January 14, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
811 
are very variable from seed, yet some of them would 
be inclined to reproduce the qualities of the parent, 
so that late varieties like Josephine de Malines and 
Beurre Ranee might well be used as seed parents 
whether cross fertilised with others ornot. Under fav¬ 
ourable conditions the former is in season fromChrist- 
mas to May, and the flesh is melting, juicy and sugary. 
Some cultivators complain of a difficulty in ripening 
it, but medium sixed fruits well ripened upon the 
trees, seldom, if ever offer any difficulty on that 
score. If brought into a warm room, or placed over 
hot water pipes for a few days previous to use, its 
quality will be much improved. 
FORESTRY. 
The Obstacles to Home Timber Growing. 
Sir Arthur Grant, Bart., of Monymusk, Aber¬ 
deenshire, in noticing a review of the Journal of tj ie 
Royal Horticultural Society, makes some interesting 
remarks on his experience in forestry. 
“When old plantations were planted,” he says, 
“ four pests of the forester did not exist in this 
(Aberdeenshire) part of Scotland, viz., the rabbit, 
the squirrel, the Larch disease, and the lucifer 
match. Do what you like it is very difficult to keep 
rabbits entirely out of plantations, and you must 
make up your mind to lose a proportion of newly, 
planted trees, and the trees are not out of danger for 
some years. When they are 25 ft. high, or there¬ 
abouts, the squirrel attacks the Scotch Fir, eating the 
bark in spring on the sunny side. As a rule he 
clears a patch perhaps 4 in. by 6 in. From this the 
sap oozes out, and the winter winds snap off the 
top, perhaps 4 ft. or 5 ft. from the tip. After that 
your tree makes little progress. It is very difficult 
to see the squirrels in the Fir trees, and they are 
prolific little rascals. After killing perhaps 500 
squirrels in a year I find the damage the following year 
to be little lessened, and I have thousands upon thou¬ 
sands of promising Scotch Firs destroyed or 
grievously injured by them at the present moment. 
“ Again, when your Larches have been planted 
perhaps twelve to fifteen years the disease begins to 
show, and in many places at about thirty to forty 
years of age they go ‘ pumped ’ in the centre, whilst 
yet'too small to have much timber value. Silver Firs 
also are now very subject to disease. Lastly we have 
the lucifer match. Never a year goes by but we suffer 
at Monymusk more or less from the recklessly care¬ 
less tourist or labourer, who lights his pipe, wanders 
on, and if he starts a fire, makes himself scarce at 
once. Last year a great deal of wood and young 
plantation and moor in Aberdeenshire was destroyed 
in this reckless fashion. In Switzerland they have 
very severe laws about firing the woods. These are 
some of the difficulties which surround modern 
plantations from which the older foresters were free. 
“ In regard to profit, the labour of ditching, 
draining, fencing with walls, planting, and caretaking 
was much cheaper in the old days than at present. 
There was some sale for thinnings, which were 
largely used for rails. Now wire fencing and iron 
fencing have stopped nearly the whole of that outlet, 
and thinnings will not pay for cutting and hauling. 
Twenty years ago Larch timber was selling at is. 6d. 
per foot. This year I have knowm of some sold for qd. 
and the best price would be between 6d. and gd , ex¬ 
cept possibly in some very exceptional position. 
The accessibility of a wood has, of course, an enor¬ 
mous influence on the price. Scotch Fir again was 
sold at Monymusk early in the century for 
is. gd. per foot; 4d. would be about the price nowa¬ 
days—of course 1 mean in large quantities, Put 
£100 into plantation nowadays ; put £100 out in in¬ 
terest at 5 per cent., and for every ^40 you get for 
your timber in 60 years, you will get £70 in the other 
investment—and you will not have the loss occasioned 
by rabbits, squirrels, Larch disease, and fire ; you 
will not have fences to keep up, or to employ men to 
destroy the vermin, and oftentimes to turn out your 
neighbour’s cattle, which are busily destroying your 
young trees. I plant some 300,000 to half-a-million 
of trees yearly, but I know it is a poor investment, 
and 1 do it, first, as a family tradition ; second, 
to give shelter and improve the climate ; third, be¬ 
cause it employs a very considerable number of 
people, both in summer and winter. 
