THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
(Ocr. 28, 
lable quantity 0’ carbonic acid gas that lies dormant in 
the chalky districts o’ England. Noo, we are informed 
by folk that should ken weel about kintra affairs, that in 
weel-drained land the mair organic matter there is in the 
soil the warmer it is ; and if the soil can be better warmed 
than it is at present, nae doubt some o’ our crops will be 
sooner ready, and others will produce mair ; and if mair 
carbonic acid gas and humus were added to the soil, there 
is nae saying how big some things would grow. But Lie- 
big says that a’ the carbonic acid gas that plants require 
is derived from the atmosphere ; but it is generally allowed 
that it is the means o’ strengthening the timbers o’ vege- 
tation, by supplying it wi’ carbon ; but plants in general 
are none the worse of a wee thing of it at their roots 
besides what they may get frae the atmosphere, and then 
they are sure 0’t, for we are whiles ready to imagine that 
one cause produces an effect that is, maybe, brought about 
by a great number 0’ causes ; so it might not be the best 
thing at a’ times to trust ower muckle to the atmosphere 
in supplying the wants 0’ our vegetable productions, for 
plants soon turn unco dwylie wken they want carbon, just 
something like bones that hae been steeped in muriatic 
acid, one may turn them round his finger. But I am 
wandering awa frae peat. But although peat may hae 
mony gude qualities, care should be taken baith respect- 
ing the quantity and the quality that is used; some will 
lay it their ground as thick as if they were going to 
an erican garden, and to plant it wi’ a’ the hardy 
ecies of Erica, and if it be but partly decomposed, and 
containing a Ymixture o” théseeds 0’ Polygonum avicn- 
lare and Rumex aeetosella, there will soon be an outcry 
about the evil properties o’ peat, and no ae word about 
their own ignorance ; but peat should commonly be 
rejected whit. Cryptogamic Botanists can tell whether the 
thecee 0’ mosses that compose the peat hae double teeth 
or single teeth, or nae teeth ava. Noo there is mony a 
part o’,England that would be a great deal the better 0’ a 
mixture o’ humus and carb: cid gas, and as for the 
former, there may be plenty of it had in the shires 0’ 
Lingoln, Northampton, Huntington, Norfolk, and Cam- 
besides what may be had in the northern counties 
id ; and as for the latter, there is nae scarcity of 
hires o’ Berks and Bedford, Hants, Wilts, and 
des mony other places that might be men- 
e green sand o’ Surrey, the weald clay o’ Kent, 
red sand o’ Somersetshire, the greywacke 0” 
nd the soils 0’ other geological formation, might 
greatly improved by them; but some will be asking 
@re we to obtain them? Nae doubt some places 
ae to wait a wee; but a time will come when they 
will be more spread over the kintra: there are already 
aysvand ice railways, and the time will 
at railway trains and chalk rail- 
way trains, con - these useful materials to where 
they are wanted, and it may turn out in the end to be far 
better to use the inexhaustible treasures of our own land 
in improving the soil and its produce than sending learned 
men awa to Spain to look for food for British plants, or 
even bringing henpen across the Atlantic ; but these are 
subjects on which ane like me maun speak warily, and 
leave it for others to judge who have had mair experience 
in the matter than—A Muirland Gardener. 
Orchard Curiosity.—(High Bentham, Yorkshire.)— 
There is now growing in the orchard of Mr. Richard Ray 
an Apple-tree in full bloom, being the second time this 
season ; two Apples also of the first crop are still hanging’; 
and what, perhaps, may add a little to the rarity is, Mr. 
