April  9,  1896. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
319 
of  Grimsby  is  specially  favourable  for  Orchid  growing,  and  every 
time  I  visit  Mr.  Marshall’s  grand  collection  I  am  more  and  more 
convinced  that  I  am  right  in  my  surmise,  for  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  find  a  single  plant  which  is  not  enjoying  the  rudest  health  and 
making  the  best  of  growth. 
I  saw  a  few  days  ago,  amongst  other  Orchids  in  bloom, 
several  large  specimens  of  Cattleya  Trianse,  carrying  from  twenty 
to  twenty-four  blooms  ;  Cattleya  Trianse  Schroderse,  Claremont 
House  var.;  C.dolosa,  flowering  freely  ;  Lseliaanceps  and  its  varieties, 
Sanderiana  and  Stella  ;  Coelogynes  cristata  maxima,  Lemoniana, 
Chatsworth  var.,  and  cristata  alba  ;  Yanda  Amesiana  ;  many 
forms  of  Dendrobium  nobile,  some  of  them  being  quite  equal  to 
D.  nobile  nobilius  ;  D.  nobile  Cooksoni  ;  D.  nobile  nobilius  ;  and 
D.  AVardianum  Lowi ;  a  grand  plant  of  Dendrobium  fimbriatum 
superbum,  which  some  time  ago  received  an  award  of  merit  ; 
Cypripedium  Lathamianum,  fine  variety,  carrying  six  grand 
blooms ;  also  C.  Boxalli,  C.  villosum  superbum,  twenty-five 
flowers  ;  and  C.  Chamberlainianum  ;  Cymbidiums  Lowianum  and 
eburneum,  Lycastes  Skinneri  alba,  cruenta,  and  cristata. 
There  are  also  amongst  the  cool  Orchids  now  in  flower  about 
500  imported  plants,  including  fine  varieties  of  Odontoglossum 
crispum,  O.  Edwardi  (seventy-two  flowers),  0.  Rossi  majus  (thirty 
flowers),  Oncidium  splendidum  macranthum,  O.  concolor,  Masde- 
vallias  Harryana,  lilacina,  Shuttleworthi,  and  Lindeni. 
Besides  Orchids  there  is  a  choice  collection  of  stove,  green¬ 
house,  and  decorative  plants,  all  of  which  are  of  the  highest 
possible  quality.  Vines  and  Peaches  are  equally  well  done  ;  in 
fact,  the  entire  place  is  in  perfect  order,  and  speaks  volumes  for  the 
skill  and  ability  of  Mr.  James  Johnson,  the  very  energetic 
gardener. — Yorkshire  Bite. 
MANURES  FOR  PEAT  PLANTS. 
There  exists  some  dubiety  as  to  whether  manure  in  any  form  exerts 
a  beneficial  influence  on  plants  that  affect  a  peat  soil.  It  is  not  very 
long  ago  that  exactly  the  same  feeling  existed  with  regard  to  applying 
manurial  agents  to  Ferns  growing  in  peat,  but  that  has  passed  away, 
and  it  is  now  a  well-known  fact  that  Ferns  are  particularly  partial  to 
manurial  foods.  I  imagine  that  peat  plants  generally  are  by  no  means 
averse  to  manure,  though  no  doubt  it  must  be  applied  to  suit  the  plant. 
