May 11, 1901. 
58 1 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
a full amount of sunlight and air, so that the wood 
may be well ripened, and at the same time furnish 
the wall. All breast wood should be removed early, 
as it is never any good, for it cannot be laid in with¬ 
out disfiguring the trees. See that the roots are well 
supplied with water, or the young fruit will fall 
instead of swelling. If the roots have not been 
mulched this should be done without delay, for it 
conserves the moisture which the soil may contain, 
and when water is applied, or rain falls on it, it acts 
as a gentle stimulant to the roots. But do not 
stimulate too much, or a rank sappy growth will be 
produced, which is very undesirable in any tree, 
especially a Peach tree. Aphis are always very 
troublesome to young Peach shoots, and must be 
kept in check by the frequent use of the garden 
engine, and an occasional spraying with quassia 
extract. 
Bush Fruit.— Preparations should be made for 
netting, if this has not already been done, to protect 
the buds. It is a good plan to mulch the roots of 
these also, even if the mulching is not of much 
manurial value, as it keeps the soil moist by prevent¬ 
ing excessive evaporation. Any trees that are 
noticed to be attacked by fly should be attended to 
with the syringe or engine. 
Strawberries,— These should now be supplied 
with litter, so that it has time to wash clean before 
the fruits are ripe. Litter is preferable to straw or 
hay, as ihe matter washed down from it to the roots 
considerably helps the plants to swell their fruit. If 
in a very dry situation they will require frequent 
applications of water to ensure a heavy crop. 
THE PLANT HOUSES. 
The great crush for room in the cool houses is now 
almost at an end, for the plants that are to be 
bedded out require hardening off and are stood out¬ 
side in sheltered positions, allowing more room in 
the houses, and considerably lessening the anxiety of 
the gardener; for it is an anxious time for the man 
in charge when his plants are crowded together. If 
disease sets in, what can he do ? who is to blame ? 
Surely not the gardener ! for the quantity of stuff 
that he is expected to turn out from a few glass 
houses is incredible. People must imagine that he 
can grow them two layers thick. Through over¬ 
crowding in the spring many plants have their con¬ 
stitutions so weakened that they never make a good 
show. If more houses are built to relieve the others, 
when the next spring comes round they are found to 
be full, for with more glass more plants are expected 
directly. All that the gardener can do is to use 
every care, and allow as much air as the external 
conditions will allow, and weed out immediately any 
* plants that show signs of disease I am afraid that 
the importance of tl e practice of grappling with 
disease in its early stages, and in a proper manner,, 
is not understood so well as it ought to be among 
gardeners. One may often see a thoroughly good 
practical gardener take a leaf from a plant that is 
infested by disease and shuffle it under his foot. 
If the disease is of a fungoid nature a greater mistake 
cannot be made, for the spores, which fungi produce 
in thousands, are scattered about, and being such 
minute bodies they float in the air with the least 
movement. Should one alight on a plant which is 
suitable for it to make a host, it germinates 
immediately, and starts its work of destruction 
by breaking down the cell walls, and feeding on 
their contents, and when sufficiently fattened, again 
breaks through to the surface and produces myriads 
of spores. The whole life of the fungus is very 
short as a rule, but during that short time it pro¬ 
duces enough spores to affect the whole crop. One 
affected leaf, if not removed, may be the means of 
spoiling a whole crop. By removing it I do not 
mean simply take the leaf or plant, and pitch it 
under the potting bench or on to the rubbish heap ; 
this is not sufficient. Take the whole plant If 
possible, as carefully as you can, and burn it. Doit 
at once when any disease is noticed, do not wait 
until the next day, or until the afternoon, for the 
delay may mean disaster to the whole batch of 
plants, for a shake or a draught may scatter the 
minute invisible spores all over the other plants. 
Many gardeners often wonder why a whole batch of 
plants becomes affected and collapses simultaneously. 
