'February  23,  1899. 
147 
jnrnKAL  OF  noiittgultuiie  and  cottage  garden ei:. 
*  TROPICAL  GROWTHS  IN  CEYLON. 
Prqbahly  few  countries  of  the  same  size  possess  within  so  limited 
■an  area  such  numerous  and  diversified  products.  Taking  that 
delightful  vapour  bath  Colombo  as  a  base  from  which  to  explore,  one 
finds,  of  course,  trees  that  <h‘light  in  an  equable  steaming  shade 
temperature  of  some  80°  to  90°,  and  which  may  reckon  upon,  in  addi¬ 
tion  to  the  ozone  from  the  ocean,  a  more  or  less  diurnal  dose  of  rain. 
Here,  then,  the  Banana,  Cocoa-nnt,  IMango,  Bread-fruit  Tree,  with 
great  varieties  of  Palms  and  Bamboo,  flourish  in  common  with 
■spices  innumerable.  Pine  Apples,  Oianges,  Po'megranate,  and  such  lik'*. 
1  suppose  people  get  callous  to  it,  but  certainly  I  did  feel  (lualms 
in  letting  the  poor  Cingalese  coolie  run  for  miles  in  this  sweltering 
climate  with  his  wdiole  bodj'-.  shining  as  if  anoinled  with  oil,  steaming 
-'vith  pcrsiiiration.  At  Singapore  it  is,  of  course,  just  the  same.  They 
seem  so  wonderfully  willing,  however,  and  run  mile  after  mile  without 
seeming  to  expect  to  stoji  (luckily,  Colombo  itself  is  extremely  flat ), 
that  one  gives  up  the  problem,  unwittingly  absorbed',  it  may  be,  by 
the  objects  of  interest  all  around.  One  very  long  rickshaw  run  I 
took,  right  away  round  the  lake  to  the  Cinnamon  gardens,  and  by  a 
oircuitous  route  back  to  the  further  end  of  the  long  sea  front 
promenade.  The  fellow  scarcely  slowed  to  a  walk  more  than  once  or 
twice.  No  one  seems  to  attempt  to  walk  in  this  place — perhaps  after 
a  year  or  two  people  are  so  enervated  that  they  cannot  ;  but  as  a 
rpasser-by,  and  at  all  times  a  keen  advocate  of  shanks’  mare,  with  the 
vitality  of  good  Old  England  within  me,  I  not  only  walked  frequently, 
but  sometimes  even  a  considerable  distance,  and  once  indulged  in  the 
additional  exercise  of  butterflying,  and  that,  too,  in  the  chief  heat  of 
the  day.  Curiously  enough,  I  seemed  to  find  little  difference  wlnuher 
I  lay  under  my  mosiiuito  curtains  in  ptiris  naturalibus,  or  inclined 
any  person  in  a  long  open  chair  on  the  verandah,  or  allowed  my  lordly 
limbs  to  be  rapidly'  impelled  through  the  air  by  a  son  of  the  soil,  or 
whether  I  took  the  said  pedestrian  exercise  in  propria  persona  •,  in 
whatever  case  the  result  was  the  same — viz.,  Is>eme4  covered  with 
a  perspiration  oozing  out  of  every  ])ore  from  head  to  foot.  Of  course, 
■up  at  Kandy  it  is  not  so  bad.  Here  you  niay  walk  along  lanes  abso¬ 
lutely  embowered  in  leafy  foliage  and  overhanging  fruits  of  multi- 
'tudinous  design,  shape,  and  colour. 
I  know  of  few  more  beautiful  spots  than  this  lovely  place,  with  its 
'  alluring  lake  and  fascinating  surroundings,  not  the  least  interesting, 
apart  trom  the  wonderful  and  varied  growths  all  around,  being  the 
picturesque  and  very  ancient  Buddhist  temple,  the  old  librarian  of 
which  handed  me  his  Cingalese  carte-de-visite  on  making  our  adieux. 
Truly  did  I  find  Kandy  and  its  vicinity  a  veritable  Paradise.  I  think 
iny  month  there  was  February,  and  though  the  insect  creation  was  not 
yet  in  full  swing,  I  obtained  quite  a  tolerable  amount  of  gorgeous 
■butterflies  wherever  I  directed  my  footsteps.  The  most  curious,  and 
one  I  believe  to  be  found  nowhere  else,  was  a  blue  one  avith  a  single 
long  horn  or  snout,  half  beetle  and  half  moth,  extremely  pretty  when 
fully  extended.  This  I  found  on  one  particular  tree  in  the  Pera- 
(leniyeh  Cardens.  These  most  lovely  grounds  were  my  happy  hunting 
grounds  par  excellence,  A  little  Cingalese  lad  used  to  meet  mo  there 
and  do  the  running  about,  thereby  helping  me  make  quite  double  my 
usual  “  bag.” 