Peat  soils  are  greatly  deficient  in  mineral  constituents,  in  nitrogenous 
elements,  and  in  the  material  that  is  productive  of  the  all-important 
phosphoric  acid.  There  is,  I  venture  to  think,  a  mistake  in  assuming 
that  because  a  plant  grows  well  for  a  time  in  pure  peat  that  ordinary 
plant  foods  are  of  no  importance  to  it.  Peat  soil  as  employed  in  this 
country  has  in  its  composition  a  large  amount  of  organic  matter,  such 
for  instance  as  the  roots  of  Ferns  ;  and  we  know  that  the  so-called  peat 
employed  by  continental  horticulturists  is  not  peat  at  all,  but  in  reality 
a  kind  of  humus  prepared  from  the  foliage  of  forest  trees.  Moreover,  in 
a  state  of  nature  Heather,  Rhododendrons,  Kalmias,  Andromedas,  do 
not  affect  a  soil  purely  peat.  Nor  under  cultivation  is  there  any  necessity 
to  provide  peat  for  these  and  kindred  plants.  Leaf  soil  or  a  compost  of 
leaves,  decayed  grass,  soil,  and  sand  grows  them  to  perfection.  Moreover, 
a  thick  mulch  of  farmyard  manure  applied  above  the  roots  of  such 
plants  as  are  in  a  sickly  stunted  condition  not  infrequently  restores  to 
them  the  appearance  of  health  if  not  luxuriance. 
In  the  case  of  plants  cultivated  in  pots,  the  beneficial  effect  of 
phosphatic  and  nitrogenous  agents  are  of  a  very  marked  nature.  I  have, 
for  example,  some  Azaleas  that  were  last  repotted  in  1882,  and  then  into 
6-inch  pots,  a  size  in  which  it  is  most  convenient  that  they  should  be 
grown.  It  will  readily  be  admitted  that  little  if  any  of  the  original 
fertility  can  be  expected  to  remain  in  the  compost  at  this  date.  For 
my  part  I  doubt  if  there  has  been  any  for  many  years,  and  the  result 
naturally  to  be  expected  would  be  stunted  flowerless  plants.  I  am  not 
going  to  say  they  are  in  a  condition  the  very  antithesis  of  that — examples 
of  high-class  culture — that  is  more  than  fairly  could  be  looked  for,  but 
they  are  ordinarily  good  plants,  furnished  with  vigorous  growths  that 
bear  with  unfailing  regularity  each  year  their  crop  of  flowers,  and  their 
general  aspect  when  in  bloom  is  at  least  of  a  nature  to  admit  them 
as  decorative  plants  among  others  into  apartments  in  the  house.  They 
aie  pruned  as  required,  and  this  no  doubt  exerts  some  little  effect  on  the 
well-being  of  the  plants.  But  indubitably  it  is  mainly,  if  not  altogether, 
by  the  application  of  suitable  manures  that  this  condition  of  health  and 
comparative  vigour  is  assured. 
I  may  say  that  many  kinds  of  manure,  proprietory  and  home  made, 
have  been  used,  but  none  has  produced  results  so  strikingly  good  as 
slight  weekly  applications  of  slag  flour  during  the  season  of  growth,  and 
occasionally  during  the  other  part  of  the  year.  This  is  supplemented  by 
a  little  sulphate  of  ammonia,  dissolved  in  water,  and  applied  about  once 
a  month.  Some  winter-blooming  Heaths  that  were  purchased  three  or 
four  years  ago  in  4i-inch  pots,  and  treated  in  the  same  manner,  exhibit 
the  good  effects  of  manure. 
Slag  flour,  on  account  of  the  large  per-centage  of  phosphoric  acid  it 
contains  in  a  quickly  soluble  condition,  and  also  because  of  the  lime  in 
As  composition,  forms  the  beau  ideal  fertiliser  for  peat  soils.  Both  the 
above  agents  are  rapidly  soluble,  and  with  the  addition  of  ammonic 
sulphate  a  fairly  complete  manure  results.  Moreover,  iron  is  present  in 
very  large  quantities,  and  we  capnot  now  overlook  the  important  effects 
that  follow  the  employment  of  this  mineral.  As  applied  to  certain 
Orchids,  Dendrobiums,  and  others,  and  to  Nepenthes,  the  same  fertilisers 
have  given  improved  growth. — B, 
RULES  FOR  JUDGING. 
