66 WINTER PROTECTION OP PLANTS. 



out of the pot into some good soil for a few months early in the season. 

 With one in particular he had been highly successful : when it showed 

 blooming stems he took it up and put it in a large pot ; it produced 

 eleven fine spikes of flowers, and a more splendid plant could not be 

 desired. 



WINTER PROTECTION OF PLANTS. 



BTP. 



The enthusiastic amateur will probably find a difficulty in stowing 

 away the numerous plants which have been raised from seeds or cut- 

 tings since the spring, and 1 will therefore describe to him some cheap 

 and efficient pits, which I observed in a country nursery a few weeks 

 a^o. The walls are built of peat turf nicely cut from a common, much 

 in the same manner as those which are used for burning, but of course 

 considerably larger. In building, the walls should be made to slope 

 outwards a little, and should be well filled in behind with solid earth ; 

 the inside can then be cut neatly with a sliarp instrument, and a most 

 excellent wall will thus be formed. If any of the readers of the 

 Cabinet have ever visited the Military College at Sandhurst, they will 

 have observed the same thing done on a large scale, in the formation 

 of the various batteries for exercising the students. After the walls 

 have been built, all that is necessary is, to drive down some strong 

 wooden posts along the back and front, on which the sill and rafters 

 rest, as well as upon the turf wall. If at any time the turf sinks, these 

 support the sill and the rafters, and by pushing in a little turf below 

 the former, the vacancy will be filled up. Such pits will last for many 

 years, and, when covered with good sashes, are dry, and much warmer 

 than even those which are built of brick and mortar ; and, the ground 

 at the back and front being nearly level with the glass, the whole are 

 very easily covered with dry straw or litter, when such protection is 

 required in winter. The amateur who lives on the confines of a heath 

 country will therefore see, that he has the means of erecting, at a 

 trifling expense, a place in which he will be enabled to keep such 

 things as Pentstemons, Calceolarias, Verbenas, and even, in mild 

 winters. Pelargoniums, for turning out into the flower-beds in summer. 

 "Where litter would be objectionable, a small hot-water apparatus could 

 be introduced, having a two-inch pipe carried along tlie front, and 

 returned again into the boiler. Of course this would add considerably 

 to the expense ; but then all kinds of greenhouse plants could be kept 

 in the greatest safety. 



TO DESTROY THE WIRE-WORM. 



BY A. Z. 



In a recent Number a correspondent desired to know the most efficient 

 means of getting rid of wire-worms, and stated that he read somewhere 

 that the sowing of Mustard-seed effected the object completely. The 

 Article to which he alludes is, probably, to be found in " Loudon's 



