614 
THE GARDENERS' 
CHRONIGCLE. 
[Sgrr. 12, 
dissolved, put the juice into a stewpan, or clean sauce- | 
pan, and boil it till quite thick. The proof that it is 
thick enough is to put a little on a plate, and if, on 
gently inclining it, the juice adheres, and does not run, 
it is boiled enough. Put it in preserving pots. Moisten 
some very thin paper with good salad oil, the smallest 
quantity possible, then tie them down and keep them in 
a place which is airy and light, but not damp. The 
above rob is excellent in colds, coughs, sore throats, 
fevers, and is said to be a specific for the erysipelas,— 
A, B. 
Immediate Remedy for the Stings of Wasps, after ex- 
tracting the Sting.—Put two or three drops of lau- 
danum into a spoon, and scrape washerwoman’s stone- 
blue into it till it is as thick as cream ; apply this with 
the finger to the part stung, and the pain will instantly 
cease, and the swelling soon go down. The writer has 
tried this and has found it effectual.— Anon. 
Lawns.—To destroy Plantain and other weeds, I have 
found that a common stake, eut wedge-like to a sharp 
edge, about 1-inch wide, is more effectual than a spud. 
‘The spud cuts through the root; the stake, with a 
smart thrust, breaks off a considerable portion of it, 
and with less injury to the lawn.— Experto crede. 
Chickens hatched by a Partridge.—On an estate in 
the parish of Baddingham, in Suffolk, in June of this 
year, a French Partridge’s nest was found with 14 
partridge’s eggs and 4 hen’s eggs in it, and the broken 
shell of a fifth hen’s egg. The following day the nest 
was again visited, the 14 partridges and the 4 hen’s 
eggs were still there. This day the eggs were found to 
be cold, and it was supposed, therefore, that the eggs 
were forsaken. They were visited again on the third 
day and still found to be cold ; the hen’s eggs were then 
broken, They were on the point of being hatched, as 
the beaks of the little chickens had all pierced through 
They were, however, then all dead. The 
partridge’s eggs were then tried, and were within a few 
days of being hatched, but without life. The pair of 
old birds have frequently been seen about since with 
the chicken, the latter endeavouring to follow the old 
birds as well as it could, but making a very poor 
attempt at a long flight, something between a run and 
a fly, but still considering the old birds its natural 
parts, and looking to them for protection as well as 
maintenance, Is this a sufficiently curious occurrence 
to justify the expense of stuffing the chicken when full 
grown, if it can be got at then? it is at present wild. 
This occurred near a farmhouse, where hens are kept. 
It is supposed the partridges must have left the nest 
the day it was first noticed, — Anonymous, Woodbridge. 
Weights of fine Specimens of Peaches and Grapes.— 
I enn vouch for the size and flavour of the undermen- 
tion'd, and have no doubt whatever that the weights 
sent are correct, though I did not see them weighed, 
Mr. James, gardener’ to Lloyd Hesketh Bamford 
Hesketh, Esq., of Georych Castle, Abergele, produced 
12 Peaches out of the Peach house, that weighed 6 Ib. 
4 oz. avoirdupois. One of the 12 weighed 11 oz., 
another 9 oz.; one bunch of black Hamburgh Grapes 
weighed bs., another 41 Ibs., another 4 lbs., another 
34 lbs., and the least of eight 23 lbs. The berries fine, 
not too thick or too thin, with a splendid prospect next 
year for both Vines and Wall trees—J. B. H., Aber- 
gele, Sept. 3. 
Effect of Slacked Lime on Potatoes. — Enquiry 
having been made as to the result of the experiments 
made at Chatsworth with slacked lime in staying the 
Potato disease, Mr. Paxton has been kind enough to 
favour us with the following reply :—Dipping in hot 
slacked lime completely stops the disease. I planted 
the diseased tubers with the coating of lime upon them 
in the usual way, and they have produced as fine a crop 
as the sound se-d near which they were grown; they 
showed no signs whatever of disease until it became 
al, when they were affected like the rest. That 
ked lime at once stops the disease in the tubers 
is certain, and also that these diseased tubers will pro- 
duce a good crop ; but their produce is alike under the 
influence of the mysterious causes of the disease. I 
intend performing the same operation as before, with 
my sets this year, hoping a season may come when we 
shall have no occasion for such practices, but really the 
aspect of affairs at present is not very flattering to its 
consummation.—Joseph Paxton, Chatsworth, Sept. 9. 
