53G THE GARDENER. [Nov. 1879. 



Iloticcs to Cnrrjtsponbcnts. 



All business communications and all Advertisements should be addressed to 

 the Publishers, and communications for insertion in ' The Gardener' to David 

 Thomson, Drumlanrig Gardens, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. It will further 

 oblige if all matter intended for publication, and questions to be replied to, 

 be received by the 14th of the month, and written on one side of the paper 

 only. It is also requested that writers forward their name and address, not for 

 publication unless they wiah it, but for the sake of that mutual confidence 

 which should exist between the Editor and those who address him. We decline 

 noticing any communication which is not accompanied with name and address 

 of writer. 



Messrs Kennedy & Co., Dumfries. — Your Gloxinias are of a magnificent 

 strain, quite equal in colour and substance, with few exceptions, to the best 

 named varieties. The robustness of habit, and the way in which the foliage 

 thoroughly hides the pots, is a great recommendation to them. When grown 

 another year, and they are stronger and larger, they will, of course, be im- 

 proved. 



A Constant Reader. — Not being possessed of the horticultural transactions 

 in which Mr Knight's practice is detailed, we cannot give you the information 

 you ask for. 



C. L. C — 1, Phytolacca decandra ; 2, Tricyrtis hirta. 



Muscat Grapes, Kent. — See that your Vines, having all their roots inside, 

 do not suffer for want of water. Remove the surface-soil down to the roots, 

 and then cover them with 4 inches of fresh turfy loam, mixing with it half 

 a bushel of hone-meal to every cubic yard. In spring lay over this 3 inches 

 of fresh horse or cow droppings, and during summer water with guano at the 

 rate of two ounces to every gallon of water. If, as you seem to suspect, poverty 

 is the cause of your Vines being so weak, this will put some fresh vigour in 

 them. 



David Paton. — Your Seedling Grape very much resembles Buckland's 

 Sweetwater in appearance, but it is much superior in flavour. As you say it 

 is an early variety, it is likely to be a useful Grape. We would advise you to 

 submit it another season to some public test. 



Malcolm Black.— 1, Black Morocco; 2, a Cape Heath, too much withered 

 to name ; 3, Nephrolepis pectinata ; 4, a Ruscus, but cannot say which from 

 specimen sent ; 5, Adiantum trapeziforme ; 6, quite shrivelled up — looks like 

 the point of an Aralia. 



