January 7, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
291 
excellent stimulant. If the season is a dry one the 
lines should be top-dressed with long litter, which 
prevents the sun from drying up the moisture. If 
an exhibitor finds that his Peas are too early he can 
keep them from eight to twelve days by adopting 
the following method : Fill a pan full of wet sand, 
pick off the best pods, and immerse the small stalks 
only in the sand, taking great care not to rub off 
the blooms, place the pan in any cool dark cellar, 
and they will keep there perfectly safe for the time 
mentioned. A good dish of Peas when well staged 
should not bear a trace of rubbing. There are 
many varieties suitable for exhibition, but none 
seem to find more favour than the Duke of Albany. 
Sharpe’s Queen is rapidly becoming popular. 
Beans. 
Runner Beans should be treated like Peas, except 
in a few details. The seed should be planted about 
8 in. apart, and should not be planted outside earlier 
than the last week in April. Should they be required 
early they should be sown in pots, placing two seeds or 
three in each in a cold house or frame, and planted 
out when about 3 in. high. This will make a 
difference of from a week to ten days in gathering. 
Ne Plus Ultra and Sutton’s Prizewinner are both 
excellent varieties. French Beans should be treated 
in the same manner as the Runner, only no staking 
will be required. Ne Plus Ultra and Canadian 
Wonder are chiefly grown for exhibition. 
(To be continued.) 
Til vegetable; garden. 
On the Keeping of Onions. 
There are many complaints among cultivators of 
Onions this season as to the bad keeping qualities 
of the bulbs. At one time during September the 
rains were so incessant that ripening seemed almost 
impossible. Half pulling them and twisting their 
necks seemed to facilitate maturation, but we had to 
pull ours unripe (which was in the first week in 
October), and they were stripped of all their green 
tops and laid along on a trellis placed above the 
pipes which were kept warm to ripen Peach trees. 
The Onions in these dry and airy quarters improved 
rapidly and became hard and matured. Up to the 
present time they have kept admirably, and seem 
likely to do so as late as is desirable. There are not 
many of the large exhibition examples which are 
keeping well this season, but of course this special 
culture is not to get “ keepers,” but sensational bulbs 
for the exhibition table. We notice in some exhibi¬ 
tion schedules prizes offered for "spring sown 
Onions.” There are none of those huge bulbs 
which can be called "spring sown,” as they are 
mostly sown under glass at the beginning of the 
year and planted out during spring after they have 
attained some size and are well hardened to stand 
the weather. A practice, not uncommon, is to turn 
into ground quantities of half decayed manure, and 
cast the seed into loose ground, under such 
conditions unripened bulbs must be expected. — M. T 
French Beans. 
It is only in large gardens as a rule that French 
Beans are grown all through the winter, but most 
gardeners with moderate glass accommodation will 
now want to make a start with them. If about fifty 
pots are sown about every fortnight a nice lot of 
Beans may be obtained, 7-in. pots are the best, and 
about eight seeds should be sown in a pot, which 
should only be about half filled with soil at the time 
of sowing. Keep the young plants near the glass, or 
they will become drawn, and when the plants are 
from 4 in. to 6 in. above the pots they should be top 
dressed, and the plants thinned down to six in a pot. 
Give each pot plenty of room, as better results will 
be obtained from a few pots that are allowed plenty 
of room than from a lot crowded together. Place a 
few small sticks round (and for this purpose old 
garden brooms come in very handy) to keep the 
plants from falling. As the Beans begin to show 
they must be regularly supplied with liquid manure, 
great attention must be paid to the watering and to 
the syringe, as they are so subject to red spider, and 
if this pest once gets a hold a very poor crop may be 
expected. As toWarieties for forcing for winter, 
Osborns Forcing is the most reliable. After the mid¬ 
dle of March Ne Plus Ultra and Sir Joseph Paxton 
are the best, according to my experience.— G. H. S. 
