28—1846. ] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
461 
of phenomena such as those referred to above.—C. 
Pritchard, Bowness. 
o make Rhubarb Wine.—To every pound of green 
Rhubarb stalks, when bruised, put a quart of cold 
spring water ; let it stand three days, stirring it twice 
in a day, then press, and strain it through a sieve, and 
to every gallon of the liquor, put 23 or 3 lbs. of good 
loaf sugar ; barrel it, and to every 5 gallons add a bottle 
of white brandy ; hang a piece of isinglass in the vessel, 
suspended by a string, and stop it up close ; in six 
months if the sweetness be sufficiently off, bottle it for 
use, otherwise let it stand in the cask a longer time.— S. 
The Nuthatch.—On looking over your Number for 
June 20th, I find three communications on the subject 
of the nuthateh : the first is by Mr. Bree, on which I 
have no remarks to offer, further than that I am per- 
fectly aware of what is said in “ Mr. Yarrell's excellent 
work upon British Birds,” and that I never said that 
the bird in question did not belong to the family of 
creepers ; what I said was, that if it did belong to the 
family of creepers it must have three toes before, and 
one behind. In the second, which is by Henry Double- 
day, Esq., I am taxed with being “an anonymous cor- 
respondent” ; how far this is correct you will be able 
to judge ; but be this as it may, Samuel Gibson presents 
his compliments to Henry Doubleday, Esq., and wishes 
him to inform S. Gibson what constitutes the food of 
the nuthatch in the spring and summer months, and at 
the same time to inform S. G. how he is to make the 
account given of the nuthateh cracking the “seeds of 
the Yew" to correspond with Sir William Jaekson 
Hooker’s account of the Yew itself? for in the fifth 
edition of his “ British Flora,” he (Sir W. J. H.) tells 
us, that the drupes (seeds) of this plant are esteemed 
Poisonous, and that the name of the Yew was given, “it 
is‘said because arrows were poisoned with its juice.” 
n Sutor’s note, I find a few rather bold assertions; 
first, that “there are no nuthatches at Mytholmroyd vus 
in this he is so far from being correct, that I have now 
five nuthatches before me: two of them are from 
Buckinghamshire, one from Wetherby, in Yorkshire, 
One from Highgreen Wood, 10 miles north-west of 
Mytholmroyd ; this specimen was shot on the 18th of 
October, 1844, and one was shot in Crow-nest Wood, 
on the 8th of April, 1846. In addition to these, others 
might be mentioned, such as one which is in the posses- 
sion of Mr. Thomas Gibson, of Hebden Bridge, which 
was shot near Burnley, in Lancashire. Mr. T. G. has 
given me three fine specimens of the stomachs of this 
little bird, with an account of their eontents ; butas that 
does not directly bear on the relative strength of mate- 
tials, it will be of no use here. Sutor tells us, that on 
entering one of the fine old woods, in the midland or 
Southern countries, we shall not have long to wait for the | 
arrival of the nuthatch, for “in a few minutes he comes 
With a nut between his mandibles” ; but, by the bye, 
he has forgot to tell us where he has fetched his nuts 
from, and how he has contrived to carry such an un- 
Wieldy piece of stuff between his slender and smooth 
Mandibles, which, if examined, would be found very 
badly, if at all constructed for carrying nuts in; but 
this he would perhaps explain by comparing it with 
some of the ts of a “blacksmith,” the same as 
he has done the story of cracking ; for certainly, this 
comparison is one of the most unfortunate he could 
have hit upon: for, according to his own account, the 
task is rather performed in the way a colier 
Performs his work, that is by picking, not by ham- 
mering ; as, instead of the nuthatch reducing to 
form, it would reduce form to shapeless masses ; but 
be this as it may, it appears that Sutor in his travels 
has never had much i in I ing, or he 
are in this bark which are not common to the smooth 
bark of some other trees. [It certainly is Scotch Fir 
sale have increased in a very great degree. In the 
hasty survey I was able to make, I observed many (for 
bark.—Ep.] Mr. Wighton’s opinion on the food of example, Populus laurifolius, Alnus oxyacanthifolia, &c.) 
