412 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
Wheat stubble was soon covered with young Turnips 
of a quick-growing sort, which, if sown in the begin- 
ning or middle of August, were fit to pull in November 
and December, and were stored in the cellar for winter 
use. There was a small patch of Cameline, which 
was sown less for the seed than for the stems, of which 
he made brooms in his leisure hours in winter. But 
these hours could be but few, and only when snow 
covered the ground, and prevented him from digging 
and trenching, which was a constant operation ; for 
the whole five acres had to be dug in the course of 
the year, and as much of it as possible had to be 
trenched, the soil being a stiff loam of a-good depth, 
which was much improved by stirring and trenching. 
The milk and Potatoes, with a little salt pork, fed the 
family—-for a pig was fed ou the refuse of the food given 
to the cow and a little corn. Most of the Wheat, and all 
the Flax, were sold, and more than paid the rent, which 
was not high—about 10/. a year, without any rates, 
tithes, or taxes.* Incessant labour kept the man in 
good health, and his wife was not idle. They had two 
or three young children, one at the breast; but, 
except the wish for another cow, there seemed no great 
dissatisfaction with their lot, nor any great fears for 
the future. They had no parish fund to fall back 
upon—not even a union-house ; but had they come to 
want by unforeseen accidents they would have found 
the hand of private charity ready to help them.” 
This interesting account shows what may be done 
by cheerful industry. No time must be lost; no 
gossipping of the wife or tippling of the husband, but 
both striving to assist each other. A man who works 
for himself always works harder and more cheerfully 
than he that works for wages ; his children are brought 
up in industrious habits; honesty is inculcated by 
precept and example ; and, as there are few tempta- 
tions where there is no idleness, there are fewer 
examples of vice.—M. 
THORNS. 
As there is no genus more ornamental than Crategus, 
although some of the species are not desirable, the follow- 
ing list will, we hope, be found useful to such of our 
correspondents as have expressed a desire to possess a 
select collection. They may be planted next each other 
in the order in which they stand. 
1. Crategus heterophylla, has small red fruit in great 
profusion. 
2. C. Aronia, has very large, yellow fruit, rather late in 
the autumn. 
3. C. Douglassii, has rather large, black fruit, very early 
in the season. 
4, C. oxyacantha rosea superba, the most beautiful of 
all the Thorns when in bloom, with deep crimson flowers 
and small red fruit. 
5. C. coccinea. the laree cnorlat Fantt-d Meowme 
C. odoratissima, the Sweet-scented Thorn, with very 
large, pale-red fruit. 
7. C. punctata flava, the large yellow-fruited Thorn. 
8. C. Leeana, the large Tansy-leaved Thorn, with 
large, pale-red fruit. 
. C. m ha, the very long-spined Thorn, with 
yery small bright-red fruit in great profusion. 
10. C. Oliveriana, the small black-fruited Thorn, very 
profuse but late. 
1l. C. prunifolia, the entire-leaved Thorn, with a 
profusion of bright-red fruit, very late. 
12. C. owyacantha; the new double scarlet; a most 
beautiful double variety of No. 4 in this list.—q 
ON THE BOKHARA TREE CLOVER. 
(Melilotus leucantha major.) 
Tux Bokhara Clover claims a place in every flower- 
garden for its beauty. It is very striking to look upon 
an herbaceous plant, 10 or 12 feet in height, covered with 
spikes of white Pea blossoms, which also shed a sweet 
perfume. 
I esteem its value in Agriculture of greater importance. 
The objections to its cultivation are, that cattle give a 
preference to other green food, and that the stem contains 
too much woody fibre. The plant, however, is new to 
Britain, and we know that man and animals frequently 
require successive trials of new food before taste is 
acquired forit. As a proof of this, I understand that 
some cattle are getting very fond of this Clover; and we 
know that the tissue of plants in general is changed more 
and more into woody fibre as they progress towards matu- 
rity. Nature incresses the woody fibre of this Clover for 
support as it elongates its gigantic stem. If, however, it 
is cut for cattle, when about two feet in height, it will be 
found nearly as succulent as the common Red Clover. 
T exhibited plants of it at the Highland Society’s Show 
last September, 9 feet in height, being the second crop of 
it that season from poor sandy land. I know no plant 
whatever that will produce so much weight of vegetable 
matter in equal time and space; and were it only for the 
production of vegetable manure, it is a boon to the Agri- 
cultural world. In my experiments with it last summer, 
as a manure for new varieties of Alsike(?) Clover, I found 
it the very best and cheapest manure. 
