502 
THE GARDENERS' 
CHRONICLE. 
m pe 
Messrs. Burrows and Thoms, with an observation that 
“hitherto we have had no good ink for the purpose,” 
and it is mentioned again in last Number as a “novelty.” 
Have you tried ink made by a receipt given in page 
189, March, 1842? which appears fully sufficient for 
every practical purpose, in proof of which I enclose a 
label written with this ink more than two years ago. 
As some of your readers may not have seen the receipt 
I annex it :—Verdigris in powder, 1 drachm ; sal am- 
moniae in powder, 1 drachm ; lamp black, half a 
drachm ; water, 10 drachms, It should be Shaken be- 
fore using.— Lusor, 
Fixing Botanical Specimens.—For this purpose I find 
nothing more than the margins of the sheets 
of postage stamps (which may be had from the sellers 
of stamps), cut into narrow strips, and placed across 
the stems and branches of the specimen intended to be 
fixed.— Lusor. 
Extract from Correspondence with Sir G. S. Mac- 
kenzie, Bart.—Strawberries : There is an object in the 
cultivation of this, and indeed, in that of every other 
fruit, universally acknowledged to be worthy of atten- 
tion, but.seldom attended to, and that is to have it in 
ion during a iderable time. It is a remark- 
able fact, that since cultivators began to search for im- 
proved varieties by sowing seeds, not one earlier than 
the old séarlet has been obtained, while of fine late 
varieties we have abundance. I believe the earliest 
now in cultivation is the Grove-end ; next to that comes 
Keens’ Seedling, and some other good sorts, and among 
them the delicious, but neglected Carolina ; and lastly, 
the Elton, which lasts a long time. The Alpine is both 
an early and Jate sort, and carries on the succession till 
frost commences. What is wanted is an early variety, 
and to this object cultivators should lend their atten- 
tion. We have, as yet, no good pale or white variety, 
and one should be sought for. I have raised a consider- 
able number, and one remarkably prolific, and lasting a 
long time; but they all wanted firmness and flavour. 
By perseverance, and many pursuing this object, a fine 
variety may at last be obtained. Although it has been 
stated in the" Chronicle that Strawberry plants would 
continue to yield good crops during many years with a 
little care, I am still of opinion, that what I recom- 
mended many years ago is of use, viz.,to make new 
plantations every second year. My reason for this re- 
commendation was, that when the plants are left longer, 
new sorts rise amongst them from the seeds of berries 
that drop or are left, and thus the crops are, for the 
most part, deteriorated by mixture, and it may become 
difficult to recover the original variety. My practice 
was to plant in February, not to reckon a crop the same 
year, and to take two crops afterwards ; so that when I 
dug down the plants, I had another set ready to 
produce he publie would be better served with 
this, and other fruits, if they were not exposed to the 
sun in shop windows, and at the doors, but kept in a 
cool shady place. The Strawberries brought to the 
Edinburgh market, once famous, are now for the most 
part very inferior; and the effects of careless handling 
are so conspicuous as to be rather disgusting. Vanack 
Cabbage: Of all the numerous sorts that have been 
offered to the public, this Cabbage has no rival. By a 
little care, it may come to the table young almost the 
whole year round. It is many years since I obtained 
some seeds from the Garden of the Horticultural So- 
ciety, and Í have never tasted any sort to be compared 
with it. It is now difficult to obtain it pure. It is 
easily known by its tendency to burst when it attains a 
considerable size. The long lists in nurserymen’s 
catalogues might well be curtailed, and the Vanack 
placed at the head. Whatever single sort one may 
purchase by name is sure to turn out mixed, so careless 
have seedsmen become. I got some seeds under the 
name Vanack in Edinburgh, and while almost every 
plant differed from another, there is not a true Vanack 
amongst them. It isa pity that the London Society 
does not give prizes for specimens of pure varieties of 
culinary vegetables, that the best may be kept up. It 
is right to place the dulce in the first rank, but the 
utile should not be forgotten. Pelargoniums: The 
flower of the variety General Tom Thumb is so like one 
raised in my garden in the north, many years ago, that 
I should have called it identical in flower and leaf, were 
it not that the northern variety (without a name but that 
of the gardener, McGrigor, who raised it) affects the 
eye with a glow which gives it a preference. Beside 
McGrigor’s Scarlet all others I have compared with it 
fail in brilliancy of colour. 
