Nov. 15th, 1884. 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
167 
lime, or of soft and crumbly chalk, these materials 
will be found to combine very loose soils, and open 
the stiffer clays, making the latter more friable and 
pervious to water; while in the form of limestone- 
gravel or of shell-sand they may be employed either 
for opening clayey soil, or giving body and 
firmness to boggy land. The acid humic matter of 
peat is found to be neutralized by lime, and the 
nitrogen held in combination is converted into 
ammonia and nitric acid, which is thus made 
available as plant food. 
Morton & Scott’s Soil of the Farm says:—“When 
we add that lime improves the quality of grain, 
grasses, and other crops, the finer grasses on certain 
lands refusing to grow until the land has been limed ; 
that it is the only known cure for ‘ Finger and 
Toe ’ in Turnips, that it hastens the maturity of 
crops, and that it destroys insects and checks the 
growth of moss and weeds in the soil, it will be seen 
how various and important is the work it performs.” 
Gas-Lime is the refuse lime from gas-works which 
has been employed to purify the gas from sulphur, 
which may afterwards be applied to land, similar to 
quicklime or gypsum. 
It is not a very valuable material, and will not pay 
for cartage to any long distance, but it should not, 
however, be wasted, as it may safely be employed 
with good effect by the gardener under the following 
circumstances:— 
It may be used directly upon mossy lawns, upon 
land which has been turned up rough for the winter ; 
and in spring if strewn sparingly over young Turnip 
plants, or young plants belonging to the Cabbage 
tribe, it will be found to check the attack of the 
Turnip-fly. Slugs and wireworms will also disappear 
from land into which gas-lime has been dug. 
Gas-lime, fresh from the works, is said to be one of 
the best materials to lay under the floors of buildings 
likely to be infested by vermin, for it not only serves 
to absorb and fix the fertilizing gases in such situations 
and afterwards will form a good manure, but, being 
excluded from the air, it retains its disagreeable 
smell for a long time, and is for this reason much 
disliked by vermin and rats. 
(To be continued.) 
THE CHRYSANTHEMUM* 
We are once more in the middle of the Chrysanthe¬ 
mum season. The exhibitions are certainly increasing 
in number, and stimulated by the demand for greater 
variety in form and colour of the flowers, new varieties 
of the Japanese type are being very freely produced; and 
while the exhibitions prosper our gardens are enriched 
with the new flowers brought into notice by their 
means. We are glad to see exhibitions flourish, they 
show us the high state of perfection to which the 
plants can be grown and the flowers developed; and 
the large number of growers who never think of 
exhibiting either their plants or flowers, but who grow 
them for very love of their sweetness and beauty are 
edified. Sweetness! someone may exclaim ; they 
have not a pleasant perfume have they ? Yes, they 
have ! Take a bloom of the deep violet-purple Progne, 
it is quite violet scented, and many others have this 
perfume more or less ; but this is a digression. It is 
enough to say that those who do not exhibit gladly 
avail themselves of exhibition days to select the 
flowers they think most desirable to add to their 
collections, and the sight of more beautiful flowers 
than their own is sure to stimulate them to do better 
in the future. 
The flower is seen in its most profuse development 
and richest beauty in the greenhouse at home, and it 
is for its decorative purposes in the home garden that 
it is valued by the greater number of people. In the 
early development of the Chrysanthemum there were 
no lack of writers who gave their experience in a plain 
and practical manner, but most of them writings are 
out of date, and the pamphlets of Messrs. Broome 
and Dale, and the more complete work of Salter, 
though well abreast of the subject nearly twenty 
years ago, cannot be accepted as guides now, even if 
they are not out of print. The new treatise by Mr. 
Burbidge is therefore most opportune. It comes out 
* The Chrysanthemum: its history , culture , classi¬ 
fication and nomenclature. By F. W. Burbidge. 
