878 
[Drc. 16, 
at the time, may be doubted.—O., Leeds. 
Digging Shrubberies.—1 had hoped no one in'the present 
day would have had the hardihood to support the so 
instly called absurdity of digging Shrubberies to benefit 
the plants, as a writer, under the signature of “ Knave of 
Spades,’’ has done in p. 843 of a late Chronicle. Although 
hardly worth while to answer the untenable arguments he 
has brought forward to aid his cause, it shall suffice to 
say that all practical men have long condemned the prac- 
tice of digging round any tree, shrub, or herbaceous plant, 
if the trees, &c. root near the surface, and if you wish 
them to thrive. The fact of market-gardeners cropping 
within a foot of their fruit-trees says nothing in 
favour of the practice, as it is well known an opposite 
course would be better for their trees, and it reminds 
me of parties mowing over their Strawberry-beds in the 
autumn, and then digging between them, a practice justly 
condemned in this Paper lately. Herbaceous plants 
and annuals are never grown in perfection amongst 
shrubs, and are much better in detached groups by 
b 1 he app f shrubs where the turf 
reaches under their branches is much more natural, 
(Gardenesque, as Loudon would call it,) than where there 
is a dug border three or four feet wide in front of them, 
filled with half-starved perennials and annuals; and from 
the lack of knowledge the said ‘‘ Knave of Spades’? dis- 
plays when speaking of the time it takes to lay turf, the 
expenses thereof, and the annual renewing of the same 
I would much advise him to see a little operation in that 
way before he writes again. And as the “ Knave,” in his 
inquiries about the decomposition of dung, appears to be 
retrograding instead of ‘‘ going a-head,” I would say (as 
acelebrated doctor used to tell his patients,) buy Dr. 
Lindley’s “ Theory of Horticulture,” and read it.—Obiter 
Dictum. 
Vegetable Vagaries.—Under this head you have already 
published in the Gardeners’ Chronicle some curious in- 
stances of the wonderful freaks of Nature in transforming 
the flowers of one plant so as to resemble those of another, 
and J now present you with a sketch of a different kind of 
metamorphosis which I conceive to be no less singular 
than many of the oddities previously recorded. It is 
that of Aspasia epidendroides, of which the accom- 
panying sketch will give you some idea:—where the 
pseudo-bulb that was made last year after the plant 
had flowered, elongated into a sort of gouty stem, and 
formed two other bulbs, very much smaller than the old 
one but similar in character, with leaves on the crown 
and at the base of each, and at last terminated by throw- 
ing out a flower-stem from between the two leaves on the 
crown of the latest-formed pseudo-bulb, at the same time 
as the scape hegan to show itself at the base of the 
original one. The flowers on both are now in perfection, 
and have rather a singular appearance. Were the lower 
Scape removed, it would almost 
very flourishing condition, strictly corresponding in growth 
and foliage with the parent bough. This year I grafted 
some more young Ashes, which have taken well. I think 
I may venture to name it, on account of its exclusive 
character, ‘* Fraxinus Nectonensis.” J trust it will 
prove a desirable addition to’our ornamental Forest-trees, 
+ Mason, Necton, Norfolk. [We shall be much 
obliged by a plant of this, sent to 21, Regent-strect.] 
‘inter Gardening.—I beg to differ from Mr. Beaton 
in regard to his remarks on the appearance of flower-beds 
in winter. I think a well-planned and neatly kept flower- 
garden will always look well, even though the beds should 
be empty, since in a well-arranged combination of forms 
there will ever be something to attract and amuse the eye, 
though the pleasing variety of colour be wanting. I do 
not think that flower-beds filled with ‘ fictitious’ dwarf 
shrubs will have a happy effect. I practise a different 
plan, and one which perhaps many would admire quite as 
much as though the beds were filled with the little boughs 
ever so neatly trimmed. I generally allow the summer 
crops to remain in the beds as late, consistently with 
neatness, as the season will permit ; when these are 
removed the beds are dug over, raked, and all made tidy. 
I then refill the centre of them with Poppy Anemones, 
planted so as to keep the different colours distinct and 
well contrasted, and surround them with belts or edgings 
of Crocuses, Snowdrops, Jonquils, Arabis verna and 
albida, Hepaticas, Squills, Aristea pusilla [?] &c. The Ane- 
mones will bloom through the whole of the dreary winter 
months, and exhibit almost as gay a variety of colour as 
their summer brethren; in fact, I have been frequently 
asked if I had not put artificial flowers in the beds, and I 
have found it, until after close inspection, sometimes dif- 
ficult to convince some persons to the contrary. No one 
can form an idea of the beauty of these charming little 
flowers, who has not seen them under proper cultivation. 
They are more particularly desirable for enlivening the 
cold and gloomy winter, but they will also continue bloom- 
ing until April, and even when the flowers are cut from 
them they still keep throwing up fresh flower-stems, J 
usually tuke up the tubers in April, dry them and put 
them away in paper bags. In September, I plant them 
out in store-beds, and afterwards transplant them thence 
to the flower-garden when required.—J. L. Snow. 