“The old timber found in old castles was probably 
■natural grown,’ of very great age when cut, and 
placed in suitable positions for keeping. I have, on 
the contrary, plenty of beams probably 120 years old, 
which are full of dry rot and much infested with the 
wood-beetle. I find the more beautiful and rare 
Coniferas to be all perfectly unsuited to the climate 
of Monymusk. Some may do for ornament; none 
apparently for business.” 
!§ardening Miscellany. 
ADIANTU M CAPILLUS-VENERIS MARIESII 
The varieties of the British Maidenhair are very 
numerous, both in a wild and cultivated state. This 
is not surprising considering the wide area over 
which it is distributed, we may say in all parts of 
the world. The different conditions under which it 
grows in a wild state. would account for this. 
Seedlings proceeding from spores would give rise 
to variation, and proving tolerably constant 
receive varietal names when taken in hand by the 
cultivator. That under notice is a very strong 
growing Japanese form, 12 in. to 18 in. high, 
according to the treatment it gets. As in most 
of the forms of this species the rhizomes are well 
pronounced and require plenty of room to run. 
Large pots or pans may therefore be used to afford 
the rhizomes space to develop. Seeing that this 
Maidenhair delights to grow in the crevices of walls, 
it might well be tried in suspended wire baskets 
filled with good material. Under good culture the 
wedge-shaped pinnules attain considerable size. 
Fog is, however, very detrimental to the fronds, 
turning them brown when very dense. We noted 
some fine pieces recently in one of the fruit houses 
at Gunnersbury House, Acton. 
A VARIEGATED CINERARIA 
There are several varieties or variations of Cineraria 
maritima in cultivation, and the whitest or hoariest 
form is much used in summer flower bedding designs, 
under the name of C. m. candidissima. Then there 
is a golden margined variety known as C. m. c. 
aurea marginata, a rather formidable name when 
written in full. The plant itself is, however, a highly 
interesting object for pot work when well grown. 
The leaves are densely covered with white hairs and 
the margin is golden yellow when in their prime. 
Frequently the whole leaf is yellow or those on 
several of the smaller shoots will be all of that 
colour, adding largely to the general appearance of the 
plant. Being hardy a few welbgrown plants would 
prove useful in the greenhouse during winter, when 
flowering plants are out of the question. The varie¬ 
gated form we noted in the Dyson’s Lane Nurseries 
of Mr. H. B. May, Upper Edmonton. 
NEPHROLEPIS DAVALLIOIDES PLUMOSUM. 
For many years there existed only two forms of N. 
davallioides, namely the type and N. d. furcans. 
Now there are at least two other crested varieties 
with much more extensive divisions than the last- 
named. The lateral pinnae are not very much 
altered, but the fronds terminate in a large tassel of 
numerous branches giving the plant an elegant 
appearance, as the fronds are weighted down into a 
horizontal or arching position. The plants therefore 
assume a compact and bushy habit, quite different 
from the typical form which has long narrow fronds, 
and therefore more straggling. The striking habit 
of this variety compared with N. davallioides may 
be seen in the collection of Mr. H. B. May, Dyson’s 
Lane Nurseries, Upper Edmonton, where handsome 
specimens may be seen growing in 48 and 32 size 
pots. They may be used for decorative purposes in 
a variety of ways. 
BEGONIA INCARNATA. 
Of the many Begonias, hybrid and otherwise, that 
are grown for the decoration of plant houses and for 
cut flowers in winter, but more particularly at 
Christmas, none are more deserving of attention 
than the old B. incarnata, which does not seem to 
have been improved in any way since its introduction 
from Mexico in 1822. In gardens it is known under 
various synonyms, the result, no doubt, of its variation 
in a wild state. These forms are grown in gardens, 
and some of the varieties have undergone improve¬ 
ment, but the typical form, best known as B. insignis, 
bears the same profusion of pink flowers which it 
always did. The unexpanded buds are much richer, 
being of a lively deep rose. The quantity of flowers 
produced is a great feature in its favour, and the 
sprays that can be cut from well grown plants are 
handsome. Some old plants standing about the 
houses at Gunnersbury Park, Acton, showed so 
well for flower that Mr. Reynolds had them brought 
into flower for Christmas use. Next spring he 
intends to propagate and. grow on a batch especially 
for this kind of work. The foliage will be better 
than that of old plants, and the specimens dwarfer. 