General Work 
Advantage must be taken of frosty weather to get 
as much manure as possible wheeled on to all spare 
ground, so that when the frost has gone, any digging 
or trenching not already done, may be finished as 
soon as possible. On estates where the gardener 
can dig his own gravel, a stock should be got ready, 
so that the walks may have a thin coat to make 
them look fresh for the summer. A good lot of large 
wooden labels should be made ready for the vege¬ 
tables, as when the time comes, and the soil is in 
good order for sowing, there is no time to run about 
for labels. Get on making hot-beds forPotatos.etc., 
they must vary in size according to the length of 
time the heat will be required to last ; if sufficient 
leaves have not already been got together for hot¬ 
beds and leafsoil, no time must be lost in getting 
them raked up.— G. H. S. 
FRUIT*NOTES. 
Apples under Glass : Galloway Peppin. 
Under this heading at p. 263 I observe that reference 
is made to the Galloway Pippin Apple, and being a 
grower, and great admirer of this variety, I would 
like to correct a slight error that is thereby made as 
to the keeping qualties of this 'excellent sort. It is 
stated that it “ keeps till the end of January.” 
The writer cannot be well acquainted with the 
true Galloway Pippin, for at the date named it is 
only becoming fit for use. In these gardens are 
several old trees of this variety, which generally 
bear good crops of fruit, and which, form our princi¬ 
pal supply from January until May, and in some 
seasons well into June. To do this they have no 
special care taken with them beyond being carefully 
gathered and stored in bulk, or in barrels. The 
fruit is heavy, almost round, and .quite even in 
outline, and when kept until the Spring becomes a 
rich yellow colour with a dash of brown on the side 
exposed to the sun. 
This variety is generally classed as a culinary 
fruit, but to those who appreciate a firm, juicy apple, 
it is highly prized for dessert. 
The tree is a vigorous grower, and a free bearer 
when established. At one time it must have been 
well known in this country, but at present it is mostly 
old trees that are met with, and which in most cases 
are fast going to decay. —James Day, Galloway House 
Gardens, Garlieston .—IM.B, 
[Apples vary greatly in the time they come into 
use, the latitude and the condition under which they 
are grown, and the length of time they will keep. 
They will often remain sound long after they have 
become tasteless, hence the discrepancy that 
occasionally occurs in the opinions of different 
people on the subject of keeping. Apples ripen 
much sooner in the south of England than in the 
south of Scotland. Galloway Pippin is certainly 
not a common Apple in the south, but several 
cultivators have become possessed of it within 
the last few years as a result of the publicity given 
to it at the National Apple Congress held at 
Chiswick in October, 1883, where another exhibitor 
besides Mr. Day showed the variety. We can quite 
believe that Galloway Pippin, although usually 
regarded as a culinary Apple, may be used for 
dessert purposes after it becomes mellow, because 
there are many other varieties classed as culinary 
Apples, that are eaten with relish by those who are 
fond of Apples. Culinary and dessert are merely 
conventional terms that may be transposed at the 
will of different individuals according to their likings 
or taste. Should Galloway Pippin succeed elsewhere 
as well as in Galloway, its cultivation deserves to be 
greatly extended.— Ed.] 
--- 
(B leanings Jmun the Porttr 
Srienre. 
A highly sensitive Plant. —The presence or 
absence of light at all seasons of the year has a 
great and readily perceptible effect on the leaves of 
Prosopis juliflora. The movements are more notice¬ 
able in summer or autumn, but foggy and dark 
weather in winter soon causes the leaves to drop. 
