THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 16, 1907. 
196 
next spring. By reducing the superfluous 
■wood every year in this way, it can always 
he kept within bounds, but a sufficient num¬ 
ber of the young shoots should be left to 
.give a good display of flowers. 
GARDEN ENEMIES. 
1635. Cactus with Holes in It. 
I enclose a piece of Cactus plant. You 
will notice that it has several holes in it, 
.apparently caused by some insect. I have 
several of these plants, all jf which are 
affected in the same manner. 1 shall be 
much obliged if you will kindly inform me 
how to get rid of these insects. I shall 
also be glad if you will itell me the best 
treatment for these plants, which I have 
kept in a cold conservatory since I first 
had them, twp years ago ? (A. J. Y., Essex. 
The specimen you sent us was that of a 
Phyllocacius, with flattened, succulent, leaf¬ 
like stems. No insects were present, so it 
cannot be determined what was the culprit. 
It might possibly have been done by slugs 
•or small snails in the young and tender 
state of the growing branches, but the 
damage must have been done man}' months 
ago. In some oases the injury is of mode¬ 
rate depth, and in some others the injury 
was represented by mere punctures. An¬ 
other suggestion wihich we should make is 
that the injury represents punctures caused? 
by prickles—it might have been on some 
other plant—and if you have spiny Cacti 
in your collection it is just possible that 
some of the spines went through the j-oung 
and growing stems, and the holes have since 
grown larger. In that case, the enemy might 
have been the cultivator, and we cannot sug¬ 
gest any insecticide. Caution might be exer¬ 
ciser, however, when these stems are young 
and tender, as they are easily injured then, 
and the damaged portion gets larger by the 
shrinking and drying up of the tissues. 
Apart from mere disfigurement, however, 
there is nothing wrong with the stem, and 
we should recommend care on the part of 
the cultivator to keep an outlook for slugs, 
snails, and woodlice about the same period. 
SOILS AND MANURES . 
1636. Straw as a Manure. 
I have a quantity of straw. Should I 
dig it in the ground or burn it on the 
ground? Is it any use as a manure? (Bayn- 
ton-Taylor, Somerset.) 
If your ground was very heavy and in¬ 
clined to clay it might 'have been worth 
your while to put it in the bottom trench 
while the ground was being trenched. This 
would have helped to aerate the soil in a 
mechanical way, though it would not have 
been of very much service as a manure for 
some t'me at least. If you burn it, you 
would only have a very small quantity 
of ash to spread over the soil. If you have 
any difficulty in getting farmyard 'manure, 
we think it would be worth your while to 
make an attempt to reduce the straw to 
manure. You should lay it up in a heau. 
tread it down, then pour some liquid 
manure over the heap. This would cause 
it to ferment, and if you can once get it 
into this condition it will very soon be in 
the condition to form a useful manure. If 
your soil is heavy we should use it before 
it is very much fermented; but if your 
soil is light you should let it ferment until 
it becomes fairly solid and black. It will 
then te serviceable as a manure. Even if 
not very rich in the elements of fertility, 
it would act in a mechanical way under the 
conditions we have named. 
MISCELLANEOUS . 
1637. Thermometer. 
I have one ranging from o to 120, with a 
double-headed pin which gets down on the 
red spirit. Is it made to hang perpen¬ 
dicularly or horizontally? I confess my 
ignorance. Will you kindly enlighten me 
as to its use? (Baynton-Taylor, Somerset.) 
Judging from your description of the ther¬ 
mometer, it is meant to hang horizontally. 
In any case, it would be most serviceable 
to you in that position. There should be 
an eyelet at either end of the thermometer 
for hanging it on two nails in any particu¬ 
lar situation where you may want it. The 
arrow or needle at the top of the spirit rises 
in front of it. and if the thermometer is 
hung horizontally the arrow will remain 
where the highest temperature left it; or, if 
the thermometer is meant to show the lowest 
temperature that occurs during the night, 
then the arrow would remain at the lowest 
degree to wihiioh the temperature sank at 
night. This arrow may be returned to its 
proper position before nightfall, so that it 
may during the following night register the 
lowest temperature that hais occurred. The 
arrow or .needle may be put into position by 
means of a magnet, or else by taking the 
thermometer off the nails and shaking the 
arrow down until it rests upon the sp irit. 
By keeping your eye upon its behaviour 
during hot and cold weather you will soon 
come to understand what it means. The 
degree of heat or cold, as the case may be, 
will be indicated by the tcp end of- the 
spirit just as in a thermometer where quick¬ 
silver is used. 
1638. Name Competition. 
Are you above taking a suggestion in 
connection with the future name competi¬ 
tion? Will you gcod-naturedly listen to a 
mild grumble in connection with the last 
competition? The suggestion is that where 
there are several equally good answers to 
a question, either should be recognised, 
otherwise a premium is put on chance to 
a considerable extent. (G. M. L., Ireland.) 
