510 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
April 8, 1899. 
is called "neroli ’’—for each 500 lbs. of flowers. As 
regards the proportionate yield of the other flowers, 
it is as follows :—Rose, 12,500 lbs. of flowers, 1 lb. of 
essence; Geranium, 500 lbs. of flowers, 1 lb. of 
essence ; Mint, 500 lbs. and 1 lb. of essence, Lavender, 
500 lbs. of flowers to i£ lbs. of essence, and the same 
proportion for Eucalyptus. There are two processes 
used for the purpose of extracting perfume from 
flowers which do not contain the volatile essence. 
The first may be described as the cold process, and 
the second as the hot process. The former is 
generally used for Ca.ssie(Acaciafarnesiana), Jessamine, 
Jonquils, Tuberoses, Violets, and some other flowers. 
Freshly gathered flowers are spread upon a layer of 
pure lard a quarter of an inch in thickness, spread 
over a sheet of glass about two feet square, which 
is framed in wood and forms a kind of tray. These 
trays—sometimes about 40 or 50 together—are then 
piled upon one another, the flowers are then 
changed every twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four hours, 
according to circumstances, and the process is thus 
continued until the lard is sufficiently charged with 
perfume. Jessamine and Tuberoses are frequently 
changed as often as fifty times before the lard 
is sufficiently impregnated, Cassie and Violets 
from thirty to forty times, and Jonquils about 
twenty times only. The fat thus obtained can b« 
packed in air-tight tins and conveyed any¬ 
where. When the hot process is resorted to for the 
process of obtaining the impregnated fat, about 40 lbs. 
of grease are placed in a copper vessel together with 
about 10 lbs. of flowers; the vessel is then placed 
over a slow fire and the contents are well stirred. 
After allowing the compound to boil for ten minutes 
the vessel is left to cool for some hours; an 
additional 10 lbs. of flowers are then added, and the 
process is repeated until the fat has absorbed the 
the requisite amount of perfume. The hot liquid is 
then poured through a sieve, and the greasy flower 
paste that remains is subjected to hydraulic pressure. 
It is in these two ways that the " pommades" of 
trade are produced. From these “ pommades" 
perfumed and alcoholised liquids are extracted by 
means of grain spirit and also by spirits of wine. 
These are the " extraits" of trade, and it is by the 
ludicious blending of the different essences and 
concentrated perfumes, obtained by the processes 
above described, that the numerous scents are 
produced.— Journal of the Society of Arts. 
CULTURE OF THE SEAKALE AND 
ASPARAGUS. 
The Seakale and Asparagus are two of our most 
esteemed vegetables, and may be had in use for at 
least eight months of the year. 
Seakale. 
When I first went as head gardener to Crowe House, 
Bath, I happened to look in at the vegetable market, 
and I saw on Mr. Liddar’s stand such Seakale as I 
had never seen before. I could not rest till I went 
to Batheaston to see his mode of culture. It was 
planted in 3 ft. beds, with 2 ft. alleys. When the 
foliage dies down in November, the 2 ft. alleys are 
dug to the depth of 2 ft., and the soil, being well 
broken up, is then placed on the beds right to the 
depth of 1 ft., then covered over with stable litter, 
which gives a bottom heat. It does not matter about 
the heat of the latter being rather high at a time. 
By removing the litter you can see when it heats 
the soil, then remove the litter and, with a small 
fork, carefully remove the soil into the alley, then 
cut off the Kale with a small heel, and have a 
pot of water and a brush to wash it. The Kale is as 
thick as one’s wrist. I have always adopted the 
above method, and have found it by far the best and 
cheapest. 
Asparagus 
One reads in gardening books to trench the ground 
2 ft. in depth, and plant three rows of plants in each. 
It gets all forked and one mass of roots. I give 
you Mr. Overton’s mode of culture, which I got from 
his own lips. He was a man of genius. When 
head keeper to the late Earl of Stamford, the last of 
the Greys, he wanted to beat all England at plant- 
growing at Exvill, but failed. So he next tried to beat 
all England in shooting. The competition was for 
ten guns to shoot 2,000 pheasants in one day. 
Overton worked with seven men under him for seven 
years before he accomplished it. Overton and his 
men formed a society among themselves, to see 
who could grow the. largest Cabbage and the 
longest Raspberry cane. As he beat all 
his men they suggested that they should try 
who could grow the best Asparagus. Mr. Overton 
did not know Asparagus, but he went to the gardener 
and asked him if he would give him some roots. 
