April 6, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
247 
bil and manure, or rather, a mixture that 
jerves to grow the plants. If you were plant¬ 
ing these things out in the garden the or¬ 
dinary soil, with the addition of plenty of 
manure would do, but garden soil put m 
jubs and pots is not a good article for cul- 
iivatino’ plants. When water has been 
ipplied to it, it gets into a muddy condition, 
ind after the water has drained away it 
Settles down too firmly and solidly. What 
:ou really want is fibrous material, and that 
would have to be procured from the florist 
or sundries-man, unless you have other 
means of getting it. In the absence of 
better material the ordinary garden soil 
rould be slightly improved by the use of leaf 
mould and sand. The tubs should be well 
drained to take off the superfluous moisture 
during the summer. 
NAMES OF PLANTS. 
(T..A. L.) 1, Lonicera fragrantissima ; 2, 
Forsythia suspensa; 3, Daphne Mezereum 
alba; 4, Erica carnea ; 5, Daphne Me- 
zereum. (J. Walker) 1, Chionodoxa Lti- 
ciliae; 2, Hranthis hyemalis; 3, Chioiiddoxa 
Luciliae sarclensis; 4, Narcissus l’seudo- 
narcissus obvallaris ; 5, Crocus vernus v.ar. ; 
6 , Vinca minor. — (K.A.S.) 1, -Scilia sibirica ; 
2, the Roman Hyacinth (Ilyacinlthus albu- 
lus); 3, Anemone Hepatica rubra; 4, Arabis 
albida variegata; 5, (,'rccus susianus; 6, 
Scilla bifolia. —(Cosmea) 1, C'arex brunnea 
variegata; 2, Carex Morovii; 3, Mi sea nth us 
japonicus variegatus (often named Eulalia 
japonica variegata) : 4, Oplismenus Bur- 
manni variegatus (often named Panicum 
variegatum) ; 5, Scirpus cernuus (often named 
Isolepis gracilis). 
SOILS AND MANURES . 
1709. Manures for Window Boxes. 
What are the most suitable of the arti¬ 
ficial manures for use in window boxes? 
I am growing the usual window box plants. 
In what proportions should it be used, and 
how often shall I apply it? (T. Read, 
Birmingham.). 
In the case of established and growing 
window box plants you could help them by 
using a little either of blood manure, guano, 
or nitrate of soda. The blood manure may 
be used as a sprinkling over the top of the 
box about once a fortnight or three weeks 
during May, June, and July. Nitrate of 
soda may be used at the rate of oz. to 
the gallon of water once in three weeks 
during April, May, and June. Other 
manures that would be useful if the soil 
is poor should have been applied early in the 
year, or mixed with the soil before planting 
them. Instead, however, of getting small 
quantities of either of these it would be more 
advisable to get a small tin or box of some of 
the fertilisers advertised in The Gardening 
World. Being made up in certain propor¬ 
tions, directions are given with them for their 
use, and there is perhaps less danger of over¬ 
doing them than by getting the separate 
manures for such a small area of ground as 
window boxes. These tins or packets are 
also easily accommodated or hidden away 
in the house. Quantities of strong smelling 
manures stood about the dwelling house are 
rather objectionable. 
MISCELLANEOUS . 
1710. Reference Book- 
Will you kindly reply in your paper as to 
whether you know of a good reference 
gardening book, one in dictionary form 
which one can turn up at once for informa¬ 
tion on each plant? I appreciate The Gar¬ 
dening World very much, and hope you 
will be able to help me. I do "not want any¬ 
thing technical, being an amateur. . (L. M. 
H., Surrey). 
You should get Johnson’s “Gardener's 
Dictionary,” price gs., as it gives a very full 
and complete list of plants that have been 
introduced to this country up to the date of 
publication. There is nothing technical 
about it, being merely a list of names with 
the names of the countries and the colour 
of the flowers. It is sold by Messrs. George 
Bell and Sons, Portugal Street, London, 
W C. 
-♦+♦ 
School Gardens. 
According to the Report of the Board 
of Education the number of elementary 
school gardens rose from 379 in 1903 to 
57 ° in 1905. The figures for, 1906 are 
expected to show a-very considerable ad¬ 
vance. No statistics are available ip re¬ 
gard to secondary schools. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
J. iFred Wustenhoff Dz., Sassenheim, 
Holland.—Wholesale Catalogue of Holland 
Bulbs and Flower Roots. 
-- 
paked Fl° wers> 
Dyed Blooms as 
New Varieties, 
The reprehensible and demoralising 
practice of faking blooms at flower shows 
was animadverted upon in The Garden¬ 
ing Wo.rld some time ago. Happily, 
however, the practice, though it may not 
have been absolutely discontinued, has 
certainly not grown ; it has very few ad¬ 
vocates, and I should hope no admirers. 
