June  4,  1896. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
515 
-  Nursery  or  Market  Garden? — A  case  of  great  importance 
to  nurserymen  was  recently  decided  by  the  Judge  of  the  Manchester 
County  Court,  involving  the  question  whether  a  nursery  garden  was  a 
market  garden,  so  as  to  entitle  a  tenant  of  it  to  a  year’s  notice  to  quit, 
under  the  Agricultural  Holdings  Act.  The  agreement  of  tenancy 
provided  that  the  land  in  question  should  be  used  as  a  nursery  garden. 
The  landlord  contended  that  a  market  garden  meant  one  in  which 
edible  articles — e.g.,  fruit  and  vegetables,  only  were  grown  for  sale  in 
the  open  market,  while  the  tenant  argued  that  flowers  and  bedding 
plants  were  now  as  extensively  grown  for  the  market  as  vegetables. 
The  Judge  decided  in  favour  of  the  landlord — that  a  nursery  was  not  a 
market  garden  within  the  meaning  of  the  Act. 
- -  Styrax  obassia. — In  the  admirable  paper  on  11  Trees  and 
Shrubs  in  Japan,”  read  before  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  by 
Mr.  Jas.  Veitch  some  time  since,  he  refers  to  the  great  beauty  of  Styrax 
obassia  when  in  bloom.  This  is  one  of  the  tree  shrubs,  as  it  may  well  be 
designated,  brought  home  from  Japan  by  M.  Maries,  and  at  the  present 
moment  two  large  specimens  are  blooming  at  the  Coombe  Wood  Nursery, 
where  they  present  singularly  beautiful  and  attractive  objects.  These 
trees  are  some  15  feet  in  height.  They  carry  in  great  profusion  long 
racemes  of  pure  white  flowers,  that  are  very  lovely  and  sweetly  perfumed. 
The  leafage  iB  very  large,  round,  and  flat,  indeed  is  of  itself  vejy 
attractive,  forms  admirable  shelter  for  the  abundant  bloom  from  heavy 
rains  or  sunshine.  The  variety  precedes  by  a  few  weeks  the  now  better 
known  Styrax  japonica  growing  close  by.  In  time  we  may  hope  to  see 
these  grand  shrubs  in  most  good  gardens. — A.  D. 
-  Dry  Weather  in  America. — A  protracted  drought  so  early 
in  the  year  as  this  is  phenomenal,  but  all  the  country  hereabouts  (New 
York)  is  now  suffering  for  lack  of  water.  When  pasture  fields  in  the 
middle  of  May  look  as  brown  as  they  do  in  August,  and  there  is  no  grass 
growing  in  the  meadows,  and  even  the  Plantain  leaves  are  curling  up  on 
the  lawn,  the  outlook  for  the  farm  and  garden  is  not  promising.  The 
extreme  hot  weather  forced  flowering  plants  into  bloom  earlier  than 
usual,  but  the  flowers  came  all  at  once  when  they  should  have  been 
spread  over  at  least  a  fortnight.  A  forced  growth  is  always  feeble  and 
the  flowers  lasted  but  a  little  while.  The  season  of  Tulips  and  Daffodils 
was  never  so  short.  Meanwhile,  vegetable  seeds  lying  in  the  ground, 
which  is  almost  dust-dry,  show  no  signs  of  germination.  These  droughts, 
which  now  seem  to  come  every  year,  are  so  destructive  that  no  garden 
is  safe  without  some  appliance  for  irrigation. — (“Garden  and  Forest.”) 
-  Paulownia  imperialis.  —  When  on  a  recent  visit  to 
Worthing  my  attention  was  particularly  drawn  to  a  fine  old  specimen 
of  this  uncommon  Japanese  tree,  and  which  I  believe  was  intro¬ 
duced  to  this  country  in  1840.  The  specimen  in  question  is  the  largest 
I  have  yet  heard  of  growing  in  Great  Britain,  and  without  its  foliage 
and  flowers  somewhat  resembles  in  its  large  trunk  and  stubby  branches 
a  broken  branched  old  Walnut  tree.  It  is  about  30  feet  in  height.  At 
the  time  of  my  visit  the  grotesque  looking  old  specimen  was  arrayed 
in  a  profusion  of  its  large  panicled  Foxglove-shaped  lilac-purple  coloured 
flowers,  and  with  its  sparsely  unfolding  foliage  presented  a  most 
striking  and  singular  appearance,  growing  as  it  does  in  close  proximity 
to  the  principal  far^ade  of  the  Childrens’  Convalescent  Home.  The 
chief  object  of  this  notice  is  to  ascertain  if  there  are  any  other 
specimens  of  equal  size  in  this  country,  and  evidently  it  must  have  been 
one  of  the  originally  imported  plants,  unless  grown  from  seed.  The 
age  and  large  size  of  the  Worthing  specimen  is  a  good  illustration  of 
the  mild  temperature  of  the  district. — W.  G. 
