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TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Daddy LonglBgs. — W. G., King's Lynn. — 

 Naturalists say that every animal has its part to 

 perform for the service of man. Gardeners gene- 

 rally look only at one side of natural history, 

 that is, at the manner in which plants are dealt 

 with by animals ; and hence they would agree 

 for tbe extinction of many of the insect tribes, 

 were extinction possible. Who knows but In 

 God's providence the very pests of the garden 

 may serve a good purpose to the gardener, for is 

 not the human character educated by difficulty 

 more than by ease. Be that as it may, Daddy 

 Longlegs is a pest to be dreaded, and, perhaps, 

 never till this present spring were such evidences 

 of its ravaging power made manifest. There are 

 several species of Daddy Longlegs, or Crane 

 Fly, but the most annoying is Tipula olera- 

 cea, the great crane fly of gardens. The little 

 gnats that dance in companies under trees, 

 and make that pretty summer droning, 

 called the "music of the wild," are close re- 

 latives, but they do no harm to vegetation, be- 

 cause their larvae inhabit ponds and ditches ; but 

 the lame of this gnat is a dark fellow, with little 

 stumps for legs, and a tough leather jacket of 

 such impenetrability, that he might be called the 

 insect rhinoceros. These grubs glory in a good 

 turf, which, if left alone, they speedily destroy, 

 by nibbling away the roots. In ihe kitchen-gar- 

 den they feast on the roots of potatoes, scarlet 

 beans, cauliflowers, lettuce, and, in most cases, 

 where a well-doing plant suddenly drops off 

 without any apparent cause, an examination of 

 the root would show that these leather-jackets 

 had there been working for its ruin. The London 

 parks have, this season, been so infested by them 

 — the produce of eggs laid last year — that in 

 many places the grass is almost destroyed, and the 

 Board of Works put to its wit's-end for a remedy. 

 Dr. Lindley called attention to the subject in the 

 Chronicle, and in the number for the 8th of May 

 a column-and-a-half of answers appeared from 

 various correspondents. Amongst these, the 

 most practical remedies proposed are the follow- 

 ing :— Mr. Cuthill says : Roll the grass, at night, 

 with a two ton roller, with a thorn scrubber be- 

 hind, well loaded. They are then feeding, and 

 may be crushed by thousands. Mr. Glegg re- 

 commends a mixture of one ounce of corrosive 

 sublimate, dissolved in half-a-pint of muriatic 

 acid, and then added to 60 gallons of water ; the 

 ground to be well saturated. Another says, use 

 ammonia-water from the gas-works ; and a very 

 practical man avers that the only certaiu method 

 is to employ a regiment of children, armed with 

 tableforks, to set to work at dawn, and the work 

 of the children to be finished by labourers with 

 Parkes's forks. The old remedies are dressings 

 of quicklime, to be laid on the surface at night, 

 and a mixture of lime and gas-water distributed 

 by a watering-pot. Salt has little effect on 

 their tough skins ; simple lime-water will not 

 kill ; the pressure of the foot, even when armed 

 with hob-nails, will not always crush them. In 

 the case of W. G., the havoc among his kitchen 

 crops is owing to having made up the soil with 

 old turf, in which, last autumn, the crane flies 

 had laid abundance of eggs. We have ourselves 

 suffered much this spring from their abundance 

 in a piece of old ground which h as been neglected 

 for years ; every spade of earth brings up a few, 

 and we have trusted to hand-picking, rather than 

 use mixtures which might do more injury than 

 the grubs. 



Balcony in the City.— T. H. wishes to know 

 how to make a city balcony very flowery all the 

 summer at little expense ; it is surrounded by 

 an iron lattice, and might be arched over with 

 twiners, &e. We should advise T. H. to procure 



at once, Cobea scandens, Lophospermum scan- 

 dens, Maurandya Barclayana, and Tropoeolum 

 Canadensis, one plant of each in pots ; or, if the 

 lattice is narrow, one on each side might be 

 enough, and then we should have the two flrst 

 named. To make a gay show on the lower part 

 of the balcony, a box might be planted with a 

 row of Lobelia ramosoides in front, with scarlet 

 geraniums behind. If the size and position of 

 the balcony are such as to require large gera- 

 niums, then Queen, Commander, or Beidii 

 would be best ; if dwarf sorts would be most 

 suitable, nothing better than Tom Thumb. A 

 row of Defiance, or Brilliant de Vaise Verbena 

 for the front, backed with a row of Delphinium 

 formosum, would be very gay and lasting, but 

 the blooms'of the Delphinium would have to be cut 

 away as fast as they got a little shabby to keep 

 the plants throwing up a succession. If the pot- 

 plants were plunged iu soil or moss, it would the 

 better enable them to resist the exhausting heat 

 of the sun in such a position, and the tray or 

 box for the other plants should be six inches 

 deep, with a little chopped moss at the bottom, 

 and filled up with loam and leaf-mould. In dry 

 weather, the whole of the plants should have a 

 fine shower from a syringe early in the morning, 

 and when T. JJ. performs his toilet, let him 

 give the roots the contents of his washiug- 

 basin. In such a position, there will be no fear 

 of their growing too vigorously. 



Propagation op Azaleas, &c. — The Beadle of 

 Margate may propagate Azaleas, Rhododen- 

 drons, and Oleanders with little difficulty if he 

 will proceed as we direct him. When the plants 

 are full of young shoots, about half ripe, slip 

 them off, trim away the lower leaves, and dibble 

 them round the sides of five-inch pots, half 

 filled with peat, and the remainder to within an 

 inch of the top with pure silver sand. They 

 should be kept close in a frame till rooted, and 

 then potted off singly in peat, and afterwards 

 grown in a mixture of peat and loam. Next 

 autumn, the Rhododendrons may be layered by 

 making an incision half through on the under 

 side of the branch selected, and pegging it 

 down firm to the soil, and roots will be emitted 

 from the tongue made by the incision. Azaleas 

 root quickly, if young grass-like shoots, are 

 dibbled thickly into silver sand, with sandy-peat 

 below it for the roots to work into. They do 

 best in a temperature of 56^ to 60*", and must be 

 shaded and covered with bell-glasses till rooted. 

 The Oleander (Nerium) will root in no time if 

 ripe shoots are inserted in phials of water 

 and kept warm, and may then be potted in leaf- 

 mould, peat, loam, and a little cow-dung. 

 Oleanders need plenty of water. Rhododendrons 

 seed freely. How is it that so few take the 

 trouble to raise seedling plants ? 



CuTTisms in Heat, kc.—Passiflora.— Your letter 

 came a few hours before we went to press last 

 month, and if your address had been enclosed, 

 we should have answered you by post, so as to 

 give you the information you desire in time to be 

 useful. There is little need now for amateurs to 

 continue strikingcuttings in heat, for most things 

 will root quickly in the open ground. Dielytras 

 will root in a sandy border if covered with a. 

 bell-glass ; geraniums root best in the full sun, 

 and come quickest and strongest from half-ripe 

 good -sized joints. Verbenas root at the joints if 

 pegged down, and young points, before they set 

 for bloom, soon strike under glasses in a cold 

 frame, which is a good place for cuttings of most 

 other things. Heat may, of course, be used, and 

 the temperature may now be as high a3 90". 

 Cuttings packed close in pots should barely 



