112 



TUE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



geranium beds of the poorest soil you have, 

 and raised above the surface to make them 

 drier. A mixture of old mortar and brick 

 rubbish would help to correct the richness of 

 the foil for the scarlets, but it will not be too 

 rich for any of the variegated sorts. Placing 

 pots in saucers is not a good plan, except for 

 plants exposed to a hot sun, where the water is 

 soon taken up. 



EocKEKT FOR Tehns. — Bcf. T. W. — Ifyou can 

 get ])lenty of peat, loam, and silrer-sand, you 

 can do very well without leaf-mould. Give the 

 preference to peat with plenty of fibre in it, 

 and use about equal quantities of peat and 

 loam, except for ferns which you know prefer 

 all peat. No animul manure should be used in 

 fern growing, and you need not seek any of the 

 "artificial manures;" they would do more 

 harm than good at the roots of ferns. 



MrsGEAVK's Stovk. — Thorn. — As now made for 

 use in greenhouses, there need not be a par- 

 ticle of dust. The fire-box has a solid bottom, 

 not a grating, and the ashes can be raked out 

 without the least harm to neighbouring plants, 

 as we found in our trial* of it. Tiie top plate 

 never gets so hot as to burn the air, and it is 

 covered with a second plate. The stove you 

 had from Messrs. Musgrave, and which has 

 answered so well for three winters in the 

 dwelling-house, might be used in the green- 

 house by reducing the drauglit, and by damp- 

 ing the ashes before removal. It has open 

 fire-bars ; those now made have a lump. Tom 

 Thumb tropa;olum a foot apart. 



Hotbed of Hops. — S. W. S. — You did not use 

 hops at our advice ; we never recommended 

 them. A vast deal of rubbish called " bedding 

 stuflF" is sold about London from beds made of 

 spent hops, and they make a remarkable mess 

 of the gardens in which they are planted. Your 

 plants, pots, and labels are covered with a 

 fungus generated in the decaying hops. You 

 must give them a good cleaning, then dust with 

 sulphur, and transfer to a warm dung-bed, and 

 give as much air as they can bear. 

 AscLEPiAS TVBEEOSA. — G. B. — This is a hardy 

 species, flowering in August. It likes a mix- 

 tare of peat and loam, and a warm, airy posi- 

 tion. Propagate by division iu May, or by 

 cuttings of young shoots in heat, or by seeds 

 sown in March in a gentle heat. 



Pr,A>'TixG Potatoes in Ashes. — W. JB. — Mr. C. 

 L. AVdsou, of Beckenham, communicated to 

 the Farmers' Journal as follows: — ""When 

 planting potatoes in March last, I ordered my 

 men to plant the four middle rows of a piece iu 

 linely-sifted ashes. 'We have yesterday and to- 

 day "(Sept. 14 and 15) dug up the whole piece 

 of ground, and find the four rows planted iu 

 ashes free from disease, but all the other rows 

 on both sides have about one quarter bad, and 

 evidently on the increase. We ridged the 

 ground, then placed a layer of ashes in the 

 ridge, then the potatoes, next a layer of ashes, 

 ami, lastly, a little nf the mould on the top." 



OBCHAni; lioiSE. — J. A. F. — If vou putty the 

 laps, the trees will not thrive. Your roof is 

 too Hat to carry the drip to the caves. Ferns 

 will do well in the borders when the vines 

 cover the spaces assigned them, but we ques- 

 tion if strawberries will have enough light 

 and air there. To determine that point, 

 notice if the weeds that come up in the border 

 look drawn ; if so, the place is too dark for 

 strawberries, which require plenty of light and 

 air. By standing the strawberry pots on large 

 empty pots inverted, you would bring them 

 neiirer to the light. The back wall of the 

 forcing-house would be better .«is inches higher; 

 these flat roofs do not answer well for early 

 work, as until the end of May they get a 



minimum of sun, and much mischief arises 

 through damp. If increasing the height of the 

 wall is objectionable, take six inches ofl' the 

 front wall, and lower the path for head room. 