Ray has in his possession, from the same tree, fruit of 
the last year’s growth in a state of preservation.— Facile, 
Swallows.—A friend of mine, who some years ago had 
the same quarrel with house martins as your correspondent 
“*S. W.,” found that he could effectually counteract their 
building speculations by rubbing the corners of his win- 
dows, &c. with soap. A thin coating of soft soap, 
besides being offensive in its smell, renders the founda- 
tion too slippery for the swallows to build upon; but 
soap wil] remove paint, and may be otherwise objection. 
able. It is, however, the only remedy that I have ever 
met with. Whatever plan your friend may adopt, I do 
ae 
High the swallow found a nest for herself where she might 
lay her young.’”’—A Subscriber, 
Planting.—In a late Number is an article by a cor- 
respondent with a Greek signature, on the subject of 
Planting, which in many respects is highly gratifying, and 
cannot fail to yield pleasure to any mind anxious to. see 
the barren wastes of our country clothed and ornamented 
with thriving plantations, Had I accompanied your 
correspondent in his morning’s ride, my gratification 
would probably have equalled his. At the same time I 
should have been rather cautious in attributing so much 
of the pleasing result to an operation which I have seen 
so much reason to deprecate and condemn, but which our 
Greek-named friend seems to consider is essential to 
success—I mean “ Pruning;’’ nevertheless, according to 
the description given of the mode of operation pursued 
by Dr. Thackeray, it is much more rational and far less 
injurious than the wholesale haggling too much practised 
and recommended by others. Many apparently plausible 
things have been said and written in favour of pruning 
which, when attempted to be carried into practice, have 
resulted only in mischief: some I well remember followed 
on the publication of Pontey’s ‘Forest Pruner.’ It 
may be remembered that in several of the articles I have 
sent you in deprecation of pruning, I at once admitted 
that, so far as merely giving a direction to a young tree, 
the practice is commendable, but no further, and no in- 
strument at all beyond a knife should ever be applied with 
that view. I also feel no objection to the practice of Mr. 
Thackeray’s woodman in leaving the strongest shoot, al- 
though its direction may not be perpendicular; in a 
thriving tree it will soon assume the upright. My only 
fear is, and my only reason for writing this is, to caution 
planters against carrying the practice too far by continu- 
ing it after it should be entirely laid aside ; for there is a 
mistaken tendency that way, far too prevalent among us. 
There seems a discrepancy in your correspondent’s de- 
scription of the original poverty of the soil and the luxu- 
riance of the vegetation ; that, however, it is not my 
business to reconcile ; but, are we to infer that it arises 
from the judicious management of the woods ?— Quercus. 
One-Shift System of Poltling.—Having been particu- 
larly interested in this system of potting, I procured in 
the spring some plants of the following kinds, viz., Eri- 
cas, Dillwynias, Boronias, Epacrises, and Lachneas. 
A friend being anxious to ascertain the progress the roots 
had made, induced me to turn some of the plants out of 
their pots, when I found that scarcely any roots had spread 
laterally through the ball of earth, but that they had run 
down vertically; and clung with the greatest tenacity to 
the sides of the inverted part, and even had penetrated 
through the hole in its bottom, so much so as almost to 
have filled the pot ; and yet the plants are healthy. As 
Iam not the only one interested in this fact, perhaps 
Mr. Wood, who has written so much recently on the 
system, will be kind enough to give his opinion on the 
point.—C. 
Hops.—I inclose for your examination a specimen of 
another /usus, the male and female Hop on the same 
plant. This was found in a Hop-ground at Farnbam, and 
was brought me this morning by Mr. Lance, of Black- 
water.— Alas. 
Begonia Evansiana: Hardy.—I send you herewith a 
leaf and flower of one of my plants which has been grow- 
ing now for several years in the open ground, from which 
I have never removed it, It has blossomed much better 
this year than it ever did ; the flowers are larger and of a 
much deeper colour than those of the parent plant, which 
I keep in the greenhouse in winter, and in my parlour in 
summer, till the leaves and stems fall off.—J. B., Killan- 
ley Glebe, Ballina. 