We have been hearing a good deal 
lately about floricultural fakes, not, it is 
true,.on the exhibition stage, but for sale 
to the public. Artificial flowers may be 
all very well in their place — in the head- 
gear of women or in other places and for 
other uses ; doubtless they serve a useful, 
purpose in the economy of things, and the 
making of them provides occupation for 
a well-organised and thoroughly deserv¬ 
ing mission for poor girls in London; 
but after all they are artificial substitutes, 
and are manufactured and sold as such. 
Not so with the horticultural freaks 
which in more than one instance have 
been palmed off on the public as genuine 
naturally coloured flowers. This particu¬ 
lar phase of “improvement on Nature ” is 
not, by the way, unknown across the fish¬ 
pond as appears from correspondence in 
the American “Florists’ Exchange” just 
to hand; and, as a matter of fact, the 
fraud was gaily perpetrated in this 
country some years ago, and had a brief 
vogue until killed by the exposure of the 
Press and the good sense of the public. 
The “ faking ” process consists of giving 
to certain blooms, by the aid of aniline 
dyes, colours which Nature has not ap¬ 
parently considered suitable or pleasing. 
Thus Daffodils are dyed red or purple— 
notably the double yellow Daffodil (Nar¬ 
cissus Telamonius plenus), dye kills the 
single Daffodil — Carnations and Lilies of 
the Valley green, white Roses blue or they 
are supplied with green tipped petals, and 
so on. The phenomenon is easily enough 
achieved by cutting the flowers just be¬ 
fore they are fully developed and placing 
them in a solution of aniline dye, which 
rises through the stems and is dispersed 
through the petals pf the blooms. To 
colour the fringe of the petals the flowers 
are often skilfully painted. 
In the case of those so-called lovers of 
flowers who admire such monstrosities, 
there i.-> scarcely any necessity to protest, 
but .on the other hand, where people are 
inuuced to purchase such flowers on the 
understanding that they are genuine and 
rare varieties not merely unadulterated 
flowers, but flowers worth a great deal in 
consequence of their- extraordinary colour 
- then a distinct fraud is being per¬ 
petrated, and one against which the 
public ought to be protected. I am not 
willing to believe that any reputable flori-t 
would stoop to this dishonest pandering 
to bad taste, for, after all, nothing that 
is unnatural can be really beautiful. 
The senior partner of Messrs. Barr and 
Sons, the well-known seed and bulb mer¬ 
chants, told me that his firm had received 
many enquiries for bulbs and plants of 
the so-called “ new ” flowers, and this not 
only entailed, and entails, correspon¬ 
dence, but the fact is sufficient evidence 
that a good many dyed flowers must be 
sold and in circumstances which would 
seem to place the bona-fides of the sellers 
under suspicion. It appears that a florist 
had the temerity to ask a customer of 
Messrs. Barr .£100 for a bulb of a beauti¬ 
ful “hitherto unknown red” Daffodil. 
This is a rather dangerous symptom of 
the present recrudescence of the dyed 
flower craze, and it is perhaps as well for 
the florist that the ;£ioo did not change 
hands. Peter Penn. 
- +++ - 
Eel-worms and Woodlice. — Lectur¬ 
ing at the Birmingham University on 
“Animal Pests of the Garden,” Mr. 
.Walter E. Collinge, Director of the De¬ 
partment of Economic Zoology, said that 
two of the commonest and most destruc¬ 
tive animal pests were eel-Avorms and 
woodlice. The former were exceedingly 
minute worms, not unlike the familiar 
vinegar eel in appearance, anld their 
presence was seldom known of until the 
damage was done. The lecturer then 
described the life-history of different 
species, and pointed out the remedial 
measures. During the past year two of 
the species had been very prevalent in 
the Midland counties ; indeed in such 
abundance as to almost constitute a 
plague. Woodlice, which were almost 
equally common, were more familiar ob¬ 
jects. Contrary to what is very popu¬ 
larly supposed, woodlice are not insects: 
they belong to a group of animals known 
as Arthropoda, so-called from the fact that 
they have jointed appendages for the pur¬ 
pose of swimming, walking, and feeding. 
In a fossil form they are known from very 
ancient times. In 'this country we have 
upwards of twenty different species. After 
a brief description of their structural 
peculiarities and life-history, various re¬ 
medial measures were alluded to, the two 
most efficacious being poisoning by means 
of poisoned bait-^e.g., slices of Potatos 
soaked in white arsenic or Paris green 
and trapping. En conservatories, green¬ 
houses, and potting sheds, trapping is one 
of the most successful measures, and for 
this purpose little heaps of wet grass or 
leaver wet wooden boards 12 by 6 inches, 
of plant pots .filled with wet grass, should 
be left on the floor of the conservatory or 
potting shed overnight and examined next 
marking. 