The edges of the leaves of healthy young plants are 
red. 
A NEW SPECIES OF ROSE 
New plants of various kinds still continue to be un¬ 
earthed in China. A collection was made by Mr. A. 
E. Pratt in Western China, and the new plants he 
picked up are described by W. Dotting Hemsley, 
F. R.S., in th ^Journal of the Linnean Society, xol. 29, p. 
298. Amongst them was a Rose which has been 
named Rosa Pratii in compliment to the discoverer. 
It belongs to the group of which R. macrophylla is 
the type, but the small flowers remind us of R. multi¬ 
flora. The typical form of the latter is often named 
R. polyantha in gardens, and has flowers more re¬ 
sembling those of a Bramble than large flowered 
garden Roses. Those of R. Pratti are just under an 
inch in diameter, and are produced in clusters of 
five to seven terminating the shoots. The stems 
are spineldfes, or only furnished with a few small 
ones. The leaves consist of seven to fifteen narrow, 
almost entire, closely arranged leaflets, so that when 
seen in the living state, the plant must be pretty. 
Should the plant get introduced to this country in 
the living state, either by means of seeds or other¬ 
wise, it might prove useful as a stock from whence -to 
raise a new race of small-flowered Roses similar in 
general character to those of the Polyantha Roses, 
but differing in being spineless and in having beautiful 
foliage—we hesitate in saying Briar-like foliage, be¬ 
cause the leaflets are so much more elongated than 
those of R. lutea and others which we are wont to 
speak of under the name of Briars. 
DAVALLIA GR1FFITHIANA. 
Amongst the medium sized Davallias are several 
which are very useful for hanging baskets, and 
which prove evergreen if kept in a sufficiently high 
temperature. Of this class is D. Griffithiana which 
requires a rather higher temperature than D. elegans 
for its safe keeping. The fronds have a lamina 6 in. 
to 12 in. long and 4 in. to 8 in. wide, and which is 
tripinnate with blunt and toothed segments. They 
are of a deep green with bronzy petioles, and very 
elegant from their fine divisions. The creeping 
rhizomes are about the same thickness as those of 
D. elegans and D. d’yermanni and the dense covering 
of scales is white or pale brown. The moderate 
thickness of the rhizomes would permit of their 
being pegged over the sides and bottom of wire bas¬ 
kets so as to completely cover the latter when in full 
growth. 
PEAR BLOSSOM. 
Complaints are made in every direction of the 
stoppage of nearly all kinds of outdoor work, and 
gardeners are amongst the number that feel the 
effects of frost. The latter, however, has really been 
a blessing in disguise as far as the fruit trees are 
concerned. Many of the Pear trees, especially the 
most precocious kinds, were rapidly bursting their 
buds and making for bloom, which stood a chance of 
being destroyed in the early months of the year. 
The timely check to this untimely growth will be an 
advantage to the gardener, the trees, and the owners, 
so that they should be the last to complain, notwith¬ 
standing the difficulty of finding employment of a re¬ 
munerative kind for the labourers and others em¬ 
ployed in the garden. Ordinary outdoor work is in 
a very advanced state, so that little or no extra 
labour will be required later on. 
THE WEATHER AND WORK. 
The weather here has been very severe since the 
24th of last month, the frost being sharp and accom 
panied with an intense cold rime. On the 27th ult. 
we registered 20° of frost, and on the 2nd and 5th 
instant the themometer fell to 13 °, to-day, the 6th, 
we are having a heavy snowstorm. We are frozen 
out in the kitchen garden and work is getting scarce, 
but something must be found for the regular staff of 
men to do, as it is no joke to send men home in such 
severe weather with empty pockets to their wives 
and little ones. In most places there is what is 
termed a rubbish heap which seldom gets any atten¬ 
tion beyond what is added to it from time to time. 
Turning and ridding this heap of sticks and stones 
will be time well spent, as it makes an excellent top 
dressing for fruit trees, and there is no better thing I 
know of to mix with the bottom spit where bastard 
trenching is going on. I would not recommend it 