the bird in question being that of insects or their | in considerable quantities, and very ornamental, which 
larva, perfectly agrees both with the form of its 
stomach and beak, the latter being evidently formed 
for the purpose of picking insects or their larva 
from the crevices in the bark of trees, For his advice 
in recommending me to carry out the precept of study- 
ing nature, I must tender him my sincere thanks, and 
at the same time tell him, that if he should ever be in 
this neighbourhood and will give me a call, I will con- 
vince him that I have ever adhered to that precept, by 
showing him all or any part of 70,000 specimens of 
subjects of nature, which are now in my possession.— 
S. G., Mytholmroyd. 
Vine at the New Inn, Ilmington, Warwickshire.— 
This very old black Hamburgh is planted against a 
south wall, in a border of Nature’s forming, composed 
of stones and stiff clay. It stands close to the founda- 
tion of the house, and bears every year abundant crops 
of fruit, which frequently ripens, and is highly flavoured, 
although the situation is low and damp, receiving all the 
drip from the house. This sturdy old fellow is no tee- 
totaler, for he drinks freely with every guest who visits 
the inn, which seems to improve his condition, as well 
as the flavour of the produce. All the pruning he re- 
ceives is from a common hedge carpenter in a rough 
way.—R. R. W., Ilmington, June 20. 
Dandelion Coffee-—Had Mr. Mackenzie differently 
prepared his Dandelions, he perhaps would have got a 
less indifferent cup of coffee. I have had a packet, 
the label on which, headed “Patronised by the Fa- 
culty,” describes it as Dandelion root, prepared as 
coffee? by W. Twink , (late of Leamington Spa 
Chemist, 2, Edward-street, Port quare, London. 
I have used some myself, and a poor woman, who had 
some with sugar and milk, spoke favourably of it. 
think this might be more grateful to the palates of 
your correspondents, although I cannot answer for its 
being suited to their ailments.—G. 4. C. 
Orange Flowers.—These, in addition to being useful 
as a perfume, make an excellent sweetmeat, candied in 
the same way as Violets.—.4 Subscriber. 
Orchis latifolia—Parishes which lately abounded 
with this beautiful flower, now do not upon diligent 
search exhibit a single specimen. Drainage is the 
cause. But thorough drainage is not requisite ; open 
cuts are sufficient for its extirpation. Therefore, there 
will soon not remain a specimen in the island. But it 
is not the dryness which destroys it. For it flourishes 
in a high state of improvement in raised garden- 
borders, certainly drier than the half-drained meadows 
from which it is expelled. The Dean of Manchester 
ascribes its disappearance to the increased vigour of the 
competing vegetation in drained pastures. It is a beau- 
tiful garden flower of easy, that is, of no treatment ; and 
it is desirable that private florists (without proerasti- 
oo 
= 
nation), and nursery gardeners should secure the plant 
for permanent cultivation, while the English meadows 
still furnish it. There is an increase of offsets ; even 
supposing the art of raising this genus from seed should 
never be realised.— 4. Herbert. 
Foreign Correspondence. 