_  Defoliation  of  Trees  in  Epping  Forest. — Lepidopterous 
larvm  seem  destined  to  cause  serious  damage  this  season.  In  Epping 
Forest  the  attacks  of  the  larvse  of  the  winter  moth  (Cheimatobia 
brumata)  and  the  three  species  of  Hybernia  (H.  defoliaria,  aurantiaria, 
et  progemmaria),  together  with  the  little  TortriS  viridana,  are  completely 
defoliating  the  Hornbeams  and  Oaks,  and  are  even  attacking  the  Beeches 
to  an  extent  hardly  to  be  credited.  The  webs  spun  by  the  caterpillars 
are  hanging  in  sheets  from  the  trees,  and  in  some  cases  quite  enwrapping 
the  Beedling  Hollies  and  other  small  undershrubs  with  silky  envelopes. 
Birds  are  more  numerous  in  the  Forest  than  they  have  been  for  many 
years  past,  but  they  appear  to  have  little  controlling  influence  in  the 
case  of  outbursts  like  the  present.  The  carnivorous  larvae  of  the  two 
Noctuae,  Cosmia  trapezina  and  Scopelosoma  satellitia,  are  becoming 
abundant,  and  may  do  some  service  ;  but  we  fear  that  the  charming 
spring  foliage  of  many  of  the  woods  will  be  spoilt  until  the  curious 
refoliation  occurs  at  midsummer. — W.  C.  (in  the  “  Journal  of  the  Essex 
Technical  Laboratories.”) 
-  Double  Stock  Purity. — Some  eight  weeks  since  a  couple  of 
the  plants,  each  in  48-sized  pots,  shown  at  the  Drill  Hall  by  Messrs. 
Sutton  &  Sons,  of  this  Stock  were  given  me,  and  I  brought  them  home. 
They  are  still  in  good  bloom,  though  each  one  has  lost  some  of  the  lower 
leaves,  due  no  doubt  to  their  having  sometimes  been  allowed  to  become 
too  dry,  That  is  saying  a  great  deal  for  flowering  plants  kept  in  the 
window  partially,  and  partially  outside,  in  a  town  like  Kingston. 
I  cannot  but  think  that,  seeing  how  well  Stocks  thus  show  endurance  in 
pots,  that  they  should  be  much  more  grown  for  market  purposes  because 
they  can  be  sold  cheaply.  It  costs  little  to  raise  Stocks  by  sowing  seed 
in  July  or  early  in  August,  growing  them  singly  in  good  loam,  under 
which  treatment  they  bloom  freely  in  the  early  spring.  Purity  is  a 
wall-leaved  Stock,  height  about  10  inches,  branching,  and  very  richly 
perfumed.  As  its  name  implies,  it  is  pure  white. — A.  D. 
-  The  Umbrella  Pine,  Sciadopitys  verticillata,— It  is 
now  found  that  this  plant  thrives  best  in  peat.  To  some  extent  that 
seems  to  be  the  cause  of  its  doing  so  well  in  some  places  and  badly  in 
others  where  peat  is  lacking.  What  seems  to  be  a  special  merit  in  this 
interesting  Japanese  Pine  is  its  extreme  solidity.  It  is  said  of  large  trees 
in  Japan,  from  which  it  wa3  needful  to  collect  cones,  that  so  dense  was 
the  branches  that  ladders  could  be  placed  against  them  from  the  outside 
as  though  a  solid  wall,  and  up  them  the  men  would  go  to  gather  the  cones. 
Plants  grown  in  peat,  as  may  be  seen  at  Coombe  Wood,  show  not  only 
strong  growth  but  this  density  of  character  in  a  marked  degree. 
