Queries and Answers. 229 



durable material is required ; turning such lands to infinitely better account than can be obtained 

 from any reed bed, willow bed, fishery, decoy, heronry, or other present application of the like 

 lands. 



I therefore sincerely hope that among your readers will be found some who have connections 

 with some of the numerous Englishmen, who, for military, commercial, or scientific purposes, 

 have emigrated to Peru and New Grenada, and that they may succead in obtaining either roots, 

 or seeds, or plants of this valuable vegetable from the country and climate of the potato, the 

 El Achiro, and the Arracacha, which may be a gift to Britain, little less beneficial than the 

 former of these, descending from the Andes, and diffused from Van Dieman's land to Siberia, 

 has already proved, and the other two may prove. It is to be expected that either the ripened 

 seeds or the ligneous fleshy root of the Guadua bamboo, with its strong-pointed buds, protected 

 as they must be by their hard flinty case, may, when embedded either in powdered charcoal, or 

 even in earth, or at all events in the powdered chloride of lime, be conveyed from Colombia or 

 New Granada to this country, without losing their vegetative power ; and I sincerely hope that 

 some patriotic cultivator will make the experiment. 



It was said about twenty years since, that the Earl of Moira had introduced some species of 

 bamboo into Ireland with success from Hindostan ; can any of your readers give me information 

 upon this subject? I am, Sir, &c. — Causid/cus. January 11. 1829. 



The Lilac Tree is said, in Phillips's Sylva Florifera (vol. ii. p, 49.), to be met 

 with in full perfection in Paris in the months of August and September, a season in which IJiave 

 not even seen them in flower in this country. Have we not the same means of retarding their 

 flowering as the French, for which some latent cause must be assigned, or is it a different variety 

 from any of the sorts we cultivate ? Perhaps yourself, during some of your Continental tours, might 

 have seen it; if not, some intelligent correspondent will give some further particulars, for which 

 I should feel obliged ; and remain, Sir, &c. — J. H. Linden Hill, near Maidenhead, Jan. 18. 1830. 



Stretlitzia regvnce. — In answer to G. G. (Vol. V. p. 239.), I beg to say I flower 

 this plant very freely under the following treatment : — At the time I place my green-house plants in 

 the open air, I bring plants of Strelitzza from the stove, and place them in the green-house. In 

 September the plants are removed to their winter quarters, the Strelitzzis are taken to a cool part 

 of the stove. I like them to be under-potted ; the mould used is sandy loam and peat ; rich mould 

 I think improper, it makes them produce too many leaves, which some persons cut ofi'to the great 

 injury of the plants. With respect to water, I use it sparingly until they show flower, which is 

 generally about January or February, I then give it more freely. — TV. Boyce. Kingscote Gardens, 

 April, 1829. 



Slrelkzia regince. — Sir, In answer to the query of G. G. (Vol. V. p. 239.), 

 with respect to flowering the Strelitz/a regina?, I wish to inform him that we flower it in the 

 winter months here, both in pots and also planted out with stove and green-house plants, in made 

 soil in a large house for various kinds of plants, where the temperature in the winter months, with 

 fire heat, is about 55°. The soil is a light red sandy loam. The plant, from its fleshy or soft 

 roots, requires but little water to keep it in a healthy or growing state; but when coming into 

 flower it may be watered more freely, when it will blow fine for several weeks. The low tempe- 

 rature of the metal-roofed hot-houses in the winter here, and the sudden transition to heat as 

 soon as advantage can be taken of the sun's rays in spring, form, no doubt, one cause of many of 

 our old inhabitants of the stove flowering more frequently than they did formerly in wooden 

 houses. I am, Sir, &c.-j — George Fulton. Northwick Park, Jan. 30. 1830. 



Preserving Florists' Floivers. — Sir, Every botanist who has endeavoured to dry 

 plants, must regret the rumpled state of the flowers, owing to the thickness of the stems and 

 leaves preventing the pressure reaching the thin and delicate flowers. To remedy, in some mea- 

 sure, this failure, I would propose cutting off the flowers, slightly pressing them till flat, and 

 gumming them on while fresh. Specimens of flowers thus treated are herewith sent. If done by 

 a person of more ingenuity than the writer, would they not be useful to the florist to preserve 

 prize flowers ; and likewise to the nurseryman to show in winter what flowers his plants will pro- 

 duce ? — W. I. May, 1827. 



The flowers in the book sent, it is stated, were collected in the spring of 1819 : they are gummed 

 on, but not varnished in any way, and certainly retain their colours remarkably well. They are 

 chiefly polyanthuses and auriculas ; but there are also stocks, wallflowers, daisies, narcissuses, 

 and several other genera. — Cond. July 9. 1827. 



Rose Tree. — I have a small tender-twigged rose bush, which bears very delicate 

 flowers, having the exact smell of vanilla. As I have never seen such a rose as my own, nor 

 found such a one described in any horticultural work, I should be glad to be informed, by any 

 gentleman possessing the kind, how it is propagated, every means I have tried having proved 

 abortive. — Ovrw. Yorkshire, lat. 54°, Oct. 31. 1829. 



List of acclimated Exotics Sir, Permit me, through the medium of your 



Magazine, to solicit from some one or more of your numerous correspondents, a list or 

 lists of such exotics indigenous to warmer climates than our own, as upon trial have been 

 found to endure our most severe winters without protection. If amateurs, as well as those in the 

 profession of horticulture, would favour you with the names of plants of the above description 

 that have come under their notice, a valuable list might soon be formed for the use of such as may 

 wish to have an enlarged collection of exotics growing in their pleasure-gardens and shrubberies. 

 I am, Sir, &c. — T. R. Clowance, Cornwall, Jan. 26. 1830. 



Earlier bearing of Fruit Trees now than formerly. — Sir, Can you in any way 

 account for apple and pear trees coming much sooner into bearing in the present day than for- 

 merly ? It has struck me, but I cannot say it from experience, that it may arise from grafting on 

 apple and pear stocks, raised from the pips of cultivated sorts, and not on stocks raised from pips 

 of the crab and wild pear. — H. Gray's Inn, Nov. 12. 1829. 



; Fruit Trees on Wired Walls. — Sir, Although it is a very long time since I last 

 addressed you on the subject of your Magazine, yet I have not been altogether inattentive to its 

 object ; for I have relinquished the larger undertaking of a farm for the more pleasing occupation 

 of a garden. In this new profession (if 1 may use the expression) I have met with the greatest 

 assistance from your Encyclopaedias and Magazines ; for I extract from them all, and in return 

 shall endeavour to furnish you with something now and then from my pen, when the fit comes on. 

 Among the various new improvements in training fruit trees on walls, I think the wiring the walls 

 seems to promise considerable facilities, especially when plastered or stuccoed. I recollect the late 



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