The Garden Office. 
at the right time, and will supply a want that was 
beginning to be felt. The history, classification, 
culture, seedling raising, exhibiting, &c., are treated 
in a practical manner. The author evidently believes 
that seed saving and seedling raising can be carried 
on in one and the same garden, and fancies that 
cottagers and artisans might take to improving the 
Chrysanthemum as they have done the Auricula, the 
Onion, and the Leek, the Gooseberry, &e. On this 
part of his subject the author is very poetical, but not 
practical. The subject of seed saving and seedling 
raising is now being considered by practical men, and 
the results of their efforts are being annually placed 
before us. 
The history of the Chrysanthemum is very ably 
dealt with in the second chapter, and is both interesting 
and instructive to lovers of this fine autumn flower. 
Although many varieties were introduced previous to 
the time of Mr. John Salter taking up the work, it was 
not until the idea occurred to him to send the plants 
over to Algiers for the purpose of saving seeds from 
them that real progress was made. Mr. Salter was a 
florist of a pronounced type, and the result of his 
efforts was the great variety and fine form of the 
incurved varieties. He was anxious to obtain a 
bright crimson incurved kind, but was not entirely 
successful, the nearest approach to it being Crimson 
Velvet, which was all that was required as regards 
colour, but was not large enough, and a long way off 
Empress of India in form. It is seldom seen in 
cultivation now. The type of Julie Lagravere and 
Progne should both be improved. And the beautiful 
tipped variety Annee Ferriere is seldom seen now, but 
it ought to be the parent of quite a new strain of 
tipped varieties. It was too small for an exhibition 
variety, but would, if increased in size by seeding, be 
a beautiful addition to the incurved section. 
The cultural remarks are very fully dealt with, and 
the author has, we think wisely, concentrated the 
matured experience of some of the best cultivators 
mto the chapters with this heading. Young beginners, 
and even cultivators of long experience, would do well 
to study those chapters. The time and manner of 
taking the cuttings; the time of potting and after 
treatment of the plants are both carefully dealt with. 
Rules for a Chrysanthemum Society and a Schedule 
of Prizes are also given, while the book concludes with 
a complete list of varieties and a calendar of monthly 
operations. It is a pleasure to recommend this book 
to all lovers of the Chrysanthemum. Exhibitors and 
cultivators are alike indebted to the author for the 
timely appearance of the work, and for the useful 
information so pleasantly placed before them. 
RAILWAY ALLOTMENTS. 
In The Gardening World of October 25th was 
published a short article on Railway Allotments, with 
special reference to the garden plots along the 
embankment of the Metropolitan Extension to 
Harrow. Last week a daily paper announced that 
the Midland Railway Company had decided to offer 
prizes to the value of £100 per annum for the 
cultivation of slopes and waste pieces of ground 
along its lines, and we are pleased to hear of the wise 
liberality of the Company in question. Upon this 
matter we say the “more the merrier.” No employe 
who has the least idea of cultivating a garden, would 
begrudge paying the small sum of 2 d. a pole, the rent 
charged. The railways of England probably allow a 
cultivable margin of 2 yards in width on one side of 
the line, so that we have at least 14,000 acres at disposal. 
Probably not a tenth of this is under tillage. The 
growth of bush fruits, under exposed conditions, 
would scarcely pay, but the land can be made to carry 
crops of Potatos an d Greens 
The chief difficulty of the men is with regard to 
manure, and the difficulty has largely increased of 
late years with the stringent regulations as to frequent 
and systematic cleansing of cattle trucks. Perhaps 
a short conversation the writer had lately with a 
respectable platform foreman at a country station 
will serve to emphasize the remark. “ No allotments ?” 
we asked. “ No, sir, no ; no gardens now, a few of our 
men have them, but they don’t work ’em well. Ye see 
the top spits gone and the land wants a lot of manure. 
