oy (iain 
1843.) 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
21 
the beds for early crops 5 
Celery can be produced, as single rows require to be 
grown 4 ft. apart, while three rows are by this plan 
grown in 8 ft.; thirdly, the Celery having a greater quan- 
tity of healthy pabulum for the roots to work in than 
it. would have in single trenches, attains a larger size, and 
is much superior in quality; fourthly, the mass of vege- 
table matter added to the soil Prepares it admirably for 
tap-rooted vegetables in the following seasons 3 and Sthly, 
by the manure for the Celery being prepared in the beds, 
the nuisance of wheeling manure on the walks after they 
are turned for the season is avoided. Indeed, by proper 
Management, no garden ought to require dung to be 
wheeled into it from the time the walks are turned until 
the following winter. 
I generally sow my Celery ground in the second year 
with Carrots, Parsneps, Beet, and other edible-rooted 
plants without manure ; in the third year, Cabbage well 
secondly, a greater quantity of 
into six equal compartments, the rotation of crops is re- 
duced to a regular system, and each crop is six years be- 
fore it again comes to the same place. By a little manage- 
AMATEURS’ GARDEN, No. Il. 
_ THe principal requisite in preserving tender plants 
in cold pits or frames through the winter is, to keep 
them dormant from the end of October until the end of 
February; for as the growth of a plant depends more upon 
heat and’ moisture than upon other agents of healthful 
it is obvious that the more cool and dry plants 
ate kept, provided they do not suffer from an excess of 
either cold or drought, the more likely are we to be suc- 
cessful in their preservation. For this reason both the 
Plants and pits should be kept dry, by placing the pots on 
Some material, such as dry ashes, that will absorb mois- 
they are kept closel d i 
y covered until they are thorough! 
but Stadually thawed. y 
absorbs the heat 
t 1 
be procured from wastes, rivers, and brooks. This pro- 
vision appears to be omitted in the 5th and 6th Wm. IV., 
ch. 50; but might, I think, be re-enacted with advantage ; 
and, if vigorously enforced, would tend much to remove 
what is now generally admitted to be the greatest impe- 
diment to the agricultural improvement of the country.— 
An Old Subscriber.——With reference to your sugges- 
tion of a General Drainage Act, in a leading article, 
which advocates a, measure of the highest importance and 
public utility, I beg leave to observe that it would be of 
much consequence to many were some steps taken to 
prevent the use of mills, or the making pond-heads to work 
mills, when the stream is so sluggish or its fall so little as 
to make that necessary ; because this cannot and never is 
done without great injury to the land adjoining and above 
the pond-head ; such preventing its proper drainage by 
the natural stream adjoining. How the means are to be 
procured to buy up the interest of those now having mills 
on such streams, and the right to the use of the water 
thereof, is more than I can suggest; but I cannot help 
thinking that it would be a fit subject for the considera- 
tion of any one who would give his attention to a General 
Drainage Act, as suggested by you; inasmuch as by wind, 
or by steam, the wheels of some such mills might be 
worked, or substitutes for them, instead of by running 
water; and in such cases as have alluded 10 above, the 
mills in use at present necessarily occasion injury to other 
property.—B. C. H, 
Gardeners’ Socicties.—As these are institutions which, 
when properly conducted, are calculated to be of inesti- 
mable advantage to the rising generation of gardeners, I 
am happy to find that two new institutions are springing 
up in the neighbourhood of London, and in parts where, 
if the gardeners are so disposed, they may be well sup- 
ported. If, however, there is one thing more than another 
calculated to militate against the prosperity and respecta- 
bility of such gatherings, it is the practice of holding the 
meetings in public-houses ; for no matter whether liquor 
be prohibited or not during the hours of meeting, it is 
Sure to be indulged in afterwards, and when members 
become pot-valiant they are apt to ridicule or jeer at 
statements which in the room they had not the courage to 
combat. The consequence is, it creates ill-feeling and 
jealousy, deters young members from taking any part in 
future debates, and not unfrequently leads to those bicker. 