Glasgow Botanical Society.—This Society, which ori- 
ginated in the impulse given to the study of Botany in 
Glasgow, by the appointment of Dr, John Hutton Bal- 
four to the Botanical chair in the University, and has 
been in active operation for a year and a half, agreed at 
its November meeting, to form a junction with the Glas- 
Fy ees ene 
gow Ph P y old and prosperous insti- 
tution, of which it now forms the Botanical section, with 
its own office-l s and r i as before. The 
ti 
proposal for union came from the Philosophical Society, 
and was acceded to on account of the desirableness of 
concentrating the interest of the friends of science in one 
society.— Anonymous. 
Fuchsia Exoniensis.—In a late notice of Fuchsia Ex- 
oniensis, the writer who condemns the habit of the plant 
cannot have seen a good specimen of it, for it is allowed 
by good judges to be as remarkable for its vigorous and 
graceful habit as it is conspicuous for the brilliant liveli- 
ness and superior size of its flowers. I may perhaps be 
travelling out of my own province, as an amateur, to men- 
tion this; but as I am well acquainted with this noble 
plant, I venture to say that candour and justice demand 
it—A Subscriber, Exeter, [The flowers of this Fuchsia 
are doubtless the finest we have. As to its habit, we 
apprehend it is good under good management. ] 
Heating by Brick Flues—I beg to state that the 
alterations suggested by “ J. L.,” at Pp. 772, respecting 
Brick Flues, are much opposed to my ideas on this sub- 
ject. At that part of the house where the flue enters, the 
heat is always most powerful, and hence the impractica- 
bility of keeping up an equable temperature all over the 
house. ‘J, L.’’ recommends the flue to be enlarged 
as it recedes from the fire.” Butif this plan was adopted, 
it would diminish still farther the already reduced tem- 
perature, on account of the expansion which the air would 
suffer in travelling from the fire. “J, L.,” no doubt, 
knows that as air becomes expanded, its capacity for heat 
is increased, and consequently less heat will be evolyed 
from it to the surrounding brickwork. This makes me 
doubt the utility of J. L.’s’’ plan.—C, 
and in the event of complete success attending the plan, 
you may probably hear from me again respecting it.— WV 
Hunt, Warrington. : 
Wasps.—In answer to J. Wighton’s inquiry respecting 
the Wasps’ nest in the Red-Currant bush, I beg to state 
that it was of the ordinary colour and texture of Wasps’ 
nests, viz., a greyish-white paper-like substance. There is 
only one small hole at the bottom at which they enter ; the 
Wasps left it about the end of September, they were the 
smaller size of the common Wasp.—d Paddy. 
Wasps.—There is now (Dec. 4) in a shrubbery belonging 
to Richard O. Aldworth, Esq.,’ Newmarket-house, county 
Cork, a Wasps’ nest. The Wasps are as active and as 
busy, passing to and fro, as they would be in the month 
July or August, I have been observing them for the 
last three weeks, and have seen no change in their acti- 
vity. The nest is on level ground, under trees, and appa- 
rently in the rotten stump of a tree.—A. K. 
Potter’s Guano.—I assert without hesitation, that there 
were no crops in this neighbourhood equal to those in my 
kitchen-garden ; and the effects upon the flower-beds and 
borders were perfectly astonishing. Although the season 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 
common sulphate of lime, of anhydrous selenite, &e. ery 
quires about 350 parts of water to dissolve it; but it is ¥ 
common in the 
e sll: 
thei! 
secondary, and tertiary formations, and is very abundant in 6 
neighbourhood of Paris, The use of of, lint 
i i i In the first place it decom 
eral 
jst iD 
s not 
yw 
ot gto 
Before plants can 
dered soluble, 
stantly escaping from these places. This action may be set» 
the following diagram :— 
Carbonate of Lime, 50. 
Carbonic acid, 22. Lime, 28, 
Bo 3s. 
g é 
g g eg 
Ee a8 
Fe My " Z A 
=| Ammonia, 17. Sulphuric Acid, 40, 
Sulphate of Ammonia, 57 
The next salt is the phosphate of lime. It is obtained ae 
from the bones of animal: 3 
must have come from the Vegetable Kin: nd veg this 
must have it from the soil. The ultimate constituents of rus 
Salt are phosphorus, oxygen, and calcium. The phospho! 1. 
carbon and 8 
phe 
from 
by 
Phosphoric acid constitute 78 parts of phosphate of lime. 
Soil gets its phosphate of lime from artificial manures and 
1e 
remains, as Dr, Buckland proved by making 80! 
of Some Hyena’s bones he had found fossilised. When bones 
€xposed to the air they gradually lose their animal m: 
animals, W 
had been found that the fossilised excrement of "a thes? 
geologists call coprolites, contained phosphate of lime, an 
of Agriculture; but the lecturer could not go the le 
Hiebig, in thinking that any amount of these fossilised coprolite® 
that might be found in this country would equal in importane 
f c ‘uanois a substance that contains phosphate 
ists, to acertain extent, in 
tion to alumina, clay contains varying quantities of silica. ane 
is seen pure in nature in rock crystal, the amethyst, comm 
\ 
pion SOS 
