238 MISCELLANY OF NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



[The Vines should not be allowed to spread entirely over the plants to the 

 exclusion of the light, but two feet and a half at least up the centre of each sash 

 should be free ; this being the case, if the Vines be properly managed, as well 

 as the plants, they will succeed satisfactory. The best and finest crop of grapes 

 we ever saw were produced under similar circumstances. The two plants, having 

 a liberal drainage, and a rich light loamy soil, flourish in a stove with the ordi- 

 nary treatment. The Ruellia is liable to be attacked by the red spider. Dip 

 the head of the plant in strong soap suds occasionally it will remedy that 

 pest.] 



To Preserve Wai.l-na.ils krom Rusting. — Heat them quite hot on a fire- 

 shovel (they must not be red-hot), and then drop them into a glazed flower-pot 

 saucer half filled with train-oil. Thus prepared, they never rust, will last for 

 many years, and it is said the effluvium from the oil keeps insects from the trees. 

 The nails should remain some hours in the oil. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



On Budding Roses. — On rose-budding, I repeat, what I wrote and was in- 

 t>erted in a former number, leave a small portion of wood with every bud, or, this 

 dry season especially, the buds will shrivel, without much attention. White 

 worsted is superior to matting for tying up with. The buds succeed far better 

 when so secured. I occasionally have my buds, alter being newly inserted, 

 sprinkled over at the evening with soft water. This done for a week or two, is 

 rendered very beneficial. Rosa. 



On Culture of Verbenas in Pots. — Having duplicates of nearly every new 

 variety of Verbenas, I resolved to grow one plant of each, in pot culture, and the 

 others in the open bed. As early this spring as I could obtain the plants, I 

 potted them into well drained pots of two inches, broken pot, and covered that an 

 inch with chopped turf. The compost was turfy loam, obtained last autumn, 

 and had been laid in heap and well mixed with rotten cow manure, the whole 

 turned over twice during winter. To this was added one-third of old rotten 

 manure, and a good sprinkling of white sand. The leading shoot of each plant 

 was stopped at six inches high, to induce the production of laterals. On pushing, 

 the top one was trained upright, and when it had gut six inches more topped 

 again, and so proceeded with, till now they are two feet high. As the side shoots 

 extended, I stopped them at each six inches, and they are now half a yard in 

 diameter at the bottom, with the interior well filled up, forming fine bushes. All 

 the ends are now clothed with a show for bloom, and no doubt will produce a 

 mass of bloom. I repotted the plants into a size larger about the middle of May. 

 I had the plants placed in a hot-bed frame, and which afforded me a sufficiency 

 of heat, and I had the opportunity easily to give what air was neeessary to pre- 

 vent them being drawn up weakly. In order, too, to have a due circulation of 

 air around the plants, I placed the pot in which the plant was upon an inverted 

 garden-pot, and thus elevated, the plants grow quite uniform. They are free 

 from red spider, and quite vigorous. I syringed the plants over head three or 

 four times a-week. This attention to pot culture, of so lovely a tribe, will repay 

 me most amply, and a splendid show will be furnished to the end of the season. 

 I placed the plants on my greenhouse stage the first week of July. 



Kent, July 21st. Flora. 



New Holland Scenery. — Tie extreme uniformity of the vegetation is the 

 most remarkable feature in the landscape of the greater part of New South 

 Wales. Everywhere we have an open woodland, the ground being partly covered 

 with a very thin pasture, with little appearance of verdure. The trees nearly 

 all belong to one family, and mostly have their leaves placed in a vertical, 

 instead of, as in Europe, in a nearly horizontal position : the foliage is scanty, 

 and of a peculiar pale green tint, without any gloss. Hence the woods appear 

 light and shadowless ; this, although a loss of comfort to the traveller under 

 the scorching rays of the summer, is of importance to the farmer, as it allows 



