The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-09-05 00:00:00

1? ortintlturt.

IN the or% of Pelargonium., Mr. Hoyle every year
proflue, a ammo magnificent vat ietiex. John Hoyle end
Mary Hoyle of the pre.eut sexton appear to come as
near pedeotion P.O possible.

WE ore infmmed that a fl•uvering specimen of the
Agave Americium m +3, now fl 4. sten in t he gardens of tLe
Star and G,rter lintel, Richmond Rill. The flower
Atetn is ab,,ut twenty feet high, and earths 2,000
flo.ers.

ZASTIA HORILIDA.— This plant, more correctly called
Encephalartos, wm frnited 8 ,Ine few years ago in the
garden of the Bo,al Botanic Simi( ty, and since more
perfectly by J. Yates, F.sq., itf Flifligate. When line
it bunts open, showing the red fruits lying within the
green scales of the cone. It is edible and nutritious,
but not particularly palatable.—Gardesers' Chronicle.
'Ng LOBRLTA—of the tall perennial type—is, it seems,
undergoing the same kind of improvement which is being
effected in the cage of other flowers, variety of colour
as well as kiss being secured. &Arleta and Purples we
have long been familiar with, but other colours have
till now been wanting, and strangely enough the plants
themselves have been much less freely cultivated than
their beauty has merited.-rAni.

STAKING PLANTS.-Whilt we flute that • great num.
her of &ticks disfigure the appearanc., of plants grown
in pots, and that Fuchsias, Geraniuinv, Cake°tartan,
and Cinerari.s may be grown sufficiently strong to need
little support, we can bardly tin so far as admit that no
support is ever ntoessary. But when they are used,
sticks or other supports should not be made obtrusive.
There can be no univ. Tsai rule however. Taking the
Fuchsia for instance. there is no handsomer mode of
forming a young plant than to train up a tingle b tiding
shoot (which must have a stake), and let the lateral
growth bang out from it on all sides.—lbid.

PRI/Marra MUSHROOMS. —Maahroarne, the true pink.
gilled Agaricas campestria, are now very plentiful, end
nay be PO for h short time. In open pasiures, those in
shady wood'', especially if under closegrowing fir-trees,
are to be looked upon with suspicion. 1 hey can be
readily preserved. Get the opened or expanded ones,
not too old, trim and peel them, then carefully parch
them in the Puns ine (keeping all wet or damp from
them) until the juice in them ii dried up. Next string
them through the coral e on worsted threads, and hang
'hem in • dry ',onboard or on the top of the kit,then,
and they will keep for year.. Before you wish to ore
them, put the intended quantity over night into warm
new milk, shich next day stew together, adding a little
ketchup thereto, and on New-Year'a Day next you may
have as delicious a treat as if they had beau just
gathered. —Scottish Farmer.
Tar GREAT Vine at Cumberland Lodge is con-
Adorably larger than the famous Hampton Court Vine,
and occurs very appropriately in Windsor Perk, where
drives, wood and tree., and everything else is on a large
acale, and likely to remain so. Judging from its size
and health, the vigour of its young groeth, and the pro-
fusion of good fruit, no limit can be assigned to the
capabilities of this Vine. Indeed, one oan scarcely tie
more explicit about the matter than was • certain
"grumpy" gardener, who, wLen asked by his noble
employer how much longer a fine Wistaria, that ran
along the top of a wall, would grow, replied, "Till it
stopx." It was planted 66 years ago as a cutting in an
old Pine pit, whioh was eventually ennobled into a
Vinery to snit it, and since then the house has beep
enlarged three times—the last time six year. ago—when
the back wall was taken back four feet. The house is a
lean-to 138 feet long, 20 wide, and 12 high at back wall,
a considerably larger space than that occupied by the
Vine at Hampton Court, and thin is oomph tely fur-
nished with clean firu, shoots bearing healthy foliage and
an abundant crop of fruit, though it i- not this year so
heavy as that borne by the Vine in other years There
are, however, 2,000 nice bunchea, colouring we& The
tree—surely it is worthy of the dignity, for no other
fruit tree could offer • more imposing sight—is planted
inside, and the floor of the house ix II well-prepared
border. fully occupied by the roots; but that is also the
caae with every bit of soil about the house, for even
when making the stoke holes they found healthy feeding
roots more than six feet deep.—Gardeners' Chronicle.

THR EXTRAORDINARY FAILURE there has been in the
apricot crop, from premature decay is partly at-
tributable to the attacks of insects, and partly to
something wrong about the trees themselves, which
beeined to predispose the fruit to decomposition.
Where the fruit was ripe, it in most cases fell
off, but where this won not the case, it ultimately
dried up and remained upon the tree, and it is now evi-
dent that the mischief is not confined to the fruit, but
has extended to the little spurs, or twigs, on which it
was produced, or rather perhaps there was something
wrong about the tree, which first induced dec.), in the
fruit, and ultimately of the productive shoots. These
are already quite dead, and cut a very sorry figure upon
the trees, a large portion of the wood of which in many
cases will have to be cut out nett spring. In every Case
the disease, for such clearly it must be called, is at-
tended by profuse gumming, which either hangs down
in long colourless or yellow strings, or forms large dia.
coloured globules, especially at the point where the
stalk of the fruit is attached to the ring. The disease
is not confined to one variety. We have seen it abun-
dantly in the !door Park and Breda Apricots, especially
the latter, lees so in the Roman, and scarcely at all by
. .

comparison in the peach apri'oot ; nor i; it con--
fined to a single garden, for we have observed it in
every garden, which we have had an opportunity of ex-
amining in the neighbourhood. It is difficult to account
for these inflictions, but it is probable that a sudden and
bountiful accession of moisture after long drought,
together with the comparatively low temperature at
night for many weeks, has had a great part in its pro-
duction. At present we have seen nothing of the kind
in peaches and nectarines, but now that the time of
ripening in these fruits has arrived, we should not be
surprised to find that there is • similar failure. —M. J.
B. in Gardener,' CAronick.