

• I 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



Much as has 



longest. 



trouble, and great satisfaction to myself ; but now, by 

 reason of something (the soil, doubth-s), I am only able 

 to grow them from seed, like annuals ; and to raise a 

 stock from them after flowering, is, as " G. H. ' states, 

 almost impossible. R. Gilbert, Arundel 



J ility of certain kinds of 1 tier.- 



been said on the subject, it is yet a matter of dispute 

 which kind of timber, set in the ground as a gate- post, 

 endures the influences of the weather and other causes 



It is well known that the part under ground, 

 as well as that above the soil, remains but little injured, 

 while the portion on the surface decays with more or 

 less rapidity, being eaten away, as it were. Now, I am 

 not aware what agencies are at work to effect the de- 

 struction of that part whichare notin fulliorce elsewhere; 

 but it is certain they are at work, and, sooner or later, 

 they perform their office. Now could some means not 

 be taken to counteract this state of things ; charring 

 seems to be the most simple and effectual of any in use, 

 and assuredly it does prolong the existence, of the post ; 

 but how it happens to do so has always appeared to me 

 a difficult problem to solve. Perhaps some of your 

 more learned correspondents will enlighten us on the 

 subject ; but if I were to hazard an opinion, I would 

 suggest that the action of the fire, to a certain extent, 

 seals, or rather, sears up the pores or cells of the timber, 

 on the part acted upon, in such a manner as to make 

 them inaccessible alter wards to the action of moisture, 

 and, what may be likewise equally baneful, the air. 

 Whether my theory is correct or not I cannot say, 

 but I know that if two posts exactly alike be put down 

 at one time, one charred and the other not, the charred 

 one will last quite one-third longer than the nn charred 

 one. But there are other queries that seem to puzzle 

 me ; a Beech or Hornbeam post, both very hard and 

 heavy woods, are no more durable than Willow or 

 Poplar, and in many cases they won't stand so long. 

 Is <>w, how is this to be accounted for ? to all appearance 

 the hard smooth surface of the two w r oods first men- 

 tioned would seem to offer as much resistance to decay 

 as Elm, Larch, Fir, or Oak, but such is not the case ; 

 and I know of nothing that will decay sooner than Beech 

 or Hornbeam — Sycamore and Horse-chestnut last about 



I remember a case in which 



The Tulips wew» tJ 

 quantity, and very good, considering uieL^?^ * 

 Amateurs' Class, tor 12 varieties? the W~ h * 

 awarded to J. Edwards, Esq., of Wace Cm **** 

 loway, for nice blooms of Madame Vestris C • ' 

 Optimus, Polyphemus, Cleopatra Ynnm^!K 

 Platoff, Byzantine, Claudian a P , and Pu?^ ** 

 teridge, who was second U - J *"■ **• ***- 



to suppose, 

 Potatoes in 

 have them 



rence, oi Hampton, for Strong's Kin* TbalkS* 

 Norah Criena, Jeffrey's Elizabeth, Everard Qui** 

 Brown's Polyphemus, Pandora, Lawrence's r^TT^ 



U^ 



Brown's Polyphemus, Pandora, Lawrence _ 

 Vivid, and Catalani. 2d, to Mr. Turner, of &dk5 

 Queen of the North, Triumph Royal, Mary LanEuT 

 phemus, Alcon, Heroine, Pilot, Princess Row7&2i 

 and Strong's King. Heartsease •_— l st prize to IfrW 



the same length of time. 



a considerable length of new park fencing (close paling) 

 was put up by direction of a town agent, Beech posts 

 being used with Oak rails and paling : after a very few 

 years the posts all gave way ; part had to be sparred, 

 and others were replaced at a great expense and trouble. 

 I have taken some pains to ascertain the length of time 

 various kinds of timber will stand in the ground without 

 undergoing any preparation before being inserted ; and 

 the result of my enquiries is that Larch, when of great 

 age and sound, is equally as durable as Oak or Sweet 

 Chestnut, of which much has been said lately ; and when 

 very small pieces of young timber are used, Larch 

 stands pre-eminently first. There may, however, be 

 fancy timbers which are never likely to be produced in 

 useful quantities more durable. I have found an Elder 

 hedge stake, of a circumference of 6 or 8 inches, last 

 longer than any other I have ever seen used. Next to 

 that in point of size is the hard gnarly top of an old 

 Larch, but that can hardly be called fair competition ; 

 the Elder outlasts it, but it would be unwise to advise 

 its being generally planted on that account, as I don't 

 know a more useless cumberer of ground than the Elder; 

