242 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
April 6, 1907. 
each spur, as the old side branches are 
called. It will be seen at a glance that 
some of these shoots are much weaker than 
others, and as only one branch per spur 
should be allowed, an early start should be 
made in removing surplus ones. If one 
good shoot per spur carries an embryo bunch 
of grapes, a conical collection of tiny green 
globules — all the others on that spur may 
be removed. If no immature bunches are 
yet showing, retain a couple of shoots, until 
it can be seen which, if at all, will be the 
fruit bearer. As the shoots lengthen, they 
should be lightly tied to the vines with 
broad strands of raphia, or raffiatape; but 
this should be done gently and gradually, 
or the shoots may either snap at the centre, 
or “ kick ” out at the base. There is little 
danger of either if the shoots are allowed 
to become woody before tying them down. 
Chrysanthemums. 
Cuttings inserted early in the year should 
now be pinched or cut back if nice bushy 
specimens are wanted. Plants with from 6 
to 9 growths, each carrying a single flower, 
make nice decorative objects for the green¬ 
house. Cut the plants down now to within 
6 inches of the pot, and keep them close and 
syringed until they again break into growth. 
A further batch of cuttings should be in¬ 
serted for growing into nice little bushes ; 
the tops of the cut-down plants may be 
utilised for this purpose. 
Chinese Primulas. 
For blooming during the winter and spring 
months, scarcely a greenhouse plant can sur¬ 
pass the Chinese Primulas in general utility. 
Now is an excellent time to sow for the main 
batch of plants, and both doubles and singles 
should be sown, not forgetting a nice lot of 
the newer Stellata varieties ; these are very 
useful for cutting. The seeds are very fine, 
and if mixed with a handful of sand before 
sowing, should need no further covering. 
It is well to keep a pane of glass and a 
sheet of brown paper over the seed pan, as 
if the soil becomes really dry the seeds will 
fail to germinate. Remove the covering 
when the seedlings show through the soil, 
but do not expose the youngsters to full sun- 
light. 
Pricking Out Annuals. 
Prepare a number of boxes for this work, 
as the plants are much more readily attended 
to in boxes than in pots. Bore a few holes 
with a hot poker in the bottom of each box, 
place in a layer of decayed leaves, and fill 
up with a light, sandy compost. A layer of 
fine silver sand on the surface assists re¬ 
establishment, as the roots of the young 
plants carry a portion with them when 
pricked out. Allow 2 inches between the 
plants, all ways, water them in- as finished 
through a fine rose, and shade heavily for a 
week or so, assisting rooting by gentle 
syringings. 
Potting Up Cuttings. 
Cuttings of Heliotropes, Fuchsias, Mar¬ 
guerites, Geraniums, etc., put in earlier, 
should now be potted off. There is nothing 
to gain, and much to lose, by allowing their 
roots to become matted together in the cut¬ 
ting pots. Give each rooted cutting a 3 inch 
pot, and use ho crocks or drainage ; simply 
cover the hole with a few well rotted leaves. 
This will save much trouble and mess at 
bedding-out time. Pot firmly, water in, and 
shade and syringe for a few days after pot¬ 
ting. 
Arum Lilies. 
These will now give trouble unless fre¬ 
quently and thoroughly watered; a plant 
that once bends so far as to touch the green¬ 
house stage through drought is rarely again 
satisfactory'. Where the owner of the green¬ 
house is away during the day, I strongly 
advocate standing the pots in saucers of 
water. Plants developing flower spikes 
should be given liquid manure three times a 
week, pricking up the surface soil once a 
week to prevent the pores of the soil being 
blocked. Above all, do not let green fly 
obtain a footing on the expanding blooms. 
Sunnyside. 
Orchids for Amateurs. 
Calanthes. 
The deciduous section of Calanthes, that 
have been treated as previously advised in 
this column, will in many cases be pro¬ 
ducing new growths from the base of the 
pseudo-bulbs. As soon as these have grown 
about an inch or so in length they will be 
found to emit new roots, and as soon as the 
roots are observed the plants should be 
potted. If potting is delayed until the roots 
have advanced to any length, there is a 
great danger of their beconrng injured in 
the process of repotting. 
Potting, 
The pots used should be clean and drain¬ 
age occupy about one-third. The size of tne 
pots selected is .best governed by the size of 
the old pseudo-bulbs, which should give a 
fair idea as to the strength of growth ihese 
are likely to produce, or, ; f specimens are 
desired and a number of bulbs are placed 
together in the same pots, the decision as 
to the size of the pots is best left to the 
grower of the plants. The potting compost 
we find most suitable is a mixture of about 
equal parts of turfy loam, fibrous peat and 
chopped sphagnum moss, with sufficient 
finely broken crock and coarse sand added 
to render the whole free and porous. In 
potting, the compost should be made mode¬ 
rately firm about the base of the plant, but 
care should be taken not to bury the young 
growth. When potting is completed it is 
well to water the plants before they are 
staged in their growing quarters. I find 
that this settles the compost and supplies 
ample root moisture to .sustain the advancing 
growth until the roots begin to get hold of 
the soil. Every care is needed at first to 
prevent damping and spotting of the young 
growths. Excess of moisture and sudden 
change, in temperatures are the principal 
things to be avoided. 
