April 22, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
535 
getting smaller every year as science progresses. I 
shall now proceed to enumerate some of the evils or 
difficulties with which cultivated plants have to 
contend. 
Neglect. 
This may be wilful or not on the part of the gardener; 
and in the former case my advise is, that if a plant 
is worth growing at all, it is worth growing well; 
and if not then throw it away is it because not only, an 
eyesore in itself but a disgrace to the rest of the 
establishment. Yet how few gardeners have the 
courage to doit! There are gardeners and gardeners, 
however, and some of them are not sufficiently in 
love with their plants or their profession, and plants 
lose by it in many ways. Who has not frequently 
seen Cabbages, Cauliflowers and others of the tribe 
struggling for existence in the seed beds when timely 
thinning and timely transplanting would have enabled 
them to get half grown in the same time ? This 
applies even more forcibly to annuals which are 
sown directly in the positions where they are to 
bloom. An old custom was to mix the seeds of 
several species together and sow them in lines for 
effect. The seedlings generally came up densely 
crowded, with ten to thirty plants in the space that 
should have been allotted to a single individual. 
The result of this, as might be expected, was that 
the stronger growing kinds killed the weaker ones 
partly or wholly. Seeds are often sown thickly in 
the belief that many of them are bad ; but this 
should not prevent their being thinned, and in fact 
is no excuse for the gardener’s inattention at the 
proper time. Weeds are often better adapted to 
succeed on any given piece of ground and if allowed 
to grow would soon appropriate every inch of space 
to themselves, destroying the cultivated plants to 
their own advantage. This is battle to the hilt, or 
nature versus culture, which it is the cultivator's duty 
to prevent. 
Starvation is another enemy to plant life, and 
takes many forms. The want of water is one of 
them, and when this takes place in the open air to 
any serious extent the cultivator may be unable to 
cope with the difficulty ; but even here much can be 
done to prevent it by prevision and carefulness. An 
inadequate supply of water to pot plants can more 
directly be laid to his charge. How, when, and why 
water should be given and the necessary amount are 
things to be learned by constant practice and unre¬ 
mitting attention. They cannot be acquired in a 
day from any single plant or class of plants, but the 
requirements of the hundreds of plants now in culti¬ 
vation may exact the closest observation of a man for 
a lifetime. Hundreds of plants are killed by too 
much water or too little. Plants may be starved for 
want of potting at the proper time, and if they do 
not die outright, they may be ruined for life. Cal¬ 
ceolarias, Cinerarias, annuals of various kinds and 
many other soft-wooded and fast-growing plants run 
up with a single, unbranched stem, finally producing 
a few comparatively worthless flowers. Timely 
potting and repotting would (all other conditions being 
equal) have produced handsome prize-taking speci¬ 
mens. Many hard-wooded and bulbous plants, on 
the contrary, would have given the desired results by 
being fed with liquid manure or some other stimulant 
in the shape of a more or less concentrated plant 
food, when it happens that the pots are crowded 
with roots. On the other hand, Hippeastrums and 
Eucharis do not flower well until the pots get more 
or less densely crowded with fleshy roots in a 
relatively small quantity of soil. By crowding in 
the early stages and neglect to repot at the proper 
time such things as Chinese Primulas, the foliage 
presents a yellow and starved appearance later on, 
and herbaceous Calceolarias get leggy and worthless. 
Another picture of neglect might be drawn in the 
case of fruit trees in the orchard or garden, not old 
nor young, but just at what we might term the 
fruitful middle-age of their life, or should be. How 
often do we hear complaints of the trees being fruit¬ 
less, scraggy, lichen-covered, and ill-favoured 
generally, without any real attempt being made to 
ascertain what is the matter with them, or to remedy 
the evil. If the ground is wet and boggy it wants 
draining, and the renewed vigour of the trees will 
throw off the old hide-bound bark together with the 
lichens upon them, without any special application 
being given to remove the same. When the land 
lies low and does not permit of an outlet for the 
drains the soil should be elevated in mounds or 
ridges and the trees planted thereon. I have, how¬ 
ever, seen trees planted on such land, and the soil 
raised in mounds over the roots. This is the mis¬ 
application of a scientific principle making the 
original evil doubly mischievous. More often, how¬ 
ever, the trees are starving for want of food on a 
poor, worn-out soil, and, notwithstanding the re¬ 
moval of plant food in the form of fruit, year after 
year the idea of supplying the deficit is seldom con¬ 
ceived, and more rarely acted upon. The trees 
complain in silence, and their owners do so aloud 
instead of helping themselves by helping the trees. 
