2.—1846.] 
"THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
respects more favourable to the preservation of plants | valuable. When "used for Grass, I prefer getting them 
than dull close weather at this season of the year. Keep 
your frames well wrapped up, and your greenhouse a 
few degrees above the freezing point,and let your in- 
door plants be watched, and moved from place to place 
as there may be necessity, and you will find that a frosty 
January will befriend you more than a mild November. 
The vital powers of vegetation begin to be active very 
early in the new year, and an increasing source of inte- 
rest is opened to the diligent observer. In autumn all 
is decadence and decay, the advance being on the side 
of spoliation and destruction. But now that Nature has 
calmly submitted to the seasonal death which destroyed 
‘her beauties, she concentrates all her powers for a 
Speedy resurrection. After the hardest and longest 
frost, how quickly do hardy bulbs begin to appear above 
the ground. I have this week observed the white corolla 
of the Snowdrop ready to throw off the calyx which yet 
binds it in its folds, Crocuses only require a few warm 
days to bring out their gorgeous colours; and the 
Hower-stems of Hyacinths begin to elongate, and cause 
the flowers to protrude. Herbaceous plants embrace 
every fine day to give less equivocal indications of their 
locality, and all the vast varieties of leaf-buds become 
More sensitive to the influences of bright days and 
warm showers. If a frost visits us in November, we 
look in vain for these indications of life when a thaw 
arrives ; but in January the icy bands are no sooner 
‘dissolved, than we may find in every flower-bed these 
Welcome pioneers of spring. 
. Happy is that amateur who has now a stock of bulbs 
in pots, in different stages of progress! As your Hya- 
cinths push forth roots and expand their deep green 
leaves,let them have more heat, and you will soon be 
delighted with the results of your labo: The elegant 
Proportions, rich colours, and powerful fragrance of 
these favourites of the drawing room, would make them 
valuable at any time ; but to get. all these excellencies 
in winter is a great treat indeed. Roses in pots will 
. also now make rapid progress, and if properly attended 
10, you may insure a profuse and early bloom. Even 
if there were no other plants in a window than half a 
dozen varieties of Rosos, the attention given to these 
would give the winter a charm. The foliage is so varied 
in colour, and the flower stalks are so graceful, that all 
the care necessary to preserve them in health is well 
repaid. From quarters, too numerous to mention, the 
amateur will be pleased every day as the spring hastens 
on, until April and May introduce him to all the glories 
of vegetable life. 
__ It is probably this hastening ‘future, this daily draw- 
ing on of the warm and sunny days of spring, which 
gives the chief charm to the new year, and infuses into 
: the spirit of the amateur gardener that determination to 
persevere which he now so strongly feels. I have every 
year been conscious of a weariness of this, my most fa- 
vourite pursuit, which exerts its influence at the close 
of the summer when there is much more labour to per- 
form, and the results of? that labour are so far off as to 
furnish but little stimulus, I have heard others say 
that they have experienced the same desponding feel- 
ing. But how it vanishes when life begins to bud and 
flower in our collections of plants! Nature, awakening 
from a long slumber, imparts to us a portion of her own 
Senial influence, Difficulties now present no hindrance 
to the cultivation of those tastes which have been sus- 
Pended but not weakened, much less destroyed, and we 
etermine afresh to become devotees to Flora. To the 
- Teaders of the Gardeners’ ' Chronicle, who, like myself, 
Still intend to weave garlands to place upon the altar of 
x that Boddess, I present a wish that their labours may be 
` Productive of much external beauty and inward satis- 
faction — 77 “B. r 
d Home Correspondence. 
;TPolmaise Heating.— Y have read with much in- 
terest. your Leader relative to the Polmaise plan of 
heating Vineries, and am rejoiced to find that you hay 
at length given your opinion upon the merits of this in- 
genious system, by which the senseless clamour raised 
Against it will be put to silence. I am but a novice in 
o. al and florieultural pursuits, nevertheless I 
feel that sooner or later the Polmaise plan will be uni- 
versal, especially with individuals who like myself can- 
Dot afford the serious expence of hot-water apparatus, 
am now erecting a small pit 12 feet by 6 for plant 
Srowing, and had contemplated heating it with hot- 
water froma * * æ apparatus at present used for 
a small greenhouse, but the expence was so consider- 
ablo that I had likewise all but contemplated the detest- 
able brick flues. Your article has decided me to delay 
the execution of the work until you shall treat again 
upon the subject. T feared this system would create 
too moist an atmosphere for plants, judge then of my 
delight on reading your suggestion for heating a smal 
pit on this plan with a Joyce's Stove. h 
for assisting to 
anxiety for further 
Temarks, and suspend all further UNE on my 
little pit until their appearance. Will you kindly state 
When you will resume the subject 1— J. G. R., East 
it Bone Manure.—I am an advocate for guano, when 
i Can be obtained genuine, but its effects are not last- 
ng, and on this account I consider bones the most 
out pretty early in the season, about the middle of Feb- 
ruary or beginning of March, and I endeavour, to get 
them thoroughly incorporated with earth, road-scrap- 
ings, &c., six or eight weeks previously. The improved 
appearance of the park here, since we commenced dress- 
ing with bones, is evident to every one, The herbage 
is richer and more relished by sheep. In one part, 
which has not been dressed for the last eight years, you 
can trace to a foot of ground where the bones were em- 
ployed. "The soil is a free yellow loam on a clayey sub- 
soil, interspersed with felspar.— W. B. Booth, Carclew. 