Here is the reason. Do not be satisfied with only' 
taking out the plant but immediately apply a fungi¬ 
cide to the plants in the vicinity. This may seem a 
lot of fuss to make, but nevertheless it is a precaution 
that saves many a crop. As far as it is compatible 
with due economy, do not waste time and money on 
small matters, but here an expenditure of £i may 
save a crop worth £$o. 
Double-flowered Chinese Primulas. —These 
have about finished their flowering now, if they have 
not they should be checked and rested for a month 
or two. After they have been afforded a rest, if it is 
desired to grow them into larger plants they should 
have a shift into the next size pots, using a compost 
that is well opeD, and a good mellow loam, for they 
delight in good soil. Good plants may be produced 
in one season by splitting up the old ones and 
starting them again in small pots in a gentle bottom 
heat, and pot them along as they fill with roots. A 
better plan even than this is to top-dress the old 
plants to make each shoot throw out roots, when 
they may be taken off as rooted cuttings and grown 
on. 
Caladiums. —These arp very useful plants in 
establishments where the housing room is valuable 
in winter, as they can then be packed away in boxes 
until the following spring, and their room utilised by 
other plants that retain their foliage during that 
season. Crack growers of hard-wooded stuff are 
apt to look with contempt on the Caladiums ; why, 
I cannot say. They may be common, but they are 
also beautiful and indispensable to the gardener who 
has to keep both his glass houses, drawing rooms, 
&c., bright and gay during the summer. The cul¬ 
tural directions may be summed up in a few words. 
Start them in a brisk bottom heat, in a rich, moder¬ 
ately light soil. Keep the atmosphere moist, do not 
give too much shade, keep them away from draughts 
and feed slightly when the pots are full of roots. 
Genistas. —Cuttings should now be made of these 
sweet-scented favourites. They are often raised 
from seed, but these are so long before they flower. 
It is a waste of time to put in hard-wooded cuttings. 
The best plan is to take some sturdy young growths 
and dibble them round the sides of small pots filled 
with a light sandy compost, and place in a gentle 
bottom heat. They soon take root if treated thus. 
When they are potted off, keep them near the glass 
to prevent them growing too tall, and keep well 
pinched. They are plants that delight in a rich 
soil. 
Cinerarias. —Year by year the strains of Ciner¬ 
arias are increasing, each nurseryman having his own 
particular strain. Their improvement has, to the 
eyes of most people, got to such a pitch that they 
are vulgar with their dwarf, stiff habit and dense 
trusses. This season has brought forward something 
worth having in these plants—strains with beautiful 
colours, with the tall, light and graceful habit of the 
original species. For cutting, conservatory or house 
house decoration at this time of the year they can¬ 
not be surpassed, as the flowers range through 
every colour, from pure white to dark purple, 
possess long stems, and are produced in abundance. 
It requires the same treatment as the common dwarf 
strain, and I have no hesitation in saying that in the 
near future it will be grown in every greenhouse, to 
the exclusion of the other gaudy, but inelegant 
type. 
Cyclamen. —The young plants of this indispen¬ 
sable winter flower require careful attention at this 
time of the year. If out in frames, every discretion 
must be used in airing, for although the sun has 
great power now, there is a biting east wind blowing 
nearly the whole of the time. They are often 
attacked by mildew. Whenever this occurs they 
should all be dipped in some form of fungicide. It 
would not take a great amount of time to dip the 
whole batch about once a week, following the old 
truism, "prevention is better than cure." 
©leanings ftmtt tlje Dtntfii 
of Science 
'Germination of Seedsof Bertholletia excelsa. 
—Under this botanical name is hidden away the 
Brazil Nut, the seeds of which are so familiar to 
people in this country, particularly about Christmas 
time. Relatively few people are probably aware of 
the true relationship of the Brazil Nut, and its 
marked differences from a Hazel Nut. The so- 
called Brazil Nuts of the shops are reeds and not 
nuts at all, if compared with a Filbert. The latter 
is the fruit of the Hazel, whereas the fruit of the 
Brazil Nut is a globular, woody, or horny vessel 
about 6 in. in diameter, and so hard that a sharp 
saw has difficulty in cutting it. This vessel contains 
fifteen to twenty seeds or so-called nuts shaped like 
the component parts of an Orange, and crowded 
together in the interior, which is a veritable prison 
house with a narrow opening about half an inch in 
diameter, and closed with a closely fitting plug. 
