August  10,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
115 
healthy  leaves  during  the  present  summer,  ami  therefore  I  endorse 
Mons.  Latour-Marliac’s  dictum  that  “Contrary  to  a  gross  error  the 
months  of  -July  and  August  are  very  favourable  for  the  plantation  of 
Nymphaeas,”  and  advise  strongly  that  those  who  do  not  wish  to  lose  a 
year  should  purchase  and  plant  at  once. 
As  another  point,  without  going  into  descriptions,  of  which  I  am 
at  present  incapable,  a  broad  hint  or  two,  on  general  manners  and 
customs,  will  probably  be  found  useful.  Thus,  the  American  kinds, 
odorata  and  caroliniana  varieties,  are  bad  start' rs,  not  at  all  unlikely  ‘ 
to  die  back  a  bit  at  first,  but  line  when  once  established.  All  the 
Marliaceas  are  much  better  in  this  respect.  Again,  the  Laydekeri 
varieties  are  decidedly  small  both  in  flower  and  leaf  to  what  we  are 
accustomed  to  call  Water  Lilies,  and  very  beautiful ;  but  it  is  as  well 
to  expect  and  know  that  they  are  small:  and  the  pygmseas  are  very 
small  indeed. 
Again,  as  to  pests.  Any  ducks  or  waterfowl,  wild  or  tame,  or  any 
water  rats,  dogs  going  into  the  water,  or  anything  of  that  sort,  must 
be  utterly  tabooed  to  start  with.  It  must  be  remembered  (probably 
will,  by  those  who  buy  them),  that  these  plants  arc  very  expensive. 
And,  as  one  of  Dickens’  American  characters  remarked  to  Mark 
Tapley,  there  are  some  “catawampous  chawers  in  a  small  way,  too, 
which  graze  upon  ”  Water  Lilies  “  pretty  strong.”  Water  insects  and 
snails  will  play  havoc  with  the  unfortunate  delicate  leaf-stems  of  the 
new  plants,  and  do  them  considerable  harm  by  biting  off  the  first 
leaves.  My  own  water  swarms  with  caddis  worms,  which  did  me  a 
great  deal  of  farm. 
And  here  I  should  like  to  point  out  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the 
nature  and  shape  of  my  water,  1  should  have  been  perfectly  helpless. 
If  they  had  been  planted  in  a  lake  or  pond  any  distance  from  the 
bank,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  have  frequently  overlooked 
and  cleansed  them  ;  whereas  in  my  stream,  by  carrying  a  light  plank, 
laying  it  across  and  lying  upon  it  face  downwards,  each  plant  can  be 
thoroughly  observed,  cleansed,  kept  under  control,  and  in  fact 
cultivated  two  or  three  times  a  day  if  required. 
It  was  necessary  to  protect  them  from  the  caddis  worms,  and  even 
then  several  plants  were  killed  outright.  Eventually  we  surrounded 
each  one  with  large  panes  of  glass,  but  these  were  soon  covered  with 
a  green  growth,  and  the  “  caddies,”  as  my  man  called  them,  easily 
climbed  them.  We  took  the  glass  out  and  scrubbed  it  every  four  or 
five  days.  We  were  not  going  to  be  beaten,  and  we  have  not  been, 
but  it  has  been  a  “  sair  job,”  and  we  have  worked  hard  for  every  plant. 
A  good  deal  of  the  trouble  arose  from  planting  too  early,  in  May, 
when  “caddies”  were  rampant,  and  the  plants  would  not  grow.  Our 
enemies  are  nearly  all  changed  into  flics  now,  and  the  plants  grow  so 
strongly  that  all  except  the  weak  growers  are  pretty  safe  against  their 
attacks. 
I  would  also  like  to  point  out,  as  the  advantage  of  along  and  narrow 
piece  of  water,  as  it  is  of  a  Rose  bed,  that  you  and  your  visitors  can 
walk  by  and  look  close  right  down  into  the  plants  and  flowers  and 
pluck  them  without  trouble,  instead  of  viewing  them  far  off  from  the 
banks  of  a  lake  where  they  cannot  be  reached  without  a  boat.  They 
can  be  weeded,  too,  cleansed  from  flannel  weed,  restricted  if  they 
ramble  too  far,  and  generally  are  far  more  under  cultivation  in  such  a 
situation.  Running  water  is  not  necessary,  or  even  desirable  if  the 
same  level  can  be  maintained,  as  quite  stagnant  water  is  warmer. 
