General Notices. 271 



Cannon Hall Muscat Grapes. — I see, by your notices to correspond- 

 ents, that a valuable secret resi)ectiiig- the setting of the Cannon-hall 

 Muscat grapes is in the possession of somebodv in Herts, and that you 

 have, as yet, been unable to publish it. These Hertfordshire folks must be 

 the deuce for secrets, and, what is st 11 more perplexing, they seem de- 

 termined t.i keep them. As I have a way that is quite successful in 

 fertil zing the Cannon-hall Muscat, Black Damascus, Stillward's Sweet 

 Water, and other shy setters, it may answer the purpose of your " Origi- 

 nal Subscriber" till the grand secret is made public. On the first ap- 

 pearance of the blossoms opening, I draw my hand across the bunches 

 two or three times a day, beginning when the sun has some power in 

 the house ; or, if the day is dull, at the dryest part of it. I make my hand 

 quite clean and dry before operating, and repeat the process eveiy day till 

 I see the berries set. I had no difficulty in making Muscat grapes set as 

 thick as the white Frontignan in the beginning of this month by doing as 

 above ; and was equally successful last year in the dullest weather. When 

 only a few bunches of Cannon hall Muscats, or Black Damascus, are to be 

 operated upon, and there is time to do it, it is a good plan to thin out the 

 side flowers in the middle of the bunches and shoulders before they come 

 into bloom ; it makes what are left stronger, and they can be fertilized with 

 a camel'shair brush, or drawing a bunch of some free-setting variety across 

 them. — (Gard. Journ., 1848, p. 181.) 



Plants for Bedding out on Lawns. — " A. H." b'^gs for information re- 

 specting shrubby exotics proper for the open air in the summer months, and 

 my first intention was to furnish a list of those which are generally found in 

 first-rale gardens, giving the color, habits, and size of each. But on after- 

 reflection, I have thought it best to confine my observations strictly to the 

 results of my own experience, as more appropriate to the large class for 

 whose benefit these papers are written. If, as the hand-writing of "A. H." 

 intimates, the applicant is a lady, I am sure I shall best consult her wishes 

 by being explicit, and recommending a course of summer gardening easily 

 managed. Many exotics will do well only in very warm seasons ; others 

 require much attention to produce efiect ; but there are many which yield a 

 beautiful display with moderate care. Persons with professional gardeners 

 at hand do not need the advice requested by " A. H.," and the very nature 

 of the application appears to indicate the kind of reply which will be most 

 acceptable. 



Let me premise that the beds intended for effect in summer should be un- 

 occupied by herbaceous plants or other productions which do not naturally 

 decay at the close of spring, as the old-fashioned flowers of our gardens do 

 not harmonize well with greenhouse plants ; and besides this, each bed 

 should be devoted to one kind of flower. Some borders should be devoted 

 to miscellaneous plants and shrubs, but a summer garden should be free at 

 the proper time of bedding out exotics. My own plan is to fill beds on the 

 lawa with bulbs in autumn, and these being past their beauty in May, the 

 plants intended for summer are put in, and, by the time they are ready to 

 flower, the bulbs can be removed ; or, their foliage having withered, they 



