12:z Queries and Answers. 



S. would be glad if some reader of the Gardener's Maga- 

 zine would explain to him the change which takes place in the 

 tulip bulb. He says, " I have planted to-day a number of bulbs, 

 and the whole of them appear as if the flower stem would rise 

 from the centre of the bulb ( fig. 52. a.), but when I come to take 

 them up in July next, I shall find it rising from the bottom (b.) — 

 Hermitage, near Lancaster, Nov. 9th, 1826. " 



Winter Cherry. — " In the spring of the present year, I bought 

 several packets of tender annual and other seeds, amongst which 

 was to have been included the Amomum Plinii, mentioned in 

 Mawe and Abercrombie, page 199., as the winter cherry, " much 

 esteemed for its beautiful red fruit, which it bears in winter." 

 T«e seed sold me could not have been right, as the plants 

 bloomed a light purple flower, like the convolvulus in shape, and 

 then went to seed at the end of August. Will you inform me^ 

 whether it is known by the above name in the shops ? — G. R." 0) 



The common winter cherry is the Physalis Alkekengi, a hardy perennial ; 

 the P. peruviana or edulis, is sometimes grown for its fruit on the back 

 walls of* vineries, and is also called winter cherry. The Amomum Plinii 

 we are inclined to suppose is a species of capsicum. The blue-flowering 

 plant may have been Nicandra physaloides. — Cond. 



Saccharometer. — " Mr. Bonington Mowbray, in his ' Every Man his own 

 Brewer,' says, p. 41. of his work, ' those family brewers, who choose to 

 be hypercorrect and curious, may provide a saccharometer, the purchase o. 

 which in a tin case is six shillings.' I have asked the price of a sac- 

 charometer, and have been told that a good one will come to five guineas. 

 Where are they to be bought for the reasonable sum of six shillings? 



« G. R. " 



No where. Six shillings must be a misprint for six guineas. — Cond. 



Destruction of Insects. — " I ought to apologize, Mr. Editor, for the num- 

 ber of my queries ; but will only add an extract from the Imperial Maga- 

 zine, for the year 1819, called ' An experiment that is worth trying,' and 

 as it has two recommendations, that of being very cheap, and easily ob- 

 tained, I think it will not be unacceptable to some of your readers. 



" ' An American farmer lately informed the public, that if the water in 

 which potatoes have been boiled be sprinkled over plants, shrubs, and 

 trees, it will most effectually destroy those insects with which they are in- 

 fested. At what particular season of the year this sprinkling must take place, 

 we are not informed. We are only told, in general terms, that this water 

 will destroy the insects in every stage of their existence. As the trial 

 may be made with only little trouble, and with no expence, we cannot 

 conceive that time would be misapplied, if some gardener were to carry on 

 a course of experiments throughout the year, in various ways, in order to 

 ascertain the result.' Your reader and subscriber, G. R." 



Yellow Rose. — " Could any art be devised to render the yellow rose less 

 double, — semi-double for instance ; it would flower better and be much more 

 beautiful. This, however, is an art, I fear, far beyond our reach, and we 

 must not expect success in this attempt. But as there seems to be a variety in 

 the South of France, I could wish, through your widely circulating Maga- 

 zine, to call the attention of those enterprising English Gardeners, settled 

 at the Trianon Nursery, near Rouen, Messrs. Calvert and Co., to it. It 

 may be worth their notice. It is thus spoken of by Mr. Hughes in his 

 Itinerary. He says, ' At an inn, on the road between Avignon and Nismes, 

 near the Pont du Gard, the landlord gave me some double yellow roses 



