Dec. 13tli, 1884. 
THE HARDENING WORLD. 
235 
Spinea were thus treated in the summer of 1883, the 
present is a good time to take up a batch and pot 
them in suitable sized and properly crocked pots— 
that is, in sizes ranging from 6 ins. to 10 ins. in 
diameter. Use a compost consisting of three parts of 
light loam and one of leaf-mould and manure from a 
spent Mushroom or Cucumber bed, with a dash of 
course sand, and let it be moderately rammed with a 
flat rammer. Then water and stand the pots on coal 
ashes in a cold pit, whence they can be taken to the 
forcing-house as required. In the meantime it would 
be advisable to put a small batch of plants into the 
Mushroom-house for early work, and as soon as the 
plants have started into growth they should be grad¬ 
ually inured to light, and be finally removed to the 
forcing-house.— H. T V. 
--H*- 
Hydrangea petiolaris. — This striking and 
elegant plant is a native of Japan, where it is common 
in the subalpine districts. It is closely allied to the 
Himalayan H. altissima, both having the curious habit 
of the petals cohering at their tips in an extinguisher- 
lip cap, as in the Vine. They both have a remarkable 
habit of climbing lofty trees, by throwing out numerous 
adventitious roots along the stem and branches, as in 
the Ivy. H. petiolaris is a free grower, and if planted 
out in a cool conservatory with a good support will 
attain a considerable size. The Kew plant is grown in 
the temperate-house on the stem of a tree fern 
(Dicksonia antarctiea), and flowered in April and May 
of last year. The leaves are dark green above, paler 
below, ovate-cordate, and serrate ; the cymes flat and 
18 ins. to 10 ins. in diameter ; the radiate flowers are 
white, not numerous, and 1 in. to 2 ins. broad; the 
fertile flowers very numerous, pale green, and each 
with 15 stamens to 20 stamens. It has been sent to 
Kew from two sources—from Max Leichtlin in 1878, 
and recently in the collection of the late Mr. Joad, of 
Wimbledon. In both cases it was labelled Schizo- 
phragma hydrangeoides, which is a very different 
plant. It is figured in the December number of The 
Botanical Magazine, t. 6788. 
Bedding Pelargoniums. —Considerable difficulty 
is often experienced at this time of the year in 
preventing these-plants from damping off. Keeping 
them dry at the roots prevents the mischief in a 
great measure, but this in some eases may have the 
undeshed effect of killing the roots and drying up the 
tops. If compelled to water the plants and damping 
should result, remove all decayed leaves and dust the 
plants over with some fine broken charcoal, this will 
arrest in a great measure all damp, and keep them 
over until a better position may be found for them, 
such as a vinery after the Grapes are cut.— C. W. 
Myosotis dissitiflora.—Those who wish to have 
this beautiful plant at its best should lose no time in 
taking up and potting a portion of their stock, as, by 
doing so now, they have tune to get fresh hold and be¬ 
come re-established before the season arrives for them 
to bloom, -when, without having made new roots, they 
would flag under the influence of sun or exposed to 
dry air. In lifting the plants care should be taken to 
raise them with good balls that they suffer little 
check, and when potting them the proper soil to use 
■ is that which is light and rich, to settle which about 
1 them a good watering is necessary, and after this is 
done the best situation for the plants is in a cold 
frame, where they should be kept close for a week or 
so to give them a start. As soon as they will bear the 
air without suffering, it will be needful to tilt the 
lights, and during mild weather it is advisable to 
remove them altogether, as under confinement the 
Forget-me-not is very subject to mildew, which pest 
shows itself on the leaves, and, if not stopped, soon 
spoils the plants. The best remedy is sulphur, and to 
prevent the spread of the fungus this should be dusted 
over the foliage, and, after a few days, be syringed 
off again. Another parasite that generally affects the 
Myosotis is the green-fly, which spreads at such a 
rate that, if left for only a short time to itself, quite 
cripples the points of the shoots and destroys the 
young tender blossoms. The only way of dealing with 
the aphis is to fumigate or syringe with tobacco- 
water, the fumigating being the best, as the smoke 
teaches every part and none of the insects escape. 
