November 14, 1867. } 



JOURNAL OF HOUTIOULTUaB AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



373 



Star Pikks.— " A Star Pink, I can inform you, is a flower ronnd as * 

 die, 110 eerratud edges, "Rose-loafed." no lacini? to tbo petals, all th® 

 colour bf inR iu the centre of the flower. A Stiir Pink is an elegant flower, 

 several of them Iming either lilac or purple ; but the most prized are pure 

 snow white without a single speck. Formerly there was a separate class 

 for Star Pinks.— F. Davies, Pcrahore. 



DRViNt; AND pRKSEUviNfi Lkaves (An Tnquirrr). — Spread them flat be- 

 tween sheets of blotting paper. Press them with a laundress's hot flat- 

 iron until dry. Fasten to a sheet of cartridge paper by a stitch across 

 tho stalk, and keep in a dry place. 



Ivv {F. IT.).— Ivy will preserve rather than injure the church wall 

 against which it clings, Flowers ought not to be grown ou a Vine border 



Heating two Houses from One Fire (O. P. 'i'.)— Your plant is right-' 

 named. Wo think to boat two houses, independently of each other, from 

 one Are and boiler, it will bo best to have the furnace iu the centre instead 

 of at ouo end. Tho flow pipes right and left may then be furnished with 

 valves, or the flow pipe may go at once into a eintern, and from thence 

 bo taken right and left to the two houses. Valves or plugs will shut ofl", 

 let on, or regulate at pleasure. Wo quite approve of using a flue in tho 

 other case, so as to secure all or as much heat as you can from the fuel. 

 There is no hot-water apparatus that can he made to absorb all the beat 

 from tho fuel consumed. Uoucethemore furnaces with boilers tho moro 

 tho loss of heat. 



Heating a Vinery (J. ilf., Dar(moor).— By telling ns that the tank re- 

 ferred to, page ai9, is in reality the boiler, we see daylight in what seemed 

 to us very strange. Wo are not surprised that you have so little heat. 

 You say you can adopt our suggestion of lessening tho water capacity of 

 tho end tanks. Vuucan just as easily do so in your large pipes by merely 

 having them half full. This you may not be able to do with your tank 

 boiler; but you will easily manage it with a middle-si/.od saddle boiler 

 sank several feet below the level of tho pipes. Of course you can only 

 koop tho water on this level in the pipes if the pipes are themselves level. 

 If not, very likely it would be better to have a fresh arrangement of pipes ; 

 but if the deep ones are good they can be made to answer. 



Heatinc, a Pit (A. B.).— The obtainin^r heat in a pit filled nearly to 

 thfl glass with soil, from a greenhouse heated by a flue, by merely making 

 a hole in the party wall between them, will gi'eatly depend on the posi- 

 tion of the floe as respects tho pit. If the flue is lower than the atmo- 

 sphere of the pit to be heated, and if an opening, say 2 feet by 18 inches, 

 were made in the end of the pit, the atmosphere of the small pit would be 

 nearly of tho same temperature as that in the house at a similar height 

 from the flue. Your filling the pit with earth would be against its heat- 

 ing, unless there was a space all round to lot the heat up and there was 

 a cliamber beneath for the heat from the flue to pass through, and this 

 would be best done if the flue were near, by shutting in that part of the 

 flao opposite the pit, and thus causiug the heat to pass through the 

 chamber instead of at once rising into the atmosphere of the house. If 

 your flue goes near the end against which the pit abuts, the most efi"ec- 

 taal plan would bo to take a turn of the flue through the pit. We once 

 did this very simply in a similar case, where the floor uf the pit was 

 6 inches lower than the top of tho flue — two holes were made in the 

 flue to let in six-inch earthen pipes, and these were carried round the 

 littlo pit. A damper, placed in the main flue, regulated the heat to these 

 earthen pipes, and when little heat was wanted iu them the damper was 

 taken out and the flow of the flue went on as before. Tho pipes were 

 joined with mortar, which did well enough, as they were a good way from 

 the furnace. 



Stove for a Conservatory {Stove, D. D.). — Any stove, either of iron 

 or brick, will do to keep frost out of a conservatory, provided it is 

 largo enough for tho purpose. A lean-to house 50 feet long, 10 feet 

 wide, 6 feet high in front, and 11 feet high at back, with a good wall 

 there, we should consider safe from the frost if it had an iron stove 

 21 inches square, and from 30 to 36 inches iu height. To insure safety and 

 success the ttrebos, say 14 iuches scjuare, should be secured in the centre ; 

 a horizontal pipe, 4 inches in diameter, fixed 6 inches from the top, 

 should not be longer than 2 feet ; and an upright pipe from that should 

 go out of tho house. Before cleaning out, the ashes, &c., should be 

 sprinkled with a littlo water. Wo like brick stoves best, as they keep 

 heat longer; but then you cannot well remove them in summer. Such a 

 stove might go under a stage and remain, or if in a prominent place have 

 ft vase Bet on it in summer. See last week's number for many hints. 

