August 1st, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
763 
quantities they have sent away this year, but they 
despatched 15,000 peck sieves to commence with. It 
is computed that they grow 500 acres of Strawberries, 
and probably pick something like 1,000 tons. Mr. 
Cannell states that he has often seen ten and 
twelve Midland and Great Northern vans in Swanley 
Station loading fruit, most of which goes to the great 
northern towns. These vans take the pickings of the 
early part of the day, and they are despatched 
early in the afternoon. They employ about 300 
pickers resident in the parish of Swanley, and they 
employ about 1,000 altogether. Anyone walking 
through the Strawberry-fields at the time picking is in 
full swing, will find the pickers living in tents set up 
round the sides of the fields, making a journey to the 
localities for the purpose, just as the hop-pickers do 
in the autumn. At the present time a good deal of 
the fruit is made into jam on the spot. What a pro¬ 
digious industry is the Strawberry trade while it lasts ! 
and it is singular to note that so much of it is com¬ 
prised in that fertile part of Kent known as the Cray 
Valley. 
- —- ■ - ■—P 
Work in the Plant-houses. — Schizanthus 
retttstjs : This is a very useful spring-flowering plant 
and will well repay for a little extra care and atten¬ 
tion, which it requires to have it in good condition. 
The seed should be sown at once. We like to raise 
the seedlings in a cold frame, as they come much 
stronger than when raised in a warmer position. 
As soon as the plants are large enough to handle 
they should be potted off singly and potted on as 
they require it. Owing to the roots being extremely 
delicate, they require some care in handling. If in 
potting the ball is broken the plants will be almost 
sure to die off. Any good light compost will suit 
them. The plants may be grown on through the 
winter in any position where they can have sufficient 
protection to keep the frost from them, but they should 
be as much exposed as possible during mild weather. 
Intermediate Stocks. —Where a good strain of 
these can be procured and are well grown there are 
few plants that are more useful for early spring 
work. The scarlet and whitejvarieties are the most 
useful; the purple variety is also very pretty, but not 
bright enough in colour for many purposes. The first 
week in August is a good time to sow the seed. The 
best position for sowing the seed is under a north 
wall, with a handlight or frame as a protection. If 
the seed is sown thinly the plants may remain in 
the seed-bed until they are large enough for potting 
into small 60-size pots. They may remain in these 
pots until about the middle or end of January, 
when they should be potted on into 48-size pots, 
which is a good size for flowering them in. To 
succeed well with Intermediate Stocks it is essential 
that they should have careful attention with regard 
to watering, as, like most other fine-rooted plants, 
they suffer equally from being allowed to become too 
dry in the pots as from being over watered; and to 
keep them dwarf and sturdy they should be grown in 
a position where they get the full benefit of the sun 
and be well exposed during mild weather. 
Hoya carnosa.—As you have illustrated Hoya 
bella as a basket plant (p. 745) let me say a word in 
favour of the old H. carnosa as a climber for a back 
wall on which anything else will scarcely grow. 
There is a plant at Park House, the residence of 
Mrs. J. Walker, adjoining this place, which was 
planted when my present employer resided there, and 
which covers a back wall of a small vinery and flowers 
with wondrous freedom every year. It covers a space 
of 24 ft. by 14 ft., and would occupy much more if it 
had the chance. But little notice is taken of it, the 
plant being allowed to grow at will providing it does 
not interfere with the terminal ends of the Vines. 
