528 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
December  5, 1895. 
twice  in  the  year,  and  each  time  remains  in  bloom  for  a  good  while. 
I  am  indebted  to  Mr,  W.  B.  Latham,  of  the  Birmingham  Botanic 
Garden,  for  so  kindly  giving  me  this  plant. 
Akmeeias. 
As  may  be  expected  so  near  the  sea,  the  Armerias  or  Thrifts  do  well 
in  my  garden  ;  but  unfortunately  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  finest  of  the 
tall  species,  A.  cephalotes,  is  a  perennial  occupant  of  the  border  or 
rockery.  It  is  true  that  it  has  lived  for  two  or  three  years,  but  some 
experience  has  led  me  to  conclude  that  it  is  not  to  be  depended  upon. 
With  A,  plantaginea  the  case  is  different,  as  it  is  quite  perennial  and 
also  very  free  in  its  flowering  habit.  This  year  it  is  still  flowering  in 
the  end  of  November,  and  should  very  severe  frost  delay  its  coming  it 
will  bloom  for  some  time  yet.  To  do  this  it  requires  a  rather  warm 
and  dry  position  on  a  sunny  rockery.  This  Giant  Thrift,  or  “Sea  Pink” 
as  it  is  called  here,  can  be  raised  from  seed,  which  is  procurable  at  a  low 
price. 
Protecting  Alpines. 
While  a  good  deal  of  injury  is  done  in  some  gardens  by  leaving 
alpine  plants  unprotected,  in  others  an  even  larger  amount  is  caused  by 
over-protection.  Some  collections  are  to  be  found  in  which  when  winter 
arrives  there  is  a  superfluity  of  protection.  To  visit  these  is  to  be  con¬ 
fronted  with  an  extraordinary  collection  of  boards,  boxes,  hand-lights, 
flower  pots,  and  various  extemporised  coverings.  An  old  tin  basin  or 
zinc  pail  is  not  the  most  ornamental  object  with  which  to  endeavour  to 
counterfeit  the  protection  afforded  by  a  covering  of  snow  on  the  moun¬ 
tains.  One  could,  however,  overlook  the  hideousness  of  some  of  these 
contrivances  were  they  proved  to  be  necessary  to  preserve  the  plants. 
In  many  cases  these  contrivances  are  inflicting  injury  to  the  flowers 
without  any  necessity.  The  majority  of  thealpines  requiring  protection 
can  be  better  preserved  by  simply  giving  them  a  covering  overhead  and 
allowing  a  free  circulation  of  air  to  pass  over  the  plants.  Slates  or 
sheets  of  glass  are  the  most  suitable, [and  keep  the  foliage  dry.  To  detail 
the  plants  benefited  by  shielding  from  the  excessive  rains  of  winter 
would  be  a  lengthened  task,  and  a  few  general  rules  may  suffice.  These 
are  to  protect  plants  with  silky,  woolly,  and  rough  leaves.  Of  these  the 
following  may  be  given  as  examples : — Androsaces,  Geranium  argenteum, 
and  Onosmas. — S.  Aenott. 
RIPENED  WOOD. 
The  character  of  “  Sceptic’s  ”  arguments  on  this  subject  may  be 
estimated  by  his  reference  to  myself  (page  434).  I  had  said  in  October 
(page  412)  “  Many  of  my  Apple  trees  have  now  blossoms  and  young 
Apples  on  them,  showing  that  we  may  have  too  much  of  even  such  a 
good  thing  as  ‘  Bipened  Wood.'  ”  Many  of  the  readers  of  the  Journal 
must  have  been  amused  at  seeing  this  sentence  noted  by  “  Sceptic  ”  in 
the  next  number  as  a  “  change  of  opinion  ”  on  my  part,  “  Mr.  Eaillem 
now  beginning  to  doubt  whether  it  is  not  possible  that  we  may  have  too 
much  of  even  such  a  good  thing  as  ripened  wood.” 
It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  such  extraordinary  “  argument”  (!)  as  this. 
Does  “  Sceptic  ”  mean  to  suggest  that  saying  you  have  too  much  of  a 
good  thing,  such  as  rain,  for  instance,  implies  that  it  is  not  a  good  thing, 
and  that  you  do  not  want  it  at  all  1 
He  asserts,  as  I  understand  him,  that  sun  and  heat,  with  their 
ripening  results,  have  little  or  no  effect  in  the  production  of  blossom  on 
fruit  and  other  trees.  And  when  I  point  out  that  this  year  (and  I 
might  have  added  in  1893  also),  they  have  had  the  effect,  which  happens 
not  to  be  useful  and  is  therefore  too  much  of  a  good  thing,  of  producing 
two  crops  of  blossom  in  one  year  on  Apple  trees,  he  says  I  have  changed 
my  opinion,  and  looks  on  me  as  a  convert. 
