430 Queries and Answers. 



would be, I should consider, to the practical portion of the readers of your 

 Magazine, only to insult their understanding; as Mr. Niven's stove, and the 

 arrangements therein, to any practical man, form a palpable absurdity. Whence 

 is it, I would ask Mr. Niven, that, on visiting the gardens of the amateur, we 

 are greeted with constant complaints as a cause of failure, both in their at- 

 tempts at growing fruit and plants, but from their being obliged to crowd into 

 the same house plants whose treatment ought to be (and is, when convenience 

 will permit) as foreign to each other, as that of the lichen from the Lapland 

 rocks to the Orchidaceae from the jungle of Sierra Leone ? Such, then, nearly 

 is Mr. Niven's assemblage. His stove is the general receiver of the vegetable 

 kingdom from all parts of the known world. His chance of success I shall 

 leave to any rational person to judge. — Catius. Belfast, June 22. 1841. 



[The author of this complains that we omitted a part of his first letter, 

 which we did ; because the terms in which it was couched were such as we 

 did not consider admissible unless he had given his real name. He also says 

 that he thinks we promised in one of our early Volumes to insert every thing 

 that was sent to us, verbatim ; an idea that never once v/as entertained by us, 

 nor, we believe, any other editor. — Cond.] 



Art. V. Queries and Answers. 



"MlfSA Cavendishn as a substitute for Pines, (p. 334.) — In answer to your 

 correspondent, " L S., Durham," respecting Musa Cavendishw. A house of the 

 dimensions he has given will hold about ten full-grown or fruiting plants, with 

 room between for different-sized successional ones, to be tubbed successively, 

 as the large plants ripen off" their fruit, these being shaken out of their tubs as 

 soon as the fruit is gathered, and potted, to produce suckers; by judicious 

 management in tubbing and in administering water, a supply of fruit maj' be 

 had the greater part of the year. I have had at one time ten fruiting plants 

 nearly of the same size and age, being suckers produced the same spring, and 

 receiving similar treatment ; yet no two of them produced their spadix at the 

 same time, and even if they were disposed to do so, it may be prevented, dif- 

 ferent treatment being given them. As their approach to fruiting is easily as- 

 certained, by their leaves decreasing in size, soon after which the embryo fruit- 

 stalk may be detected by the sudden swelling of the lower part of the stem, if 

 more than one should show these indications at one time, the one it is desired 

 to fruit first must have abundance of water, and the warmest situation, and the 

 others be retarded by opposite treatment. The period between them may be still 

 further lengthened a considerable time, if the whole spadix of fruit of one ap- 

 proaching loo close upon another in ripening be cut off" with a portion of the 

 stem attached, when the upper tier of fruit is just ripening, and suspended in 

 a dry and airy room, in the way that late grapes are often kept. 1 have cut 

 excellent fruit from a spadix, two months after it had been separated from the 

 plant ; and they may be made to ripen fast or slow in this manner, according to 

 the temperature to which they are exposed. The quicker the flower-stem is 

 made to develope itself, the longer the spadix will be, and the greater quantity 

 of fertile flowers it will produce, consequently the greater weight of fruit, 

 which will vary from 15 lb. to 30 lb., according to the plant's strength, the season, 

 and other circumstances. 



I need hardly add that the soil can scarcely be too rich, and rather light than 

 retentive ; that abundance of water may be given, and readily pass off". — Joseph 

 Paxton. Chatsworth Gardens, June 22. 1841. 