The  flying  fox  which  swarms  in  a  large  rookery  here  is  a  most 
■curious  creature.  Neither  shall  I  forget  the  exactions  of  a  charming 
American  lady  (following  her  husband,  a  naval  captain,  round  the 
: world),  whose  interest  centred  to  an  extraordinary  degree  in  the 
numerous  species  of  Palm  (no  small  order  in  itself),  and  tropical  trees 
for  which  these  gardens  are  famous.  Among  the  formet  I  think  the 
Sealingwax  Palm  most  appealed  to  me,  the  stem  of  which  looked 
indeed  like  nothing  else  than  a  colossal  piece  of  red  sealingwax. 
♦rleveral  plants  we  grubbed  up  together,  but,  alas  !  like  some  ravishing 
white  Orchids  which  I  slipped  from  the  trees  at  Singapore,  so  far  as  1 
m  concerned,  none  survived. 
Walking  back  in  the  comparative  cool  of  the  evening  from 
Peradeniyeh  to  Kandy,  one  passes  under  a  canopy  of  branches  from 
-each  side  the  road  of  Banana,  Cinnamon,  Nutmeg,  Mango,  Vanilla  and 
Bread-fruit  trees,  to  say  nothing  of  numbers  of  flowering  shrubs, 
scarcely  noticing  here  and  there  tiny  huts  of  Bamboo  and  Balm,  so 
hidden  are  they  among  the  foliage.  A  good  deal  of  hillside  in  this 
neighbourhood  is  cultivated  with  Cocoa,  Tea,  and  Coffee  plantations. 
We  saw,  too,  something  of  Sir  Thomas  Lipton’s  vast  grounds. 
Perhaps  the  most  exquisite  delight  which  1  experienced  while 
at  Kandy  was  the  nocturnal  rickshaw'  ride.  Sauntering  along 
and  dreaming  of  many  thinszs  in  the  cool  of  the  evening, 
after  a  generous  dinner,  a  Cingalese  runner  would  insidiously 
suggest  to  you,  in  a  whisper,  gliding  out  from  the  darkness,  tlio 
■delights  of  a  run.  It  invariably  ended  in  my  finding  myself  sitting  back 
in  a  rickshaw,  feeling  as  if  I  had  not  a  care  in  the  w'orld,  smoothly 
and  noiselessly  gliding  alom:  up  hill  and  down  dale,  miles  away, 
with  the  weird  moonlight  flitting  across  the  paths  and  pl.aying  among 
the  thick  leafy  glades  on  either  side.  I  think  I  have  never  expe¬ 
rienced  anything  so  soothing,  or  a  temperature  more  ideally  perfect 
than  these  impromptu  rides  in  this  beautiful  spot  of  Ceylon’s  spice¬ 
laden  isle. — T.  A.  Caunegie-Cheales. 
DISLUDDING  VINES. 
To  the  Grape  grower  who,  in  addition  to  being  a  good  practical 
gardener,  has  also  the  necessary  amount  ot  enthusiasm  to  .make  his 
work  enjoy'ablo,  the  closing  days  ot  winter  are  interesting  times.  The 
rain  may  come  down  in  a  deluge,  and  the  wind  roar  and  whirl  in 
fitful  fury;  what  matters,  these  will  only  have  sway  for  a  time; 
spring  is  at  hand,  when  old  Sol  begins  to  assert  his  power  and  awaken 
all  Nature  into  active  life.  The  Grape  grower  is,  perhaps,  tlu;  first  to 
note  and  welcome  the  signs  of  spring,  for  the  lengthening  days  and 
]ileasant  spells  of  sunshine  act  like  nia-zic  upon  early  forced  \  ines, 
tending  as  they  do  to  pronrote  raiiid  growth,  as  well  as  to  give 
substance  and  colour  to  the  leaves. 
The  buds  in  successional  houses  will  now  be  breaking  fast  where  a 
little  fire  heat  is  employed  to  forward  them,  and  ere  long  Vines  in  late 
houses  will  also  be  bursting  into  leaf.  Di>buddin'g,  stopjiing,  ami 
tying  will  therefore  be  the  order  of  the  day  for  some  months  hence, 
and  althou'gh  the  work  is  simple  enough,  it  is  quite  easy  to  make 
errors  in  carrying  it  out.  A  mistake  often  made  is  to  treat  all 
Vines  aline  in  the  matter  of  disbudding,  without  pacing  duo  regard  to 
the  style  of  pruning  aditpted  or  the  type  of  shoots  jiroduced.  Let  us 
therefore  consider  the  treatment  best  suited  for  \  ines  ot  various 
descriptions. 
