248 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ April 8, 1869. 



coal or wood, Ro as not to exclude air. The soil or compost should be 

 kept moist. The temperature shuuld be from 45° to 50" in winter, and 

 from 60^' to SO"^ in summer. Place the plant near the ^lass. The San-a- 

 ceniaB succeed in a greenhouse, but sliould have the coolest jiart, and 

 they should have the closest and moistest position — indeed they are 

 best grown in a cold frame in summer. They are best frrown in pans 

 or shallow pots half filled with crocks for drainage, and the remainder 

 a compost of one-half fibrous peat, one-fourth chopped sphagnum, and 

 one-fourth chnrconl in i)ieces not larger than a liazel nut, small crocks, 

 and silver sand, the whole well mixed. Surface the soil in the pots with 

 a little fresh sphagnum, though that is not material. The plants should 

 be lightly sprinkled overhead twice a-day in summer, admitting air in 

 moderate quantity, but not so as to dry the foliage too quickly, and give 

 it early in the morning. Khade for a few hours during the hottest part 

 of the day. They merely require protection from frost. Keep them very 

 moist when glowing, but when at rest it will bo enough to keep the 

 compost moist, and a drier atmosphere should at that time be maintained. 



Removing Shrubs (IF. S. /.',).— A temmt of a girden, if not a nursery- 

 man, cannot legally remove shrubs he has planted in its soil. 



Hepaticas (S. L. TJayns!]. — They are not mauve-oolonred, and we 

 should call them light purplish blue. 



Plants on Rockwork not Scccekding near Hot-water Pipes 

 {Wore ester). —The evaporation-troughs placed over the pipes as proposed 

 would not render the rockwork near them more suitable for the growth 

 of either Ferns or Mosses, and the water would not be suitable for the 

 Nepenthes or Pitcher-plants, for they are not aquatic, and it would not 

 be suitable for water plants. The house being kept at greenhouse tem- 

 perature would not be benefited by placing evaporation-troughs on the 

 pipes, for they are of little value 'in houses h.iving no artificial heat 

 except in cold damp weather and periods of severe frost, when the 

 moiBture evaporated from the troughs on the pipes would be more in- 

 jurious than beneficial. The slabs of wood placed on the floor and lean- 

 ing against the rockwork, and covered with Platycerium (Acrostichum) 

 alcicorne, would do tolerably well, as wo have proved in a similar 

 position, but the plants must be well supplied with water daily when the 

 pipes are hot. Could not the pipes be placed at a gi*eater distance from 

 the rockwork? There is no aquatic Fern. Pitcher-plrtnts succeed in a 

 house having a winter minimum temperature of 60", and the New Holland 

 Pitcher-plant (Cephalotus follicularis), may be grown well in a warm 

 greenhouse or vinery. 



Culture of Drac^inas and Crotons (Dracana).— The former are 

 the hardiest, and most of them will succeed in a warm greenhonse— that 

 is, in one the temperature of which is fjQ- at night, or occasionally 45" in 

 very frosty periods; but the plants ought to have fao more water than 

 enough to keep the foliage from flagging. The only secret for having the 

 foliage well coloured is to afford the plants a light nosition, placing them 

 as near the glas;; as practicable. Give them a moderate amount of air, 

 with a moist brisk heat, avuiding wetting the foliage, or rather do not 



allow the sun's rays to fall powerfully upon the leaves whilst wet, as they 

 are then apt to spot and brown. The Crotons will also succeed, bnt they 

 must have the warmest position, and they should not be exposed to 

 strong light, nor have too much room. They should have a moist 

 atmosphere when making new growths, and a plentiful supnly of water. 

 The Bummer temperature should be from 60= to 65' at night, and from 

 70- to 75' by day without sun, and from 80" to 85- or 90- with sua and air. 

 Cheap Warming (Parson). — Where such worn-out wrought-irou noiszles 

 to blast furnaces can be obtained and used as boilers, of course no other 

 boilers can enter into competition with them as respects cheapness, and 

 therefore the hint, as you say, is a gool one as respects our artisan 

 classes, or other classes, too, who make economy an object. The boilor 

 thus formed must cost almost nothing, when 2 feet as a flow and 2 feet 

 as a return can he fixed to this nozzled boiler, and all cost 43. Gd. We 

 admire the simplicity of fiiing the boiler, but any other boiler could be 

 fixed in a similar way. 