 and when it finds its way into hedges let it be extirpated 

 without delay. While on the subject of the utility and 

 durability of timber, let me call the attention of the 

 sanguine planter of fancy Pines to the homely fact of 

 enquiring into their probable value hereafter. It would 

 be useless my giving an opinion ; but I may mention 

 that no timber I know seems really of less use, where 

 firmness or durability is wanted, than the Weymouth 

 Pme, and I much fear many of the fancy ones will 

 partlike of the same bad quality. The old Stone Pine, 

 of which I have seen one specimen of considerable size 

 cut up, is really a useful looking timber, resembling 

 Scotch Fir, which when of suitable age and size, is as 

 good as the majority of Baltic timber, and I would 

 presume that many of the class partaking of the Scotch 

 Fir character will be found equally good. I doubt 

 however, whether the showy Insignis, aud some others' 

 will be found tof any further use than that of omamentin 

 oress grounds. A n Old Sawyer. 



Eucalypti. — As ; attention has been drawn in your 

 pages to the possibility of growing the gigantic Euca- 

 lypti of lasmama in some parts of England as timber 

 trees, it may be interesting to state that there exist in 

 XJorsetsmre and Devon three young trees of Eucalyptus, 

 already of considerable size, and which promise, from 

 the number of winters they have survived, and from the 

 vigour of their summer growth, to become ornamental, 

 it not useful additions, to the landscape garden Of 

 these, one js at Mount Edgcombe, planted in a wood 

 sloping down to the sea. A second is in the ornamental 

 nursery garden of Mr. Veitch, at Exeter, where it is 

 called E. montana It is the only one that has flowered, 

 ihe third is at Abhotsbury, about 18 ft. high, and 

 upwards of 2 ft. round the bole, at 2 ft. from the ground. 

 The exact measure at 18 in. above the ground, is 2 ft. 

 9 in. in girth. It has been planted about 16 years. 

 These three specimens are all different in foliage j yet 

 all seem forms of E. resmifera. E. cordata, or* pulve. 

 ruienta, is well known as hardy against a wall it is 

 remarkable that all these are glaucous Eucalypti- the 

 dark green leaved E. robusta, &c, seem, uniortunatd v 



adopted in making pyroligneous acid is the best ; it Heaths, and Calceolarias, and 

 never fetches so good a price as that made in the niums and Verbenas, 

 ordinary way ; and whenever it has been used it has 

 been found of inferior quality. John Stoveld, Sttdham 

 Hall, near Midhurst. 



Hints for Hyhridisers. — Try the various handsome 

 sorts of Rhododendron with the neglected American 

 R. punctatum ; a new type of neat small bushes, with 

 more showy flowers, as in the hybrids from caucasicum, 

 with a distinct character, might result. Why are the 

 tall Phloxes always chosen for muling, when the equally 

 pretty and more distinct creeping kinds might afford a 

 fresh set of hybrids better suited for pots, rocks, and 

 small gardens than the larger sorts \ — Will Azalea 

 sinensis mule with indica, &c. \ iS. 



Potatoes. — It is a very mistaken notion 

 that because a man plants his main crop of 

 February, he either anticipates or wishes to 

 appear above ground early. The object is, to prevent 

 the sets from growing, and to retard, rather than ex- 

 pedite their vegetating. Tubers which sprout much 

 before planting must necessarily be weakened, more 

 particularly if the shoot is broken off, which is generally 

 done. Too much care cannot be paid to the preservation 

 of all descriptions of seed, especially Potatoes, which 

 are so frequently injured by being allowed to heat in 

 masses, impoverishing the tubers, both as food and seed. 

 To see the manner in which Potatoes during the late 

 mild winter have come through the " Buries" ought to 

 convince men how destructive that system of keeping 

 Potatoes is. Falcon. 



French Notions of English Gardening in the last 

 9 Century. — -Mason (the author of the Poem on English 

 gardens), commissions Horace Walpole, who was going to 

 Paris, to get him Monsieur Watelet's Essay on Gardens, 

 and desires him to go to see an island in the Seine, 

 near Paris, which the French author had laid out in the 

 true English style. In the volumes just published of 

 Walpole's Letters to Mason, is the following description 

 of this much vaunted English garden le Moulin Joli. 