Young  Vines  which  are  not  required  to  ]iroduce  large  bunches  of 
Grapes  are  usuallv  pruned  to  one  bud,  and  a  good  practice  it  is, 
because  compact  bunches  are  thus  secured.  In  this  case  there  is,  of 
course,  little  choice  in  the  matter  of  shoots,  as  each  spur  produces 
one  strong  one,  and  generally  a  few  "eak  ones  around  it ;  the  latter 
should  be  rubbed  off  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  burst.  In  cases  where 
the  Vines  arc  pruned  to  two  eyes  the  two  best  shoots  ouglrt  to  be 
retained  for  a  time,  as  it  often  hapx'cns  that  the  shoot  at  the  extiemity 
of  the  spur  produces  several  joints  before  the  bunch  shows,  while^  the 
shoot  from  the  basal  bud  sends  out  its  bunch  quite  near  the  rod.  Ibis 
is  usually  the  better  one  to  retain,  unless  a  large  bunch  is  required,  but 
generally  speaKing  the  bunches  which  s’now  at  some  distance  trom  the 
main  rod  are  loose  in  the  shoulders  and  long  in  the  footstalk, 
characteristics  not  valued  by  good  Grape  crowers. 
As  soon  as  the  character  of  each  bunch  can  be  discerned  the 
selection  ought  to  be  made  and  the  superfluous  ones  removed. 
Young  Vines  which  made  their  rods  la-t  season  must  be  carefully 
disbudded,  as  upon  the  selection  now  made  will  de[H'nd  the  ultimate 
positions  of  the  sours.  The  buds  retained  should  be  as  evenly 
])laced  as  possible  from  15  to  18  inches  apart  on  each  side  of  the 
rod,  so  that  a  shoot  on  one  side  is  disposed  midway  between  two 
on  I'ae  other.  It  is  not  always  easy  to  secure  growths  at  just  the 
right  point,  but  the  nearer  the  plan  is  adhered  to  the  better,  even 
though  in  a  few  instances  a  comparatively  weak  shoot  has  to  be 
retained  in  preference  to  a  stronger,  but  inisjilaced  one. 
Now  let  us  deal  with  Ahnes  pruned  on  the  long-spur  system 
f.e.,  leaving  the  growths  from  b  inches  to  a  foot  or  more  in  length, 
we  thus  get  ])lonty  of  good  shoots  to  select  from.  I  he  one  cairymg 
the  best  a^nd  most  shapely  bunch  shouM  be  here  retained,  no  matter 
where  it  is  situated;  but— and  this  is  important— a  shoot  must  also 
be  retained  at  the  base  of  the  spur.  The  latter,  if  stopped  at  four 
or  five  leaves  will  form  a  moderately  strong  growth,  and  .at  pruning 
time  the  following  \ear  some  of  the  spurs  can  be  cut  bac.t  to  such 
shoots.  With  this  "treatment  large  bunches  of  Grapes  .are  obtaiued, 
and  Ion"  s[mr.s  may  .at  any  time  be  removed.  The  principle  is  in 
reality  exactly  the  same  .as  that  adopted  in  the  disbudding  and  pruning 
of  Peach  trees.  Muscat-s  Gros  Guillaume,  and  Madresheld  Court  are 
varieties  which  succeed  well  under  this  system.  i  j 
The  advantage  of  having  plenty  of  young  wood  on  old  \  ines  at 
pruning  time  has  many  times  been  advocated  in  the  Journal^  of 
Horticulture,  but  bond  in  hand  with  that  practice  must  go  judicious 
disbuddin"  if  the  N'ines  are  to  derive  the  fullest  benefit.  In  such 
instances  ft  is  not  advisable  to  do  the  whole  of  the  disbudding  at  one 
time  •  a  little  extra  growth  for  a  time  will  help  to  increase  root  action, 
and  put  new  vigour  into  feeble  veterans.  Only  the  weak  bud.s  must 
be  removed  at  first,  allowing  the  other  shoots  to  remain  ti  I  they  are 
3  or  4  inch-.s  in  length;  the  most  promising  can  then  be  .selected,  and 
the  others  removed  by  degrees,  always  retaining  a  growth  near  the  base 
if  the  spur  whenever  opportunity  occurs.  .  i  i  i  .  •*  ■„ 
Overcrowding  should  of  course  at  all  times  be  avoided,  but  u  is 
well  to  b  'H."  in  mind  that  very  old  Vines  do  not  otten  produce  strong 
ihoots,  and  enough  ought  to  be  left  to  completely  cover  the  available 
mace,  as  everv  leaf  of  good  texture  means  increase  of  force  in  toe 
Yiiie.  When'it  i.s  intended  to  take  up  young  rods  a  sharp  look  out 
must  be  kept  at  disbudding  time  for  well  placed  shoots  at  the  Iron 
)f  the  house.  It  is  an  easy  matter  to  overlook  this  till  the  gro\vt  is 
iinrftfi  lias  beoQ. 
Tticf.  ond  ro< 
removed. — II.  D. 