When the man dug up the roots Mr. Overton 
observed that it was all forked. He had a ditch in 
his garden and filled it up with good soil to the 
depth of 4 ft. ; then planted the roots on the top, 
covering them over about 6 in. When the plants 
get strong he had some stakes put to them, and they 
went up 5 ft. in the autumn. The plants began to 
get yellow, so he went to the gardener who told him 
that they were herbaceous, and to cut them down. 
He then asked one of his men to bring a fork, as he 
wanted to experiment on these growths ; so the man 
began to dig 4 ft. down. At last Mr. Overton said, 
" Halt, I see something white; follow it up." The roots 
had gone down 4 ft. in one season su Mr. Overton 
said, "Now, I know how to grow Asparagus by 
depth of soil." So he made the men throw out the 
ditch to the depth of 6 ft., and put faggots in the 
bottom for draining. He then went to the gardener 
to get four dozen more plants. He raised the trench 
18 in. above the level of the ground to allow for 
sinking, then planted the roots on the top. He grew 
Lettuce and Onions on the ridges on each side, and 
put in permanent stakes with small wires, one on 
each side to keep the plants steady. In the third 
year the show came off, and Overton had his grass 
cut the night before the exhibition. Lord Stamford 
happened to be passing his cottage and asked him 
what he had got there. “ Asparagus, my lord." 
" Asparagus,” he remarked. “ Can I have a dish ? 
I have had both Scotch and English gardeners, and 
they are fools.” 
Overton, of course, won the first prize. It is a 
lesson to all gardeners to learn what a man of genius 
can do. He was ignorant that the Asparagus was a 
native of the sea-shore, and that depth of soil was 
the great secret. Where there is not depth of soil 
trenches may be thrown out to the depth, at least, 
of 4 ft., then filled up with good turf and well rotten 
manure. I adopted that mode of culture when I 
formed the new gardens at Sandringham, and got 
great praise for the size of grass, far superior to the 
French, of which only a bit of the top is fit to eat. 
Mr. Mathieson, gardener at Meikleour, adopted the 
deep culture, at least, 4 ft., and he is the best grower 
in Scotland.— William Carmichael, 14 , Pitt Street, 
Edinburgh. 
— -- 
QU€$CI0n$ MB A11$(D€R$. 
*,* Will our friends who send us newspapers be so good 
as to mark the paragraphs or articles they wish us to see. 
We shall be greatly obliged bv their so doing. 
[ Correspondents, please note that we cannot undertake to 
name florists' flowers such as Carnations, Pelargoniums, 
Chrysanthemums, Roses, nor such as are mere garden 
varieties, differing only in the colour of the flower. 
Florists' flowers, as a rule, can only be named by those who 
groiv collections of them.'] 
Peach Trees dropping their Bads.—I herewith beg 
to send to you sboots of a Peach tree for your in¬ 
spection, and would be greatly obliged to you, or to 
any one of your correspondents, for any information 
you or they might be able to impart to me as to the 
unhealthy state of the tree. It is the " Early 
Alexander” variety, has been planted five years, and 
blooms profusely, but each year more than one-half 
of the fruit bearing shoots make no leaves, the leaf 
buds dropping after the fruit buds are expanded. 
Side by side is a Royal George doing well Any in¬ 
formation will be gratefully received by— “T.S.R.C." 
[Asfar as we can see from microscopical examina¬ 
tion there is no fungus in the shoots you sent us, as 
the wood is well developed, and appears quite sound 
in every part. The fruits have also set abundantly, 
and if they remain as healthy as at present you will 
have to remove a considerable number of them at 
thinning time. In the absence of further evidence 
we should suggest that you examine the border in 
which the roots are situated to see whether the 
drainage is good. If the soil is water-logged the 
roots must be in an unhealthy condition, which 
would explain the dropping of the buds in very bad 
cases. On the contrary it may be just the reverse 
condition, namely, the want of water at some period 
during the autumn or winter months. This is more 
likely still to be the case if the trees are grown in 
pots. The buds require moisture to sustain their 
vitality even when the trees are leafless, and if they 
have beet starved in this respect, they appear to 
suffer after growth becomes active, whereas the evil 
migut have occurred months ago. Not knowing your 
meihod of treatment we cannot exactly state 
whether this has occurred; but we offer these sug¬ 
gestions for you to think out. If the trees are trained 
to unpainted, galvanised wires the evil may arise in 
this way by currents of electricity beiDg set up when 
the wires are wet. If this is the case you can get 
over it by having the wires painted with white paint. 
This ought to be done at once, if possible. If un¬ 
healthy leaves appear later on we should li 
specimens.—E d .] 
First and Second Crowns and Terminals in 
Chrysanthemum Culture.— W. C.: We are not at all 
surprised that you should have been puzzled by the 
use of these terms in a book on Chrysanthemum 
culture. The terms so used may be regarded as 
technical to the subject of Chrysanthemum culture. 
