MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 45 



four to six feet high, and have formed handsome heads; they bloom mos 

 profusely in Summer, and their graceful hanging racemes of blossoms pro- 

 duce a most pleasing effect. I recommend the admission of a few plants into 

 every suitable situation. I planted one against the Vicarage house, and 

 have trained it to a wire trellis. Although it has only been planted four 

 years, it extends four yards in breadth, and reaches eight feet high, covering 

 the space entire. In selecting situations for standard plants, choose thoso 

 where little wind will affect them ; the branches being very brittle, tho plants 

 are liable to be disfigured by every strong wind. 



ANSWERS. 



In reply to the request of a mode of exterminating daisies from a grass 

 lawn, I state — If they be not numerous, a few children, at a trifling cost 

 would cut them out by the roots. If the extent of ground be great, and con- 

 tain a gii#at quantity, the best plan is to pare off the turf, and remove it en- 

 tirely from the place, " for if dug in, seeds of the daisy would probably be in 

 it, and spring up." Then if the surface be dug over and made even, sow the 

 same with grass seeds of Festuca ovina ; these may he obtained pure of 

 Warner and Co., Seedsmen, London. If pure grass turf can be had from 

 some old pasture or waste land, get that in preference. The great injury to 

 lawns from the pest of daisies, is encouraged by allowing the plants to bloom, 

 and seed, which they quickly do, and spread amazingly. Mow early in 

 Spring. 



NOV. Oth. A YORKSHIREJIAN.. 



Reply to W. J. Liston.— (See No. XXJL, p. 290.)— The Partridge 

 breast Aloe, A loe variegula, is a plant of tho most ready culture; it throws 

 out abundance of root suckers, appended to a long vascular process which 

 frequently cannot be detached from the parent without taking the plant out 

 of the pot. Such young plants I had in 1 830. I potted off two or three, in 

 simple sandy loam, with about one-fourth of old dry mortar, beat up to a 

 rough powder. One plant advanced rapidly by being kept in a stove, where 

 the heat ranged from 50 to Go without direct sun light. Water was given 

 at any time just to keep the soil a little moist; and the pot (a 48) was well 

 drained with broken pots ; but I believe cinders to bo better. This plant 

 flowered in 1832, and 1833. The spike was first visible, — buried in tho 

 leaves — in August ; it expanded in January and February ; and during the 

 time of flowering, was kept in the window of an apartment : it shows flower 

 again, but is not quite so forward. This Aloe will rarely blow unless tho 

 plant be strong, and richly clad with its succulent leaves : mine has no ap- 

 parent stem, but it is about six inches high, a complete tuft of leaves. Full 

 exposure and drought during July and August, and afterwards; the most 

 sunny shelf in the stove with a fair supply of water, and but little pot room, 

 appear to me to bo the desiderata to promote maturity, and in consequence, 

 the formation of flowers. 



On the genus Musa. — Voltaire has every reason to express some per- 

 plexity concerning the class and order to which Musa ought to be referred. 

 He is correct in saying that the HortllS Britannicus places it iu Pentandria, 

 Monogynia; why, I cannot inform him. The Encyclopedia of Plants, Edit. 

 1820, by the same Conductor, at page 241, classes it in Hcxandria, Monogy- 

 nia, and gives figures of four species. The generic character in that work, 

 No. 721, p. 237, is " .Musa, spat he superior, Calyx of two petals, one of which 

 is erect and five toothed; the other concave, and honey-bearing. Berry ob- 

 long, three-cornered, many seeded," The specific characters of three species, 

 viz., Paradisiaca, sapientum, and rosacea, distinctly name Male flowers: 

 that of the fourth specii , M. coccinea, is, "spadiz erect, (lowers capitate, 



Spathi'S clustered, scarlet, very large, yellow at the end." Hence it should 



seem that there are plants in the genus which have only hermaphrodite 

 flowers, and that the monseeoious character marks a specific distinction. Re- 

 f nine to Ibercrombie' Dictionary, I find the generic character well de- 

 scribed thus: Miimi, Polygamia, Monrecla, Prom the centre of the leaves a 