Preservation of Potatoes.—When some of these were 
raised the latter end of last month, a portion of those 
in which decay had commenced were steeped for 24 
hours in chloride of lime and water, one pint of the 
former to 5 gallons of water: this plan I tried with 
several successive lots for four or five days ; they have 
since bee read out on a dry floor., The decay has 
not been ested, and they remain mouldy, and become 
worse, Another lot, which were in the same condition 
when got up, viz., partly decayed, I plunged into lime 
wash, using 28 lbs. of lime to 12 gallons of water, plac- 
ing the Potatoes in a riddle, and dipping them in the 
wash, so as to immerse them: they have since, about 
10 days, been spread also on a dry floor; this treatment 
has proved successful ; the decay has been arrested, ap- 
parently dried up, and some have been cooked, cutting 
out the original decay, perfectly well. Both the above 
plans were suggested by your pages, though not in the 
same proportion. The crop of Potatoes here has not 
been so deficient in quality asin quantity ; the Potatoes 
also being very small. Those which I have, I doubt 
not, I shall preserve by the system I adopted with per- 
fect success last year, viz., drying them thoroughly on 
a floor, then packing them with dry sand, so as’ not to 
touch each other. I may add, that last November I 
planted some diseased sets, which produced a good crop, 
which were raised during the summer ; another lot 
from eyes, which were cut out of Potatoes by scoops, 
such as recommended by Dr. Playfair, and planted in 
this spring, did not at all succeed.—G. Rushout, 
Burford. 
Effect of Pulling up Potato Haulm. — My late 
planted early Potatoes have been so much affected by 
the disease that every one is rotten and gone. 
pulled the tops of part of them with the view of arrest- 
ing the murrain, but it had no good effect whatever. 
The disease is very bad in Anglesey, and the prevailing 
opinion among farmers is that in a few months not a 
Potato will be in the county, and judging from the state 
of the crop I should say they are right.—C. Ewing, 
Bodorgan. 
The Chellaston Seedling Tulips.—From the pro- 
minent manner in which these seedlings have been 
brought be- 
fore the pub- í 
lie, it may 
Mia Vr doy Form of a7good Tulip. 
a few words 
upon them, 
and having 
seen them in 
bloom twice 
last season, 
Iam the bet- 
ter able to 
offer an opi- 
nion. What 
constitutes a good Tulip? I answer shape and 
ottom. Now Lask anybody who is a judge of the 
flower, if on 
whose shape is 
thus at the bot- 
tom is first-rate ? 
Now nearly all 
these seedlings are 
of this shape, and 
upon referring to 
my notes made on 
the spot, I find 
that there is few 
above a dozen that 
T haye selected as 
worthy of notice ; 
but some being in 
the breeder, and some broken flowers, probably some of 
these may have two names, as for example, Princess 
Royal when feathered is called Maid of Orleans by 
Gibbons, and Princess Royal is entered in his book as 
follows: No. 43 breaks into No. 18, and No. 18 is 
Princess Royal. It is said the raiser gave over num- 
bering when he got to upwards of 350. It was high 
time, for three-fourths of the seedlings had bad bot- 
toms, as well as shape, and no first-rate grower would 
have tolerated them at all. No florist has caused 
greater mischief than the raiser of these seedlings. The 
few that are good have been numbered and named by 
him at least three times, and I cannot tell for what pur- 
pose, unless it is to prevent early purchasers from sell- 
ing. Last year I know that five individuals were the 
principal holders of his breeders in numbers, and if he 
had any desire in him to set them right, how easy 
would it have been for him to have written or got 
printed a list of those which were good that he had 
named from the numbers. I know parties who have 
applied twice for the names of various numbers, which 
application has been treated with silence. I ean only 
say that I possess about 500 roots, in 10 or 12 varie- 
ties, and will give them a name next year, if I can- 
not obtain the names from the raiser. There is also 
another fault in these Tulips, the pericarpium of nearly 
all rises from half an inch to three quarters of an inch 
above the filaments or stamens, which is a great fault 
ina Tulip. The filaments or stamens ought to rise 
above the pericarpium for a Tulip to be perfect in the 
inside, and I consider the inside ought to be looked at as 
well as the outside, What does a florist say when he 
sees a, pin-eyed Polyanthus ?—Whatever its other pro- 
perties may be, it is good for nothing ; and is it nota 
great fault for the pericarpium to stand out from the 
other parts ? The two of the best of these seedlings are 
Britannia and Grace Darling ; they will probably re- 
tain their places when the others will be forgotten and 
discarded.—John Slater, Florist, Cheetham-hill, near 
Manchester, Aug. 19. 
Climate of the Undercliff.—In a late tour round the 
Isle of Wight, I was much struck at Ventnor with a 
proof of the comparative mildness of the climate. Under 
the verandah of the Ventnor hotel, which projects about 
5 feet, with a sloped roof, is nailed against the wall of 
the hotel a plant of the Ivy-leaved Pelargonium (pelta- 
tum), covering a space of about 5 feet high, by 4 feet 
broad, or 20 square feet, of most luxuriant growth, 
crowded with large dark-green leaves, without an 
aphis upon them, and which, when in flower, as it 
shortly will be, must present a superb display. This 
plant, Mr. Ryles, the landlord, informed me has been 
planted four or five years, and has never received any 
injury from the frost in winter, from which its 
only protection has been the roof of the open verandah. 