It  seems  to  me  that  “  green  wood”  is  a  bad  term  to  employ  for  that 
which  is  unripened.  Thoroughly  ripened  wood  is  that,  without  reference 
to  colour,  where  the  pith  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  And  the  pro¬ 
portionate  amount  of  pith  in  each  shoot  should,  I  think,  be  taken  as  the 
proper  criterion  of  its  being  ripe  or  unripe. — W.  R.  Eaillem. 
The  Antidote  for  Yorkshire  Poison. 
Had  I  followed  my  own  inclination  I  should  have  treated  “  A  Man 
from  Sheffield  ”  with  the  silence  his  remarkable  literary  production 
deserves.  But  it  has  been  pointed  out  to  me  that  there  are  many  young 
gardeners,  readers  of  your  Journal,  who  have  few  opportunities  of  sift¬ 
ing  scientific  chaff  from  the  wheat,  who  might  be  led  astray  if  the 
fallacies  of  your  correspondent’s  consequential  utterances  are  not 
exposed. 
Of  course,  “A  Man  from  Sheffield”  does  not  expect  to  be  taken 
seriously  ;  but  he  has  evidently  been  smarting  for  the  past  thirteen 
months  as  if  from  some  vigorous  castigation.  I  fear,  however,  he  has 
not  employed  the  interval  quite  as  profitably  as  he  might  have  done. 
He  seemingly  is  still  unable  to  comprehend  the  mystery  of  our  sun’s 
“  luminous  envelope  ” — a  fact  of  stupendous  interest  acknowledged  by 
all  such  stupid  and  unscientific  people  as  astronomers  and  spectroicopists. 
Perhaps,  however,  the  best  excuse  for  him  is  that  he  lives  in  a  fog, 
information  which,  by  the  way,  was  perfectly  unnecessary,  as  the  fact 
was  apparent  from  his  writing  1  Probably  he  holds  by  the  theory — much 
favoured  in  childhood,  and  at  least  as  worthy  of  credence  as  the  ripe 
wood  one — that  the  centre  of  our  system  is  only  a  big  brandy  ball  1 
To  follow  “  A  Man  from  Sheffield”  throughout  his  wanderings,  from 
France  and  Belgium  to  America  and  Australia,  would  be  a  waste  of 
1  ime  ;  nor  do  I,  for  the  same  reason,  propose  correcting  his  vague  asser¬ 
tions  of  my  having  executed  a  volte  face  upon  certain  questions  raised 
a  year  ago.  This  could  only  be  done  by  lengthy  detailed  quotations  ; 
and  controversies  carried  on  in  that  spirit  are,  I  well  know,  most  boring 
to  the  general  reader.  Suffice  it  to  say,  my  article  of  a  year  ago  is 
before  me,  and  I  fail  to  perceive  the  discrepancies  “  discovered  ”  by  this 
Northern  rambler. 
Your  correspondent  presumes  to  catechise  me  with  interrogatories 
which  are  either  meaningless  or  their  answers  self-evident.  He  can, 
“  by  no  stretch  of  imagination,”  comprehend  any  plant  possessing  “  vital 
juices,”  only  a  “  vital  principle,”  whatever  that  expression  may  mean  I 
Then,  with  the  superiority  of  Mr.  Podsnap,  he  ushers  in  the  mystic  word 
“  Protoplasm,”  fondly  imagining  that  he  has  thereby  fully  explained  the 
whole  physiology  of  plant  life.  Then  his  notions  of  electricity  are,  to 
quote  his  own  curious  expression,  “  excruciatingly  funny.”  He  is 
evidently  blissfully  unconscious  of  the  existence  of  induced  currents, 
earth  currents,  and  silent  discharge.  I  should,  therefore,  recommend 
him  to  study  a  short  article  from  the  pages  of  the  “  Electrical  Engineer,” 
which  appears  in  your  last  issue.  A  study  of  this  will  improve  his  mind 
upon  the  question  of  “electricity  in  plant  growth,”  for  he  is  clearly 
unaware  that  if  his  friends  “  the  foreign  scientists  ”  really  “  exploded 
the  theory”  of  electricity  influencing  the  flow  of  sap  that  the  subject  has 
been  investigated  experimentally  in  England,  and  1  believe  in  India 
also.  Probably  from  the  fact  of  his  trusting  to  foreigners  to  supply  his 
ideas  and  information  it  has  never  occurred  to  him  to  consider  why 
plants  grown  in  houses  become  “  drawn  ”  when  placed  far  from  the 
glass.  It  is  perhaps  an  apparently  trifling  circumstance,  but  worthy  of 
so  profound  a  thinker’s  attention. 
“Y.  B.  A.  Z.”  is  hopelessly  mixed,  When  he  first  told  that  tale 
about  the  Apricot  tree,  he  wrote  of  it  as  belonging  to  someone  else  ;  now 
he  claims  it  for  his  own.  “  The  gross  shoot,”  too,  was  then  unripened  ; 
now  it  has  ripened  !  Such  things  no  fellar  can  understand. — The 
Sceptic. 
