744 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
July 20, 1895. 
HINTS FOR AMATEURS. 
Seasonable Work in the Flower Garden.— 
One of the greatest benefits which the horticulturally 
inclined householder reaps from his small flower 
garden is that it always furnishes him with some 
little employment to while away his time, to dis¬ 
tract his attention from business cares and family 
worries, and thus to rest and refresh his mind ; and 
we might add not only is the mind strengthened and 
refreshed by occasional half-hours or hours spent in 
this way, but the body is benefited likewise, for as 
has been proved over and over again change of 
occupation is rest of the truest and best kind. 
During the summer months, particularly, there are 
always some little jobs that need to be performed in 
the garden, some favourite flower that needs especial 
attention ; for if the garden is to possess the charm 
that it should rightfully do, it must wear a tidy and 
well-looked-after appearance, and there is nothing 
that can give it this other than consistent and care¬ 
ful attention. 
Turf. —What looks nicer in a garden than a piece 
of green, level, nieely-mown grass ? Indeed, we 
might say what does a garden look without it ? 
It is manifest that in a hot, dry season like the 
present this can only be obtained where great care 
is taken in the giving of water. Our neighbours 
across the Channel take a great deal more pains 
with their lawns with regard to watering than we 
usually do, and their trouble is rewarded by a 
beautifully green sward that is all too seldom seen 
in our gardens here. If a length of hose can be 
obtained and a rose or spreader to affix to it, the 
amateur may find many an hour's amusement 
watering the grass of an evening after the day's 
regular work is over. Besides these regular water¬ 
ings care must be taken in the use of the mowing 
machine, for if the cutting blades are set down too 
low the roots of the grass sustain serious injury, 
especially if hot weather takes place just after mow¬ 
ing. Many of the bare brown plots of grass which 
we see are more or less the result of too close mow¬ 
ing during very hot weather. 
Grass Edges. —These will need a little attention 
at times. If the grass is allowed to get too long 
the negligent gardener will find that it has produced 
roots from the-nodes of the stems, and after he has 
been along and cut it with the shears, an hour or 
two's weeding is wanted to put things tidy again. 
Gravel Paths. —The dry, hot weather is not less 
trying to those than it is to the grass. It is quite 
true that weeds will not grow very fast now, and 
hence a little trouble may be saved in this way, but 
for all this the time saved in weeding will have to be 
spent in another way if the paths are to be kept in 
such a condition that walking upon them is a pleasure. 
During the summer every advantage must be Taken 
of showers, so that the roller may be used while the 
ground is yet damp and soft from its effects. It 
often happens, however, that these showers are long 
in coming, and then the hose or the watering-can 
must be called into requisition, for it is not of the 
slightest use to roll with the ground dry and hard 
as iron. 
Flower Beds which are filled with Pelargoniums 
must be gone over every now and again, say once a 
week, with a sharp knife or a pair of scissors, and 
old blooms and yellow leaves removed, as this will 
serve to keep the display up for amuch longer time 
than would be the case were the seeding trusses 
allowed to remain on, weakening the plants and pro¬ 
ducing a decidedly untidy appearance. The surface 
of the soil between the plants must be occasionally 
broken up by means of a Dutch hoe. Frequent 
waterings followed by bright scorching sun are sure 
to result in the surface of the soil being baked into a 
hard crust and the roots which the waterings have 
drawn to the surface receive injury. Incipient weeds 
are likewise kept in check by this simple and easily 
exercised precaution. 
Carnations. —These are in their full glory just 
now, and the advancing season necessitates the 
making of preparations for procuring next year’s 
stock This is usually done by layering. There is 
nothing in this operation to prevent even the veriest 
tyro in the art of gardening from trying his hand at 
it. Like the art of Rose budding it is practised, and 
practised successfully, by hundreds of amateurs. As 
soon as the plants begin to go out of bloom the work 
may be commenced, as the layers are thus allowed 
a good long season wherein to make sufficient roots 
to insure their passing through the winter safely. 
Some light, finely sifted soil should first be placed 
around the plants to a depth of 2 or 3 inches. 