Then you see it’s such a difficult job to get it on the 
ground.” “ Had you a garden?” “ Oh, yes ! a capital 
garden, but we’d plenty of good manure then 
you see. I once took out fourteen barrowsful from 
one truck, it was trodden quite solid, and it was a foot 
thick. The Company’s orders were to clean out the 
trucks and bury the manure, to prevent the spread of 
the rinderpest. Well we did bury it properly, but not 
exactly in the way suggested, and we’d the best crops 
of Potatos, Peas, and Cabbages I ever saw. Next year 
the Company wanted the ground, and just as my Ash- 
top kidneys were that high, and the Cabbage a 
‘ hearting ’ nicely, down came the Company and took 
it away to build some cottages on it.” 
The difficulty with respect to manure is twofold—in 
being unable to purchase it at a reasonable price, and 
in conveying it to -within convenient distance of the 
gardens. We venture to make a suggestion to the 
Directors of the Midland Railway Company ; it is, that 
the Company should share a part of the large quantities 
of excellent manure accruing, both in the stables and 
the cattle trucks, among their tenant employes, and 
convey it by them empty return trucks as near to the 
gardens as possible. Such an arrangement would be 
a greater boon to the men than even the liberal offer 
of £100 in prizes. Under the varying circumstances 
of soil, aspect, and ease of access, the prize scheme 
would only be a further inducement to those who are 
already more favourably circumstanced, and therefore 
need encouragement the less. 
As to the desirableness of rendering way-side 
stations more attractive there can be no question.- 
Even the traveller by an express train is grateful for 
the flash of bright colour that momentarily greets his 
eye in a well-managed “Station Garden.” But to the 
passenger who has to wait for weary hours at a country 
station, to sit in the dim little shanty of a waiting-room, 
or pace the blue-black brick platform, the sight of a 
few climbers and flower-beds is quite refreshing. The 
Midland Directors are thinking of their servants also 
and are seeking to afford them a means of innocent 
recreation. The bit of flower-garden and the 
encouragement proffered in the prize scheme, will no 
doubt have the desired effect, and there will be a 
pleasant rivalry between the staffs of country stations. 
Occasional employment of such a light and interesting 
description will furnish an agreeable relief from what 
appears to be a somewhat monotonous occupation.— 
Luke Ellis. 
CUTTINGS IN MOSS. 
The reference to this plan of rooting cuttings in 
moss is but further evidence of the old saying, that 
there is nothing new under the sun. The plan is an 
old one, and was one much employed when pots were 
dearer than they are now. I remember visiting the 
gardens at Cadland, on the Southampton Water, some 
eighteen years since, and seeing there thousands of 
Pelargonium cuttings rooted singly in moss, just as 
shown in your illustration at p. 156. Mr. Harnett, the 
then gardener there, told me that it was a plan he 
had practised for years, not so much to save the trouble 
of potting in the autumn as to enable the plants to be 
bedded out rapidly in the spring. Still farther, by 
standing these rooted cuttings closely together in 
shallow boxes, shaking. a little fine soil about the 
mossed roots, and then keeping them in frames or 
greenhouses, a very great saving of space was effected. 
At bedding-out time the work was immensely 
facilitated, as nought remained to do but to pull the 
plants from the boxes, the moss still attached, giving 
good balls of roots to each, and plant as fast as 
possible. Very large numbers of Pelargoniums were 
annually bedded out then at Cadland. Even farther 
this advantage resulted, the roots were better able 
to readily attach themselves to the soil than did those 
turned out of pots. That the act of mossing up 
cuttings singly in autumn presents any saving of 
labour I gravely doubt, indeed, were a contest to take 
place between potting and mossing, I think the potting 
would win. 
But the chief advantages of the plan are to be 
found in the saving of cost of pots, of much labour in 
watering, of space in frames and greenhouses, and, 
not least, of labour and time in the bedding-out 
season. Of course, it is essential that moss shall be 
abundant and easily obtained, but that is not a 
difficulty as a rule. The fact that cuttings will root 
so freely in moss, shows that sand is not such an 
essential element to promote rooting as is usually 
believed .—A Hampshire Man. 