I  suppose  I  ought  to  have  replied  to  my  two  critics  in  last  week’s 
Journal,  but  I  thought  I  would  wait  a  week  and  see  if  I  had  “drawn” 
any  more.  No  more  appearing  I  will  now  say  a  word.  In  this  free 
country,  I  take  it,  it  is  no  wrong  to  say  what  we  have  to  say  even  about 
so  august  and  learned  a  body  as  the  Committee  of  “  all  the  talent”  (as 
was  said  of  a  certain  Government  of  past  days)  of  the  R.H.S.  who  had 
published  a  code  of  rules  for  judging.  Provincial  or  country  humour 
we  all  know  is  somewhat  heavy,  and  any  little  bit  of  fun  which  I  poked 
at  said  Committee  was,  I  admit,  not  very  brilliant.  “  A.  D.”  (page  280), 
however,  evidently  took  in  the  spirit  of  my  note  and  discussed  the 
matter  most  fairly  and  reasonably,  somewhat  to  my  surprise,  because  we 
all  expect  from  him  a  more  or  less  severity  of  judgment  (I  do  not  mean 
this  offensively  “  A.  D.”),  and  we  generally  get  it.  His  note  on  the 
FIG.  55.— CYPRIPEDIUM  EXUL,  MAJOR  JOICEYS  VAR. 
manners  of  judging  of  cottage  gardens  and  allotments  drawn  up  by  the 
officers  and  judges  of  the  Surrey  County  Council  I  thank  him  for  and 
I  am  now  in  possession  of  the  papers  used  by  the  judges.  The  system 
is  excellent  in  every  way,  and  though  to  keep  up  my  character  of  “  An 
Old  Provincial  ”  I  may  not  carry  the  practice  out,  thinking  my  own 
way  the  better,  I  yet  can  see  that  both  the  principle  and  practice  of  this 
system  is  a  sound  one. 
As  to  “  One  of  the  Forty-six,”  I  can  hardly  take  him  seriously. 
I  suppose  his  criticism  is  meant  for  humour.  It  must  be,  for  I  laughed 
the  whole  time  of  reading,  and  not  on  the  wrong  side  of  my  mouth 
either,  for  I  was  tickled  by  the  fact  that  he  was  trying  to  humorously 
criticise  my  note,  which  he  had  failed  to  see  was  written  in  a  bantering 
tone.  His  criticism  is  clever  but  flippant,  but  then  he  is  young,  at 
least  “  not  old,”  and  of  course  not  a  provincial,  and  therefore  he  has 
much  to  learn  ;  and  one  of  the  things  he  will  learn  as  he  gets  on  in  life 
is  that  those  who  differ  from  him  are  not  always  actuated  by  base  and 
unselfish  motives.  It  is  a  difficult  life  lesson  I  admit,  but  we  most  of  us 
learn  it,  often  from  bitter  experience,  as  we  grow  older. 
He  puts  what  he  considers  a  poser  of  a  query  to  me.  My  reply  is. 
Surely,  surely,  without  going  to  the  dictionary,  which  I  have  consulted 
as  much  as  any  ordinary  man,  most  people  will  see  at  once  that  a  man 
maybe  “untried,”  not  proved,  even  though  he  be  an  “expert,”  have 
skill.  Eh  !  come  now,  where  is  the  poser  ?  The  pity  is  that  “  One  of 
the  Forty-six  ”  is  not  a  very  close  reader,  or  he  would  have  seen  that  I 
did  not  lay  “the  flourish  of  trumpets”  to  the  R.H.S.  or  its  Committee, 
and  he  certainly  cannot  have  read  the  weekly  literature  of  our  craft  for 
some  months  past  now  with  carefulness,  or  he  would  not  have  been 
ignorant  of  what  I  meant  by  the  “  flourish  of  trumpets.”  If  he  does 
not  know  it,  most  other  readers  do ;  however,  I  am  quite  satisfied.  I 
have  drawn  out  something,  though  I  scarcely  expected  to  draw  out  so 
strange  a  critique  as  that  of  “One  of  thi  Forty*six.” — AK  OLD 
Provingud  Judge. 