Cements.—* A Subscriber," p. 874, asks if India- 
rubber can be successfully used to render slate cisterns 
water-tight. I can d a cenient which he will 
find to answer’ his purpose. I have known it used in 
the formation of an aqueduct 450 feet long and 5 feet 
wide, which was water-tight the whole length. It was 
lined with flooring-tiles, set in the following cement :— 
evt qs. Ibs. s. d. 
0 Whiting 40 
Oreste 4 TRO O x * 7 
i d 18} Brimstone .. ,, 21 0 310 
0 0 "his nod Siye deles x 05 
1 17} cost 15 3 
— Lusor 
Sulphur v..Rabbits.—I have tried Mr. Rivers’s plan 
of soaking flags in sulphur to keep away rabbits, and 
find it fail utterly. I remain, therefore, of opinion 
that rabbits in different places may be scared by differ- 
ent things. Mr. Rivers's directions, were so minute, I 
do not think I could have’ been mistaken as to the 
manner in which I followed them.— Anon. 
Pine Growing.—Expecting that your remarks in the 
Leading Articie (p. 871, 1845), would have provoked a 
reply from somebody more accustomed to the pen than 
myself, I waited a week, when I find to my mortification 
that no one has attempted to defend, or rather to offer 
an excuse for the old inexpensive method of Pine 
growing, which you are pleased to say is only adopted by 
aset of blockheads. Unfortunately for myself I must 
admit that I belong to that anything but agreeably- 
named class, haying never through a period of 28 years 
(in which I have had the management of Pines) suc- 
ceeded in producing a fruit of the size and weight you 
mentioned. However, although I may be deficient in 
that particular, it is some lation to know that there 
are many on a par with myself. In defence, therefore, of 
myself and others, I have been induced to state my case, 
and leave the publie to judge whether or not we deserve 
the very harsh name you have been pleased to give us. 
I have been eight years in my present situation, during 
which time, very little has been done in the way of re- 
pairing or renewing the forcing-houses, which are under 
my care ; in fact, the family whom I serve are averse to 
ali expense not. imperatively necessary, and at the same 
time they are anxious that their table should be served, 
and their pleasure-grounds decorated, with as much 
variety as those of their neighbours. I never have to 
complain, however, of their unreasonable demands ; on 
the eontrary, I have to acknowledge numerous kind- 
nesses which I have received ; but I mention the follow- 
ing, knowing well that others similarly situated as my- 
self are required to provide for the wants of a large 
family with inadequate means of effecting their object. 
In my ease the kitchen-garden consists of upwards of 
three aeres, and including the surrounding slips, the 
pleasure-grounds may be perhaps about three acres 
more, about one acre of which is under the scythe, half 
an aere or more is in flower-beds, and the inder i 
shrubs and Grass, mown four or five times a year. 
The houses consist of two pits, 26 feet by 14 feet 
each ; two Grape-l s, and a P. of ihe same 
size, with a greenhouse somewhat larger. There is also 
a brick-built pit, heated by a flue, but in bad order ; this 
is 30 feet in length and 8 feet in breadth, and is divided 
into three compartments ; and finally, there are two two- 
light and three one-light frames or boxes for Cucumbers, 
&e. ‘Now, to manage all these, I have only two young 
men and one old man above 60 years of age, and occa- 
sionally a woman in summer. Besides the usual garden 
work there is frequently other jobs which fall into our 
hands, all of which consume time. Now, might I ask 
your great Pine and Grape-growers if they could under- 
take to supply a family like that here (above 30 persons), 
with the ordinary vegetables and fruits wanted at all 
times of the year, and likewise to produce those huge 
Pines and enormous bunehes of Grapes of which so 
much boast is made, with no other assistance than I have, 
and also to keep the pleasure-ground, &c., in good order 
without any greater annual outlay than is in some cases 
not begrudged for a single plant of a Pelargonium. I 
do not complain of my employer’s want of liberality ; on 
the contrary, I understand his views, and concur in 
them. I dare say he as well as I must know that a Pine 
6 lbs, in weight is better than two of 31bs. each ; but 
perhaps three or four of 3 lbs. each may be more useful 
than one of 6lbs., and I may safely infer that three or 
four such might be grown in the time and space oceupied 
by the one, Ido not mean to disparage the merits of 
the growers of large fruit ; indeed, much credit is due to 
them for their skilful application of the means at their 
command ; but I think it hard that they should usurp 
the whole eredit, and I and my brethren who for weeks 
together toil for 12 or 14 hours a day, should be stigma- 
tised as a set of blockheads, It is all very well to Say 
that industry of body is nothing without activity of mind; 
but in our case, the latter is nothing without the former. 
