May 2?, 1899. 
the gardening world. 
616 
collection grown under a few square feet of glass. 
My object in giving so many names is to show the 
great variety of plants which can be grown in a very 
limited space. They are to their owner a never- 
failing source of recreation and amusement, and 
when got together possibly one of the cheapest 
hobbies in which one can well indulge.— IV. B. G. 
-- 
STREPTOSOLEN JAMESONII. 
This charming greenhouse plant is very seldom 
seen in flower. Is it because it is considered difficult 
to flower ? Or is it not sufficiently well known ? I 
think it cannot be surpassed for dotting round the 
edge of the greenhouse or conservatory, just now 
there being a slight lull between bulbs and summer 
Begonias, &c., and a little colour is very acceptable in 
these houses just now. I took cuttings in January, 
which strike very easily; they were afterwards 
potted into medium 6o-size pots, and hardened off to 
greenhouse temperature. These have been in flower 
quite a month, and are still good. A plantl enclose for 
your inspection was cut off at the soil surface.— F. 
G. Brewer, Oaklands, nr. St. Albans, Herts. 
[We have seen some grand samples of good culti¬ 
vation, but they were large plants and profusely 
flowered. J. T. Bennett Poe, Esq (gardener, Mr. J. 
Downes), Holmwood, Cheshunt, succeeds very well 
with this plant grown in large pots, large and pro¬ 
fusely flowered specimens being occasionally shown 
by him at the meetings of the Royal Horticultural 
Society. Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart, (gardener, 
Mr. W. Bain), Burford Lodge, Dorking, plants out 
specimens in the garden during summer. They attain 
a large size, are full of vegeiative vigour, and pro¬ 
duce a profusion of bloom that is simply remarkable. 
The specimen sent us by Mr. Brewer resembled a 
spray cut from the tip of a vigorous, flowering 
shoot, and for that we took the piece at first sight, 
for it was only 6 in. long, and somewhat wider. We 
must say, however, that if all are like the plant sent 
us, they are the dwarfest flowering specimens of 
Streptosolen we have ever seen. They must, indeed, 
be handsome and useful subjects in the greenhouse 
or conservatory.— Ed ] 
--s—- 
THE “ABOL” INSECTICIDE. 
Now the season of the year is coming round when 
we may expect a big crop of creepers (I mean insect 
creepers) to infest our plants, Roses, &c. 
One is often asked which is the best wash to kill 
these pests. To me this is a difficult question, seeing 
there are so many good ones. Most cultivators 
have some one kind they prefer to others. 
■‘•he above-named was brought strongly to my 
notice recently at a meeting of the Gardeners’ 
Mutual Society at Reading, when a discussion arose 
over one of the modern introductions, and it turned 
out some objected to its use. After a long discus¬ 
sion the chairman rose and said it was clear that 
most of these washes were like doctors’ physic, 
namely, if you took too much it would kill you. 
However, after trying many kinds I can strongly 
recommend “ Abol ” as one of the very best on tbe 
market. I have used it now for two seasons, and 
with a large number of different plants. In every 
instance I have been very pleased with the results. 
Used for syringing Peach trees in a cold Peach 
house it produced the best results, aDd this in a 
few minutes. 
I have found it most effective when used in all the 
ways recommended by the vendors. One of its 
chief poiots is, with its effectiveness, it is very cheap. 
Another advantage to it is that with each can or 
bottle is sent a small measure, so that there is no 
difficulty in using it. The firm sends out a capital 
syringe with a very fine spray for distributing it. 
The price places it within the reach of all.— 
J. C. F. A., Chard. 
FEEDING APPLE AND OTHER 
FRUIT TREES. 