 We should prefer a front wall only two feet 

 high, to get the morning rays of the sun on 

 the melon beds, instead of losing them by 

 the intervention of brickwork. Houses are 

 built with such flat roofs in nurseries, though 

 rarely, and then it is for specific purposes that 

 lie quite out of the range of your practice. 

 Your measurements are good. You may follow 

 Mr. Rivers' instructions with perfect safety, 

 but we advise the adoption of the substantial 

 rather than the make-shift method. Munro's 

 cannon boiler will be the .best for you, placed 

 at the end of the house where the forcing-pit 

 is to be. As you are an invalid, you had better 

 employ an experienced person to fix the boiler 

 and pipes. 

 Variovs. — A. B. S. — Your aquatic is Menyanthes 

 trifoliata, the Water-bean, an early and hand, 

 some water plant.— iJ. G., Gretfon.— I, Carda- 

 mine pratensis, abundant in meadows at this 

 season ; 2, Corydalis bulbosa, a British plant, 

 very prc-tiy at this season ; we hear from a 

 friend that he gathered it about the 20th of 

 April, in a meadow in Hertfordshire : 3, Saxi- 

 fraga cra.^sifolia, a Siberian species, flowering 

 unusually well this season ; 4, a miserable spe- 

 cimen of Aubrietia purpurea, a charming plant 

 for rockeries. Though this is sent to us in 

 almost every parcel of plants to name, we 

 wasted a good deal of time to make out the 

 pinched-up bit with which you favoured ua. 

 AVe beg our correspondents to send fair speci- 

 mens, not powdered leaves and the dust of 

 smashed petals. — Breutinr/li/ Cotiagc. — Saxi- 

 fraga cordifolia. — .S'. ,S. ,S'. — The full-grown 

 leaves of sea-kale make a most capital vegetable, 

 riOt only equal, but better, because more fully- 

 flavoured, than the same vegetable in a blanched 

 state. The myrtle-leaved orange is a distinct 

 species (and not the Seville orange), and can 

 therefore be produced true from seed. It is a 

 very desirable plant even for a small collection, 

 because it flowers and fruits abundantly. It 

 will, doubtless, be brought sooner into a bear- 

 ing state, if a bud from a fruit-bearing plant 

 be inserted into the seedling plants, August is 

 the best month for budding oranges. Pans with 

 holes wiU be most suitable for the ferns, because 

 the drainage is thorough, if properly done. 

 The arrangement may be such, in every par- 

 ticular, as recommended to " G. S." in a former 

 number. Subjoined is a list of suitable kinds ; — 

 Polypodium cambricum, Pteris serrulata, Adi- 

 antum cuneatum, A. hispididum, A. capillus 

 veneris, A. ainnis, A. reniforme, Polystichium 

 lobatum, Doodia aspera, D. caudata, Asple- 

 nium adiantum nigrum, A. lanceolatum, A. 

 alternifolium, A. ruta-muraria, Lomaria antarc- 

 ticum ; and if the surface is much raised, two 

 or three of the species of Uiphobolus will suc- 

 ceed perfectly. But the various species of 

 Lycopodium "are. after all, really the most 

 satisfactory and pleasing things to grow under 

 glasses of such description, and all of them 

 enjoy such treatment. — A. B. — Cover the roof 

 with sail-cloth or tarpaulin, and coat it with a 

 hot mixture of tar two parts, pitch one part, 

 and it will be water-tight for the remainder of 

 vour life-time. Y'our plant is Cotoneaster mi- 

 'crophvlla,amostbeautitidberry-bearingshrub. 

 The transplanting of quicks in nurseries is to 

 promote the growth of flbrous roots. They 

 are generallv planted on the same ground 

 again : the virtue of the act is in the lifting, 

 not the change of soil, though there is some- 

 times a sprinkle of manure put along the 

 trenches. 