Cucumbers from November to March. —In 
order to maintain a constant supply of Cucumbers 
during the interval from the end of November to the 
end of March it is necessary that the cultivator 
should be provided with suitable accommodation in 
the form of a low, light, and air-tight house, 
adequately supplied with top and bottom heat, so 
that a minimum temperature of from 60 degs. to 
70 degs. can be kept up, let the weather be what it 
may. To do this in very severe weather, it will 
be both necessary and advisable to cover the glass 
at night with mats; indeed this practice, on the 
score of economy as well as a means of securing a 
more genial temperature and atmosphere in the 
house, is to be commended during the v/inter months. 
The plants during the period above referred to will 
require to be very carefully looked after hr the way 
of watering at the roots as well as distributing mois¬ 
ture in the house. This, however, must be regulated 
in accordance with the condition of the weather and 
the plants; but a humid rather than an arid atmos¬ 
phere should be aimed at. Hence during mild 
weather there will be no necessity for damping the 
plants with tepid water from the syringe, in vdiich 
case mildew might ensue. On the other hand, 
should the nature of the weather be such as to 
necessitate severe firing to maintain the minimum 
temperature given above, a slight distribution of 
moisture in the house in the morning and afternoon 
will be necessary to counteract the somewhat parching 
influence of the highly-heated pipes. Cucumber 
plants being subject to canker, it will be advisable, 
as a preventative, to place some powdered charcoal 
around the individual stems; should fly be trouble¬ 
some, fumigate a couple of evenings in succession 
with tobacco-paper. Crop light and cut the fruits as 
soon as large enough, and stand them on end in a 
saucer containing a little water in a cool room till 
required for use.— H. 
Haricot Beans.—The origin of the word Haricot 
as applied to Phaseolus vulgaris, has been a source of 
much controversy. De Candolle, in his Origin of 
Cultivated Plants, says that chance has led him to 
find it. An Italian name, araco, found in Durante 
and Matthiolo, was given to a leguminous plant 
which modem botanists attribute to Latlnjrus ochrus. 
Durante quotes the Greek dpaxog as the synonym of 
his araco, which gives the clue to the etymology. 
Pcre Feuillee WTote in French aricot; before him 
Tournefort, who was the first to use the name, spelt it 
haricot, in the belief, probably, that the Greek word 
was written with an aspirate, which is not the case, 
at least in the best authors. M. Littre,. in his 
dictionary, inclines to the theory that Haricot, the 
plant, comes from the ragout called haricot or laricot 
of mutton, given in )some French dictionaries as the 
equivalent of “ Irish stew,” seeing that the latter is 
older in the language and that a certain resemblance 
may be traced between the Haricot Bean and the 
morsels of meat in the ragout, or else that this Bean 
was suitable to the making of the dish. As Haricot 
Beans are not used in making the ragout, as we find 
on reference to Soyer and other authorities on cooking, 
Littre’s suggestion is evidently a misleading one, 
while De Candolle’s seems perfectly satisfactory. 
Wedgwood, in his Dictionary of English Etymology, 
says, “ Haricot is described as small pieces of mutton 
partly boiled and then fried with vegetables, but 
without any reference to Haricot Beans.”— Midland 
Naturalist. 
Seedling Potatos. — I must join issue with Mr. 
