Jul; 3, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



truth then seems to bo, that amateurs, by ordinary attention 

 to well-known rules, ought to manage small as well as large 

 orchard-houses, without much difference in trouble. 



Peaches on tho open wall can this year be counted without 

 any difficulty, but in all tho orchard-houses I have seen there 

 is a good crop. This is a fact worth many words. — T. C. 

 Bb£haut, Richmond Llousc, Cucrwcy. 



COUNTRY SCRAPS— No. 1. 



It was in the little village of Boxted, Essex, that I first found 

 a fungus which I have never since met with. It was a damp 

 day in autumn that I was wending my way through a short 

 lane which ran near our own quiet church — certainly posses- 

 sing various characteristics of architecture, but neat and cleanly 

 within ; and I was pondering upon the still resting-place of 

 my young mother, who with her baby boy lay in that small 

 portion of ground known as " God's acre," awaiting the sum- 

 mons of the Master of the flowers there cut down and withered, 

 to awake to renewed life under the resuscitating beams of the 

 Sun of Righteousness. Thinking, too, I was of the glory and 

 happiness of those two souls who walked in holy communion 

 through those fields of light and love above ; and from the 

 contemplation of this heavenly region I came back to the reali- 

 sation of the fact that I must put aside my day dreams, and 

 olose my eyes to the magic mirror that was in the soul within 

 me and grapple again with the world, all motherless as I was; 

 and it is a hard world for a woman to fight her way in, and 

 sometimes the case is even harder where 



° Men must work, but women must weep.** 



To sit still and weep is destructive to mind aud body : there- 

 fore if it be but to sweep the house, rather work ; it will keep 

 the brain from wearing itself out before the body, which is the 

 most pitiable case in nature. But, as I was saying, I gave up 

 useless regrets, and being but a maiden in my teens, I was 

 not very likely to let " grief prey on my damask cheeks." No, 

 I rather held the motto that care killed a cat, and so betook 

 myself to the amusement of seeking in the dripping bank close 

 by for what I was always expecting and hoping to find — some- 

 thing unknown to the botanical world. What a grand day this 

 would have been for me to come upon the " philosopher's 

 stone." Had I been a man I should have attached myself to 

 some exploring expedition ; but Nature not favouring me in 

 this line, I more humbly enjoy my own quiet depredations in 

 our own English hedgerows. That day, however, I did find 

 something, and something which a subsequent letter from 

 Professor Henslow led me to believe was not so very common. 

 How my young heart bounded for joy when he requested that 

 " the young lady would kindly procure more specimens if any 

 were to be found, and send them to him packed carefully in a 

 box, as the Curator of the Ipswich Museum only possessed 

 two of these fungi, and possibly another year they might alto- 

 gether disappear from the spot where they were gathered." 

 He described the specimens as those of the Starry Puff-ball. 

 The part which contained the " puff," as we children called it, 

 he, I remember, designated as " the furnace." Of course my 

 hat was soon donned, and off I went with a small basket. I 

 found a few more plants in the same locality, but no more in 

 that lane, although I searched both sides of it. This fungus 

 is entirely concealed by the vegetation around, and therefore, 

 perhaps, is it found so rarely. Finding its haunt was amongst 

 rotten sticks and decayed leaves, I thought I would search a 

 bank beneath a large Hawthorn tree which stood near our 

 house, and which answered that description, and there, to my 

 infinite delight, I found quite a nest of my treasures. My 

 basket was soon filled. Perhaps I sent the Professor a dozen 

 and half of these fungi, keeping also some for ourselves. I 

 remember the peculiar appearance of these strange plants very 

 well : some of them had five and some four segments, like legs 

 descending from " the furnace," and meeting five or four (as 

 the case might be), other divisions ascending from the earthy- 

 looking foundation from which they rose. We kept some of 

 the specimens in a china saucer upon the cLi£foci';re in the 

 drawing-room, and they awoke the curiosity of all who saw 

 them, whether botanists or not. I dare say the Curator of the 

 Ipswich Museum no longer complains of a paucity of speci- 

 mens. 