Wasps.—As the season when these are most destruc-: 
tive is at hand, I think it right to mention that I have 
tried gas tar, and believe it will prove the simplest, 
cheapest, and most effectual remedy, with which I am 
aequainted : I tried it on some nests in the woods here, 
where, from the roots of trees; &c., it was impossible to 
dig them out. Just pour a little gas tar from a small 
water-can or other convenient vessel, into the hole ; 
Stop it up with moss dipped in the tar, and thé work of 
destruetion is completed.—J. L. Snow, Swinton Park. 
Miscellaneous.— The Deaih’s Head Moth, &ce.— Your 
columns lately contained an account of the capture of 
some death’s-head moths at Cambridge on the Lycium 
Europzeum, or Tea-plant, On referring to Withering's 
** Botany," however, I cannot discover the plant named. 
Is it found wild? € have it on the cliffs here, and I 
captured a death's-head moth on it last year, in Septem- 
ber, while residing here ; and I understand a chrysalis 
has been found and exposed for sale here this year, but 
a ately I cannot find out anything. of the where- 
learn that the beautiful Colias edusa, a fly of which we 
know nothing in our neighbourhood at Croydon, is this 
year in full bloom here on the cliffs near Beechy Head. 
erhaps some of your correspondents may be able to 
tell what butterflies those were which paid a visit to 
Dover from the Continent, the week before last. No one 
seems to have noticed to what genus they belong.—.4 
Croydon Subscriber, at present at East-Bourne. [The 
plant called Lycium Europ:eum in the paragraph alluded 
to is, of course, a garden plant. We did not under- 
stand that it was pretended to be wild.] 
Foreign Correspondence. 
Copenhagen, July 6, 1846.—From Hamburgh to 
Kiel we came by the Altona and Kiel railway, near; 
70 miles, construeted on a single line without bridges 
or viaducts, and, except near Kiel, scarcely anything of 
a cutting or embankment, therefore very easily made, 
and very well appointed, going at the rate of about 20 
miles an hour, or rather faster, with less of noise and 
motion than in most of ours. Holstein, which we thus 
crossed, is generally flat and sandy; a great deal of 
peat Moss, intermixed with meadows and arable land— 
the latter generally covered with rich Eye crops, nearly 
ripe; a good many Potatoes, as yet very young ; some 
poorlooking Oats; a very little Barley, white Clover, 
and (Buckwheat?) and I only saw two small Wheat-fields 
the whole way. Indeed, cattle (producing excellent 
beef) and Rye seems to be the staple produee, the bread 
of the country being pure Rye. At Kiel, we admired 
especially the public gardens, and the walk to the Tivoli 
arden, and the baths of Diisterbrog, a couple of miles 
from the town, which may almost be called garden the 
whole way. Beds of Roses and fiowers ornament the 
promenade, and are as open as at Hamburgh ; and the 
Tivoli gardens are prettily laid out, and very neatly 
kept—all the benches, tables, and other wood-work, as 
well as the stakes for the Dahlias and other flowers, 
being kept fresh painted and clean, and the walks 
and beds quite free of weeds. The lawns are 
also, here, greener and better kept than most of 
the Hamburgh ones. The botanic garden is small, 
and for want of sufficient means not so well kept. 