But another fact with respect to this plant, and 
perhaps as remarkable, is that Mr. Ryles also 
© 
The general form of the 
Chellaston Seedlings. 
assured me that it has never had a drop of water 
given to it since it was planted; so that as the wall of 
the house against which it is nailed, goes deep into the 
ground on account of the cellar, and as the 5 feet wide 
floor of the verandah, besides being paved with flag- 
stones, leaving only a very small space for its stem, 18 
protected from all rain by the slated roof, the roots 
of the Pelargonium must either extend more than 
5 feet, or beyond the edge of this floor, in order to 
obtain the necessary supply of moisture, or must be 
content with what may be supposed to find its way to 
them, during heavy rains, from the adjoining lawn, 
which as this rather declines from the verandah must 
be small, unless, as is no doubt possible, its quantity be 
influenced by some peculiar sponginess of the sand- 
stone rock below. In any ease, the perfect security of 
this plant from frost seems to furnish one more to the 
many proofs of the great importance to this end of as 
little moisture being allowed the roots as possible, and 
in this view the fact may be worth recording.— 
W. Spence, Southampton, Sept. 7 
—— 
Foreign Correspondence. 
St. Petersburgh, August 11.—Much as I had heard 
of the Peterhoff gardens and waterworks, I have cer- 
tainly not been disappointed in their beauty, though the 
situation and arrangement are so different from what I 
expected. Peterhoff and Oranienboum, at the distance 
of four or five miles from each other, lie upon the only 
rising ground on the south shore of that portion of the 
Gulf of Finland which lies between Cronstadt and St. 
Petersburgh—a broad inland lake as it were, which as 
seen from Peterhoff is almost as much closed in to the 
west by the long island and dense mass of shipping at 
Cronstadt, as by the distant spires and larger buildings 
of Petersburgh to the east, and the long, low, dark line 
of the Finland coast to the north. As you land from 
any of the numerous steamers which ply from the capi- 
tal to Peterhoff, you immediately enter the lower gar- 
den where the waterworks are, and soon ascend to a 
terrace road open to the publie, on the edge of the hill 
or bank, and running along the long front of the palace. 
Immediately behind the palace is the enclosed upper 
garden, where a band of musie plays in the evening, 
and which is then the great resort of the publie; be- 
hind that again are detached buildings, and streets con- 
taining either crown houses, inhabited by the officers of 
the court, or private houses constituting the town itself, 
and almost in the midst of them is the upper lake, with 
two islands laid out as Italian gardens. To the west- 
ward of the whole extend to a great distance the 
grounds belonging to the palace, the Park and 
the Jardin Anglais, in which is a handsome 
building destined for the diplomatie corps. This mix- 
ture of palace and out-buildings with the town and 
private residences, and with formal Louis XIV. gardens, 
grounds in the English style, and Italian villas, and (at 
present) with the white tents of the Circassian regiment's 
camp, does’ not sound well, but in fact we thought it 
beautiful. The houses all neat, and painted white or 
yellowish, with here and there a green or red roof, or 
green or silver domes to the churches, the drives beau- 
tifully kept, the trees and shrubs in all the luxuriance 
of their summer verdure, a bright sun and brilliant sky, - 
and numerous holiday folks enjoying their Sunday 
afternoons in the cool shade, or amongst the numerous 
fountains close around the Palace, where every now and 
then some of the imperial family might be seen at the 
open windows, is a sight I shall not soon forget. What- 
ever may be the strictness of etiquette on formal occa- 
sions, there certainly is no appearance of guarding the 
reigning family against the intrusion of the public, nor 
anything like rude intrusion of the public upon their 
Sovereign or his family, for the purpose of staring 
at them, P 
The lower garden, where the water-works are, is laid 
out very much in the French style with formal allées, 
circles, canals, basins, fountains, grottoes, &c., but with 
a great deal of taste, and good advantage taken of the: 
accidents of the ground. There arenosuch large basins 
full of fountains, as one or two of the grandes eauc at 
Versailles, but on the whole the waterworks appear finer, 
the high fountains (as far as I recollect) are more nu- 
merous, and one can see a far greater number playing 
at the same time, and continuing much longer than at 
Versailles, the supply of water, so essential an item, 
being so much more considerable ; and I think the dis- 
tribution of the water generally shows more taste. The 
palace is a low one, but looks well from its position. 
The upper garden also, in the French style, is a goo 
public promenade amongst shady allées ; but the orna- 
mental grounds and Park, in which every advantage is 
taken of the undulations of the ground and of the water” 
are really beautiful. The extensive drives, chiefly stake 
out by the Emperor himself, show great taste, taking 
advantage of many fine vistas, and all are kept in beau- 
tifal order, But what we admired perhaps the most d 
any was the Italian island in the upper lake. „A ae 
island in a-small lake, with a bright white Italian villa. 
and small shrubs and young trees did not promise 80 
well when we first saw it at a distance, but when we 
came into it, we could not but be struck with the very 
ment of the statues, 
with the admixture of 
itself. j P 
villa and garden has just been made, and is scarcely ye 
finished enough to judge, but promises to be Bi 
inferior to the Italian one, All that is wanting re 
the whole place is here and there the exclusion of som: 
structure rather trumpery, and some of the drives are» 