 "I have begun my observations (on the conversion 

 of the French to English gardening) methodically; 

 1 have laid the axe to the root of the tree, for I have 

 begun by visiting M. Watelet's Isle, called h Moulin Joli, 

 If he has laid the axe to the root, and even to the 

 branches, he has used it nowhere else. Instead of find- 

 ing, as 1 expected, a windmill made of ivory and inlaid 

 with false stones ; instead of Dryads and Hamadryads 

 gathering Acorns in baskets of gauze, M. Watelet has 

 jumped back into nature, when she was not above 

 500 years old ; — in one word his island differs in nothing 

 from a French garden into which no mortal has set 

 his foot for the last century, it is an ate (I don't know 

 whether I spell well) joined to his terra firma, by two 

 bridges, one of which he calls Dutch, and the other 

 Chinese, and which are as unlike either as two Peas, 

 and which is pierced and divided into straight narrow 

 walks, en berceau, and surrounded by a rude path quite 

 round. To give the etoile and air champetre, a plenary 

 indulgence has been granted to every Nettle, Thistle, 

 and Bramble that grew in the garden, and they seem 

 good in his sight. The receipt is as follows :— Take an 

 ate full of Willows, cram it full 



»i 



6 



of small Elms, and 

 Poplar Pints, strip them into cradles, and cut them into 

 paths, and leave all the rest as rough as you found it, 

 and you wil have a Moulin Joli. You must know this 

 effort of genius is the more provoking, as the situation is 

 Charming ; besides that, the isle is in the middle of the 

 Seine, every peep-hole (though so small that you seem 

 to look through the diminishing end of a spying-glass), 

 besides terminating on one real windmill, is bounded by 

 a chateau, a clocher, a village, a convent, a villa where 

 Henrietta Maria was educated, or hermitage, to which 

 Bossuet retired— not to mortify himself, but Fenelon. 

 It is true, you catch these points of view over wide fields 

 of chalk, which would produce frankincense as soon as 

 Grass, and which, if they had symptoms of verdure, were 

 waving ranks of Fennel, I always perceive here, when 

 I am out of Paris ; but I never can think myself in the 

 country." Hodman. 



Young Trees injured by Babbits.— G&n you or any of 

 your readers inform me how I can best protect a 

 plantation of young wood from the ravages of rabbits. 

 Last year I planted a small piece of ground with orna- 

 mental trees, and not being able to afford a rabbit, proof 

 fence, I find that they are almost .all cut over about 

 6 inches from the ground by these wantonly mischievous 

 little pests. My landlord allows neither shooting nor 

 snaring, and 1 trouble you in the hope that you can 

 suggest something w ith which I might anoint my trees 

 or else some kind of tree or shrub which does not suit 

 the palate of my foe. I have found nothing come wron- 

 to them but Hollies, and they are expensive, in my 

 garden I have another foe to contend with : an insect 

 or worm 1 take it to be, from the small holes which 1 see 

 m the surface of the soil. Whatever it is, it has effec 

 tual y put an end to my hopes of early Cauliflower and 

 Cabbages for this season. Jolly OrL. [The paint 

 mentioned at p. 343 of to-da/s Paper is said tokJep 

 hares and rabbits from injuring trees* As to the worm 

 try what effect lime-water has on it.J ? 



ner, for Constellation, Lucy Neal, Almanzor bmM 

 Bellona, Mrs. Hamilton, Duke of Perth, Unit? 

 singham, Sir R. Peel, Eustace, Constant^ fj^ 

 Ophir, Ophelia, France Cyeoie, Mr. Beck,' (W 

 Zabdi, Duchess of Rutland, Leader, Madame 

 Ibrahim Pacha, Queen of England, Addison, G«2t 

 Rainbow, Sambo, Supreme, Milton, Alaaterhiili 

 Princess, Polyphemus, Mrs. Beck, Viceroy, and 2 

 Jones. In the Amateur's Class, the first prize ni« 

 by Mr. Betteridge. For Seedlings, Mr. Norma, tf 

 Woolwich, was awarded a first class Certificate far t 

 medium-sized byblomen Tulip, named 'Mr. Smith iah 

 2d prize for a rose Tulip, named Princess Helen*. Mf. 

 Gaines had some nice Calceolarias, and Mr. Lockoerswi 

 pretty Verbena, an improvement on Desdemm J*t 

 stand of Verbenas, from Mr. Smith, of Homaer-mML 

 we remarked trusses of the beautiful varieties £[ 

 and Purple Rival. A first class Certificate was pfti 

 to Mr. Hunt for his Pansy " Pandora." 