Professor Nolte, who is at the head of it, has a good 
collection in it of Holstein plants, and especially of 
natural hybrids, such as Stachys ambigua, Hypericum, 
Potentilla, &e., in all which cases he says he can never 
either find good seeds in the wild state, or make the 
plants produce them when cultivated. He shows 
amongst the curiosities of the little museum at the gar- 
den, a remarkably good specimen of the formation of 
wood outside a bit of bark where circulation had been 
stopped, An old Beech was cut down at Diisterbrog 
in 1837, and the logs sold to a baker, when, on split- 
ting one, there was found, about 6 inches from the rim, 
a square piece,of the old bark cut through all round 
with these letters cut into it. This bit of 
bark still had some re- mains of lichens on 
the outside, but the wood had formed per- 
feetly sound over it, and —-' was continuous with 
the inner wood both above and below, with the excep- 
tion of a slight d in the longitudinal ves- 
sels, aud the outside bark showed a slight irregular 
scar a little bigger than the enelosed bit of bark. 
Professor Nolte says that he very carefully counted 
the concentrie rings between that with which the en- 
closed bark was connected and the outer bark, and 
found them to be exactly 110, the number of years 
from the date of the inscription to the date of felling. 
It is the neatest specimen of a well-known physiological 
fact which I have seen. Here, in Copenhagen, the 
Botanie garden is in the town, of small extent, and of 
little importance ; there has, however, been lately built 
a hothouse for Palms, and a portion of the old ones has 
been arranged as an Orchidaceous house ; these contain 
several good specimens, chiefly Mexican, brought over 
by Professor Liebmann ; of Cycads, more especially, 
there is a good collection and several new ones : many 
of them have already flowered. The-Rosenberg Castle 
gardens are also in the town; the public part of them 
laid out something in the style of the Tuileries gardens, 
has no particular beauty, and looks old ; but a large 
portion is reserved for forcing fruits and vegetables for 
the king’s table, under the management of Mr. Peter- 
sen, The forcing houses are very extensive, covering al- 
HAL 
are heated with hot water, the apparatus generally of a 
simple construction; the pipes and boilers all cast here, 
and apparently very well done, but at so great a cost, 
that in many of the houses brick flues with open 
troughs are used, and the difference in effect between 
the flues and the pipes is not nearly so greai 
here, where wood alone is burnt. The Grapes force 
are chiefly our common kinds. The king’s table is 
supplied from the end of May till late in the autumn ; 
the crops generally seemed very fair; the early Peaches 
had been good, but there were only a few remaining ; 
the late ones were not full of fruit ; only one Nectarine 
seemed to be bearing really well. The Pine-apples, of 
which there were a great quantity, were very healthy 
and clean; and some of the Providences very fine ; but 
they cannot succeed in giving them the same weight 
that we do. The Figs were very fine and full of fruit. 
Strawberries are a very favourite fruit here ; they like 
the soil and are very good flavoured. Mr. Petersen 
forces and grows them in great quantities for the king’s 
table, which must be supplied from April till Christmas. 
Most of our new varieties are grown. Keens’ Seedling 
acquires an enormous size. 
outs.— Your entomological friends may be glad tojatall Vegetable forcing is of course'over for the sea- 
together nearly an English aere of ground. Many of them | 
Myatt's does not sueceed P 
grown but a plant or two out of curiosity In 
the open air the fruit garden is being replanted; 
it is extensive, but nothing remarkable. Against a 
leng wall Vines are planted at intervals, between which 
are low lean-to frames, into which one-half of the main 
branches of each Vine are brought down for forcing 
every alternate year; the other half, forced the pre- 
vious year, being trained on the wall above, and be- 
tween the frames, to ripen for the following year's 
forcing—a process by which, it is said, very large erops 
are produced, and some of those now in forcing cer- 
tainly made a very good show. The cold here is far 
from being so!intense as in Hamburgh, yet Bays, 
Laurels, and other such g , are only cultivated 
in tubs, like Orange-trees, and brought in in winter, 
whilst Orange-trees are kept in the greenhouse all the 
summer (except for about a month to ripen their wood), 
and this, it is insisted, is necessary to prevent their 
turning yellow from the intensity of the summer sun. 
