Bellaggio, who 
says it has been growing there for the last three 
years unprotected. At the present time it is a mass 
of bloom, and its magenta-crimson flowers are very 
telling. The plant itself is very dwarf and neat in 
habit, even amongst the other members of the 
Portulaca family to which it belongs. The leaves 
are linear and mostly lie close to the ground in tufts 
from amongst which the ascending flower stems 
only rise a few inches, and bear an umbel of charm¬ 
ing blossoms. Looking about for some cause or 
facial evidence of this unusual success, we noted 
that it was planted in a narrow border, close up to 
the edge of the stones used for edging a walk. On 
the other side of the border was a low hedge afibrd- 
ing the necessary shelter and shade for the success 
of Auriculas, which were thriving splendidly and 
coming into bloom the second time. The hedge 
was not sufficiently high to shade the Calandrinia 
so that we attribute the success in this case to the 
substantial nature of the soil, coupled with the fact 
that it was rendered porous and permeable to the 
roots by means of burnt earth which has been freely 
used in the amelioration of the natural soil, not only 
here but in various other parts of the garden. The 
plants always seemed to enjoy proximity to the stone 
edging. 
YUCCA GLORIOSA. 
The Yucca gloriosa which I wrote to you about 
some time ago, (p. 727), has now grown over ten feet 
high, and though several of the young shoots or 
plants are beginning to form, there is only one that 
seems to be doing well. Could you tell me the best 
way to propogate the plant as I wish to experiment 
upon it, and would not like to lose it through any 
mistake I might make. I noticed in one of your 
issues that there were some plants of the smaller 
Yucca angustifolia flowering on the rockery at Kew, 
and it may interest you to know that I have them here 
flowering freely every year.—G. Drummond, Oban, 
N.B. [The plant is easily propagated by taking off 
the suckers thrown up from the roots, and putting 
them in pots or boxes in a cool greenhouse or frame 
for a time. The plant that is flowering will not, 
necessarily, die on that account, if you cut the spike 
off when it has done blooming.— Ed.] 
HAEMANTHUS KATHERINAE. 
Several of the species of Haemanthus are very 
showy when they have been well grown, but some of 
them are difficult to manage under the ordinary 
conditions of culture. That under notice has proved 
very tractable and is a valuable addition to the list 
of stove flowering plants. The leaves accompany 
the flowers, hence the value of the plant for decora- 
