AugUSt 22, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD . 
547 
1 
PRIZE LETTER COMPETITION. 
Readers are invited to contribute to this 
column short letters, discussing any 
gardening subject. 
Letters should not exceed 150 words 
each in length, and must be written 
on one side of the paper only. 
Two 7 Ptizes of ?s. 6d. each will be 
awarded each week for the two Letters 
which the Editor considers to be the 
best. 
Fruit Protector. 
1 have six large Cherry trees, which 
■ ery year are loaded with fruit, but every 
ar the birds have them all, so I have 
.ed threading one of them this year as 
1 experiment, with the result I have 
ved almost the whole crop. Jackdaws, 
ackbirds, and thrushes alike have all 
ven the tree a wide berth. The trees 
e standards, but they are easily 
readed in this way. Take the end of 
e thread and tie on one of the low'er 
anches, then standing well back take 
e reel and throw it well on the other 
ie and fasten again ; it will of course 
lwind itself and hang among the 
anches as it is thrown over. Do this 
evenly as possible all round the tree, 
have saved three bushels of fruit with 
( penny reels of thread. 
Canterbury. A. DENNETT. 
1 Old Pentstemon Resuscitated. 
Half a century ago cultivators paid con- 
ierable attention to a few distinct 
ecies of Pentstemon, including P. 
eciosus. Most of these have either 
come extinct, or they have been rele- 
.ted to botanic gardens. Messrs. Vil- 
orin-Andrieux and Co., Paris, deserve 
edit for having again put on the market 
strain of seed of the P. speciosus type, 
recently examined a batch of plants in 
iwer raised from this seed, and can 
thout hesitation speak highly in their 
vour. The plants attain a height of 
tm 2 to 2% feet, bearing spikes of bloom 
tm bright blue to bluish purple. Each 
ant produces quite a number of flower 
ikes. The plants referred to stood out 
doors without any protection last win- 
r, near Edinburgh, a proof of their 
i.rdiness. C. C. 
ie Fuchsia. 
A beautiful object is a well-growm 
ichsia. It is in every respect a charm- 
g plant for greenhouse decoration, 
tether grown as standards or in that 
ost natural of all forms, a bushy pyra- 
id shape. The peculiarly graceful habit 
the branches, with the abundance of 
nvers of various hues of colour, com- 
ne to make them prime favourites with 
1 lovers of these graceful and pictu- 
sque outlines with which nature 
tounds. It does not require a great 
retch of the memory to recall the best 
nds of sixteen years ago, when Carolina 
is thought to be a splendid thing among 
e dark kinds, and Venus Victrix or Dr. 
phson was the best white. But Fuchsias, 
ce the times, are now' altered, and the 
inderful flowers that are now produced, 
penally from the double kinds, are not 
ore remarkable than is the improvement 
at has taken place in the growth. 
Norfolk - S. E. Gent. 
Asters for Exhibition. 
Asters, if wanted for exhibition, should 
have all buds removed except three or four 
of the most promising, which are likely 
to be at their best at show' time, and pro¬ 
tect these by placing covers over them. 
Top dress with a liberal quantity of old 
manure and leaf mould, and w r ater 
liberally in dry weather before the show, 
so as to increase the size of the bloom. To 
prevent earwdgs from deforming the 
blooms, place flower pots filled with moss 
or paper among the plants on the ground. 
Lilt the pots frequently and turn out the 
moss, rags, etc., and destroy the pests. 
Barnsley. E." Robinson. 
A Charming Hawk weed. 
W here Hieracium villosum is grown 
either on the rockery or in the border, 
its merits will at the present time be ap¬ 
preciated. Its tufts of densely hairy 
leaves surmounted with large bright 
yellow flowers from the beginning of June 
onw'ards, render it almost indispensable 
to the lover of hardy flowers. Its culture 
is very simple, delighting and increasing 
very rapidly in the poorest of garden soil, 
which also makes it a good subject for 
naturalisation in the wild garden. 