Bees.—The accounts of Bees in your Paper are curious 
and interesting. I beg to give you a fact mentioned 
to me a few days ago by a neighbour. His Bees did not 
swarm all this year, (nor did mine,) but seemed quite in- 
active, spreading themselves out on the hive and the 
wall against which it stood. He rightly judged that there 
was no further room for their labours in their hive, an 
he placed beside it a new hive, to which they almost 
immediately resorted, and in which they built largely. 
After the lapse of a month or more, conceiving they had 
letely established themselves in their new hive, he 
hope he will allow the swallows as much ion 
as he possibly can. They are eminently useful. In 
gathering their ‘‘ appointed food,’ they certainly keep 
within bounds insect tribes, whose grubs would prove a 
terrible scourge both to garden and field. But even were 
the swallow useless—which none of God’s creatures are, 
who would not love the confiding cheerful bird that nestles 
under our roofs, as if assured of a welcome? For my 
part, I should be glad if ‘*S. W.’” or any other W. of 
your acquaintance could tell me how I may induce 
Swallows to build with me. Ina house which I occupied 
some years ago, I had a nest in my bed-room window. 
The old lady who was tenant before me sent to say, that 
she hoped I would not eject ‘ her swallows.” They 
lived and multiplied unmolested, and rewarded me for my 
protection by awakening me betimes every morning by 
their blithesome and business-like twittering. In all 
nations indeed the swallow has ever been, and must be, 
an especial favourite ; inseparably associated as its pre- 
Sence is with sunny skies, and all that is loveliest and 
most interesting in creation. Virgil, it ig true, accuses 
it of devouring bees, but every one knows that to be im- 
possible. And Anacreon complains of its disturbing his 
late and maudlin slumbers, But in what joyous and 
pouine ae has it been sung by other poets of every 
me and tongue! Above and beyond them all, ‘* the 
rétioved jt to a distant stand, secure of a new colony. 
After some days, seeing no resort of Bees attending it, he 
raised the hive, and found to his astonishment, that not a 
single Bee was there!—though there was a fine supply of 
wax, and the greater part filled with excellent honey.— 
J. B., Killanley Glebe, Ballina, 
Bokhara Clover.—The seed I send with this note came 
into my possession about eighteen months ago, having 
been given to me by a friend, who stated it to be Cabool 
Lucerne. I sowed it in April, 1842; it grew to about 
three feet high in the autumn, but showed no seed. I cut 
it, dried it, and gave it to my horses ; they ate it equally 
well dry as green. In January, 1843, I gave it a good 
coat of ashes, and let it stand for seed ; about the beginning 
of August it had grown to ten feet high, and was covered 
with the white flower I now send you; and in the end of 
September part of the seed was ripe, when I cut it and 
beat it out by the hand. Having procured a quantity of 
Cabool Lucerne seed from the Botanical Garden a 
Saharunpoor, and also from the India House, I eee 
surprised to find it totally different from what I had » Ne 
obtained from my friend, having shown a flower precisely 
the same as our English Lucerne. I send you some of the 
stalks with the flower, and also the seed in them. The 
stubble appears to be dead, but I do not intend to meddle 
his is the Meli- 
Clover. 
Dodder.—If left to itself is likely to become a formid- 
able pest, but may be much easier destroyed by an appli- 
cation of undiluted gas-water, or a solution of salt strong 
enough to destroy vitality in seeds or vegetation for the 
time being, than by burning or other methods recom- 
mended.—J. M.S. 
Luminous Planits.—Since my last communication I 
have obtained some specimens of Schistostega pennata 
from the herbarium of my friend, Mr. Edwin Quekett. 
I have in vain looked for crystals in the structure of this 
moss. Mr. Quekett says in a note, ‘‘I cannot find any 
erystals, nor do the plants look at all sparkling to the eye, 
which they would do even after being dried, if their lumi- 
nous character depended on the facets of the crystals re- 
flecting light.” Professor Lloyd was probably misled by 
some of the particles of rock or sand on which these plants 
grow having got under the field of his microscope. In the 
specimens I have examined, it is difficult to form an 
opinion with regard to the explanation of the y 
as given by Unger, as the fructification is quitedry. The 
want of any luminous character in the dried specimens is 
quite consistent with Unger’s statement, that it arises 
from the vesicular character of the fruit at a particular 
period of its growth.—E, Lankester. 