The wood of Apple, Pear and Cherry trees removes 
large quantities of potash and lime, more particularly 
of the latter from the soil, but the quantity of potash 
and phosphoric acid removed by the fruits is nearly 
three times as great, and, seeing that this is wholly 
carried away from the land, the deficit cannot be 
otherwise than serious in many cases, especially in 
poor land. Lime is, moreover, a valuable con¬ 
stituent, but gardeners would do well to know when. 
It is safer and most beneficial to apply it in the form 
of chalk or old mortar rubble than as quick lime. 
The latter soon destroys all the vegetable matter in 
poor soil. 
Mistaken Kindness. 
The various forms taken by the enemies of plant life 
is marvellous when one comes to think of it. Well- 
meant but mistaken kindness is difficult to combat, 
because difficult to discern. When the care of plants 
is undertaken by man, but especially when grown 
under glass, they are placed under conditions which 
do not prevail in a state of nature, consequently 
there must be a compensation in other ways. The 
amount of ventilation that should be given to hot¬ 
houses relatively to the temperature, and that again 
to the amount of light conducive to the well-being 
of vigorous plants in hot-houses, is quite a science in 
itself, and requires much practical care as well as 
thoughtful study in order to ensure success. It is 
highly mischievous to plant life to allow the tempera¬ 
ture to greatly exceed the maximum required and then 
to open the ventilators widely in order to lower the 
temperature. The harm done during the early spring 
months is greater in proportion to the degree of cold 
of the outside air. Growth is checked or the tender 
foliage may even be injured. Sun scorching is an 
allied evil from the same cause. Ventilation should 
be increased as the temperature rises in order to 
prevent rather than reduce excess. Where the heat 
has to be raised artificially during the day when 
forcing is being done, it should be accomplished early 
in the day and in proportion to the amount of light, 
so as to utilise its influence to the fullest extent 
possible. A high degree of heat should never 
accompany a dark or foggy day in winter even when 
forcing. In severe frost and windy weather it is 
safer to have the thermometer a degree or two below 
any given standard than at or above it. 
Plants are safer during foggy weather in a low 
temperature than a high one. We can expel the 
vapour of a fog, but not the poisonous impurities in 
the atmosphere, otherwise plants in stoves or warm 
Orchid houses would be safe, whereas they are more 
liable to suffer than those in a greenhouse. The 
obstruction of light is an evil we cannot prevent 
during fog, but when the blinds are drawn down 
over the roof to exclude frost, they get frozen in 
position and cannot be removed next day till half the 
day and its light is gone. 
The evil of obstructing the light is seen in many 
ways, but one or two instances in the case of propa¬ 
gation may be taken. When soft cuttings are newly 
put in to root a certain amount of shading is bene¬ 
ficial ; but it is often carried too far even when a 
moist atmosphere is secured by close frames and bell 
glasses. Light is fully as necessary to the well-being 
of a plant without roots as one having them ; yet I 
have seen batches of hardy plants, and also an exten¬ 
sive batch of Verbena cuttings completely destroyed 
in one week by perpetual shading night and day. 
Second trials with judicious shading only during the 
hottest part of the day were successful, and the ex¬ 
perience if dearly bought was eminently valuable. 