It is planted in a border which runs under a latticed 
walk, which was made of maiden loam, peat, and 
sand, but a top-dressing of garden soil and grit has 
been added since. Last year it bore upwards of 
2,000 of its showy waxy blooms, and was especially 
admired by a London merchant who annually visits 
here. It is not showing so heavy a crop this season, 
but when not in flower the plant, with its dark green, 
fleshy leaves, makes a fine screen for a back wall.— 
B. Lockwood , Lindley, Huddersfield. 
Zonal Pelargoniums. — Having received last 
spring from Messrs. Pearson, of Chilwell, through 
our seedsman, Mr. G. Kershaw, a collection of fifty 
varieties, the best as I thought which their catalogue 
contained, including the set of 1883 and 1884, I 
have been agreeably surprised and pleased to find 
that in last year’s set there are some grand additions 
to this showy class. It is well known that the 
Chilwell firm is noted for the excellence of the dark 
crimson and magenta shades of colour which they 
send out, but during the last few years they seem to 
have had an eye to other shades, with results that 
are alike creditable to the raisers and to the con¬ 
servatory or greenhouse they may happen to be the 
occupants of. The following are worthy of especial 
notice, and ought to be in any collection, however 
select:—Plutarch, beautiful bright scarlet, with a white 
eye, flowers large, with broad overlapping petals, fine 
trusses, good habit and free ; Ajax, reddish-scarlet, 
like the preceding in size and shape of flower and 
truss ; Tristram, crimson-scarlet, white eye, flowers 
of good size and quality, trusses large, good habit and 
free; Mrs. Norris, scarlet, with small white eye, a 
fine-shaped flower, good trusses, and dwarf branching 
habit, and free; Lady Chesterfield, deep salmon 
suffused orange, flowers large, with broad overlapping 
petals, equal to the scarlet section, fine truss and 
habit, a beautiful variety; Norah, soft blush, of 
splendid form, and size of flower large, trusses large 
and free, with foliage of the Madame Vaucher type 
(I have had flowers on some of the trusses on my 
plants nearly 2h ins. across) ; Lord Chesterfield, 
magenta ; this is a hybrid nosegay, but at times the 
flowers are quite round, a fine variety for pot culture. 
I consider these are the cream of the set; the other 
remaining five which composed the set of twelve are 
—Mrs. Johnson, rose; James Douglas, very dark 
crimson; Aline, white; Caroline, crimson-scarlet; 
and Mrs. Holford, salmon. The flowers of these are 
of good size and fine form and substance, and are 
remarkable for their neat dwarf habit and free- 
flowering qualities. No doubt some of these will 
make their way as bedders in their respective classes. 
— B. L., Lindley. 
Gloxinias.—Messrs. Sutton & Sons’ splendid 
strain of Gloxinias was admirably represented at 
South Kensington on Tuesday by a collection of plants 
sent up by the Reading firm, which, judged by their 
splendid cultivation, the remarkable size and sub¬ 
stance of the blooms, or their varied and brilliant 
colours, it is hard to say that anything finer can be 
desired. The seeds were sown in January, and the 
plants grown on and for the most part exhibited in 
large 60-sized pots, in which they had developed broad, 
robust, and healthy leaves, and flowers of unusually 
fine quality. In this size pot they are undoubtedly 
more useful for table decoration than if grown to a 
larger size, and if liberally fed with liquid cow-manure 
will yield almost as large a crop of flowers. The 
Messrs. Sutton were awarded a Silver-Gilt Banksian 
Medal, and it was well deserved. 
Primula floribunda.—What a charming summer- 
flowering species this is. Some seedling plants were 
sent to me in March last; they were potted in small 
pots, and when they had filled them with roots shifted 
into 5-in. pots, placing some stones round the collar 
of the plants on the surface of the soil. They grew 
into strong plants, and are now flowering merrily, 
throwing up compound trusses of bright golden-yellow 
flowers. This and P. obconica are two of the most 
useful species ofPrimulas grown.— R. D. 
Hybrid Begonias.—At the last meeting of the 
Floral Committee, Messrs. Sutton & Sons exhibited 
flowering plants of two singularly interesting Begonias, 
both being true hybrids, or we would rather say mules. 