The necessary implements for the work will consist 
in a supply of stout pegs, about 4 in. in length, and 
a sharp, rather thin-bladed knife. First of all the 
lower leaves must be stripped off so as to allow the 
operator to see what he is doing. In taking these 
off, it may be observed, a little care is necessary to 
prevent undue laceration of the stem. With regard 
to the length of the shoots above the point where the 
incision is to be made it is obvious that long 
straggling layers will only produce lanky unwieldy 
plants, and as these are by no means desirable the 
cutting must not be made too low down in the stem. 
In all instances 5 or 6 in. may be taken to be the 
maximum length of the growth above the place 
where the tongue is to be made, and in the case of 
the less vigorously growing sorts they may be con¬ 
siderably shorter. 
So much for preliminaries, and now for the actual 
operation. Commencing on the outside of the stem, 
that is to say the side turned from the main axis of 
the plant, and about half way between two nodes, 
make a transverse cut half way through the stem. 
Then, turning the blade of the knife, make a longi¬ 
tudinal cut upwards right through the node immedi¬ 
ately above the point at which operations were com¬ 
menced. A tongue of about three-quarters of an 
inch in length is thus made. This, by means of a 
gentle pressure must be inserted in the soil, carefully 
noting the while that the tongue is not allowed to 
return to its original place, for if allowed to do so 
the wound will heal and no roots will be emitted. 
Finally, by means of a peg the layer may be made 
secure in its new position and the soil neatly levelled 
about it. Only the strongest shoots should be 
layered, whilst the weaker growths may be cut away 
in order to benefit those that are left, together with 
all old flower stems from which the blooms have 
been taken, the whole strength of the parents being 
thus devoted towards the making of good strong 
young plants, a few of which are far more likely to 
give satisfaction than a much larger number of 
weaklings would be.— Rex. 
-«*-- 
LORD NAPIER NECTARINE. 
At Gunnersbury House, Acton, Mr. James Hudson 
has probably the finest tree of Lord Napier Nec¬ 
tarine to be found in the kingdom. Planted inside a 
house the dimensions of which are 24 ft. by 13 ft., it 
now covers the whole of the interior of the roof; the 
branches are covered with healthy, vigorous foliage, 
and there are on the tree some four hundred fruits 
about the size of walnuts. This tree is a triumph of 
cultural skill, and does Mr. Hudson, the head gar¬ 
dener, the highest credit Last year Mr. Hudson 
allowed the tree to carry a larger number of fruits, 
but what he this season loses in quantity he will 
gain in size. Lord Napier is one of our earliest 
Nectarines, the fruit of large size, the quality very 
good, and probably no other Nectarine is so much 
grown in the present day as this. 
The Nectarine. 
The Nectarine, like the Peach, is Persica vulgaris, 
and one can quite understand its receiving the 
common name—evidently derived from the Latin, 
nectar, the drink of the gods; hence, Nectarine, 
because of its exquisite flavour. The Peach was 
known to Theophrastus in 322 b.c., so it is a fruit of 
great antiquity ; and the Nectarine, notwithstanding 
its striking differences to the Peach, is but a form or 
variety of it, distinguished from it in general 
character only by the fruits having a smooth instead 
of a rough skin, as in the case of the Peach ; also in 
flavour and general appearance, and yet, as proof 
that it is but a twin-fruit to the Peach, a tree of the 
latter has at times produced fruits of both types on 
the same branch, and even a closer relationship has 
been recorded in a single fruit being half a Nectarine 
and half a Peach ; and yet for exhibition purposes 
Peaches and Nectarines are considered to be two 
kinds of fruit. 
That a form of the Nectarine has been with us for 
many years is shown by the fact that the White 
Nectarine, one of the oldest of all races of Nectarines, 
is mentioned as having been grown in this country 
for the space of 250 years. The late Mr. Thomas 
Rivers, who did so much to improve our stone fruits 
—Peaches, Nectaiines, and Plums—has left on 
record the fact that he commenced to raise seedlings 
by sowing the stones of the White Nectarine, and 
the first batch, when they fruited, showed that he 
had among them a white Peach—a Peach in appear¬ 
ance, but having the brisk flavour of a Nectarine. 