 Of course smaller stoves will do for less places ; but much of the evil of 

 stoves has come from their smallness. 



Treatment of Border inside a Vinery (Tulip). — If, as you say, 

 yom- wood of the Vines is very well ripened now, we would remove from 

 the surface all the manure you have given, and dress with half a dozen 

 bushels of crushed bones and some lime rubbish, and cover tho outside 

 borders with dry litter, rather to keep heat iu than to send it in, and then 

 wo would water only when dry. It strikes us you had overdone the dress- 

 ing and rich watering. A thin rich mulching in summer, not to keep out 

 tho sun heat, would be better than so much drenehing. When you start, 

 commence with -45^ to 50 , instead of 55^ to 60\ 



Grape^ (J. Bruan),— No. 1 is true Trentham Black, and tho variety you 

 have for Black Muscat is Black MouukUa, which this year appears to 

 have set more seeds than it usually does. It is evident that the word 

 Mouukka has been read Muscat. It is a diflicult thing to advise you 

 what to do with your Alicante. Wo cannot counsel you " to grub a young 

 healthy Bowood Muscat" to make room for it unless you are overdone 

 with iiuscats ; neither can wo recommend you to graft the Alicante 

 either on the Muscat or Lady Downe's after the singular results that have 

 followed experiments of the kind, and the influence that various stocks 

 exert on difl'erent varieties. It is just possible that iu either case you 

 might sacritice both your Bowood Muscat and Lady Downe's, and not 

 succeed in obtainiug good Alicantes. If any of our readers have had 

 any experience of worlung the Alicante on either the Muscat or Lady 

 Downe's, we should be glad if they will communicate it. (S. C).— From 

 your description we conclude the Grape given to you as tho " Muscatell" 

 is the Muscat of Alexandria. 



Apricot Blossoms kot Setting {A. J. B.).— W'o should think that the 

 non-setting of the blossom arises from the roots having penetrated into 

 a hard unstirred bottom, which is not sufficiently moist in autumn and 

 winter. Tho treo being yomig, we would take out all round a trench 

 ftbout 'a yard from the stem, and with a fork remove all the loose soil 

 about the roots. Wewould then liltltho tree carefully, preserving as mnny 



' of tho roots as posfliblo. The roots should be protected from the atmo- 

 sphere by some mats thrown over them. Immediately after takmg up 

 tho treo trench the ground 3 feet deep for a space suflleient to plant the 

 tree again, working in a liberal addition of turf from a pasture whore the 

 soil is a good sandy loam. This done, tho tree may be placed upon the 

 trenched grountl. and no higher than the old level, and the roots bomg 

 spread out. they should be covered with 6 inches of the chopped turf and 

 the old soil of the border in equal parts. A good watering may then be 

 given, and the ground should be mulched with 3 inches of short hUery 

 manure a little further than tho roots extend. The remamder of the 

 border mav afterwards be trenched- that is, that part of the border in 

 front of tile wall or space allotted to the Apricot. This, wo think, wiU 

 insure fruit. If tho tree is old we advise the soil to be removed down to 

 the roots, and laid in ridges ijarallel with tho wall, and holes about "2 feet 

 deep being made along them at everv foot distance with a crowbar, nil 

 the trenches with water, and when the water subsides refill with water 

 twice. When the water has sunk in, level the ridges, and give a top dress- 

 ing of 3 inches of manure. 



Peach Trees Casting their Fbuit (C. B.).— Wo shonld attribute the 

 fulling of the fruit before it is ripe to the want of sufficient moisture 

 in the soil ; they have pushed their roots into a hard subsoil rarely il 

 ever made moist bv surface waterings. Wo would advise you to lift the 

 trees now, and to replant after properly trenching and preparing tho soU 

 lis recommended in the previous answer. The only difference as to the 

 method of lifting consists in your using soil or turf from a pasture where 

 the suil is a strong loam, which Poaches require. Serve tho Nectarine 

 tree in the same way. 



Frcit Trees for a South-east Aspect (Tn^uirer).— Your south-east 

 aspect-wall, 30 feet long and 8 feet high, will be best covered with 1 May 

 Duke Cherry ; 1 Jefferson, and 1 Coo's Golden Drop Plum ; 1 Hemskerk, 

 and 1 Moorpark Apricot. This, we think, will be a better arrangement than 

 a Cherry Plum, Peach, and Nectarine ; bat to meet your wishes you may 

 plant 1 May Duke Cherry, 1 Jefi'erson Plum, 1 Grosso Mignonno Peach, 

 1 Elrugo Nectarine, and 1 Hemskerk Apricot. Your south aspect wiU 

 answer for what you name— 1 Noblesse Peach, 1 Violette Hative Nec- 

 tarine, and 1 Moorpark Apricot ; but if you take our advice m the case ol 

 the south-east aspect, vour south wall will best be planted with 1 Elruge 

 Nectarine, 1 Grosse Mignonne Peach, and 1 Eariy York Peach. AU 

 should be dwarf-trained trees, having short stems of from 6 to 9 jncjea 

 from tho ground to tho first or lowest branches. Trees with higher 

 stems than these will not suit you. 



