General Notices. 229 



of the Library for the Young, now publishing by Mr. Knight, and, like all that 

 gentleman's publications, is excellent and cheap. 



A Series of Botanical Labels for the Herbaritim, adapted to the resjjective Floras 

 of Smith, Hooker, Lindley, Macreiglit ; including One for every Plant hitherto 

 recognised as indigenous to the British Islands. Edited by a Corresponding 

 Member of the Botanical 

 Society of London. 8vo. 

 London, os. 



Those who are engaged in 

 forming collections of dried 

 British plants will find this 

 volume a valuable storehouse 

 of correct labels, which they 

 can cut off and attach to the 

 paper on which their specimens 

 are fastened. The annexed is 

 a specimen of a label. 



A Treatise on an improved Mode of cultivating the Cucumber and Melon, so as 

 to produce early Melons and Cucumbers all the Year with less Trouble and 

 Expense than by the Methods ustuilly practised. With Directions for growing 

 and forcins. Asparagus and Sea-kale; and for destroying Woodlice. By 

 George Mills, Gardener to the Baroness De Rothschild, at Gunnersbury 

 Park, Middlesex, 



In these days, when so many of our first-rate gardeners are occupied with 

 the Orchidaces, it is satisfactory to find one of the heads of the profession 

 cultivating the cucumber, and teaching the amateur how he may produce 

 them in a frame or pit all the year round. It appears to us that one grand 

 cause of Mr. Mills's success "is his employment of sandy peat, alone, as soil 

 for his plants in the winter season, without any mixture of rotten dung or 

 leaves. The peat, or heath soil, never retains water, and consequently never 

 generates a damp atmosphere, which is more or less the case with every other 

 description of soil; even thoroughly decomposed hot-bed dung, or leaf mould, 

 both of which are used by the Dutch in their winter forcing of the cucumber. 

 Our more humid winter atmosphere seems to require a drier soil than 

 that of the winters of Holland, and M. Mills seems to have hit upon it. 

 Pines are grown in the same soil at Versailles, as shown at p. 17. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 

 Covering Strawberry-Beds with Netting stretched on a frame at a short dis- 

 tance from the around checks radiation, and consequently increases the 

 temperature of the surface of the bed. There is no doubt that much may be 

 gained by coverings of netting in early spring, from their effect in retaining 

 both heat and moisture, whether by checking radiation, or diminishing the 

 effect of cold and drying winds. At the same time, during very hot weather, 

 the net will diminish' the effect of the sun's rays, and when the soil has been 

 cooled by too much rain, the net, if not removed, will prevent warm and 

 drying winds from having their full beneficial influence. Coverings of netting, 

 thierefore, will, under certain circumstances, require to be occasionally taken 

 off for a few hours during the finest part of the day, and afterwards put on 

 again. — Cond. 



American Blight (A^phis la7iigera). — Many prescriptions have fi'om time to 

 time appeared in the Gardener's Magazine for the American blight. Oil de- 

 stroys the insect, but is hurtful to the tree. Vitriol reduced to the consistency 

 of sour drops (about seven parts of water to one of vitriol, according to the 



a 4 