I  have  some  “  Rainbow  ”  trout  in  my  water,  which  I  have  succeeded 
in  taming  so  that  they  will  rise  to  food  at  any  time  in  the  presence  of 
visitors.  I  have  not  yet  entirely  realised  my  ideal,  which  was  that,  in 
the  midst  of  my  Roses,  I  should  have  this  charming  high-lying  piece 
of  clear  water,  in  which  the  trout,  at  my  bidding,  should  make 
veritable  rainbows  of  themselves,  jumping  over  Water  Lily  flowers  of 
ruby,  orange,  red,  purple,  yellow,  and  white;  hut  I  armgetting  on 
towards  it.  I  should  have  mentioned  that  I  only  planted  in  baskets 
two  or  three  of  the  more  expensive  varieties,  as  in  my  water,  by  the 
aid  of  the  plank,  even  a  large  Nymphaea  can  be  as  effectually  planted  in 
the  mud  at  the  bottom  as  it  could  be  in  a  flower  bed.  My  water 
averages  about  15  inches  deep,  which  I  think  would  be  generally 
-suitable  for  Nymphaeas. — W.  R.  Railj.em. 
THE  CARROT  ROT. 
“  Dad,  can  you  make  use  of  this  strong  salt  mixture  in  which  the 
Walnuts  for  pickling  have  lain?”  “Well, ’yes;  it  is  just  a  sort  of 
drastic  1  have  been  thinking  about  to  apply  to  the  Carrots,  for  no 
■sort  cf  surface  dressing  seems  to  have  any  effect  to  prevent  1  heir 
dying  off,  so  let ‘kill  or  cure’ be  my  motto.  By  Jingo!  yes,  it  is 
strong  !  I  will  add  to  it  one-third  or  so  of  your  soapsuds  from  the 
washing,  and  give  the  rows  a  good  soaking  with  the  mixture  as  far 
as  it  will  hold  out,  for  fungus,  rot,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  attacks  the 
roots  from  the  bottom. 
The  above  cottage  colloquy  happened  about  a  fortnight  ago,  and  I 
certainly  anticipated  the  Carrots  operated  upon  to  become  as  withered 
grass.  Several  times  a  day  T  visited  the  patients,  and  in  about  a 
week’s  time  greenness  prevailed.  Now  chimes  in  our  old  friend 
“  A.  D.,”  on  page  78  (no  pickled  mixture  would  serve  to  kill  his 
inquisitiveness) ;  and  now  you,  Mr.  Editor,  come  to  back  him  up  in 
his  “  suggestions  ”  by  “wanting  to  know.”  Well,  here  you  arc — 
at  least  are  two  bunches  of  Carrots,  one  pulled  at  random  from 
a  pickled  row,  the  other  from  those  non-pickled.  It  appears  to 
be  a  case  for  your  ub:quitous  fungologist  Mr.  Abbey.  At  any  rate, 
“  aphis  ”  is  not  at  the  bottom  of  the  mischief,  but  a  rot  is,  as  I  enable 
you  to  see. 
Of  course  a  pickle- walnut  brine  could  not  be  made  universally 
available,  but  a  strong  salt  brine  easily  could  be,  to  possibly  make  an 
end  of  the  cause,  or  the  Carrots  ;  plus,  you  will  say,  “  the  samples  do 
not  offer  a  character  of  good  cultivation,”  no  more  they  do.  I  never 
sow  early.  We  do  not  approve  of  large  produce,  and  if  I  had 
attempted  to  thin  them  out  we  should  not  have  had  a  sound  one  left. 
My  Carrot  bed  this  year  is  in  the  new  orchard,  between  the  Apple 
trees,  where  the  ground  is  more  taxed  by  the  roots  of  the  trees  than 
that  in  the  open  garden,  nevertheless  the  cultivation  is  good  if  not 
deep. 
I  have  no  other  produce  to  complain  about  re  blight  or  diseases. 
Potatoes  are  all  right.  The  Rev.  Alan  Cheales  came  from  Reading  to 
see  me  a  few  days  ago,  and  we  examined,  of  course,  roots  of  the  noble 
tuber,  all  my  own  children,  off  the  same  ground,  and  from  the  same 
consecutive  seed,  with  which  you  and  these  pages  have  been  so  long 
familiar.  We  naturally  went  in  o  the  Fendleri  crosses  of  Jubilee  and 
Birthday  History.  Success  attended  us  in  the  shape  commercially, 
prospective  of  food  for  the  coming  generation.  One  of  the  variety  is 
already  perfect  for  a  “  Carden”  “  A.  D.,”  and  what  other  do  1  want  ? 
Have  not  I  always  worked  for  “garden”  varieties,  my  masters? 