-  A  Tomato  Trouble. — What  seems  to  be  a  fungoid  form  of 
disease  in  the  stems  of  Tomato  plants  was  shown  me  recently  by  a 
market  grower  at  Hounslow.  Plants  with  him  in  various  stages  of 
growth,  from  2  inches  to  15  inches  in  height,  damped  off,  as  it  were,  close 
to  the  rcot  literally  wholesale.  Such  a  trouble  had  never  occurred  before, 
and  the  cause  could  not  be  understood.  Plante  got  into  fruiting  pots, 
and  of  good  height,  though  still  apparently  fresh  and  green,  would  be 
found  to  have  the  bottom  of  the  stem,  just  on  the  surface  of  the  soil, 
shrivelled,  brown,  and  quite  soft.  When  compressed  with  finger  and 
thumb  it  was  found  that  all  substance  had  disappeared,  and  in  place 
thereof  thin  dried  bark,  which  was  hollow,  and  apparently  eaten  up 
with  some  form  of  fungus.  The  soil  seems  sweet  and  good,  and  the 
water  laid  on  is  warm  and  excellent.  Has  any  other  grower  met  with 
the  same  trouble  ? — D.  K. 
-  Gold-laced  Polyanthuses.  —  The  strain  of  gold-laced 
Polyanthuses  which  Mr.  W.  James  has  at  Farnham  Royal  has  been 
more  than  once  of  late  elsewhere  referred  to.  1  saw  these  plants  one 
and  two  years  since,  and  again  recently,  when  they  were  large  clumps, 
blooming  profusely.  The  late  Mr.  James  obtained  the  strain  from 
that  other  lamented  florist,  Mr.  Samuel  Barlow,  and  those  who 
remember  this  latter  grower’s  beautiful  Sunrise  with  its  red  ground 
could  not  fail  to  admire  it.  But  red  grounds  always  are  scarce,  and 
they  need  careful  saving.  Black  grounds  are  plentiful.  I  was  pleased 
to  note  that  the  strain  had  been  hard  rogued,  but  though  I  saw  the 
plants  very  late  the  perfect  lacing  and  clear  lemon  centres  found  in  them 
were  most  marked.  I  hope  in  time  some  of  these  good  seedlings  will 
get  into  commerce,  and  thus  enable  fanciers  of  such  very  charming 
flowers  to  once  more  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  cultivating  good  hardy 
varieties  here  in  the  south. — A.  D. 
WHITE  AND  YELLOW  ROCKETS. 
I  am  sending  you  specimens  of  the  old  double  white  Scotch  Rocket 
and  the  yellow  Rocket,  Barbarea  vulgaris  fl.-pl.  It  is  very  strange  that 
such  beautiful  plantB  should  be  so  little  grown.  How  very  seldom  they 
are  seen  in  gardens  1  Both  the  varieties  are  infinitely  superior  to  many 
of  the  newer  plants  that  have  been  sent  out  with  a  “flourish  of 
trumpets.”  We  have  a  bed  of  the  kinds  named  in  the  kitchen  garden, 
containing  about  sixty  plants,  and  nothing  could  be  finer  than  they  are. 
Their  culture  is  of  the  very  simplest  description.  After  the  plants  have 
done  flowering  cut  them  down.  When  they  have  begun  to  make  a  little 
growth  lift  and  divide  them,  replant  in  deeply  dug,  well-manured  soil, 
about  12  or  15  inches  apart. — North  Northumbrian. 
[The  central  stem  of  the  double  white  Rocket  exceeds  a  foot  in  length, 
and  is  very  massive.  It  is  surrounded  by  ten  side  branchlets  nearly  as 
long,  but  more  slender.  We  have  not  seen  such  a  good  specimen  of  this 
fine  old  border  plant  for  many  years.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  the 
double  Barbarea  1  The  central  spike  is  18  inches  long,  the  fifteen  side 
branchlets  about  a  foot,  the  whole  studded  with  small  perfectly  double 
flowers,  similar  in  size  and  shape  to  those  of  Achillea  ptarmica  flore- 
pleno,  but  of  the  richest  golden  yellow  imaginable.  There  are,  at  least, 
700  of  them  on  the  branching  spike — the  finest  we  have  seen,  and 
distinctly  attractive.] 