Hamburgh, June 30.—Within the last few days I have 
META EE D 
I do not recollect as common in our shrubberies. The 
occasional severity of the winter, however, diminishes 
much the number of hardy shrubs here ; many of our 
commonest shrubs, especially evergreens, Ericaceze, 
Nepal shrubs, Jasmines, &e., though planted in the 
open borders in spring for the autumn sale, require, if 
not old, to be potted and housed in winter ; most of 
our new hardy, or almost hardy, Conifers can here onl 
be grown in pots; even the Deodara is sometimes 
affected ; the frost of the winter before last killed one, 
14 feet high, notwithstanding it was matted up. Of 
Conifers in pots Mr. Booth has a great number, espe- 
cially a valuable set of Abies Nordmanniana, all very 
healthy, and a great many Mexican ones. I observed 
also a considerable variety of Mexican, N. American, 
and S. European Oaks, in pots, inarched on Q. pedun- 
eulata. In the other houses the stove plants, the 
Heaths, and the New Holland plants for specimens, 
were generally very well flowered; the Heaths, many 
of them, remarkably fine for their age; and some of 
the blue Leschenaultias were as full of flower, or fuller, 
than any of those at our June Exhibition ; but the va- 
riety of Australian plants is not great. The botanie 
garden just without the old ramparts, so beautiful in 
situation, is recovering, under the direction of Mr. Ed- 
ward Oito, from the depressed state into which it had 
fallen under the previous curator. As it is a 
much frequented promenade, much attention is 
necessarily paid to the ornamental part of it 
—the Roses, herbaceous flowering plants, orna- 
mental shrubs, &e. The purely botanical part has 
not much of importance, and the houses are not exten- 
sive. Among the fine specimens may be remarked, a 
considerable number of Encephalarti, including nearly 
all the species known, in fine healthy specimens, some 
with trunks 5 or 6 feet high. Amongst them one 
E. latifrons, and four E. Altensteinii, flowered this year ; 
one of the latter had three cones. There are also some 
very large Cape Testudinarias. One of the great 
horticultural beauties of Hamburgh is the Wallgirten 
or Rampart Gardens, that is to say the old ramparts 
converted into walks, shrubberies, lawns, and flower- 
beds ; they are completely open to and continuous with 
the streets. Clumps of Roses, Hollyhocks, Dahlias, 
herbaceous plants, and even Pelargoniums, are full of 
flower, and not a flower is picked, nor do you see even 
a child venture upon the lawns, These gardens extend 
nearly round the town, and are kept up under the 
superintendence of the Bau-Direction (the Woods and 
Forests office as it were), by the Wallgártner, Mr. Men- 
chen, and from 100 to 150 men. The private gardens 
about Hamburgh are very numerous ; every one of the 
merchants’ country houses, the villas, or the bourgeois 
houses which cover the outskirts of the town along the 
Alster, the Elbe, and the principal roads from the town, 
has its garden of more or less extent and beauty, where 
the owners may be seen, every one of them, on summer 
evenings, sitting round a tea, coffee, or work-table, and 
enjoying themselves often close to, and generally in 
sight of the road. Very few indeed are entirely shut 
out from publie view, and many have no more fence 
than what you might easily step over. The great 
i teristic of all these gardens is neatness, and that 
not failed to visit the principal gardenin 
in the neighbourhood of this beautiful place. — Booth's 
nursery gardens at Flotbeck were, of course, among the 
first that I saw, and here I found great progress 
during the 10 years that had elapsed since my last visit. 
Would never have compared it with his own account of 
the nuthatch’s mode of cracking nuts. Does he not 
know that a blacksmith’s hammer, be it ever so small 
in proportion to the shapeless mass which has to be 
Teduced to form, is always a little harder than that iron. 
f this was not the case a blacksmith would just look as 
Tidieulous as a nuthatch would do picking at the hard 
Shell of a nut with his soft beak, which certainly is 
much softer than the shell of any nut when it is ripe. 
Perhaps Sutor had never the curiosity to try how much 
Weight it will take to crack an ordinary nut, and I will 
Now tell him that the average is about 50 lbs. I have 
Seen a common Hazel-nut sustain 80 lbs. ; and when 
Sutor can make it appear that the bird in question is 
Capable of producing that amount of pressure, I will 
believe him when he says “nuthatches do crack nuts ;” 
Or if he can prove that the mandibles of the bird are 
harder than a nut-shell, then, and not till then, will I 
believe that the nuthatch can pick a hole in a nut ; and 
with all due respect, I will now tell Sutor that a book- 
binder's press would be a better machine for cracking 
Ruts in than the mandibles of this little bird, and leave 
tim for the present.—Samuel Gibson. P.S.—I have 
Just now received your last Number, and am glad to 
find that Mr. Wighton’s attention has been aroused to 
the examination of the nuthatch, and shall now call his 