__In the economical formation of manure, it might be 
liberally supplied with other food throughout the summer 
to young cattle and pigs, in an open straw-yard profusely 
* Tt must be recollected that this isin a country where the 
average price of Wheat is about 358, the 
labour is about 1s, @ day. quarter, and where 
bedded over with layers of turf, peat-earth, whins, broom, 
brushwood, ferns, straw, weeds, &c., and thus save much 
outlay on the purchase of foreign manures. 
The Bokhara Clover may be sown at any time through- 
out the growing season; but the most profitable time to 
sow it is immediately after a crop of early Potatoes, or even 
after Grass, Barley, Wheat, &c. The land being well 
manured, ploughed over, and harrowed smooth, it may be 
sown in shallow drills, 18 inches apart ; being cut once in 
autumn, it will produce a much earlier spring crop than 
Tares, Italian Ryegrass, &c. It should always be cut 
very close to the ground, as the shoots produced from 
beneath the surface are the most luxuriant, and it will thus 
stand a severe winter much better than when its vitality 
is exposed on long stubble. Treated in this way with me, 
it stood two successive winters, and acquired all the cha- 
racteristics of a perennial root. I have no doubt of its 
continuing perennial and more vigorous with the age of 
the plants, if only cut close in autumn, and top-dressed 
with rich compost. 
I saw a remarkable result at Oxenford Castle the other 
day, which Mr. Gardener pointed out to me in the garden. 
r. Gardener sowed the Bokhara Clover last May, and 
cut part of it several times for use, leaving a part which 
produced ripe seed. The latter is now considerably more 
luxuriant than the former, 
Might not this Clover be advantageously introduced 
thinly over the dry pastures of Australia? The seeds 
would vegetate if sown during the rainy season, while 
the plants might afford shelter and shade to the sur- 
rounding Grass, and even food, when other vegetation 
lies scorched beneath a tropical sun.— Robert Arthur, 
1, Waterloo Place, Edinburgh. 
FAMILIAR BOTANY.—No. XVI. 7 
The Water Dropwort.—Some of a neighbour’s chil- 
dren were amusing themselves by the side of a ditch whose 
sides had been worn away by the heavy rains that have 
lately deluged the country, when they spied some nice 
tender roots, white inside, and looking like little Par- 
sneps. Such a prize was not to be neglected, and ina 
trice a good parcel of them were pulled up, brought home 
andeaten. Alas! in a short time the children all became 
ill, then they went raving mad, and in three hours two of 
the party died in strong convulsions. I am not sure that 
the others will recover. 
This sad calamity was caused by a pernicious plant, 
called by the English herbalists the Waler Dropwort, 
by the Kentish people Bendock, by Botanists Gnanthe 
crocata, by the Irish peasantry, who often suffer from it, 
Dahou. It is one of our most poisonous weeds, and is 
every year the parent of frightful mischief. The books 
tell us that during the last war ‘‘ eleven French prisoners 
had the liberty of walking in and about the town of Pem- 
broke. Three of them being in the fields a little before 
noon, dug up a large quantity of this plant, which they 
took to be wild Celery, to eat with their bread and butter 
for dinner. After washing it, they all three ate, or 
wether tasted of the rante As they were entering the 
town, without any previous notice of sickness at the 
stomach or disorder of the head, one of them was seized 
with convulsions. The other two ran home, and sent a 
surgeon to him. The surgeon endeavoured first to bleed, 
and then to vomit him; but those endeavours were fruit- 
less, and he died ‘presently. Ignorant of the cause of 
their comrade’s death, and of their own danger, they gave 
of these roots to the other eight prisoners, who ate of them 
with their dinner. A few minutes afterwards the remain- 
ing two who gathered the plants were seized in the same 
manner as the first, of whom one died; the other was 
bled, and an emetic with great difficulty forced down, on 
account of his jaws being, as it were, locked together. 
This operated, and he recovered, but was some time, 
affected with dizziness in his head, though not sick, of 
the least disordered in the stomach. The other eighty 
being bled and vomited immediately, were soon well.”” 