Sheffield. j. w. Watson. 
Layering- Carnations. 
Many amateurs find it a great difficulty 
to layer Carnations of such a leggy habit 
as that fine old variety Germania. This 
one especially, having its shoots high up 
the stem, makes it very difficult to bend 
down to layer them even when the soil 
is raised two or three inches, the shoots 
often breaking at the junction of the main 
stem. This plan I have found very use¬ 
ful : Procure a bo-x about four inches 
deep, an old seed box wall do splendidly, 
knock out the bottom, and slip it care¬ 
fully over the plant, fill it with soil and 
layer as in the ordinary way. 
William Joseph Day. 
Walthamstow. 
Sophrocattleya warnhamensis J. M. Black. 
The sepals and petals of this handsome 
and interesting Orchid are of a port-wine 
colour. The lip is of the same colour at 
the apex, but the tube is yellow striped 
with red. First-class Certificate by the 
R.H.S. on the 4th inst., when shown by 
R. G. Thwaites, Esq., Chessington, 
Christchurch Road, Streatham. 
Not a Rose. 
A teacher in a London slum -wrote to 
a boy’s parents, stating that he was 
dirty, odoriferous and a nuisance to the 
rest of the class. V hen the boy returned 
to school after dinner he brought a small 
bit of dirty paper with the reply “Our 
Tommy is not a Rose; teach him, don’t 
smell him. ” 
Grass of Parnassus. 
Whatever may have been the origin of 
the popular name of this plant, it is cer¬ 
tain there is very little resemblance to 
grass, either in the plant or tire flowers. 
Each crown produces a few heart-shaped 
leaves close to the ground, with one near 
the base of each stem which rises to a 
height of a few inches and bears a large 
white flower of very interesting structure. 
The broad petals have markings like 
■water lines, and between every two stamens 
is quite a cluster of fringes, each bearing 
a pin-like head of liquid matter which 
glistens in the sunshine. The plant lives 
naturally in cool and wet situations, but 
it is easy to cultivate in the garden by 
selecting a moist situation for it, or in 
the absence of sucfi a piece of ground a 
place for it may be prepared by mixing 
peat or leaf mould with the natural soil. 
This serves to keep the roots cool during 
the heat of summer. Those who have a 
bog garden v'ould find this an excellent 
subject to plant in such a situation. 
Water is not, however, necessary if the 
above precautions to keep it cool and 
moist are taken. 
D. W. 
-- 
Viola olympica. 
Of all the members of the Viola tribe 
the most effective are those resembling 
the Pansy in shape or Viola cornuta. This 
might be described as a perennial Pansy' 
that continues in bloom throughout the 
summer months. It is very interesting to 
watch the development of this plant from 
the early spring onwards. The main or 
first stem stands upright, while all the 
branches creep along the ground cover¬ 
ing the soil for some distance; then the 
main stem commences to bloom, but later 
on the side branches also throw up 
blooms, which in the early part of the 
season are carried upon long stalks u'hich 
rise quite clear of the foliage. The 
colour is a beautiful soft blue-puq>le with 
a w'hite centre to the lip. I can recom¬ 
mend this for the rockery, and to get 
the best results the situation should be 
open and not overhung by trees. 
D. W. 
-f+4- 
Broad Beans. 
‘’Beans,” by R. Lewis Castle, F.R.H.S. 
London: Agricultural and Horticultural 
Association. Price one penny. 
The author of this cheap garden book 
is well knovm as an authority on vege¬ 
tables and fruit, and as Gold Medallist 
for a prize essay on grading and packing 
them. He has written the present W’ork 
with painstaking clearness and exactness. 
It forms No. 17 of the One and All garden 
books edited by Edward Owen Greening, 
F.R.H.S. The editor has added illustra¬ 
tions on every page, with foot notes, which 
materially help an amateur to follow the 
author’s explanations. Every detail of 
the subject is dealt with from the first 
steps in soil preparation to the war 
against pests and diseases which are apt 
to attack the crop. 