From experience we have found that unless fruit 
trees have a rich supply of nourishment to draw 
easily from no amount of sunshine or a dry summer 
will make the fruits colour any the better. It stands 
to reason that the '• substance ” must first be collected 
aDd, this accomplished,one may expect to see depth 
of colour, bloom, size and succulency increased by 
the elaborating influence of the actinic and heat 
rays of the sun. I know of one first-class fruit¬ 
grower who obtained great advances from the use 
of sulphate of iron solutions, applied weekly as a 
tonic. The sulphate would yield a necessary element 
in the formation of albuminoids, and the iron would 
strengthen and increase the chlorophyll of the foliage 
and epidermis of the fruits ; and as we know the work 
of the chlorophyll is that of uniting and elaborating 
the raw sap and salts exposed to light. The grower 
referred to always gave the soil around his trees a 
very slight pointing about the latter end of February, 
and immediately afterwards gave a liberal dressing 
of soot, wood-ashes, some crushed bones, and over 
all a heavy mulch of sappy muck. Drenchings of 
clear water, and of the ferric sulphate already 
mentioned came in when the crops were swell¬ 
ing.— J. H. D. 
EARLY MELONS. 
With the advent of May month those of us who 
have houses, and well heated for the purpose, are 
expected to supply ripe fruit early in the present 
month. For several years past we have cut from 
the 8th to the 12th of May,but this season we were a 
few days earlier, cutting our first fruit on the 3rd, the 
seeds being sown on January 9th. I grow some on 
the single cordon, and part I pinch at the second 
pair of leaves, and take up two growths. The single 
cordons ripened their fruit (they carried three each) 
from three to five days before the double cordons ; 
but the latter carried four fruits to each plant and 
were decidedly heavier fruits than the former ; and 
there is this advantage in the double cordon—you 
get more female flowers open at one time, and if 
carefully fertilised they are more certain of a given 
number of fruits swelling away together. We plant 
the single cordons 18 in. apart; while the double 
ones are given another 12 in. more. There are a 
number of varieties in cultivation, and I have tried 
a good many, but none gives me as much satisfaction 
as Sutton’s Scarlet, a real good Melon, I consider. 
What is your opinion, Mr. Editor (I am forwarding 
a fruit with these notes) ? The plant is a strong 
grower, sets well, is beautifully netted, and the 
flavour—well, hear what the editor has to say. The 
fruit I send just turns the scale at 4 lbs., and is from 
the double cordon. [See next week. Ed ] 
I am growing Syon Perfection and Frogmore 
Scarlet this season as a second crop. They are most 
promising at present; I may report later on anent 
these two, which received Awards of Merit from the 
R.H. Society, July and August, 1897.— J. Mayne, 
Bicton. 
COMMON WEEDS. 
I would far rather, in the generality of cases, reply 
to criticism than attempt a critique myself. ODe 
has to be very, very careful, and have much 
experience of the subject under notice before he or 
she can enter into criticism. Many a fact brought 
about by circumstances may lie behind an 
apparently ridiculous statement, and unless certain 
statements are accepted broadly and applied with 
reason they will seem very foolish indeed. Our 
friend, "Ear," in his comments on my little article 
under the above title at page 598, May 20th, has not 
looked at the subject with quite the same conditions 
as I had in view. Much depends at times on a few 
words. With me it did when I wrote “ where these 
weeds have overrun the land,” I had in view one, 
two, three, four gardens which were detestable with 
weeds. 
In each garden there were two men’s work for 
every one employed. They did tbeir utmost with 
the hoes and yet they had always some weed-ridden 
bed or border, brake or alley. They used the dry 
haulms of Peas and old Pea-stakes or other refuse 
and strewed them over some of tbe worst brakes for 
burning. The land was heavy and the burning did 
the surface little harm. It supplied the essential 
ash ingredients; it saved the carting away of the 
refuse and it banished the weeds for that season and 
a large part of the next. In the same garden and 
also in a neighbouring one some of the alleys in 
each place became choked full, They got barrows 
and spades and carefully skinned off the soil con¬ 
taining the weeds and seeds. I ask 11 Ear,” would 
hoeing and raking bave been nearly so quick and 
would it have cleared away the seeds as this did ? 