Sometimes the hair and nails are said to come offs 
cows and horses perish when they feed upon it, as they 
will do if they find it in their pastures; dogs are also 
affected by it in a dangerous degree. In short, it is @ 
fearful poison. Luckily, however, it is easily known. 
Its roots are produced in thick fangs, like those of 4 
Dahlia, but are smaller; they have been frequently sold 
during the winter by knavish gardeners to silly customers 88 
the roots of that plant. In the autumn and winter they 
contain a yellow strong-smelling juice, but in the spring 
this disappears. The leaves are dark green, perfectly 
smooth, as is the stem, which grows 4 or 5 ft. high. They 
are divided jna bipinnate way into numerous leaflets, which 
are somewhat of a lozenge form, but are deeply and 
bluntly gashed. The flowers are white, and in compound 
umbels; they are of the Umbelliferous order, and 
have a visibly five-toothed calyx, with two stiff upright 
styles. The fruit (vulgarly called the seed) is oblong 
ribbed, pressed closely together, and terminated by the 
two stiffened and almost spiny styles. 2 
By these marks it is easily known from all our wild 
umbelliferous plants. Nota hair is upon it—its leave 0 
are of the deepest green—and if you draw a line all roum! 
the leaflets without regarding the incisions, you will fin¢ 
that it will generally describe the figure of a lozenge more — 
or less accurately : a good practical mark which will hardly 
deceive you. Lest, however, you should not be able 
recognise your enemy by this description, I add his pots 
trait, and I beg you to hunt him down, and root him ™P 
wherever he can be found.—. L. 
THE ANTIQUITIES OF GARDENING. 
No. L—Extracts from Sir Thomas Hanmer’s Manuscript 0" 
Gardening. (Continued.) 
“ Arlificial earths are either simple or compounded) 
and are much better than the natural, both for seeds a 
roots. i 
i 
either alone, as for Beare’s Hares and other fibrous flower! 
flowers. 8. Rotted leaves and sprigs of trees, a 
ood fo 
most sorts of flowers. 
“ The compounded earths are made up of some part a 
the natural and some parts of the simple artificial H ‘i 
mixt together, which, being skilfully done according to aa 
natures of several plants, will cause admirable etecter, A 
Tulips prosper wonderfully in a compounded oo ae 
little sand, some diy black mould, and the rest ,l a 
earth ; Cyclamens and Anemones in sifted dung and bla 
mould.’” rth 
[lt appears from the above extract that Willow eae 
has been long highly esteemed for florists’ flowers. 0 
still continue to use it. i ish 
“In such earths as these your Tulipes will flour an 
but every two or three years at most you must bene 
fresh, for they delight in change thereof, as well as There 
ayre. I knowin Paris one of the ablest florists iS 
who had got a great deal of money by Tulipes: aaah 
assured me that he changed his habitation purposely ehich 
third or fourth year in Paris, because of his Tulipess © 
he found infinitely bettered by varyeties of ayt@ ¢ 
as of earth. 3 iddle 
“The beds onght to lye a little higher in the 
bout the 
5 of 
and especially that no wet may lye too long @ 
rootes, which would putrify them, as the touching 
hot dung will do these and all other bulbs 3 yet, the hot 
in such deep under the earth the rootes stand 3 jestroys 
fume whereof comforts, as they say, aM eo less you 
them; but I should be cautious of using it, eee never 
desire to have your flowers blow richly one years 
see them blow any more. : the 
‘When your ages are past flowering, Crop OF eg, 
stalks of your choice stript ones, that they use 
for thereby they are much weakened. 
(Zo be continued-) 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN: 
In addition to the plants before Peet 
Amateur who is thinking of having 4 aan h the wine 
for his window or drawing-room Ore oN aals Sie a 
ter, must put in a first SO aeetlesb 6 
ate 4 ; 
blooming in pots. pe purpose, as in every 
may ne 
Joom ; but as some may | 
cides, atomaria, as ; 
Pawley, of Bromley, : 1 se 
a seen with white. It is a sana seers 
atomaria, and as it comes pure from 
sidered a permanent kind. : Next poets 
bicolor and grandiflora, Clarkia ata ; 
Schizanthus pinnatus, p- humilis, Hee pores mexicd- 
and lastly, Erysimum Perofskianums cD aD petunia 
num, and the various kinds of Salpiglos Ae eel foi 
The last, however, are best raised from cu r4 
[JUNE 145 q 
— 
one 
ae. 
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