I have somewhere read that there is a peculiar narcotic pro- 

 perty in the fumes of the common Puff-ball when burnt, and 

 that it has been used on this account to take the honey from 

 hives without destroying the bees ; but whethor it is still so 



used I am unablo to say. I havo seen farmers stooping to 

 secure some of the powder from theso fungi, using it as a 

 styptic to prevent the bleeding from a recent cut ; and I knew 

 a country gentleman who always kept a small stock in reserre 

 in the neighbourhood of his shaving chattels, to resort to in 

 that unlucky moment which comes alike to the strongest and 

 weakest-minded of our " lords," when putting that last dainty 

 touch in the matutinal beautifications which would havo been 

 "all well had it ended well," as old Shakspearo hath it, but 

 which, on the contrary, was productive of the keenest cut o£ 

 all — a cut which wounded physiognomy and vanity at the same 

 time. Maternal Nature, however, comes to the aid of all her 

 suffering children ; and from the simple bosom of the earth 

 we may on all sides possess ourselves of the necessary curatives 

 if we only know where to seek them, and will not, as wo so 

 often do, " despise the day of small things." The humbla 

 cottager frequently knows more of the uses of the plants and 

 herbs around her than we who consider ourselves the more 

 enlightened portion of the community over dream of. They 

 may be called old wives' nostrums, but after all there is often 

 a medical virtue which would warrant further research. In 

 the wilder parts of Yorkshire tho gude dame seems often in 

 requisition with her homely medicaments, and marvellous tales 

 are told in the peculiar northern dialect of miraculous cures 

 thereby effected. The narratives, however, lose so much o£ 

 their pith from the recapitulation in our southern tongue, that 

 I will not pretend to detail them. 



Speaking of Yorkshire, although my visit there has been too 

 late in the season to aid me in making any fresh additions, to 

 my hortus siccus, still from friends living m the county I haya 

 gathered details of several plants which are, perhaps, rather 

 local, but which abound in some parts of that rich botanical 

 shire. The Narcissus biflorus, Pale Narcissus, is mentioned 

 by Henry Baines, Sub-Curator to the Y'orkshire Philosophical 

 Society (1810), as being found "in a field in which is a stona 

 quarry, on the left of the high road to Aske from Richmond ; 

 at Thornborough, near Thirsk ; near Rotherham ; near Hornsey 

 church ; near Ripon ; in meadows at Sowerby and Warley, 

 near Halifax." Certain it is that in a meadow a short distance 

 from York there are bulbs of this uncommon plant. In the 

 spring it throws up its pale and delicate flowers. My brother's 

 gardener was upon the point of removing the plants to his 

 newly laid out garden ; fortunately, to prevent this desecration, 

 the Rev. botanist appeared upon the spot, and forbade the 

 unhallowed act. My brother had his doubts whether the bulbs 

 might not have been thrown out with manure from soma 

 garden ; but upon consideration he withdrew this idea, as the 

 fields had for a long time been used only as pasture for cattle, 

 and there was no garden in their immediate vicinity. 



Another plant which is not very common in the south of 

 England, although it has been found in Norfolk and Suffolk, 

 is the Giant Bellflower, Campanula latifolia. In Yorkshire it 

 finds many habitats. Some very fine specimens are to ba 

 found in a ditch in Clifton " ings." These " ings " are mea- 

 dows lying close to the river which runs through the old city, 

 and forms such a picturesque scene when viewed from one of 

 the bridges which span it. Tho Campanula latifolia is also 

 found near Fulford church, at Roche Abbey, and in many 

 other parts of this county. A crop which is quite unfamiliar 

 to my southern eye, and which was just beginning to cover 

 some fields, in which it wan pointed out to me, was that of 

 numerous healthy-looking Teazels. The appearance which 

 they present is that of a field of young Thistles. Of course 

 their well-doing is a matter of anxiety in the large cloth-making 

 districts in the north. — A Surgeon's Wife. 



DUTY-FREE TOBACCO FOR GARDEN 

 PURPOSES. 



The " Richmond Cavendish Company," to enable them to 

 prepare a cheap composition for fumigation and other garden 

 purposes, have applied to the trade and others interested in 

 horticulture to sign petitions to the Lords of the Treasury and 

 Commissioners of Customs, asking that Tobacco may be duty 

 free for such purposes. Such remission of duty would, of 

 course, promote the trade of the Company, but it would also be 

 advantageous to the gardening community, therefore we re- 

 commend the petitions to the support of our readers. The 

 following is a copy : — 

 " To the Lords of the Treasury. 



" We, the seedsmen, florists, nurserymen, market gardeners, 