STOPPiNfi Seedling Pelargoniums (S. J>/.).— Your seedling Pelar- 

 goniums with straight stems ought to have been stopped when they had 

 made three jointri, the points being then taken out with a knife, ioa 

 may now take out the points of the shoots, which will conduce to their 

 flowering earlier than if stopping were deferred until spring. 



Tenant Removing Trees { Suburban).^ Yon cannot remove any 

 pyramid trees and R.jses you have planted ; but you may remove those 

 that are planted in pots or tubs, whether sunk or not m tho ground. 

 {J. K.).— If the garden has been used by the tenant as a nurseryman he 

 can legally remove trees, shrubs, &c. If he is not a nurseryman ho has 

 no right to remove them. 



Stringing Chrysanthemums (SuhuThan).— The Chrysanthemums now 

 in the greenhouse ought not to bo syringed. They should be kept cool, well 

 watered, and have abundant ventilation. 



Leaving Hyacinths, Tulips, ani> Gladioli in the Ground (F. Payn- 

 ^(■r).— You may leave Hyacinths, Tulips, and Gladioli undisturbed m your 

 gravelly soil Nothing is gained by removing them every year after they 

 have flowered, except in getting the ground clear, and much is often lost 

 by removing them too late or too soon, and keeping them out of the 

 ground too long, and so weakening the bulbs. They will do much better 

 left in the ground, taking them up every two or three years for the pur- 

 pose of removing ofl"sets, and replanting the bulbs immediately the 

 groimd has been dug and enriched. \ou must uot plant the bulbs deeply 

 to accommodate the bedding plants, but you may so arrange the former 

 that you can place the bedding plants between them, and thus leave the 

 bulbs to mature. 



PoLYPODiuM vulgare Infested WITH TiTRiPS (R. S. S.I.— Thc fronds 

 were severely attacked bv thrips. Your remedy is to fill the house with 

 tobacco smoke upon a calm evening, taking care to have the fronds dry. 

 It should be so filled with smoke that not a plant can be seen from the 

 outside. The fumigation ought to be repeated tho next night but one. 

 A good syringing should be given on the following day. It wUl be neces- 

 sary to fumigate again in about a week, and for a time until the insect 

 be subdued. It usually attacks plants that are kept in too dry and warm 

 an atmosphere. The floors and every available surface should bo 

 sprinkled with water twice daily, and the fronds also during hot weather 

 iu summer. In a cool house where there is no fire heat this will not be 

 necessary iu winter. The remedy is to fill the house with tobacco smoke 

 whenever the insect is seen, or the leaves exhibit the first signs of its 

 presence. 



Fern Infested with Thrips (E. M.L.).—Tho Fern frond was severely 

 attacked— indeed, destroyed by thrips. The atmot^phero is much too 

 drv. and, we think, too warm as well. Keep the air moister, but do 

 no"t syringe over the foliage at this season. It wUl be sufficient if the 

 floors, walls, &c., be sprinkled morning and evening with water at tho 

 same temperature as the air of the house. To clear off the thrips yon 

 should Ughtly sponge both sides of the fronds with a solution of 

 2 ozs. of soft soap to a gallon of water, the sponge being well squeezed 

 before it is drawn over the surface of the fronds, otherwise the soap 

 solution squeezing out iu the process of washing wnll run down to the 

 crown and destroy the vouug fronds. Vi ash them well twice with the 

 soapy water, and before "they dry wash them with soft water, not squeez- 

 ing the sponge. This repeated a few limes will clear ofl^ the pest ; but il 

 other Ferns with divided fronds are infested, and it is impossible to wash 

 them the house should bo filled with tobacco smoke on two consecutive 

 eveniugg, taking care to have the fronds dry. It will be necessary to 

 repeat the fumigation in a week. The house should be made quite full 

 of smoke; but do not fumigate too much, otherwise the young fronds of 

 Adiantums and similar delicate Ferns will be browned. 



Worms in Pots (/dem).— Yon must cork up the holes in the pots, or 

 stop them with clay, and then w.iter with lime water untU this stands on 

 tho surface. It will bring the worms to the top or destroy them. II 

 done in the m Jrning tho corks or clay should be removed in the evening, 