Again, in a garden in a different part of the 
country, on sandy soil Nettles became a dire pest in 
a certain spot of the vegetable grounds. We could 
hoe, hoe, hoe, and in a day or two always have a 
fresh crop. Gas lime was applied but with a double 
purpose; first, to stamp out the Cabbage maggot 
and to kill the weeds. The result was very pro¬ 
nounced and satisfactory for both ends, although the 
entire stock was not baDished. To remove the lime 
was easy enough for we simply applied it to tbe 
neighbouring land. And now my last and seem¬ 
ingly most offensive exterminating means has to be 
considered. From my article anyone who reads it 
may note that I have added trenching as a last 
resort when other means have failed, and I knew 
that hardly once in a thousand cases would such an 
extreme measure be needed. It was added for 
completement to the list of exterminating processes 
and, of course, to be applied with reason. And if 
"digging down ” is determined upon any depth less' 
than 5 ft. for the destruction of Nettles and Dande¬ 
lions would be simply labour wasted. I myself 
have helped to trench a Horse Radish bed which 
had become irredeemable. The vegetable and the 
weeds shared the same fate. Talking of deep 
trenching, I could name a gardener—a lion in vege¬ 
table culture—who trenches his garden four spades 
deep each year. But enough. If "Ear" bas more 
to add would he (or she) be kind enough to use " J " 
instead of "F” when using the first of my initials. 
-J. D. 
--B-- 
STORIES ABOUT PLANTS. 
At the Drill Hall meeting of the R. H. S. on May 
16th, the Rev. Professor Henslow, M. A., delivered 
an interesting lecture on " Some of the Plants Exhi¬ 
bited.” Dr. Masters occupied the chair, and 53 
new names were proposed for election. Professor 
Henslow opened bis lecture by a reference to the 
Japanese Cerasus Pseudo-Cerasus, imported by 
Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, Ltd., Chelsea. He 
mentioned that though our ordinary double Cherry 
had two pistils it yet produced only one fruit. 
Coming to the alpine Plants he mentioned that 
they were usually of a much more intense hue in 
their natural habitats than when subjected to the 
conditions of our moist and less keen climate. The 
alpines are generally all very dwarf. Centaurea 
Cyanus and C. dealbata have never been improved 
though they have been for a long time in cultivation, 
and are types of the taller plants found plentifully in 
the Swiss alpine valleys. 
The Dielytra and its mode of fertilisation was 
shown. The process is much after the manner of 
the fertilisation of the Leguminosae. The weight 
of the bee or heavy fly, or their struggles to win the 
interior, force the petals apart and expose the stamens, 
whose pollen dust the bees’ back, and so cross-ferti¬ 
lisation results. 
Briefly he pointed out the changes from simple to 
compound leaves, and explained that dissected com¬ 
pound leaves were of this nature for the free trans¬ 
mission of light. 
A new form of Pelargonium of the Cactus type of 
bloom was before the meeting. He thought this was 
somewhat of a reversion to the original scarlet 
Pelargonium, though of course differing from it. 
Speaking of the Parrot Tulips, the Professor said 
the remarkable thing about these was the fact that 
they seldom gave rise to seeds. He stated the case 
of a friend of his who sowed seeds from Parrot Tulips 
and 90 per cent, of the seedlings had reverted to the 
Darwin type, which would prove surely that from 
that type they came. Scilla nutans becomes cam- 
panulate under culture.* He quoted cases of the 
"doubling” of flowers ; but as Dr. Masters pointed 
out there can be the addition of petals without the 
decrease of stamens. Saxifragagranulata is so called 
because of the small granules or tubercles which it 
throws out for propagation. The inconsistency of 
systematic botanists was referred to. While the 
botanists depended in their classification entirely 
upon the position of the ovary in the Amaryllidaceae 
and Liliaceae, being "superior” in tbe latter 
case and "inferior” in the former, we yet found 
them classifying the Saxifragas in one order even 
though some bad "superior" ovaries, aud others 
“inferior.” The meeting was of an entertaining 
character and all seemed to enjoy it. Votes of thanks 
were accorded the lecturer and chairman, 