[Obviously  this  rejoinder  neither  strengthens  one  view  of  the  case 
nor  weakens  the  other,  as  bearing  on  the  main  subject — namely, 
matured,  fortified,  or  ripened  wood,  call  it  what  we  may  ;  nor  does  it 
seem  to  have  been  intended  to  do  so,  but  is  presented  simply  as  an 
“  antidote,”  to  what  is  admitted  as  being  more  than  unpalatable.  As  a 
mere  antidote  to  an  antidote  would  confuse  rather  than  instruct,  and  as 
fluent  writers  could  go  on  antidoting  for  a  generation,  we  are  constrained 
to  apply  the  brake  to  this  method  of  controversy  ;  and  further,  as  the 
“  Review  ”  of  the  main  subject  on  page  463,  November  22nd,  has  never 
been  answered  or  the  statements  successfully  confuted,  we  are  content 
for  the  matter  to  remain  as  it  there  stands  for  the  guidance  of 
cultivators.  The  fiat  now  goes  forth,  “  no  more  antidotes.”] 
TOMATO  PLANT  ROOTS  AND  STEMS  DISEASED. 
The  roots  are  more  or  less  rotten,  and  the  stems,  in  the  case  of  some 
plants,  dead  at  the  collar.  It  appeared  a  bad  case  of  eelworm,  but  there 
were  no  traces  of  these  pests,  present  or  past  ;  indeed,  we  found  nothing 
but  blackish-brown  oval  bodies  of  various  sizes,  which  proved  to  be 
those  of  the  fungus  named  Sclerotinia  sclerotiorum.  Mass.  (Sclerotinia 
libertiana,  Fuekel ;  Peziza  postuma,  Berh,  S)'  Wih  ).  This  is  a  dreadful 
scourge  of  the  Potato  and  Tomato,  also  of  Cabbages  and  Beet.  The 
sclerotia  are  present  in  the  roots  and  stems  in  great  abundance,  and  so 
much  dreaded  are  the  effects  on  crops  that  it  is  considered  advisable  to 
remove  the  soil  of  infested  houses  a  foot  or  18  inches  deep  and  supply 
fresh  in  its  place. 
This  is  a  drastic  measure  and,  according  to  our  experience,  wholly 
unnecessary.  The  sclerotium  is  a  mass  of  compacted  mycelium  or  cells, 
and  from  it  may  spring  mycelial  hyphm,  which  may  be  possibly  called  into 
activity  by  the  presence  of  food — freshly  set  Tomato  plants  ;  or,  under 
normal  conditions,  such  as  there  being  no  plant  affording  the  essential 
food  of  the  parasite  present,  the  sclerotium  may  push  one  or  two  to  four 
funnel-shaped  (at  first,  finally  plane  or  slightly  convex)  bodies  into  the 
air,  which  are  called  ascophores,  and  bear  numerous  narrowly  cylindrical 
asci,  each  of  which  contains  eight  spores,  and  these  becoming  mature 
are  liberated  by  the  ascus  opening.  If  they  alight  on  a  Tomato  plant 
and  manage  to  gain  access  into  the  tissues,  the  work  of  development 
progresses  rapidly,  and  if  outgrowths  are  pushed  they  produce  Grape¬ 
like  heads  of  spores — the  conidial  condition,  which  form  one  of  the 
species  of  the  genus  Botrytis,  but  this  is  chiefly  produced  when  the 
fungal  plant  leads  a  saprophytic  life  ;  hence  there  is  little  of  this  in  the 
infested  Tomato  or  Potato  or  other  plant  rich  in  nitrogen  by  reason  of 
cultivation.  But  the  parasite  grows  and  forms  numerous  sclerotia  in 
the  stems  of  the  infested  plants,  and  not  a  few  in  the  root  system.  There 
is  a  speedy  and  sometimes  sudden  collapse  of  the  plants,  all  the  same 
the  sclerotia  are  formed,  and  they  may  retain  vitality  for  a  number  of 
years  ;  but  they  cannot  resist  favouring  conditions  of  development  and 
the  presence  of  abundance  of  food. 
Now  this  fungus  lives  and  increases,  by  its  own  efforts. 
It  may  be  that  it  :s  specialised  for  destroying  unhealthy  plants. 
Let  cultivators  see  to  that,  for  there  cannot  be  profitable  returns  without 
clean  and  high  cultivation,  and  it  is  these— the  most  promising  crops — 
that  this  fungus  invades  and  most  luxuriates  in.  It  is  difficult  to  kill 
sclerotia,  but  the  growths  it  produces  are  tender — easily  killed.  There 
is  nothing  so  fatal  to  parasitic  life  as  the  pioducts  of  coal  con  umed  in 
the  manufacture  of  gas,  and  when  soluble  of  so  little  pnji  dice  to 
vegetation.  What  there  is,  and  the  reason  why  there  alould  be  sub¬ 
stances  fatal  to  parasitic  vegetable  and  animal  life  of  lowly  form',  in  the 
carboniferous  strata  of  the  earth,  it  is  unnecessary  to  dwell,  but  there 
it  ip,  and  what  form  of  parasite  can  withstand  carbolic  acid,  cresol,  and 