Fruit Trees Dying (A Comtant Subscriber).— The laterals enclosed 

 were quite dead, and for such as these there can be no recovery. If the 

 trees break farther back there may still be hope; if not, there will be 

 little hope; but we have had Peach-tree twigs as much dead as yours, 

 and still the trees came round and produced new shoots. We have a tree 

 in a pot that looks very much like yours as respects the young shoots, 

 but strong waters injm-ed the roots. As vou seem to have so little 

 growth, we would hint that probably the want of water, or improper 

 water, last season might be the cause ; or have you been using Gisburst 

 or some other composition too strong, and thus killed the young shoots ? 



Growing Seedling Pelargoniums (Le Vcmi d'Or).~We have often 

 flowered Pelargoniums the first year, and there is very little difficulty in 

 doing this if the plants have proper treatment. The only thing to be 

 done is to grow them as rapidly as possible as soon as the plants are 

 large enough to handle, and their tops should not be pinched out. They 

 must also be kept as near the glass as possible. As soon as the plants 

 are a foot high water should be given sparingly, in order to check the 

 growth of the plant and to ripen its wood. If the seeds were sown in 

 autumn or in the first week of January, and the plants have been pro- 

 perly treated, they will by the end of May have attained the height given 

 above. They should now be placed out in the sun. and be watered 

 regularly, v.-hen they will soon show signs of flowering. A Cucumber 

 frame is not by any means a good place to keep them in ; a greenhouse, 

 stove, or vinery is very much better during their growing season. A 

 temperature of 60"^ to 70^ is more suitable to cause a qnick growth: 

 They would be sure to damp off in sued a low temperature as thatyoa 

 name. The leaves you sent are neat, but not novel ; we have many like 

 them. 



Verbena Cuttings.— We have inquired relative to the not sending 

 cuttings for postage stamps enclosed. The head of the firm states that 

 the demand exceeded the supply, and that the postage stamps will be 

 returned. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Suburbs of London for the week ending April (itli. 



POFLTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



EAST INDIAN WILD BREEDS OF POULTRY. 



[Contlnucdfrom parje 232.1 

 The brown-legged variety of Gallus ferrugineuswas probably 

 once found wild ia all the countries round India, in the then 

 wooded tablelands of the districts north of the Peninsula, 

 where snow or frost is nearly unknown in the winter, and they 

 gradually disappeared as the wooded districts were as gradually 

 cleared by the increase, spread, and industry of the human 

 race ; and their descendants retained by the inhabitants have 

 been bred to a larger size and a greater variety of colour in a 

 state of domestication in these countries. The original type 

 is, therefore, now only to be found in the wooded parts of 

 India and its islands, but here they are yellow-skinned and 

 yellow and willow-legged ; whereas in their northern habitats, 

 (which might have extended as far to the north as Asia Minor 

 is, the wild Pheasant, a bird not hardier than the Gallus ferru- 

 gineus is, was once found there), they were probably all of the 

 brown-legged and white-skinned variety. In Persia they may 

 have been once known, from which country, or the borders of 

 it, history teUs us that our Saxon ancestors, then called the 

 " Sassi," migrated to Germany. It is clear, however, that our 

 common farmyard fowls did not originate from the yellow- 

 skinned wild birds, but from white-skinned originals, which 

 seem to have been the more northern variety of the two. 



The species that some term the Gallus ferruginena major is 

 thus mentioned by some naturalists, and, I think, by Sir Wm. 

 Jardine also, as follows : — " There is another rather larger 

 species of the .Jungle fowl strongly resembling the species just 

 described, and, in fact, identical with them, but yet snliiciently 

 distinct for the difference to be noticed. These have yellow 

 legs, bills, and feet, and often small, thick, or thickish combs, 

 and are rather larger and stouter in limb than the more com- 

 mon wild type, which has the darker legs and bill, and is 

 always single-combed with dusky greenish legs and feet." There 

 is no very great difference in size between them, but the 

 yellow-legged species is rather the heavier and larger of the 

 two almost invariably, and appears to have been more the 

 original type of the common Indian breeds in domestication, 

 and capable of producing larger breeds of the domesticated 

 sorts than the more common and smaller species, being the 

 probable original of all the larger yellow-legged breeds so com- 

 mon in India, as their yellow legs could never have been pro- 

 duced by any amount of domestication from the smaller dark- 

 legged breed ; but our white-legged and blackish-legged com- 

 mon fowls in England, no doubt, first came from the brown- 

 legged wild birds, which have legs much the colour of oiur 

 Pheasants and English Partridges. The yellow and willow- 

 legged yellow-skinned breeds are, undoubtedly, of pure East 

 Indian origin, while all the other colours of legs with white 

 skins come from the brown-legged white-skinned wild Gallinsp, 

 found once to the north of India. 



