508 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
June 18, 1904. 
summer flowering plants were, however, behind their average 
dates in coming into bloom, with the exception of the Dog 
Rose, the deep-rooting nature of which may account for its 
keeping its usual time. 
As if the season had been turned topsy-turvy, the autumn 
Ava-s more or less unusually warm throughout, especially in 
October. Notwithstanding this, the sunshine was more plenti¬ 
ful duiing September and November than in October. The 
warm autumn had its effect upon the autumn, flowers, particu¬ 
larly Dahlias and Roses, which made unusually good displays. 
Winter vegetables were also favoured by the wet season, and 
left nothing to be desired up> to the close of these records. 
Planting, however, was veiy much hindered by reason of the 
saturated condition of the sod. Gardeners have usually to 
complain of the soil being too- dry in autumn for planting tree® 
and shrubs, but on this occasion the case was reversed. 
How to Fight Weeds. 
Most people now begin to recognise that weeds are merely 
plants out of place, but gardeners, farmers', and cultivators 
generally also recognise that it costs them a considerable 
amount of their time and attention to put these plants in« their 
proper places. Mr. W. Bull, in a lecture to the farmers of 
Essex duiing the past spring, gavei many timely hints as to 
how certain weeds should be combated, and the main facts 
of this lecture are recorded in a pamphlet teamed “ Market 
Day Lectures,” published under the auspices of the Essex 
Educational Committee. He says that weeds in our soils are 
practically at home, while the plants which one desires to 
cultivate are exotics and hybrids all more or less tender. 
Another pertinent remark lie made' is that the land is own, 
mother to the weeds and stepmother to the corn. Weeds also 
harbour vermin of a variety of kinds, besides furnishing food 
to certain, insects which may and do also prey upon cultivated 
plants. 
In the case of weeds, as in the case of insect enemies, it is 
necessary to know something of their nature and habit before 
the cultivator can hope to cope with them successfully. He 
calculates that of the great, army of weeds in this country' 
sixty-ome -species are annuals, sixteen species biennials, and 
fifty species perennials'. The treatment that would success¬ 
fully exterminate or destroy one kind would not in all cases 
apply to the others. Advice that is often given, to- gardeners is 
to destroy annual weeds before they rim to seed, and this is 
practically here repeated, but, as every gardener knowsi, it 
cannot always be accomplished at the proper time. 
In some instances, however, the lecturer advised his- hearers 
that land covered with seeds of certain weeds! should be scuffled 
with the object of scattering the seeds and causing them to 
germinate in the autumn. After this they are ploughed down. 
That is a very useful hint which gardeners might well adopt 
in the case of many annual weeds that run to seed before they 
can be destroyed. By lightly scuffling or raking the soil these 
weeds will be induced to germinate with thei first advent 
of the autumn, rains. When this has taken place-, the ground 
might then be dug over so as to- bury the seedlings. This is 
better than digging down the -seeds so deeply that- they lie in 
the ground and oo-mei up- again with every fresh digging, ger¬ 
minating when they are sufficiently near the surface. If dug- 
down -many of them retain vitality for a gre-at number of years, 
and germinate when, the conditions are suitable. 
The lecturer single® o-ut a number of weeds- specifically, 
giving information as to- what ho considers the bes-t method 
of destroying them. S-ome of the hints refer purely to agri¬ 
cultural operations. An interesting hint, however, is given in 
connection with certain members of the crucifer family. For 
instance, lie says that the wild Radish (Raphanus Rahpanis- 
trum) should have the soil heavily limed, or the cultivator 
may quit the holding. Probably it -is nows to many gardeners 
to know that the wild Radish may be destroyed by the mere 
practice of liming the soil. On the o-ther hand, we know that 
a,t the present time the white Mustard (Bras-siea alba) is making 
many a field bright ye-llow with its flowers in all the chalk 
districts. The same may be -said of the wild Mustard (B. 
Sinapistrum), though that, also- grows and flourishes on a oreat 
variety of soils-. 
Advice is also given to lime the land for Mayweed, Marigolds. 
Sorrel, etc. Of a mo-re drastic nature is -spraying with sul¬ 
phuric acid in water to destroy Fat-hen or Goosefcot, and 
sp-raying with sulphate of oo-pper to- destroy Charlock or wild 
Mustard. The cultivator is advised to plough and scarify to 
destroy Horsemint, and to- p-lough up Coltsfoot when in bloom. 
We do not observe that advice is given anywhere to rake up 
the roots of these things and bum them, as is so often done 
by the Scotch farmers. The advice to b-uy clean seed free 
from Plantains is timely, a-s we have observed Plantago media 
introduced to lawns with grass- seed in a district hundreds of 
miles from its native locality. 
Mentzelia Lindleyi. 
(See Supplement.) 
The species of Mentzelia are fairly numerous, but very few 
of them are cultivated in gardens at the present time. The 
most popular of all is M. Lindleyi, better known as Bartonia 
aurea,, but tlie latter name has- been applied to other plants, 
thereby causing some confusion. It has also been called 
Mentzelia aurea and M. Bart-onia. 
A number of those which have been introduced are more or 
les-s decidedly of a biennial nature and biennials are not greatly 
favoured by gardeners-, although a, few of the old-fashioned 
things-, either biennials or treated as biennials, remain as 
popular as ever, owing- to old-time associations. The plant, 
under notice grows from 12 in. to- 18 in, high, according to 
treatment and the amount of -space accorded it. To< those un¬ 
acquainted with it we may say that the leaves are scattered 
along- the stem and divided along the sides into- lo-bes of 
irregular length. 
The flowers are produced at the end of the branches- and 
main stem, two- or three together in a cluster, and when they 
expand reveal a wealth of golden-yellow quite unlike any other 
flower of -similar colour, though we- do no-t forget the Eschscholt- 
zia califo-mica, also- from California. The stamens are pro¬ 
duced like- a, great brush in thei centre, and in that respect 
re-mind one of a Hypericum or Rose. The individual flowers 
measure 1J in, to 11 in. across, and in sunshine are very hand¬ 
some. The -plant belongs to the- Lo-asaceae, not very often 
se-ear- outside of botanic gardens, with this exception and a few 
others. Most of the members- have the unenviable notoriety 
of being stinging plants-, but that is a characteristic which we 
have not observed in, Mentzelia, although the plant is covered 
with c-oars-e hairs. 
The species of Loasa- are- tho-s-ei which are furnished with 
stinging liairsi, though they do- not give gardeners much trouble 
as far as we know beyond a, tingling sensation for a short 
period. On this account we should scarcely regard them as 
poisonous. 
M. Lindleyi may be -sown, in the o-pen ground in April, but 
as the seedlings come along slowly unless the weather is un¬ 
usually favourable, it is- advantageous to sow seeds in a gentle 
heat under glass, and transplant the seedlings in the same way 
as is done with Stocks and Asters. The mere fact of trans¬ 
planting the seedlings causes the side root-s to- develop, vhus 
producing a large number o-f fibrous roots which enable thei 
plant® to be transplanted to- the open ground with little diffi¬ 
culty. Some -people would -soiw thinly in boxes or even in pots 
and transplant the seedlings direct to- the o-pen ground from 
such. The tap- root under these conditions is highly developed, 
the fibrous roo-ts few, and thei cheek given to the seedlings when 
placed in the open a,ir is so- great as to cause tfie loss of many 
of the lower leaves, -should the sun happen to- be warm or the 
winds drying at bedding-out time-. 
Those who would prefer raising seedlings under glass should 
use a, quantity o-f rather rough leaf-mould at, the time of trans- 