There is no such thing as mistaken kindness in the 
misapplication of manures. An amateur in the 
foolhardy attempt to force his Fuchsias, Pelargo¬ 
niums, and Hydranges into vigorous growth and fine 
condition for exhibition purposes, by means of fre¬ 
quent and heavy doses of strong liquid manure, killed 
the lot. A gardener killed his Chrysanthemums by an 
overdose of a highly concentrated and readily 
soluble artificial manure; and no doubt similar 
instances are numerous, but failures are seldom 
recorded.— J. F. 
(To be continued.) 
-- 
Gardening Miscellany. 
PRUNUS PISSARDI. 
There has been a considerable amount of discus¬ 
sion as to the affinity of this beautiful shrub or small 
tree since it was introduced and first figured in the 
Revue Horticole in 1881, p. igo. There are two 
examples of it in the garden of the State School of 
Horticulture and Agriculture at Ghent. They 
represent the two types introduced by chance by 
M. A. Chatenay, at Sceau, who received them from 
M. Pissard, director of the garden of His Majesty 
the Shah of Persia. One of the trees has pale foliage 
shaded with brown, while the other has leaves of a 
beautiful dark red. Both are grown under precisely 
the same conditions, and the leaves of the pale 
variety revert to a dark green after a time, but 
otherwise the two are identical. The fruit of the 
dark variety is of a rich dark red, but the colour of the 
fruit of the pale one is not mentioned by the Bulletin 
d'Arboriculture, &c., in its March number, which gives 
a coloured illustration of a fruiting branch of the 
tree as we know it in Britain. In an article relating 
to its history in that periodical, it is named Prunus 
Cerasifera var Pissardi, or in other words it is con¬ 
sidered a variety of the Cherry or Myrobalan Plum, 
the native country of which is unknown. 
ADONIS VERNALIS. 
It is generally acknowledged that Adonis vernalis is 
one of the prettiest of spring flowers, yet how 
seldom we see it in gardens. Surely it cannot be on 
the score that it is difficult to grow, for it is by no 
means particular as to soil, growing in any 
moderately friable loam or on the rockery. It is, 
however, very impatient of disturbance at the roots, 
more particularly in spring, as it ought to be well 
rooted before the advent of dry weather. The 
bright yellow petals are very numerous and would 
appear golden were it not that the mass of stamens 
in the centre are several shades darker. The finely 
cut foliage of this plant is also a feature in its 
favour. The species is grown in some quantity by 
Mr. T. S. Ware, at the Hale Farm Nurseries, 
Tottenham, where a whitish variety, A. v. albida, is 
also grown. A double variety has also turned up, 
but although sometimes as perfectly double as Caltha 
palustris flore pleno it is not constant or not yet fixed, 
and reverts to a semi-double and single condition. 
IRIS ATROPURPUREA. 
The flowers of this species are borne singly, seldom 
in pairs, on the top of stems about i ft. high, and 
are notable for their rich dark colour, or rather 
mixture of colours. The leaves are slender, glaucous, 
and 6 in. to 8 in. long. The falls are of a velvety 
brownish-purple, with a black blotch on the disc, 
and the yellow claw is bearded nearly all over with 
brown-tipped, yellow hairs. The standards are 
broadly obovate, folded over the centre of the 
flower, anil of a rich brownish-purple, ornamented 
with numerous darker veins. The stigmas are 
yellowish and heavily mottled with brown. The 
species belongs to the Oncocyclus group of Irises 
which is largely represented in Palestine and the 
surrounding districts. It has been flowering for 
some time past in the nursery of Mr. T. S. Ware, 
Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham. 
NARCISSUS TRIANDRUS CONCOLOR. 
The variability in the size and form of the flowers 
of this little Daffodil is not the least feature of 
its beauty and interesting character. Although 
occasionally grown upon rockwork or planted out in 
frames, they are certainly seen to best advantage 
when grown in pots where they may be brought 
more nearly on a level with the eye. When large 
quantities are grown the best way probably would 
be to plant the bulbs in frames so that they might 
be protected from rain and snow during the winter 
months, as they are in the nursery of Messrs. Barr 