Attention to the subject of sound. Perhaps he can tell 
me how far he is able to hear the sound which it is 
Possible to be raised by the fine point of the beak of 
is little bird coming in contact with a nut-sbell. He 
ells us that any casual observer in winter, &c., must 
qu heard the bird thus employed; he also tells us 
Pi he did not mean that it made mechanical use of its 
ul’; but let me tell him that if it either makes a noise 
Or breaks a nut at all, it must be done by mechanical 
SS ; and so far as regards the nest, if Mr. W. knows | 
When he meets with the smooth bark of the Scotch Fir | the purposes Mr. Booth had in view in planting them ; 
H 
he ial importance and extensive correspond- 
ence of this establishment throughout Germany and the 
north, the great care, zeal, and liberality with which it 
is managed by Mr. John Booth, are too.well known to 
the horticultural world to need repetition ; but I find 
them better appreciated even here than formerly, and 
in the garden itself are many improvements. The cul- 
without the lawns being generally well kept. This 
neatness appears to arise from absence of weeds in the 
walks and beds, and the clean, well painted, and neatly 
finished houses and other buildings, gardens, tables, and 
chairs, flower stakes, &c. ; even in the kitchen-garden 
the Scarlet-runners and Peas are neatly and regularly 
stuck. Booth’s garden, which was formerly not the 
best in this respect, is now as neat and as clean as any 5 
his houses, whether show stoves or propagation houses 
—new or old—are equally clean and neat, and so it is 
in almost every garden I have seen. What they want 
tivation is now under the immediate management of | is more frequent clipping of their Hawthorn hedges, 
Mr. Goode, formerly gardener to Mrs. Lawrence, and 
he has been able successfully to introduce the modern 
English method of cultivating and flowering Heaths, 
stove plants, and Orchids. For the latter tribe Mr. 
Booth has lately built a span-roof stove, 100 feet long, 
of moderate elevation, and covered with double lights— 
a plan which Mr. Goode finds to succeed as well in 
summer as in winter, In cold weather it must produce 
2 great economy of fuel, and, perhaps, by giving better 
means of equalising the temperature in different parts 
of the house, give more command over artificial venti- 
lation. In summer, one would have thought the double 
glass would have intercepted the light too much, but 
Mr. Goode does not find that to be the case either 
for Orchids, Ferns, or stove creepers, such as Ste- 
phanotis, Schubertia, Dipladenia, &c., and it is certain 
that the collection of Orchids is healthy-looking, and, 
as it strikes me, a full average, or rather beyond 
an average of them, are in flower. The double glass, 
however, does not suit Gesnerads, or other showy- 
flowered stove plants, even here, where there is more 
light than with us. The building of this Orchidaceous 
house, and the fine specimens there flowered has very 
much extended in Germany the taste for that tribe, 
and the orders given to Mr. Booth for them are 
rapidly increasing. An extensive new span-roof propa- 
gation-house has also been added since I was here. The 
old collection of specimen hardy trees and shrubs has 
outgrown the space allotted to it, and does not answer 
and especially mowing and dressing their lawns. Booth’s 
lawns near his own house are very good. Mr. Steers’, 
at Ham, are neat and velvety, like good English ones ; 
some few others also might be named, but, generally 
speaking, they have too much fancy for making hay to 
have thick lawns. The Roses are everywhere now in 
great beauty, and are very extensively grown, either 
runed low or tree Roses, of various heights ; many of 
the latter have a stem 5 feet or rather more high, and 
if at that height they bear a large head of some kind, 
having a tendency to climb, so as to hang all round, 
they have a very pretty effect ; otherwise these tall tree 
Roses look rather naked, unless in a bed with lower 
ones intermixed. In Booth’s garden are several tree 
Roses not grafted on a wild stock, but trained up on 
their own stem ; there does not seem, however, to be 
any advantage gained, and certainly the process] must 
be more troublesome. Of trees, there are few ever- 
greens will do here, except the common Pines or Firs, 
the red Cedar, and the Thuja. Among deciduous ones 
Robinia Pseud-Acacia is handsomer than withus. Booth 
has some fine specimens of Magnolia cordata, the cut- 
leaved Beech, &c.; but Tulip trees were killed the 
winter before last, when the thermometer fell one night 
to —21° Reaum. and was for several nights at —17° or 
— 189. Some of the European Cytisi, not much cultivated 
with us, sueh as C. sessilifolius, C. capitatus, and even 
Genista tinetoria, have a very pretty effect in the low 
shrubberies when neatly planted and trimmed and full 
of flower ; there are also some old herbaceous plants 
"d 
i à bird's nest, he can tell me what peculiarities there | but the numbers and variety of the shrubs in stock for | which we never see in England, particularly Linaria 