They certainly are of a dark green, but do not to me 
look healthy in other respects, being rather drawn and 
thin of wood. In the neighbourhood of Copenhag 
we much miss the gardens of Hamburgh ; the best T 
have seen are a few of those on the road to the Thier- 
garten, to the north of the town, a beautiful situation 
on the shores of the Sound, with the Swedish Coast op- 
posite ; but these contain little but lawns, shrubberries, 
groups of trees, and winding walks, very few Roses, and 
scarcely any flower-beds ; as a necessary consequence: 
of this little taste shown for gardens, the nursery gar- 
dens are but few, and of small importance. The varie- 
ties of Fuehsias, Caleeolarias, Gloxinias, Achimenes, 
&c., in the royal houses at Rosenberg, &c., were all ob- 
tained through Booths, of Flotbeck. Fruit does not 
seem so plentiful here as at Hamburgh, excepting 
Strawberries, with which, as well as with vegetables; 
the town is chiefly supplied from the isle of Amaga to. 
the south of Copenhagen. The pleasure-grounds at- 
tached to the royal palaces, and, as usual on the Conti- 
nent, open to the publie, are generally thick plantations 
of wood, intersected by broad winding walks, and in- 
terspersed with open glades of Grass and pieces of water, 
and in hot weather they are very agreeable cool walks, 
but with a great want of flowers. The Thiergarten is a 
very fine park, full of beautiful Beeches, in many parts 
yery well grouped, and on undulating ground, instead 
of the dead flat of a great part of Denmark ; all it 
wants is a good road to it, and easy drives through it, 
but the former is either a bad pavement or mud-holes, 
and the drives heavy sand. Of the country, all I have 
seen is what lies between this and Friedrieksborg, 
about 18 miles to the north-west. The road, which is 
very good, erosses an opén and undulating country; 
generally richl ltivated; though i d with 
peat-bogs, small lakes, and a few woods ; one extensive 
inelosed wood contains a great many very fine Beeches. 
The crops are everywhere very good; the hay is a 
great part of it got in ; the Rye, which is the prineipal 
crop, is everywhere turning colour, and in some places 
just ready to cut. The Barley and Oats, just coming 
into flower, are very much finer than in Holstein ; so 
are generally the Potatoes, I cannot learn that any 
disease has shown itself yet this year, though it was as 
bad here as anywhere last year. ‘The peasants com- 
plain (as I am told) that the early-planted Potatoes 
rotted a good deal in the ground, but they say that all 
the late-planted fields come up as well, and look as pro- 
mising as ever they saw them. Besides the crops Í 
liave mentioned, I have seen a few fields of Vetches, 
and of red or white Clover, but not a single field of 
Wheat. 
Hocieties. 
ROYAL SOUTH LONDON FLORICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 
July 22.—This, the Fourra ExnrBrTION for the season, tool 
place in the Surrey Zoological Gardens, an numerously 
attended, The Show itself was a fair one for July. There 
were five collections of 18 Miscellaneous plants, many of them 
not at all remarkable for either fine growth or bloom, That 
to which the first prize was awarded was contributed by Mr. 
cathartica, a large plant finely in bloom ; Clerodendron fallax, : 
with numerous gaudy flower-spikes, and the san 
merly exhibited of Pheenocoma prolifera, Kalosanth 
a fine little Hoya carnosa, together with the sam a] 
eximium exhibited atthe last Chiswick gathering, but, this timer 
in better condition; Euphorbia splendens; and other smaller 
plants, Mr. Young, of Camberwell, was third. In this group 
the most remarkable plants were the sweet-smelling Stepha- 
sufficiently in bloom, and other species of the same 
rom Mr. Faire 
, Petunias, 
wo collections of 10 MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS were P 
e 
i 
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