We were awareof the difficulties you men¬ 
tion before the competition was commenced, 
and, having settled upon the names, these 
were put in an envelope, sealed and placed 
in security with our bankers until all the 
competitors had sent in their answers. There 
are several of the questions to which dupli¬ 
cate answers could be given—and plausible 
enough ones, too—hut with the object of 
being fair to all, we thought it best to re¬ 
tain only one name, and that most strongly 
hinted by the question. We cannot print 
the whole of your letter, as it would take 
too much space, and while some of the 
variants you mention are very plausible, 
there are others that dio not apply to the 
wording of the questions themselves, while 
in other cases it is very largely a matter 
of fancy or opinion. One of the difficulties 
lies in the fact that the same popular names 
are not universally recognised throughout 
the British Islands. On the other hand, 
there are some plants having a great num¬ 
ber of names, either recorded in current lite¬ 
rature or in old books. Here, again, we re¬ 
stricted the name to one for any plant. Much 
of the information you give is certainly in¬ 
teresting, but no list of names could be 
framed to which everyone would agree, for 
the reasons above stated. The explanations 
of the names you give are very interesting, 
and we are sorry you did not take a very 
much higher position. 
NAMES OF PLANTS. 
(Anderson, Falkirk) Cypripedium villcsum 
crossed with some other, and possibly a 
secondary hybrid. (J. A., Stirlingshire) 1, 
The Butcher’s Broom (Rusgub aculeatus); 
2, Cuprassus lawsoniana filitformis; 3, Poly¬ 
podium nigresoens; 4, Appears to‘be Cri- 
num Moorei (see reply under Stove and 
Greenhouse).—T. M., Devon) 1, Chionodoxa 
Luciliae sardensis; 2, Scilla bifolia; 3, 
Scilla sibirica; 4, Crocus aureus; 5, Crccus 
susianus; 6, Iberia gibraltarica.— (J. R., 
Glamorgan) 1, Iris reticulata; 2, Erica car- 1 
nea; 3, Lcnioera fragrant’esima; 4, Jas- « 
minum nudifliorum.—(E. M. R.) 1, Ccr.nus ' ; 
Mas; 2, Garrya eliliptica; 3. Daphne Me- 
zereum alba,—(F. S., Lanos.) 1, Acacia ver- 
ticillata; 2, Acacia Drummond! ; 3, Acacia 
hastmla; 4, Boronia megastigma : 5, Azalea . 
indica var.—(C. Lovie, Foriar) 1, Veronica j 
Andersoni var'egata; 2, Mesembryanthe- 
mum cordifolium variegatum. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Bees, Ltd., Wapping Buildings, Liver¬ 
pool.—Bees’ Catalogue of Herbaceous and 
Alpine Plants and Florists’ Flowers. 
John Knight, Tettenhail Nurseries, Wol¬ 
verhampton.—Cactus Dahlias; also Seed 
Catalogue at Dudley Street and Arcade, 
Wolverhampton. 
Ant. Roozex and Son, Overveen, near 
Haarlem, Holland; and c.o. Mertens and 
Co., 3, Cross Lane, St. Mary-at-Hill, Lon¬ 
don, E.C.— 1 Catalogue of Choice Bulbs for 
Spring Planting, Vegetable and Flower 
Steels 
R. S. Banks, Hazel House, Snainton, 
S.O., Vorks.—List of Early Chrysanthe¬ 
mums. Hardy Perennials and Summer Bed¬ 
ding Plants; also List of Choice Garden 
Seeds. 
Bulb Culture 
In 
Rooms. 
In the dull days of winter it is a great 
deprivation to many' flower loveis to be 
without sweet-scented blossoms of the.r 
own growing. T hose who can spare a 
few shillings for bulbs and have a window 
or two at their disposal need never be 
without flowers from early December on¬ 
wards, or they can be grown in fancy 
vases, bowls, etc., in damp moss or fibre. 
Perhaps a few hints as to how I have 
grown mine may be of some use to others 
who would like to have these charming 
flowers in their rooms. It is of course 
most essential that the bulbs to be 
flowered in December be potted early. 
Retarded crowns of Lilies of the Valley, 
Roman Hyacinths, Polyanthus Narcissus, 
Chinese Sacred Lilies, Scilias, and yellow 
Crocuses, may be had in flower by Christ¬ 
mas if potted in September. Those 
wanted first should at once be placed in 
the warmest window available. The 
first precaution necessary before starting 
to pot up is to have the fibre thoroughly 
saturated ; when this is done drop a few 
lumps of charcoal into each vase, half fill 
with fibre, and upon this place your 
bulbs, planting as many bulbs as it will 
comfortably- hold, filling up the fibre and 
placing in a dull, cool room for a short 
period till the shoots are about one inch 
long. They may then be brought into 
a subdued light till the leaves assume a 
greenish hue, taking care that the fibre 
never becomes dry, but is kept just moist, 
and that there is plenty of air, as on the 
amount of light and air depends ultimate 
success. Growing plants should be 
watched and turned round every day to 
prevent the growths becoming crooked. 
The plants named above wall provide 
flowers up to Christmas. Afterwards will 
come Tulips, Hyacinths, Daffodils, Cro¬ 
cuses, Snowdrops, Liliums, and many 
varieties of Narcissi. With careful man¬ 
agement a display" of these beautiful 
flowers may be maintained from early 
December until April. J. H. M. 
