186 



THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE 



water. In the " Eose Book " are the 

 fullest directions en propagating in 

 summer and autumn. You may pro- 

 pagate all your good roses by taking 

 cuttings now. For a belt round rhodo- 

 dendrons there is no rose so good as the 

 common China. 

 Climate of Torquay. — " I have a Bottle- 

 brush with thirty trusses of flowers 

 upon it ; a Habrothamnus throwing up 

 shoots from the old root, and Indian 

 shot doing well, all of which were left 

 out the whole of last winter without any 

 protection.— A.B. S." 



Vakious. — S. H. — Black Hamburgh grape 

 vines showing bloom now will pretty 

 well take care of themselves if kept 

 freely watered and well ventilated. You 

 may brush your hand lightly over the 



■ :i blossoms when the pollen is visible to 

 assist in setting the crop, which is very 

 late for plants in pots. "5 our Camellias 

 have wanted water, and take revenge by 

 throwing off their leaves. Cuttings of 

 the young wood of passion flowers will 

 root quickly now in sand under a bell- 



\ glass. — A. B. — Use a solution double 



\ the strength advised for mineralizing 

 tiffany. But the best way to prepare 

 posts before fixing is to char the ends, 

 or dip them into boiling tar. — Farring- 

 don. — The mimosas are among the most 

 elegant of stove evergreens, easy enough 

 to grow where there is sufficient heat, 

 but a plague and a vexation in cool 

 greenhouses, where, if they can begot 

 through the winter safely, they never 

 grow as they ought. Your seedling 

 plants must be separately potted at once 

 into five- inch pots, using for the purpose 

 equal parts mellow loam, and turfy 

 peat, and silver sand, and be placed in a 

 moist heat of at least 8(F to make a 

 good growth this season. During win- 

 ter they must have a temperature never 

 lower than 50'. — Polly. — It is not a 

 common occurrence for Dielytra spec- 

 tabilis to produce seed, yet the seed 

 is not at all a rarity. At page 203 of 

 the second volume of the Floral World 

 is a figure of the seed from a sample sent 

 us in 1859 by P. H. Gosse, Esq. We 

 believe that all the back numbers of the 

 Floral. World are now to be had, 

 many of them having been reprinted. 



It is next to impossible to advise you 

 about the staging, etc., etc., not know- 

 ing whether you are building a lean-to 

 or span. And in all cases it is difficult 

 to advise on such matters, because 

 peoples' fancies influence them as much 

 as considerations of utility, etc., etc. 

 The best place for a Musgrave stove is in 

 the centre of the house with a pipe direct 

 from it to the open air. — A.B. 8 — Your 

 cucumber with leaf growing midway 

 between the blossom and the stalk is 

 certainly a curiosity ; tufts of leaves 

 surrounding the point have frequently 

 been seen. It is no doubt quite possible 

 for a cucumber to throw out leaves its 

 whole length. We had a jargonelle 

 pear last year completely smothered 

 with leaves set in circles round it mid- 

 way between stalk and flower, and the 

 cucumber is an analogous rase, both 

 being true fruits.— C.E.C. T.— Your 

 plant is probably Bupleurum rotundi- 

 folium, but the specimen sent is insuffi- 

 cient for a positive identification. It is 

 a strange thing that so many corres- 

 pondents send scraps of plants that 

 almost require a microscope to deter- 

 mine their relationship to the vegetable 

 kingdom. — 8.E.D. — You shall have the 

 lists desired long before the time arrives 

 for planting. We defer them for the 

 present because of the pressure of other 

 matters that will not keep. Unless the 

 space allotted for grass is very large use 

 turf rather than seed for the sake of 

 immediate effect. — H.N. — We have 

 never seen Kiddle's slow-combustion 

 stove. By referring back you will rind 

 many notes on heating small houses and 

 in due time the subject will be dealt 

 with again. At present summer sub- 

 jects press upon us. — A.B.S. — It is not 

 an insect but a fungus, and a very beau- 

 tiful fungus, too, that infests your ane- 

 mones. We should imagine that the 

 beds want draining; is it so ? — W.C, 

 Tewkesbury. — The berries sent indicate 

 that the roots of the vines are probably 

 in a very rich damp border and making 

 too rank a growth. If so it is also pro- 

 bable that they did not rest completely 

 last winter. Your best course now is 

 to give more air than usual; let a breeze 

 blow through the house. 