B. Princess Beatrice promises to make a valuable 
bedding plant, growing only to the height of about 
9 ins., and freely producing its small flowers, which 
are nearly white. It is the result of a cross between 
B. semperflorens rosea and B. Schmidti (both fibrous- 
rooted forms), and possesses the green leaves and 
sturdy habit of the first-named parent, the leaves 
being smooth on one side and hairy on the other; and 
it has the merit for bedding purposes that it can be 
propagated by division. Begonia Prince Henry is a 
hybrid between a tuberous-rooted variety, a seedling 
from B. Davisii, with light scarlet flowers, and a 
shrubby variety, having green leaves spotted with 
white, selected from several seedlings obtained from 
Begonia Rex. The last-named was the seed-bearing 
parent. The plant is of a dwarf compact habit, and 
the flowers small, of a bright red colour. It blooms 
with great freedom, and having no organs of repro¬ 
duction, the flowers are valuable for cutting, as they 
last well in this state. B. Prince Henry was awarded 
a First-Class Certificate. 
'TZ - V -— 5 
The Kitchen Gardener’s Calendar. —Water¬ 
ing : Without an almost incessant use of the watering- 
pot, and a good supply of water at command, it is 
next to impossible during such a long spell of tropical 
heat as that which we have experienced during the 
present season to keep vegetables which are growing 
in light and, it may be, shallow soils in a sufficiently 
moist state at the roots to maintain anything like a 
healthy, not to say uninterrupted, head-growth. This 
insufficiency of moisture at the roots is more manifest 
in the rows of Peas, Beans, Cauliflower, Celery, and 
Lettuce plants, than is the case with less important 
vegetables, consequently any falling off in the supply 
of these as regards quantity and quality of the pro¬ 
duce at this comparatively early date is all the more 
keenly felt by the grower and consumer alike. 
Therefore, whatever other work may get behind in 
consequence of the monopoly of labour involved in 
the hauling and application of water to the roots of 
the various crops in the kitchen-garden, those indi¬ 
cated above should receive first attention in this 
direction. And the watering, if it can be conveniently 
managed, should be done late in the afternoon— 
better still in the evening—so that as little as possible 
of the now precious fluid may be wasted through 
evaporation, which, if the water is given in the heat 
of the day, is very rapid. However, notwithstanding 
this indisputable fact, we, like many others, are 
obliged to water pretty well all day long—indeed, as 
I write (8 p.m.), the water-tubs are still at work. 
Plantings of Cauliflowers, Savoys, Broceolis, &c. 
which have been deferred from day to day in the 
hope that rain would come, are now being pushed on 
to completion, and therefore the plants require and 
will receive frequent supplies of water at the roots 
until the latter have taken to the soil, or a downpour 
of rain puts an end to our labour in that direction, 
but until then, water without ceasing should be the 
order of the day.— H. IF. Ward. 
The Sun. —Professor Langley, who recently gave 
an account at the Royal Institution of his ascent of 
Mount Whitney in Southern California, for the 
purpose of making investigations as to the nature of 
sunlight and the earth’s atmosphere, concludes that 
the sun is blue. The apparent yellow colour is due 
to the fact that the atmosphere through which the 
light passes has absorbed or sifted out the other 
colours to a greater extent than the yellow. The 
solar heat is calculated to be capable of melting a 
shell of ice 60 yds. thick annually over the whole 
earth. The total loss by absorption from the atmo¬ 
sphere is nearly double what has been heretofore 
supposed, and the human race owes its existence and 
preservation to the heat-storing of the atmosphere 
even more than has been believed, for if the planet 
were allowed to radiate freely into space without any 
protecting atmospheric veil, its sunlit surface would 
probably fall, even in the Tropics, below the tem¬ 
perature of freezing mercury. The apparently limpid 
aerial sea above our heads and about us is carrying on 
a wonderfully intricate work on the sunbeam and on 
the heat returned from the soil, picking and sorting 
out selected parts in hundreds of places, and as one 
result changing the sunbeam on its way down to us 
in the manner indicated.— Gardeners' Chronicle; 
