64" Queries and Ansxioers to Queries. 



Saltpetre is dear, but the effect upon hot sand, in a dry season, is asto- 

 nishingly great : it doubles the crop. — X Y. Z. 



Salt, on light sandy soils, I have found highly efficacious in destroying 

 the wire worm ; and upon strong clay, in destroying slugs. — Id. 



■ Horticultural Society's Catalogue. {^. 373.") — Although Switzer says the 

 Vanguard and the Noblesse are the same, the fruit-foreman at Barr and 

 Brookes's says, from recollection, there is a Vanguard peach, that it is 

 rather more oval, and ripens about ten days later than the Noblesse. \ 

 have in some of my old books an account of two new grapes being culti- 

 vated by Mr. John Warner, at Rotherhide, in the year 1732, the one the 

 Black Hamburgh, the other, I think, the Black Prince. I have been told 

 that the vine at Hampton Court is the Frankendale, and that by a person 

 whose name would carry great weight, but I have not the liberty of men- 

 tioning it. As I have not the Society's Catalogue, do they mention a black 

 grape under the name of the Old Gibraltar ? [No.] The vine to which the 

 name is given grows on the front of a house, near the Manor House, Wal- 

 worth ; it sets its first fruit very like the Sweetwater when grown out of 

 doors, a great many large and some small berries, which I think shows it 

 ou<»ht to be forced. The berries I have seen have been larger in size than 

 any damsons that could be picked from a bushel of fruit. Is not the com- 

 mon Muscadine' the Chasselas ? I have seen it so called. [Generally the 

 Chasselas of the French is the Muscadine of the English ; but there are 

 several varieties, and what particular Chasselas the common Muscadine is 

 we do not exactly know.] — Superficial.^ Brixton Villa, January. 



Art. VIII. Queries and Answers to Queries. 



Gansel's Bergamot. — Various causes have t)een assigned for the failure 

 of the crops of fruit of that much esteemed pear, Gansel's Bergamot. 

 Mr. F. seems assured it is owing to the leaves being of a more delicate and 

 silky texture than most of its congeners ; hence it is more liable to be 

 attacked by an insect, which he observed last spring. It would be desirable 

 to obtain the name and history of this insect which infests the flowers as 

 well as the leaves, and to know the best method of destroying it, and pre- 

 venting its reappearance. — C. B. Scotland, Jlfay 1826. 



Gardens of Yuen-Ming. — In Buckingham's Oriental Herald it is stated 

 that the annual charge of these gardens to the Chinese government is 

 2,000,000/. Can you, or any of your readers, give a description of these 

 gardens, on which are expended one fifteenth part of the whole annual 

 income of the Chinese empire ? — X. 



Marshal Tollard's Gardens, near Nottingham, are mentioned in the Quar- 

 terly Review, for September, 1826, as having been celebrated in former 

 times. Can you, or any of your readers, give any farther account of them? 

 — X. Perhaps no man is more competent to do this than Mr. Britten, 

 in the review of whose splendid work the notice alluded to occurs. — Condi 



Pine-apples. — Which is the best-flavoured pine? Which is the best pine 

 for winter use? Which pine will produce the greatest weight of fruit in a 

 given space, in a certain time, say four years ? Which pine will grow to 

 the largest size ? The New Providence, I suppose ? — C, F. W. Fazeley, 

 Nov. 20. 1827. 



Crickets in Hot-houses. — I wish to know whether crickets are injurious 

 in hot-houses ; and, if so, how to destroy them. — R. W. B. Feb. 4. 



