378 Answers to Queries, and Queries. 



assisted by a gentle beat, which they will require to keep the leaves from 

 falling down by the damp. After they have blossomed, I turn them out, 

 and treat them in the same way as the seedlings, and repot them again in 

 the autumn. I am, dear Sir, &c. 



" Isleworth, Jan. 22. 1827. John Wilmot." 



Amomum Plin'ii, in reply to G. R. — "I suspect the ' Amomum Plin'ii' 

 of Mawe and Abercrombie, alluded to by G. R. (p. 122.), is the ' Solanum 

 pseudo-cap'sicum,' a very old greenhouse shrub, bearing in winter an 

 abundance of scarlet cherry-like fruit. The plant is very easily raised from 

 seed, and will fruit the following season." {Mentor.) "It is now called 

 Physalis pseudo-cap 'sicum, which, 'when loaded with fruit, is highly orna- 

 mental among the other shrubs. Propagated by seeds, and also by cuttings, 

 which strike freely." — {A. B.) 



Preservation of Cut Flowers- — " For the information of your cor- 

 respondent W. B., vol. i. p. 559., cut flowers may be preserved a little 

 longer by cutting a little from the stalks every three or four days, and 

 replacing them in fresh water, and of course clearing them each time of all 

 decayed flowers and leaves." (A. X. Oct. 25.) — " Gathered flowers should 

 never be crowded : if their stalks, leaves, and petals barely touch each other 

 at the extremities, so much the better." {Dr. D. of B. Sept.) 



" The best Method of Packing Culinary Garden Seeds for Exportation is 

 extremely simple, and seldom fails, if the seeds are new and well ripened. 

 The seeds should be carefully freed from every impurity ; each variety 

 should be put up in brown paper, or, what is better, in coarse linen bags. 

 These packages are then to be placed in wicker baskets, having covers to 

 them. The baskets are to be hung, or placed, in a free current of air in 

 the cabin of the vessel, which is the most eligible place for them ; and if 

 neat baskets are made use of, their appearance cannot be reasonably ob- 

 jected to. If destined for a long voyage, they may be occasionally carried 

 up on deck as an airing. For large assortments, if baskets are not made 

 use of, casks or chests may be substituted ; in the tops or sides of which 

 are perforations, made large enough to allow the escape of the heated and 

 moist air which may generate in them, but of a size so small as to prevent 

 the entrance of cockroaches and other vermin. Large packages cannot be 

 conveniently placed in the cabin ; and if there are no other situations 

 equally eligible, the steerage and the after-hold is the next best. In those 

 situations they may be stowed as close to the hatchways as possible ; and 

 as those hatchways are frequently open in fine weather, the seeds have the 

 benefit of fresh air, and may be readily hoisted upon deck for a better 

 airing. Large packages of seeds have less chance of escaping the baneful 

 effects of a sea voyage than small quantities. 



" The confining of culinary seeds in tin cases, glass bottles, &c, so as 

 totally to exclude the air from them, is a certain means of destroying the 

 vegetative properties of the seeds, and appears to me (after practical 

 observations of nearly thirty years) to be the most effectual measure that 

 can be taken to insure destruction and disappointment. Seeds on board ship 

 should be kept above the level of the water, if possible ; but when this 

 cannot be conveniently done, the packages will require to be the oftener 

 taken on deck for an airing. 



" Kew, March 1827. J. B." 



The Music Plant, A'ster argophyllus. — "I beg leave to inform R. in U. 

 that in the summer of 1817 I was induced to give a plant of this shrub a 

 trial in the open ground. I planted it about eighteen inches from a south 

 Wall, (which distance I prefer for it, and also plants of similar habits, 

 instead of planting close, and training against the wall,) where it has grown 

 most luxuriantly, and flowered abundantly. The severe frost of January 

 1820, during which the thermometer here was as low as^'l5°, it endured very 