The stones of this white Peach were sown. Several 
of them bore fruit when four years old ; two among 
them produced Peaches, and one of them proved to 
be the earliest Peach then known. From this ex¬ 
periment Mr. Rivers deduced the conclusion that it 
is to the old White Nectarine we owe the pale¬ 
skinned Peaches, such as the Noblesse, the Malta, 
and the White Magdalen, all remarkable for brisk¬ 
ness of flavour peculiar to the Nectarine, and 
equally so for retaining in the trees the character of 
the White Nectarine, producing large pale flowers 
peculiar in their shape. I may add that Mr. Rivers' 
first attempt at raising seedling Peaches was by 
using the stones of a large, handsome, but in this 
country worthless Clingstone Peach, the Pavie de 
Pompone, and the first generation gave one Peach 
producing large flowers like its parent, but with a 
melting, rich flesh perfectly its converse. This was 
named Princess of Wales, in honour of that 
illustrious lady. Still, hoping to raise a Peach as 
large as the Pavie de Pompone, with tender flesh, 
and, like that, a good keeper, so that in a well- 
managed fruit room good Peaches might be pre¬ 
served till November, Mr. Rivers selected some fine 
fruit of the Princess of Wales, sowed the stones, and 
waited patiently. One of the first of the seedlings 
to fruit produced in September, 1865, such late 
Peaches as had never before gladdened his eyes— 
large in size and fine in quality. This was named 
after the late Lord Palmerston, who was then 
living. 
Some Singular Results in Nectarine 
Seedlings. 
Mr. Rivers next tried his hand at seedling Nectarines, 
and sowed stones of the Pitmaston Orange, a variety 
raised near Worcester by a Mr. Williams from the 
Elruge Nectarine, and which first fruited in 1815. 
The Pitmaston Orange Nectarine is a variety so 
diametrically opposite to the Elruge in flowers and 
fruit that it greatly interested Mr. Rivers, and he 
became possessed by a desire to try and reproduce 
its parent by going through two or three generations 
of seedlings. Twelve to eighteen seedlings were 
obtained from the Pitmaston Orange, and all the 
trees of this generation, except one, proved to be 
Orange Nectarines like their parent, and the trees 
also produced large brilliant flowers peculiar to that 
sort, except one, and this proved to be a large 
crimson Peach, the tree producing small deep red 
flowers instead of the large brilliant ones borne by 
its brethren. Mr, Rivers concluded that a Peach 
stone had got among the Nectarine stones by 
accident, and produced this stranger. To try and 
solve any doubts, Mr. Rivers took particular notice 
of this Peach, and he sowed all the stones it 
produced, and watched with great interest what 
they would bring. Out of about twenty trees raised 
from them the greater part bore Peaches like their 
grand-parents, and the trees gave the same large 
flowers ; but the most remarkable fact in this experi¬ 
ment was that two trees bore white fleshed 
Nectarines, a little red at the stone like the Elruge 
Nectarine, from which it is stated the Pitmaston 
Orange Nectarine was raised, and the trees, like that 
variety, gave small flowers. Now here was a strange 
and most interesting event in pomology. A white 
fleshed Nectarine with Mr. W T illiams, of Pitmaston, 
had produced a seedling with orange coloured flesh 
(the Pitmaston Orange), this in its turn yielded to 
Mr. Rivers a large white fleshed Peach, and stones 
from that Peach produced trees with the characters 
of four generations, viz., the Elruge Nectarine, the 
Pitmaston Orange Nectarine, a Peach the child of 
the latter, andagain the Pitmaston Orange Nectarine. 
Truly, there are wonders in vegetable physiology— 
the whys and wherefores no man knoweth. 
Freestone and Clingstone. 
These two peculiarities divide Peaches and Nec¬ 
tarines, as the fruits of both have the flesh separating 
freely from the stone, or else the flesh clinging to it. 
It is the same with Plums. In the case of a free¬ 
stone the flesh lies quite free from it, except at the 
simple points of basal attachment. When the flesh 
adheres we have a clingstone. This difference seems 
to have existed ever since Peaches were cultivated, 
being mentioned by the oldest horticultural writers. 
The " freestone ” condition arises simply from thq 
