Queries and Anstioers to Queries. 187 



next to lost except it fruits at a proper season. The fruit of the Jamaica pine 

 is good at all seasons, is the heaviest of its size, the only one that has a good 

 flavour in the winter months, and is esteemed by most the best pine grown. 

 1 should not have troubled you with this, had it not been for C. F. W.'s 

 supposition that the Providence should have the preference. I entered the 

 gardens at Blenheim when I was ten years of age, and I know, from expe- 

 rience, that the Black Jamaica pine is by far the best flavoured, and better 

 adapted for a general stock than any other yet introduced into Britain; but 

 what is called the Jamaica in one place is called the MontseiTat in others. 

 The Black Jamaica are sold true and clean by Messrs. Cunningham oi the 

 Wavertree, and by Messrs. Johnson of the Prescot nurseries, near Liverpool. 

 I am. Sir, &c. — James Hojisman. Clapton Nursery, April 15. 1228. 



What is the best Book for instructing a young Botanist, who understands 

 a good deal of the classification of plants according to the Linnean 

 system, without the help of a tutor ? — G. M. Feb. 20. — Perhaps 

 Hooker's Flora Scotica. — Cond. 



To prevent the Bleeding of Vines, in answer to A. B. of Croydon. — If a 

 piece of moistened bladder be folded over the end of the vine which is 

 cut, and then bound tightly round with packthread, it will effectually pre- 

 vent bleeding. — J. G. C. Faddington, April G. 



Bruyere's Earth. — Can you, or any of j^'our readers, inform me what 

 sort of earth this is, and whether any of it can be had in Britain? 

 It is said in Professor Brande's .Journal to be " of excellent quality, 

 giving one fourth of a combustible matter formed of ulmine, and a carbo- 

 naceous body but little soluble in potash; the remaining three fourths being 

 a pure siliceous sand, without a trace of lime. Yet so effectual is this 

 earth, that, where it i!annot be obtained, certain exotics cannot be cul- 

 tivated." {Brande^s Journ. of the Royal Tnst. of Great Britain, Jan. 1828, 

 p. 492.) — A. B. Faddington, Feb. 



Terre de Bruyere is the French terra for our peat-earth, inadvertently 

 translated above as if it were the name of a person or place. — Cond. 



Chrysanthemums. — Sir, 1 see in Vol. 11. p. 197., an account of the 

 cultivation of chrysanthemums, by Mr. Munro; the directions given 

 are very plain, and perhaps judicious, but not economical, especially con- 

 sidering the dearth of litter this season. I agree with him in striking 

 cuttings ; but we have no frame room nor dung to spare for them. In 

 the beginning of March 1 fill a S2-sized pot with cuttings (which holds 

 as many as we require), and place it in a house in which we keep half- 

 hardy plants, and when the cuttings are struck, I put them into small pots, 

 and treat them according to his directions ; such as shifting, pinching, 

 &c., but not mixing, and I never see better plants than ours. 1 should 

 be glad to hear of a better plan attended with less trouble and expense. 

 Perhaps, also, Mr. Munro will be able to give a hint how to procure seed 

 and raise seedlings? Country practitioners expect something from the 

 dignitaries of the profession. — R.B. March I'-I. IS^T. 



The May bug is the Cetonia aurata of entomologists (see Samouelle, 

 p. 192.), the grub of which lives in decayed wood, and not on the roots of 

 plants or trees : the perfect beetle is shining green gold, with a few slender 

 whitelines crossing the wing-cases. Th&Anomala hortensis (alluded to by Mr. 

 Swainson, in his interesting paper in your Magazine) is little more than half 

 the size of the May bug : the thorax is dark brassy green, and somewhat 

 downy, and the wing-cases dark chestnut. I am, Sir, your's, &c. — N. S. 



Toads in Gardens, in answer to Rusticus in Urbe. (Vol. III. p. 495.) 

 — Sii', 1 beg leave to state, from my own personal knowledge, that 

 toads do not live on slugs; nor have I ever observed them to eat them at 

 all, notwithstanding the remark of your correspondent that they come 

 forth in the evening, at the same time with the slugs. This remark is just. 

 1 have paid considerable attention to toads ; and my object in presuniing- 