Webb (p. 219) in the conclusion at which he arrives 
with respect to the time needed to discover the real 
merits of a seedling Potato. My own experience is a 
very large one, not only with my own seedlings but 
with others, and I have always found the features 
shown in the first year or two to be thoroughly borne 
out. Perhaps something is due to the strains of 
seedlings, or rather the parentage from which they 
are derived. Good stocks give usually very true 
results, bad stocks are always unreliable. I fear Irish 
raisers are a long way behind us in this matter of 
Potatos, indeed one kind of which Mr. Webb writes in 
terms of such approbation, Erin’s Pride, tried at 
Chiswick last summer with so many other fine kinds, 
to be proved a very poor sample, rough, uneven, and 
altogether unworthy a place beside our best English 
kinds. The Champion seems to have been made the 
active parent of many fresh new kinds, and a coarse 
and unreliable parent it is. The raiser who harks 
back to the Champion for raising seed-stocks of 
Potatos will find himself some twenty years in the 
rear. 
I have found even the first year’s character of 
seedlings giving a pretty fair estimate of what the 
kind will be in years to come, especially if the 
seedlings be treated fairly as Potatos should be, and 
not coddled and nursed as though they were tender 
exotics under glass, and perhaps in pots. My own 
practice is to sow seed in pans early in April. They 
will without heat germinate in a couple of weeks and 
by the end of the month the plants need dibbling out 
thinly into other pans, then by the middle of May they 
may be stood in a warm place outdoors, and at the 
end of the month be transplanted with a trowel and a 
good ball of soil to each plant into the open ground, 
in rows some 30 ins. apart and in good soil. Such 
plants will, according to character, produce from i lb. 
to 3 lbs. of tubers the first year, and a really good 
stock is obtained to enable a correct line to be obtained 
the second year. If then any seedling kind did not 
give satisfaction it would go, but of course in making 
such a selection very much depends upon the experience 
and judgment brought to bear upon the matter as those 
fully acquainted with Potatos will better know what is 
worth preserving and what is not, than will a raiser in 
his novitiate. 
It is this comparative lack of knowledge as to what 
constitutes a really improved Potato, that causes so 
many inferior kinds to be put into commerce. There 
can be no greater w T aste of labour than in raising 
seedlings the which are not the product of some -well- 
designed and carefully-executed cross. Naturally 
fertilized seed almost always reproduces its kind only. 
A score of seedlings from some good cross is worth ten 
times the number from a naturally fertilized pod. 
Those who may contemplate raising seedling Potatos 
should not make their crosses in a haphazard fashion, 
but should first select kinds of known excellence, 
productiveness, and capacity to resist disease, and 
utilize the pollen from one kind to fertilize blooms on 
another, carefully marking the flowers thus fertilized, 
saving the seed apples produced, working out the seed 
in the winter when the pulp has decayed, and finally 
sowing it in the following spring as above advised.— 
D. A. 
-- 
The Best Varieties of Rhubarb. —It is an 
undoubted fact that Bhubarb is one of the most 
important of kitchen-garden crops, and regarding it 
from a pounds, shillings, and pence point of view, 
I should doubt if we have any other crop that pays 
better when properly grown. The question of cultiva¬ 
tion lies in a nutshell, and may be summed up in the 
words, “The more manure, the more Bhubarb.” 
We therefore dig the land deeply, manure it heavily, 
and plant single crowns, at 3 ft. apart each way, in 
February. A large plantation planted last February 
has grown into fine stout stools, fit for forcing if 
required. The variety which I have cultivated for 
the last eighteen years is Hawke’s Champagne, and 
as it was presented to me by Mr. William Myatt, I 
can say positively that it is the true variety, raised 
by Mr. Hawkes, market gardener, Deptford. It is 
the earliest and best flavoured of any Bhubarb of 
my knowledge. The Boyal Horticultural Society’s 
Fruit Committee last spring gave Messrs. Bunyard 
& Co. a first-class certificate for this excellent variety, 
an honour which it well deserved. My next favourite 
variety is Scott’s Crimson, which is the only Bhubarb 
I know of that cuts crimson to the centre, but it plays 
second fiddle to Champagne in regard to earliness. 
Paragon I have only a slight acquaintance with, 
therefore I will pass it over to a future time. If very 
large Bhubarb is esteemed, and size with some is 
preferred, I can highly recommend Myatt’s Victoria. 
— B. Gilbert, Burghley, Stamford. 