The first flower bud that appears upon the stem or 
shoots of a Chrysanthemum is spoken of as the first 
crown bud. In many varieties this appears in July 
or even earlier, and is of little service to the grower, 
so he generally removes it. Those varieties, that 
show the first crowns early, often show another later 
on. This would be the second crown bud. These, 
if left alone, seldom come to anything, however, and 
can only be made to develop by the removal of the 
lateral leafy buds immediately beneath them. There 
may be a number of crown buds in succession, and 
you can always recognise them if leafy side shoots 
are thrown out immediately below them. Later on 
in the season, when the growth of the plant is be¬ 
coming exhausted, no more crown buds are deve¬ 
loped, but terminal ones. You can recognise the 
latter by the side buds beneath them consisting of 
flowers, not leaves. If allowed to grow naturally 
none of the crown buds developed early would come 
to anything, as they would be starved by the vigour 
of the lateral leafy buds. In this case the resulting 
leafy shoots would be termed the natural break. If 
such buds were developed early in the season, the end 
of the shoots might repeat the operation ; but if late in 
the season, when the plants are getting exhausted, 
only terminals would be produced, having flower 
buds immediately beneath the end one. There is 
always a flower bud at the end of the stems and 
shoots, and would rightly be spoken of as terminal, 
so that Chrysanthemum growers have been unfor¬ 
tunate in the selection of terms. The pinching 
of varieties at certain seasons is done to secure 
crown or terminal buds at a given date for show 
purposes. 
Transplanting Lilium candidum. — L. C .: The 
winter leaves being still in full vigour, and the plants 
throwing up their flower stems, transplanting the 
bulbs at this season must be very injurious to them. 
If you must lift them, do it with as little injury to 
the roots as possible ; and if you could manage to lift 
them with a good ball of soil by the trouble of dig¬ 
ging a trench round about the bulbs, and tying a 
piece of canvas firmly round the ball of soil before 
moving the same, so much the better. By so doing, 
the flower stems might continue to develop and 
flower in due time, otherwise a season may be lost. 
Have a hole ready in the new site chosen before lift¬ 
ing the bulbs. After planting tread the soil firmly, 
and then give a good watering to settle it. 
Carnations destroyed by Sparrows — A. C .: 
Why they should break off the leaves of Carnations 
it would be difficult to say, unless they are short of 
green food during cold and dry weather. They do 
not always prove mischievous to Carnations even in 
the same garden, but they do in some winters clear 
off the foliage to an alarming extent. This is our 
experience and the easiest way we managed to keep 
them away was by putting short pegs here and there 
between the lines of plants, and stringing black cotton 
thread from one peg to another, about three inches 
from the ground. Several other garden plants we 
save in the same way. 
Names of Plants.— A. B. : 1, Ribes sanguineum ; 
2, Nuttallia cerasiformis; 3, Anemone fulgens ; 4, 
Lonicera fragrantissima ; 5, Vinca major.—T. H.: 
1, Odontoglossum Oerstedi; 2, Odontoglossum 
wilckeauum; 3, Oncidium crispum.— R. W. ; r, 
Arabis albida ; 2, Chionodoxa Luciliae ; 3, Crocus 
vernus var.; 4, Crocus aureus luteus ; 5, Narcissus 
Telamonius plenus ; 6, Aubrietia deltoides variegata. 
— C. P. : 1, Asplenium bulbiferum minus (usually 
known as A. Colensoi) ; 2, Boronia heterophylla ; 
3, Staphvlea colchica ; 4, Azara micropbylla; 
5, Coleonema album; 6, Cvtisus proliferus.— S. J. : 
I, Sisyrincbium grandiflorum ; 2, Phlox subulata ; 
3, Corydalis solida; 4, Muscari botryoides; 5, 
i^amium maculatum aureum; 6, Sedum acre 
aureum.— E. C. H. D .; 1, Veronica hederaefolia; 2, 
Apium nodiflorum ; 3, Cochlearia officinalis ; Poly¬ 
trichum sp. (we do not undertake to name mosses). 
Communications Received.—J H. D.—W. K.— 
J. O’S.— OmCga.—R. Dean.—Royal Agricultural 
Society.—Chemical Union, Ltd.—Knowledge.—A.L. 
—D. W.—M. B.—Tyro.—E. J.—Case.—T. B.— 
R. S —C. H. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Fred'k. W. Kelsey, 150 Broadway, New York.— 
Choice Hardy Trees and Plants, No. xlii. 
William Sydenham, Tamworth.—Pansies, Roses 
and Violas. 
The Chemical Union, Ltd., Ipswich. — Canary 
Guano and Other Fertilisers. 