How the embryos make or attempt to make their 
way out of this natural prison house, is the subject of 
an article in the Annals of Botany for March, 1901, 
by Mr. William Watson, Assistant Curator, Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Kew. Several explanations are 
current as to the way the seeds get liberated or 
succeed in germinating, and on the arrival at Kew, 
of fresh fruits from Trinidad about six years ago, 
Mr. Watson set himself the experiment of finding 
out how the seeds could manage to er cape from con¬ 
finement or germinate. Two of the most perfect 
fruits were placed in a bed of moist cocoanut fibre, 
on October 22nd, 1894, in a temperature ranging 
from 75 0 to 85°. They were quite intact, with the 
apical opening firmly closed with the plug. The 
outer shell of other fruits broken open was as hard 
as seasoned Oak, while the inner was even harder 
and smooth as glass. 
No signs of germination had taken place at the end 
of twelve months in the hot bed, when the shell of 
one fruit was sawn in half without disturbing the 
seeds. Some of the latter had begun to germinate, 
having shoots several inches long, although the 
shell of the vessel was as hard as ever. The apical 
plug fell out during the sawing operation, and that 
of the undisturbed fruit had shrunk, and no longer 
kept out air and moisture. The two halves of the 
cut fruit were put back to their proper places and 
wired. 
Eighteen months from the time of planting a 
seedling pushed its way through the openiag of the 
fruit, and in the course of a few weeks, others to the 
number of six followed. The seedlings grew apace 
until they began to squeeze one another in the 
narrow aperture of the seed vessel. Then came the 
struggle for existence, shown by the languishing 
appearance of the seedlings. For a period this 
struggle for life and liberty continued, some of the 
seedlings dying outright, and others losing their 
leaders. Many more seeds, and presumably seed¬ 
lings, still remained incarcerated in the seed vessel, 
and Mr. Watson became impatient to know what 
was taking place inside. The erstwhile woody seed 
vessel was found to be quite soft, and it was decided 
to open the fruit, the performance of the operation 
being effected exactly six years from the time of 
sowing, namely, on October 22nd, 1900. 
What was to be seen is represented in the above 
mentioned periodical in the form of three photo¬ 
graphic reproductions. Plate I. shows a fruit with a 
portion of the outer shell removed, exposing a number 
of the seeds. Six seedliogs were alive, while one 
had died back, but was sending out a fresh shoot 
from near the base of the stem. Plate II. shows the 
whole fifteen seeds, nearly a'l of them beiDg intact 
after six years incarceration. Five had never ger¬ 
minated, but were decayed and mouldy ; four had 
germinated and afterwards died, while six had 
developed into little plants. 
Three of the seeds with their respective seedlings 
are shown in plate III.; and the twisted and 
tortuous condition of the basal parts of the stems 
gripped by the neck of the vessel, shows unmistak¬ 
ably the struggle the seedlings have had for existence. 
After all the squeezing and the loss of three shoots 
in succession, one of the seedlings had commenced to 
form a leader for the fourth time. Two of these 
seedlings have evidently been living upon the reserve 
matter stored up in the kernel. The third seedliDg 
has a few roots pushed through the lower end of the 
seed, and the stem is longer than that of any of the 
others, the inference beiDg that it was amongst the 
earliest to escape from its imprisonment, and having 
gained this primary advantage it has since main¬ 
tained the lead over its fellow. 
The Brazil Nut belongs to the Myrtle family, and 
this experiment shows what a struggle the tree must 
have in its native forests to liberate its progeny 
which have been incarcerated with the intention 
originally of protecting the same from the depreda¬ 
tions of animals. 