During October I placed a plant in a dark box and 
in half an hour the leaflets were completely closed 
up. The plant was placed in a window fully exposed 
to light under a bell-glass, and in seventeen minutes 
the leaflets on the sunny side were three parts 
expanded, and this state they maintained during the 
rest of the day while the sun shone upon them so 
. that for all practical purposes they may be considered 
as having opened by the influence of the sun in 
seventeen minutes. On the'shaded side of the plant 
eighteen minutes later, or thirty-five minutes in all, 
the leaflets on the shady side were fully expanded 
and flat. I he explanation of this is that the leaflets 
expanded fully so as to catch the greatest amount of 
diffused light which they could. So sensitive are 
the leaves to the influence of light and its intensity 
that they behave differently upon the same plant 
according to the amount of exposure. Very old 
leaves lose their activity, or in other words their 
sensitiveness or irritability, to a great extent. Fur¬ 
thermore, while they remained in the same condition 
and apparently indifferent on the shady side of the 
plant, those on the sunny side continued to face and 
follow the sun till 4 or 5 p.m. The leaflets on the 
two sides of the midrib were at different angles of 
elevation to it—those on the east side of the midrib 
generally being at a greater angle so as to face 
the sun as it travelled westward. The leaflets on 
the other side kept sinking so as to receive the light 
on their upper surface.— J. F. 
Vegetation of Mars. —Scientists with their 
powerful telescopes can discern that the surface of 
the planet Mars is occupied with continents that are 
red and seas that are blue. What determines the red 
colour of the continents is a matter of pure specula¬ 
tion. Some say that it is owing to the red colour of 
the grass, and others to the Copper Beeches growing 
there. The most powerful microscope can only 
reveal an object of the size of St. Paul’s Cathedral as 
a mere speck like a small pin head. What then 
about the grass ? The problem yet remains to be 
solved whether there are any trees or such vegeta¬ 
tion as grass. All the evidence put forward on the 
point merely serves to recall the line occuring in 
Pope’s Essay on Man, namely, “ What can we reason 
but from what we know.” All the reasoning that 
can be advanced by man, must perforce be taken 
from forms and objects with which he is familiar on 
our own little sphere called earth. 
Black Knot of Plums. —This is a disease caused 
by a fungus named Plowrightia morbosa. It makes 
its appearance as a corky outgrowth of a black colour 
on the stems and branches, and increases in size till 
it occasions the death of the tree by the stoppage of 
the sap and its contained food for the part of the 
branch above the diseased portion. Of course, as in 
the case of canker, the affected parts of the tree are 
killed. The fungus attacks many species of wild 
Plum in America, as well as Cherries. Not unfre- 
quently it occurs on the cultivated or common Plum 
(Prunus domestica), particularly on the Greengage. 
It does not seem, however, to have occurred in this 
country, although if the climate is suitable, there 
seems nothing to prevent its unwelcome visit. The 
Apricot is also liable to attack, and the tree infected 
had been subjected to rather severe pruning, so that 
to this circumstance the entrance of the fungus is 
probably due. An affected tree presents a curious 
appearance, as the black knots often attain consider¬ 
able size, extending lengthwise along the branches. 
Petals of a Pansy. —The petals of many varieties 
of Pansy present a velvety appearance, and to the 
naked eye they appear quite smooth. They are in 
reality remarkable uneven, and to that fact their 
velvety plush is due. The epidermal cells are 
prolonged above the surface into narrowly conical 
and blunt points ; they are strengthened internally by 
longitudinal lines, and the tips when looked down 
upon appear rayed like conventional representations 
of the sun. At the real surface of the petals 
these conical cells widen out and unite with one 
another in the form of five to seven sided or 
polyhedral cells. Matters are still further com¬ 
plicated by the commoi walls of the cells being 
folded into the interior in the form of loops with little 
round heads having a crystalline appearance The 
various colours of the petals are due to colouring 
matters dissolved in the cell sap, so that when the 
petals are looked at with the naked eye, the beholder 
is looking down through the long way of the cell. 
The colour in that case appears dark, and in pro¬ 
portion to the richness of the liquid colouring matter 
in the cells, so the colour of the petals are darker. 
A very rich purple makes them appear almost black - 
To the naked eye the myriads of conical cells appear 
fused into one even and uniform surface. The fact, 
however, that the cones are separate from one another 
for great part of their length, causes the surface to 
appear glossy. The rays of a Pansy are due to lines 
of these cones containing a deep blue or violet 
colouring matter running along the course of the 
principal veins.— J. F. 
