190 Qiieries and A?is'wers to Queries. 



The manner in which they breed in the leaf seems very curious. I was 

 lately at the garden of the Horticultural Society, and, although the celery 

 there bore very evident marks of their depredations, the circumstance had 

 passed entirely unnoticed. A hint from you or any of your numerous 

 correspondents will greatly oblige, Sir, yours, &c.' — J. F. Battcrsea, Dec, 5. 



77/1? JJuffm Bean. — My zealous and active correspondent at Carthagena, 

 in one of his last letters, requests me to enquire about and procure for him 

 some seeds of a species of large flat bean cultivated in gardens about 

 Madras, in the East Indies, under the name of the Duffin bean, after the 

 gentleman (Dr. Duffin, of the Hon. Company's service) by whom it was first 

 introduced. I shall, therefore, feel much obliged for any information as to 

 the plant which produces this, bean, its native country, uses, mode of culti- 

 vation, class and order, and Linnean name, and also the channel through 

 which I can obtain a small supply of seed for my friend at Carthagena. — 

 William Hamillon. 15. Oxford Place, Plymouth, Feb. 17. 18'28. 



Charcoal Poiuder for packing Pinks and Caiiiations. — Has any of your 

 correspondents ever tried the effect of charcoal powder, to preserve the 

 vitality of slips of pines or carnations in their passage from one place to 

 another? My Carthagena correspondent says, in a letter of the 2Sth of 

 October last (just received), after speaking of the arracacha roots which 

 he sent me packed in powdered charcoal, " some slips of carnations, simi- 

 larly packed, which I received from Bogota, are now flourishing in the 

 garden at Camepaga." The journey from Bogota to Carthagena occupies 

 from six to ten or twelve days ; and, if the charcoal was sufficient in that 

 climate to preserve the slips in a growing state for so many days, I think 

 the method might be expected to answer, in this climate, for the transmis- 

 sion of cuttings to and from various parts of the kingdom, as well as to and 

 from all pai'ts of the Continent : at all events, the suggestion is not amiss, 

 and it might be worth while to reduce it to the test of experiment. — Id. 



Preventing the Canker in all kinds of Fruit and Forest Trees. — A patent 

 paste for this purpose is advertised by Robert Monteith, a forester in Fife. 

 We shall be glad if some of our readers will state what they know of it and 

 of Mr. Monteith. — Cond. 



Raising Neiu Holland Seeds. — Dear Sir, I shall be extremely obliged to 

 you, or any of your correspondents, if they can inform me of the best 

 method of raising New Holland seeds, as well as seeds from New Zealand. 

 I have about sixty sorts of the former, and thirty of the latter ; but unfor- 

 tunately they have but lately come into my possession, and I fear many are 

 too old to vegetate. I wish to know the proper soil ; whether they will 

 grow out of doors or not, and the proper time for sowing them, &c. 

 I am, dear Sir, &c. — Lignum Vitce. Isle of Wight, March. 



Vojmlus grcB''ca,\viXk reference to Mi\ Moggridge. (Vol. III. p. 410.) — 

 I recollect having met in the Monthly Review some years back, with a report 

 of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, as it was then called, on the compara- 

 tive value of poplars, in which P. grae'ca was, from experiment, decidedly 

 pronounced to be far superior to any of the other species in strength and 

 durability. I regret my memory does not serve to give a more parti- 

 cular reference ; but, such as it is, it may be relied on. Indeed as much 

 might, in a degree, be inferred from the difficulty of propagating it, either 

 by layers or cuttings ; but as it sends up suckers pretty freely when esta- 

 blished in the ground, it, of course, may be propagated by cuttings of the 

 roots. — J. R. Kilkenny Nursery, March 20. 



Leaf Buds into Flower Buds. — A practical horticulturist begs to be in- 

 formed by some of the physiological readers of the Gardener's Magazine, 

 what the rationale is of the methods frequently and successfully resorted 

 to by gardeners, to reduce a too luxuriant fruit tree into a bearing state, or 

 to cause it to produce flower instead of leaf buds. The methods generally 

 practised are, ringing, cutting the roots, transplanting, giving the branches a 