After Treatment. 
At first the plants will not require a great 
amount of room, but as soon as they get 
well away into growth more room will be 
necessary. The conditions usually provided 
in the cultivation of Melons or Cucumbers, 
or a shelf near the roof glass in the stove, 
generally meet the requirements of Calan¬ 
thes. The plants should have full benefit of 
all available light at the present season, 
only shading them during the warmest por¬ 
tions of the day and when there is a dan¬ 
ger of the foliage becoming scorched. 
Syringe between the pots and retain a humid 
growing condition in the atmosphere, when 
the outside conditions are favourable, but 
care must be observed not to retain a too 
moist atmosphere late in the evenings. 
Damping should 'be done sufficiently early 
in the day to prevent excessive moisture 
being present when the evening tempera¬ 
tures are reached. As growth advances and 
the pot becomes filled with roots, moisturq 
may be more liberally afforded. I do not 
as a rule advocate artificial feeding, but 
occasional watering with weak liquid farm 
manure will be found beneficial under some 
conditions after the new pseudo-bulb begins 
to form and the plant has filled the pot 
with roots. 
What to Grow. 
The kinds most suitable for amateurs, and 
that are procurable for a modest outlay, 
are C. vestita and its varieties. We pro¬ 
cured some plants last year from an im¬ 
ported source, and they have given us every 
satisfaction. They differ very consider¬ 
ably from the old type of C. vestita in their 
more graceful spikes and superior qualities 
in the flowers. Other sorts are C. Regnieni, 
C. Veitchii, C. burfordiensis, C. Bryan, C. 
William Murray, and C. Bella. If it was 
possible to add to these I” consider C. Har- 
risii one of the best. It is an old, old 
hybrid, but is still very scarce. 
H. J. Chapman. 
-f+4- 
Athyrium Filix=foemina 
plumosum Horsfall. 
Although somewhat late in the day, 
Mr. 'William Porter’s note in your issue 
of Nov. 3, 1906, having only now come 
before my notice, I may inform him that 
the above Fern and that described on 
page 289 of “Smith’s Ferns, British and 
Foreign” as a new species, “ Phegopteris 
plumosa,” are one and the same. Mr. 
Smith’s acquaintance with the other 
plumose forms of A. F.-foemina wu 
evidently insufficient to guide him in this 
instance, or he would have known that 
plumation is usually associated with 
partial or entire sterility, which-in this 
case has reduced the typical fructification 
of Athyrium to- mere dots with aborted 
indusia. A simple varietal suppression 
of this kind no more entitled the Fern 
to the separate specific rank of 
Phegopteris than it does in the precisely 
similar case of the so-called Polypodium 
alpestxe, which is a mountain form ol 
Athyrium, with the same type of sorus. 
Both cases constitute instances where 
hard and fast generic lines of nomenclature 
involve ridiculous results, all the char¬ 
acters but one of the plant concerned 
clashing with the classification. A. F.- 
foemina has been peculiarly ill-treated ir 
this respect, as it figures under the name- 
of Phegopteris, Polypodium, and Asple- 
niuni, besides its own proper name; anc 
to those who grow the plants it is a per¬ 
fect puzzle to conceive how such name; 
can have been given, sot utterly differed 
are they in all other characters than the 
minute or even imperceptible and very 
variable protective skin associated wit! 
the spore heaps. 
Chas. T. Druery, V.M.H., F.L.S. 
-- 
Acetylene and Plants.— Some experi 
m-ents have recently been conducted on ar 
elaborate scale at Cornell University 
U.S.A.-, with the object of -testing the Value 
of acetylene light by night in conjunctior 
with sunlight by day for the purpose oi 
hastening the flowering or fruiting of cer 
tain plants, fruits and vegetables. One 
hundred and fifty different kincls ol 
plants were employed in this experiment 
and the flowering or maturity 7 in the res¬ 
pective cases was considerably hastened. 
“The Acetylene Journal ” says that Straw¬ 
berries treated in this way mature their 
fruits sixteen days in -advance o-f those; 
having the advantage of sunlight only. 
The gain in time was even greater in the 
case of Lilies, particularly in the case of 
plants that had been etherised before the 
experiment was commenced. Garder 
Radishes were fit for use' at-a much earlier, 
period than those having sunlight only 
and the weight of the crop was also in¬ 
creased. 