ings which are anything but creditable to either in- 
dividuals or societies. Thus, i 
Far be it from 
my wish to raise a prejudice against the society; but this 
T willsay, and I speak from no very limited experience, 
that the respectability and utility of all societies of this 
kind will be much augmented if the meetings are wholly 
with ic-h So convinced were the 
+,0M the pit, and gives it off again to the i 3 but 
if it is raised 1 inch above the glass, it repels the radiant 
eat, and thus a stratum of confined air is generated, 
Which forms an excellent protecting medium. For this 
Teason, wooden shutters, frames thatched with straw, 
an tProot Canvass, or tarpauling, are superior to mats ; 
Ge neue the necessity, when extra covering is required, 
Ae ‘acing it above and not between the usual covering and 
glass, 
Plants 
actual nee 
28 possible, 
be desi 
id 
habit, Should the nights become very severe, it will be a 
fo aet to place the plants under a table, surrounded 
g 
eat a stone jar or two of hot 
in T may be placed amongst them at the time of retir- 
8 for the night 
In the 
nd of February. If the Peas and Beans sown 
Must by mber appear above ground, a second crop of each 
one ee Put in at the first favourable opportunity ; but if 
Without denon” at that time a crop of each must be got in 
e 80 dj 
m: Wn on ai dry warm border sloping to the south, and 
ay be >. : a 
in Nove, 
Ne 
Prot 
up, Brean ected 
Cucumbers 
are q 
P, Hyp ageey should be watered when turned over.— HW”, 
ee —— | 
HOME CORRESPONDENCE. | 
| 
Drain; 
Beneral dregiase” furtherance of your views respecting a 
Attention tone of the country, permit me to direct your 
Act 5 and 6 Wm 
mine within their respective districts. This 
ete, the consequence is that 
ts for the conveyance of water from 
Ss > 
* Passage of the water is by these 
Prevented, By the 13th Geo. III., ch. 78, ee 
heat from taking materials from enclosed 
88 they could show that there were none to 
I 
projectors of the ‘* West London Gardeners’ Association ”” 
In the excitement of debate uncivil ex- 
pressions will escape even from the most guarded; but 
one rebuke from the chairman or an influential member 
will do more towards checking such conduct in future 
than fifty fines. I can speak feelingly on this subject ; for 
I once experienced such a rebuke for an improper ex- 
pression, that I would willingly have given my whole 
week’s wages to have escaped. While I fully accord with 
Mr. Peter Mackenzie in what he has advanced respecting 
the “dissipation of gardeners,’’ and would avoid a 
drunken one as much as J would a contagious disease, I 
cannot agree with him, that they should be thrown on the 
world as outcasts, or monsters which ought to be avoided, 
No; the spirit of philanthropy and benevolence, on which 
all societies for mutual instruction ought to be founded, 
forbids it. We ought not to say to poor erring humanity, 
“ Go and beg your bread from door to door as a vagabond 
upon the face of the earth ;” but, on the contrary, our 
exhortation should be, “In your sober moments come 
among us, and we will endeavour, by the force of-our 
example and good counsel, to convince you of the error of 
your ways, and by making you taste of the sweets of intel- 
lectual pleasures, make you a good and useful member of 
society.” J'ew unfortunately are there who have not at 
some time or other stepped beyond the line of sobriety, 
and therefore common charity should prompt us to pardon 
it, and as much as possible prevent it in others. The 
gatherings which generally take place before a young on 
goes to a situation, and yclept ‘ foys,” are, to say the 
least of them, very foolish and irrational assemblages, 
where « man spends several pounds (which in the majority 
of cases he cannot afford) for the purpose of seeing his 
friends and Acquaintances make beasts of themselves. The 
piece of harlequinism called ‘ Making a Gardener,” 
a 70 48 not allowed to wear an apron in 
some of the nurseries, is only “ the perpetuation of the 
disgusting relics of a barbarous age." Gardener. 
Flooring.—An Infant School is i 
neighbourhood, to which a 
declivity is attached. 
by 42 feet, can be best and most eg, 
obtain the advantages of a dry, firm, 
Perhaps some of your correspondents would kindly answer 
this question, and give the probable amount of cost.— 
Anne, Carisbrooke. ; 
Bletting.—Although a prolonged discussion of this sub- 
ject promises to partake more of the philological than of 
the horticultural or botanical character, your readers will 
probably not be sorry, as the Scotch proverb says, to 
“hunt the mawkin doon ;”’ and so I make no apology for 
replying to the observations of your correspondent “7.” 