Plans for Flower-Gardens.—There having been some 
inquiries respecting books containing plans of gardens, I 
think it may be of service to state that ‘* Loudon’s Gar- 
dener’s Magazine”’ for the present year contains 15 plans 
for Flower-gardens, viz., in the numbers for February, 
April, May, June, July, August, September, and October. 
There is also some information respecting planting them. 
In the ‘‘ Suburban Gardener’’ there are 7 plans for Flower- 
gardens, besides many for small ones, and much discus- 
sion on the subject. In the ‘* Arboretum Britannicum’’ 
of the same author will be found plans for Rosariums, 
American Gardens, Ericetums, &c.— W. Ambrose, 
Gardener to Thomas Mashiter, Esq., Hornchurch, 
Rats.—I have to thank an ‘ Irishman” for his recipe 
for ‘‘attracting’’ these vermin, but he appears to have 
overlooked my peculiar case, which was, that I no sooner 
destroyed one set than another quickly succeeded to commit 
the same depredations, from the facility afforded them by the 
drain running through the garden. My object was not so 
much to destroy as to keep them out, and I think I have 
quite succeeded in my wishes by adopting the following 
plan :—At each end of the drain we placed what is here 
called a “ Rat’’ or “Stink’’ trap, as it answers either pur- 
pose equally well; ‘it is thus constructed: a large pit is 
sunk considerably below the bottom of the drain, and in 
this pit, about half its depth down, is placed a slate or 
‘stone in a perpendicular position; the bottom being well 
cemented holds water, and the slate is thus immersed in 
it. Therat is thus stopped in his journey up or down the 
drain, and finds himself in deep water quickly, and with 
a barrier before him which is impassable. I have never 
found any to dive under the slate and rise on the other 
side, neither do I think it probable they ever do so ; some 
few rats that happened to be in the drain during the time 
occupied in making the traps speedily found their way 
through the mould of the garden again ; these we quickly 
disposed of by nux vomica, mixed with fish, of which they 
are exceedingly fond. If I am not sufficiently understood 
in the formation of the trap, the annexed section will 
perhaps render me intelligible. The slate of course stops 
the drain entirely, except the space immediately under it. 
SLATE 
THE DRAIN 
BOTTOM OF 
A,—Pit always filled with water, being below the bottom 
of the drain.—Devoniensis. 
Swallows.—In reply to your correspondent at p. 721, I 
can confidently state that swallows may be prevented build- 
ing under the eaves of houses by common twine netting, 
which is easily removed at the period of migration.— 
N.S. H., Bury St. Edmond's. 
Dahlias.—If © A Subscriber’? will state the names of 
the Dahlias with which he succeeded last season, and the 
names of those that have failed this year,—together with 
the locality, some of your correspondents might be enabled 
to offer such observations as may possibly give him the 
information he desires. Without this information any 
remarks would be speculative.— 7’. C. W. 
_ Weeds in Ponds.—I beg to inform ‘ Aliquis’” that I 
nave a pond of 1r. 13 p., which has been for the greater 
part of the summer covered nearly all over with weeds, 
and had so unpleasant an appearance that 1 determined to 
fill it up, I had four ducks about my grounds, and occa- 
sionally on ‘the pond ; about a month ago they attacked 
the weeds ; in about a fortnight they had cleared them all 
from the surface of the water, and will now probably 
keep them out of sight. I must not conceal that my ducks 
have been very troublesome. I purchased them under 
the belief that they would benefit my garden by eating 
caterpillars, grubs, and snails; but I do not perceive that 
they have rendered me much assistance in that way, 