I  am  anxiously  trying  now  to  hybridise  two  of  my  old  English  sorts 
with  the  latest  comer,  sent  to  me  by  Mr.  Pringle — viz.,  the  wild 
species  “  Solanum  bulbo-castanum  (Duval),  from  Guadalajura,  Old 
Mexico.”  I  am  not  quite  sure  as  yet  whether  I  can  prevail  over  Dame 
Nature  this  season;  but,  as  you  know,  I  am  about  to  strike  eighty- 
four,  my  blandishments  may  not  prove  so  potent,  yet  I  hope  the  dear 
lady  in  this  instance,  for  tie  above  age  reason,  will  not  keep  me  in 
dalliance  for  twenty-five  years,  as  she  did  with  S.  Fendleri,  from  New 
Mexico. — Rout.  Fenn,  Sulharnstead. 
[In  reference  to  the  rot — the  Carrot  rot,  of  course — Mr.  Abbey 
says: — “The  plants  from  the  untreated  part  are  infested  by  the  so- 
called  Parsnip  mildew,  Peronospora  nivea,  which  frequently  occurs  on 
the  roots  of  Carrots  and  Parsley,  and  is  commonly  called  ‘canker.’  It 
is  sometimes  very  common  on  both  these  crops  in  gardens,  as  well  as 
upon  the  leaves,  stems,  and  roots  of  wild  U  mbelliferae.  In  the  case  of 
garden  Carrots  and  Parsley,  also  Parsnips,  the  attacks  are  chiefly 
confined  to  the  fleshy  roots,  and  mostly,  especially  in  the  case  of  Carrots 
and  Parsley,  from  below  upwards,  the  mycelium  of  the  parasite 
spreading  from  the  radicle  into  the  more  fleshy  parts  of  the  Carrot  or 
Parsley  root  stem,  and  lying  in  the  intercellular  spaces,  or  boring 
through  the  cell  walls,  and  drawing  nourishment  from  the  contents  of 
the  cells  by  means  of  numerous  minute  suckers  (haustoria).  The  host 
plants — Carrots,  or  Parsley,  or  Parsnips — are  soon  destroyed  by  the 
fungus,  or  at  least  the  parts  affected,  the  roots  become  brown  or  black, 
either  dry  up,  or,  if  fleshy,  they  become  soft,  rotten  and  pulpy. 
“The  sample  of  Carrots  from  the  dressed  part  are  not  entirely  free 
from  the  canker,  for  evidently  the  ‘rot’  was  beginning  before  the 
plot  was  dressed  with  ‘  Walnut  pickle  and  soapsuds,’  as  the  radicle,  or 
tap  roots,  are  slightly  cankered,  and  at  points  ranging  from  2}  to 
3£  inches  from  the  crown.  Clearly  the  effect  of  the  dressing  has  been 
to  arrest  the  growth  ol  the  fungus,  which  has  not  ascended  in  the 
root  or  made  any  further  progress,  as  the  Carrots  above  the  point  of 
original  infection  are  quite  sound,  clear  in  skin,  and  free  from  taint  in 
the  flesh  and  core.  On  the  other  hand,  the  untreated  Carrots  are 
black  and  rotten  to  within  1  to  inch  from  the  crown,  and  in  one 
instance  quite  up  to  this,  the  crop  being  practically  worse  than 
worthless. 
“There  were  not  any  grubs  or  maggots,  or  any  trace  of  there 
having  been  any  insect  larvae  in  the  diseased  specimen.  Only  a 
solitary  mite  was  found,  and  that  the  root-mite,  Ithizoglyphus 
echinopus. 
“  As  regards  the  salt  as  a  remedy  or  preventive,  its  action  would 
tend  to  strengthen  the  plant  by  rendering  mineral  food  available,  while 
possibly  the  chlorine  tells  directly  on  the  fungus.  Of  course,  the  use 
of  salt  has  long  been  known  as  a  valuable  dressing  for  Carrot  grub, 
but  much  Carrot  canker  is  not  due  to  animal  infestation,  a  great  deal 
being  a  consequence  of  attack  by  a  vegetable  organism,  and  hence  the 
success  of  the  ‘  Walnut  brine  and  soapsuds  dressing.’  A  dressing  of 
kainit,  5  cwt.  per  acre,  3£  lbs.  per  rod,  answers  well  for  preventing 
either  ‘  rust  ’  caused  by  the  Carrot  fly,  Psila  rosae,  or  ‘  canker,’  or  ‘  rot  ’ 
induced  by  Parsnip  mildew,  Peronospora  nivea.  About  10  cwt.  of 
salt  per  acre,  7  lbs.  per  rod,  has  been  used  on  light  land  against  the 
‘rust’  with  considerable  success  for  over  half  a  century.”] 