A man of comprehensive judgment may skilfully direct 
the working capabilities of others where there are many 
men to direct, but mere speaking, looking, or thinking, 
will not dig a square,'prune a tree, or eradicate a weed. 
Having said this much, I beg you will give my commu- 
nication publicity, and when I write again I trust to give 
something more useful.—S. N. V. [What astonishes 
us in this communication is, that so sensible a man as 
the writer should have fancied that he was one of the 
blockheads we alluded to. They are a very different 
race; they are men who, with ample means, do little, 
and who try to cover their own want of skill by deerying 
their neighbours. F : 
Spot on the Pelargonium Leaf.—In reply to Mr. 
Parker (p. 5.), I beg to mention, that my Pe 
are neither weak nor young, being two and three year old 
plants. How does Mr. P. account for the stay ‘of the 
spot on plants which are still in the same pit in which 
they were first attacked by it, unless by the application 
of manure. The plants plainly show where the evil 
was stayed: those most affected had. their pots filled 
with roots, a great portion of which were dead. The 
quantity of guano I use, is about 1 Ib. to every 3 gal- 
lons of water. I find, however, that manure water 
diluted, from the farm-yard has the most beneficial 
effect.—Samuel Hood, Ickleford Gardens. 
Natural Classification of Plants.—Mingled pleasure 
and regret have followed my several diligent perusals 
of  Student’s” paper on the above subject (at p. 874 of 
the last vol.) ; pleasure at witnessing an attempt made 
by an evidently inquiring and penetrating mind to effect 
a new revelation of the intentions of Nature ; but regret 
at my inability to gain a satisfactory impression as to 
its clearness and its practicability ; and I am compelled 
to own that a further and a more systematic elucidation , 
of the principle will be necessary to determine whether 
the fault bein my want of common penetration, or in 
the writer's method of explaining his views. The im- 
pression remaining on a reader's mind from the latter 
half of the article would be, that the writer wishes to 
associate all the various branches of natural history. 
under one universal system, in whieh not only each 
class and order, but every individual species shall pos- 
sess its appropriate place— which has already been 
done—but, pursuing his object to very close quarters, 
“ Student" desires to see those individuals of every 
kingdom united in one class, to which Nature has seen 
fit to give wholly different organisations, although she 
has placed them in similar local positions. Thus the 
Rush and the heron, the lion and the Oak, the butterfly 
and the Epiphyte, the worm and the Fern, will be 
brought into à mutual connection, which no doubt will 
astonish many. It will require a discrimination of ex- 
traordinary power, a genius surpassing that of any 
naturalist, living or departed, to unite the incongruous 
members of such widely different families in one har- 
monious whole ; in a word, to classify organised beings 
after the rule furnished simply by our rude perceptions 
of those properties, and that position which Nature has 
destined them to possess and to oceupy. I may have 
misunderstood “ Student,” but such must be my impres- 
sion until further information. 
Let us consider Shat 
classification is, and what its objects are. The most 
luminous views on this all-important subject will be ob- 
tained by referring to the 5th chap. of the 2d part of 
the “ Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy,? 
by Sir John Herschel, a writer, the energetic closeness 
of whose eloquent reasonings cannot be too deeply 
studied and appreciated in this age of light reading, 
opular writing, and superficial observation. He 
remarks: “the number and variety of objects and re- 
ations which the observation of nature brings before 
us, are so great as to distract the attention, unless 
assisted and méthodized by such judicious distribution 
of them in classes, as shall limit our view to a few ata 
time, or to groups bound together by general resem- 
blances.” If this and the consequent system of nomen- 
clature be the true objects of classification, can it.be 
consistent with the precision so imperative in science to 
mass together the members of the different kingdoms 
of nature into one great family—man uniting that 
which God hath put asunder? If he make the rash 
attempt, surely discord and confusion will usurp the 
seat of harmony and order. I apprehend that one of 
the greatest difficulties of this scheme would. be to 
draw the lines of distinetion between those delicate 
shadings which are found to melt one imperceptibly 
into the other, when we consider the organized world 
asa whole. We are aware that nature allows no gaps 
in her wonderfully linked chain of created beings ; but 
that each is blended with the next throughout the grand 
scale from the highest to the lowest of created beings. 
But Student's? plan is to force nature into a false 
admission that her system, hitherto misun ood, 
contains approximations infinitely closer and more 
varied than are now even suspected. Sup 
such di dant alliance effected—supy 
devious paths of analogy illumined by an unwonted 
light: what has been gained ?— precision ?—facility of 
reference ?—means of a better nomenclature? If so, 
let * Student? endeavour to elucidate his views by a 
practical d trati and the di ient will con- 
cede his point. But, for the sake of the internal peace 
of our scientific community, I do hope that no ingenious 
man will ever accomplish such a revolution, Dr. John- 
son wisely answered to Swift’s declaration—that if the 
five or six real men of genius, which every age pro- 
duces, were to combine together, the whole world could 
not stand before them—by saying, that he hoped these 
five or six prodigies never would come together ;—and 
the Doctor was right. The evils of disturbing an esta- 
plished classification, and a received nomenclature, are 
immense, Witness the throngs of synonymes, the reite- 
V red 
rgoniums , 
