TJic Country Gcntlcuiaiis Magazine 



467 



GROWTH OF YUCCAS IN THE NORTH. 



IN the gardens here under my charge, a 

 very good plant of the Yucca gloriosa 

 superba began to send up a flower stem in the 

 month of June last, andwasin fine flower in July 

 and beginning of August. The plant was foli- 

 aged close to the ground, and the stem, which 

 measured about 8 feet in height, was densely 

 covered with flowers. This plant was by no 

 means the best in the gardens. About the 

 middle of August two more began to send up 

 flower stems, which are now upwards of 9 

 feet in height, and shewing flowers on their 

 side branches, but are by no means near their 

 full stature. A week later two more plants 

 of the same species began shewing their stems, 

 and are following the other two veiy rapidly, 

 being now 6 feet high ; and about a fort- 

 night since a fifth one commenced to shoot up, 

 so that if the weather be favourable for them 

 flowering, they will be a splendid sight in a 

 few weeks, and will be worthy of having 

 a protection raised about them to shelter 

 them fi-oni autumnal blasts of wind, 

 rain, and cold nights. The first four of these 

 have dark brownish stems and branch sheaths, 

 while those of the fifth, which I take to be the 



true Y. gloriosa, are creamy-white. There is 

 also a plant of Yucca glaucescens sending up 

 its flower stem, but this species does not 

 appear to attain to near the size of the others ; 

 and its stem is of a light red colour, quite 

 different in appearance from them. Five of 

 these plants will be in flower about the same 

 time, for although two be a little further in 

 advance, they will not be near done flowering 

 when the others have commenced. The 

 plants are all very strong except the last 

 mentioned, which is of less size. I have 

 had long experience in growing Yuccas, and 

 find that they require very rich soil, with 

 plenty of manure to grow robust, handsome 

 plants. The only winter protection requisite 

 is to gather and tie the leaves close up to 

 prevent snow or sleet freezing in the heart of 

 the plants and rotting them. After flowering 

 they will send suckers from their roots or 

 sides, which may be carefully removed, and 

 if well cultivated they may flower in a few 

 years afterwards. Independent of the flower- 

 ing, they are magnificent looking plants for 

 conspicuous places in a flower or kitchen 

 garden. — P. Loney, Fingask Castle, Perth. 



PRESERVATION OF CABBAGES FROM CATERPILLARS. 



ALMOST every year the cabbage caterpillar 

 (P. pieris) causes considerable loss to gar- 

 deners and cultivators by eating a great part of the 

 cabbages. I have even seen whole beds of this pre- 

 cious vegetable entirely lost. People who have 

 described this insect have set forth in journals many 

 ways, more or less excellent, of destroying the butter- 

 fly and its caterpillars ; but I think that to attain that 

 end there are no means more efficacious and more 

 simple than that which the housekeepers of my 

 locality have used for several years. They plant the 

 cabbages in the proximity of a hemp-field, or rather 

 sow some feet with hemp at little distances in the 

 midst of the cabbages. The butterfly seems to have 

 such an aversion to the strong odour of this plant that 

 it leaves the garden, and never lays its eggs but at a 

 distance from the hemp. If this plant is scattered in 

 every corner of the garden, one will never see a cater- 

 pillar on the cabbages. 



This proceeding, of which the efficiency is well tried, 

 is a discovery owing to chance. A cultivator had 

 remarked that there never were any caterpillars on a 

 cabbage when it was planted near a field of hemp, 

 while the pot herbs situated elsewhere were perfectly 

 ravaged. Hence the idea of sowing hemp seeds at 

 stated distances in the gardens, and which has had 

 most excellent results. The odour of the broom 

 affects the cabbage butterfly in a similar manner, and 

 one can preserve cabbages and vegetables in a similar 

 manner from their attacks, by placing green branches 

 of the broom in the kitchen garden ; but these branches 

 dry rapidly and soon lose all smell : it is then necessary 

 to replace them by fresh ones. Hemp, on the contrary, 

 exhales its scent all the summer, and the few feet sown 

 in a garden does not in the least injure the vegetables, 

 but themselves become enormous, and give into the 

 bargain their produce in seeds and hemp, which con- 

 stitutes another advantage. — X. Tliiriat. 