ih a late Chronicle, “T's” lively communication has 
given a new turn to the inquiry respecting the meaning 
of the word bletting ; or rather the subject divides itself 
into two branches :—one seeks to explain the nature of 
the change taking place in the maturation of the rosa- 
ceous fruits, and the application of the word to express the 
idea of that change :—the other the derivation of the word 
itself. The first of these was the prime object I had in 
view when I preferred the question; and you have in part 
answered it most satisfactorily. You say that you follow 
De Candolle in the adoption of a word popular in France, 
to express over-ripeness, mealiness, or the intermediate 
stage between ripe and rotten ;—the druxiness, droxiness, 
or drossiness of the Sussex people. The word answers 
very well, and is not likely to be mistaken or misapplied ; 
though I still think that the ripeness of the Medlar (taken 
as the exemplar of the tribe) in chemical nature, as well as 
in taste and flavour, differs as much from rottenness, as 
the melting condition or perfect ripeness of a Noblesse 
Peach does. ‘Nevertheless, “ precision and copiousness,”” 
as ‘'.” says, are valuable qualities in a language, and it 
is very convenient to say that,—whilst a Peach ripens, a 
Medlar bletts. To follow out the other branch of the 
inquiry, the etymology of  dlette,” will, perhaps, lead me 
out of my depth ; but I will endeavour to reply to some of 
the observations of my fellow-correspondent. He supposes 
that there has been a misprint in my quotation from the 
old “' Thresor de la langue Frangoyse,”, of pourrée for 
poirrée ; and goes on to say :—“ This is not unimportant, 
for the word is derived from the Latin blitum (Greek 
bliton) beet ; in French poirrée, i.e. white beet. It is 
found in our language, as the name of what is, I believe, 
called Strawberry-spinach.”” I think that “F.” will find 
in the sequel that the matter is not quite so easily settled. 
On referring again to my author, I find that the spelling 
is correct, although I have erred as to the signification of 
the word. I find on looking further, that he does not 
use the word Jd/eite adjectively, and that by ‘ Espéce de 
pourrée” he does not mean “de pourriture,” as 1 took it; 
and answering to the trop-mére of later Dictionaries, but 
a potherb, the blitum or biéte of our older herbalists, 
Pourrée is afterwards spelt porrée and “ porrée-rouge, 
—blitum” (Blitte effilée, or Strawberry-blite of the pre- 
sent day.) You, Mr. Editor say, at p. 838, Bairoy is 
supposed to have been the plant now called Amaranthus 
Blitum, still used in France as a bad sort of spinach, 
Now, in Jaume St Hilaire’s “ Plantes de la France,’’ I 
find two blites beautifully figured, La Blite efitée, Bli- 
tum virgaium, to which he appropriates the English name 
of Strawberry-blite ; and the Amaranthe blette, Amaran- 
thus Blitum of Linneus. ‘The clustered scarlet axillary 
inflorescence of the former of these, shews it to be the 
true Strawberry-blite, and no Beet at all. If we come 
back to the English herbalists, we find in Gerard a whole 
host of “ Blites;” including almost all the Chenopodiacer, 
with the Orach and Atriplices ; and the following quota~ 
tion from “ Booth’s Analytical Dictionary of the english 
Language” (p. 235) will shew that several wild and cul- 
tivated herbs were anciently associated under this athe, 
“The generic name Chenopodium (Greek xm, 2 §208e, 
iv 0 f the form of the 
and 7rous, a foot) was given on account 0 the best 
leaves of the early included species ; of those, Ml. 
known are the Bonus Henricus, wild spinage, or a be 
good, the leaves of which are often eaten as greens ; the 
sete 4 common orach, or 
urbicum, or upright Blite; the album, ¢ came Lida 
Frost-blite; the viride, Green-blite; the vu/varea (olidum) 
ale mite atss ite; the polyspermum, or 
Stinking-orach, or Stinking-blite 5 th lege 
Allseed ; and the maritimum, Sea-blite, or white Glass. 
‘ ies of Goosefoot grow on waste 
wort. Most of the species 0 Bees 
@ ish; and the name Blite is from 
ground, or among rubbish ; eee 
the Greek BAnror, fit only to be oe away, worthless, 
The genus “ Brrrum’’ includes some foreign species, or, it 
5 es known in this country by 
berry-blile, Strauberry-spinach, Bloody- 
and the French seem to haye done the same, sometimes 
using the word ‘ Blette” (genus pro specie) for their 
The other name of Poirée or Pourrée must 
it from its pear-shaped, or perhaps, 
for I strongly suspect that the derivation of 
this word is from Poureau or Poirean (v. Boyer) a Leek, 
and ‘“ Poirée-rouge” red-Leek :—and thus comes ‘ espéce 
de pourrée (** Thresor” loc. ci ) a species of Leek. But 
Our speculations on the parentage of Betrdve, and of all 
the Blites (the Amaranthus blitum included) in the Greek 