Botanical, of Edinburgh, Junt 15.— ftokm 

 Balfour in the chair. In taking the chair ie 

 Professor stated, that having received inquiries im 

 various quarters as to a criticism which had appeared 

 of the second Edition of his Manual of Botacj, & 

 which several glaring errors have keen exj4Std,Jbe 

 considered that he was called upon, as holding the 

 of President of the Botanical Society, to take the 

 opportunity of stating that he had not edited Iks 

 edition. He therefore begged to assure the Jtofc 

 that he was not responsible for the form in which fc 

 work had appeared, nor for any inaccuracies thstiaigk 

 occur in it. The following papers were n*-- 1 - 

 Biographical Notice of the late Mr. George M Bj 

 Dr. JSeill. 2. List of Plants found in #«***"• J 

 G. S. Blackie. Of the plants included in diis taH» 

 following may be mentioned :— Vicia Orobus, Air- 

 head ; Galium pusillum ; Pyrola rotundiiooa ; I -* 

 farinosa ; Betula nana ; Sibbaldia procumbent 



; Saxifraga stellaris ; Arctostophyta h»m 

 Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, and *. ™ 

 Notice of Fxidia Mspidula, Bert, used u 

 remedy in disease, and also as an artwk oj «*/ 

 Dr. Dill, Brighton. This communication »""T 

 in a letter to Dr. Balfour, who commumcrtrf JJ* 

 Society. Dr. Dill remarks :- ■ She iuugo, ^ 

 enclose for your inspection was first W »£ 

 notice in Hong Kong as a favourite «JV^ k 

 Chinese in attacks of dysentery. Jt / ^ 

 the form of decoction, being boiled ^ ^ 

 plums, the latter being added *™ l I^*J 

 &c, to the decoction. The first tune I e>e^* 

 was in the case of the person who j# ■* 

 efficacy in the before-mentioned nialau). 



head 



lfl» 



I 



an 



English gardener, was ; suffering fr^ 



This ■* 

 a se«r* 



till jCillllUoIl g«iXVAV*AA^*y • 



attack of dysentery and as *f b° u ^~ t0 bo** 

 healthy one I strongly advised his g jwt„ Q ^ 

 He said before doing so he would ^ e »*0* * 

 medicine, which had been strongly rec ^ 



him by an old Chinaman, a friend otw. ^. 



what yon do with yourself g» ^ , „ 



and well jg 



care 



do to be trifled 

 surpi'ised to find 



with.' 

 him at 



Three 

 his work, 



< Sir,' he said, 



this medicine has b* «* "£, 



ch 5 



.th 8 



effect upon me that I have kept some o. * £ 



Theapecii^Dhethen^^IJ^ Si 

 servant, who seemed perfectly" ^ 



speedily Obtained me a large ^PP 1 ^ befo re #£ 



***' 



, me 

 on iot 



having 



previous voyage, x iwwwjt? * t k m 

 decoction of the fungus, which he too 



three times a day 



18 mfl* 

 Chins,** 



ten days- - 



go ** J5 





anieh more .tender. W. T. & 



Charcoal,— Your correspondent, « J. JD." ( pa o- e 300) is 

 ■wrong in stating that the charcoal made by the process 



Societies. 



Koyal South London Florici ltural, May 28.— 

 There was an interesting show on this aeeaaonAnd th 

 day being fine there was a fair attendance. One tent 

 was hlkd with stove and greenhouse plants, contributed 

 by Messrs. Over, Hamp, Stanly, I'raser, Pamnlin, and 

 Hook. A second tent was occupied by Azaleas, Cape 



to try it in the first case 



few days after a sailor applied 



dysentery, which had been goin b ^ 



contracted the "*J»ft 'gdhimt 

 voya K e. I i-nmediatelyjla^^ ^ g 



is he *^ 



and in eight or 



quite cured. Being then V*™«f ^ bad i . 

 drunk, was exposed to night an. * ■ > mero edic^, 

 of his malady. Again, however, th ^^beg 

 employed with the same &vouraWe f» ^ JJ 

 his ship in the enjoyment of recruite ^ jm 

 two c4s made me very ^8™ e * ,,•, *»££ 

 fungus as.a cure in diarrhoea and dys ( ^ 

 expt-rience hy no means rea bsedO* ^»P foB „d£J 

 respecting it. Since then I to J J ^ rd« 



respecting it. Since ih«« - j ^mg 



completely, that I now regard^^ 



efficacv to many of the rcu 7""T. on ^ Kong 



' Mr. A. H. Balfour, n Hong 



W 



M 



rience b* ^ 



possess, air. «. lx. ~-~ ; .. eX uen"- v^. ia» 

 Ed it su.-ess.nlly, but ]%£% J, *$*>*, 

 similar to my own. It grows _ U ^.W» 



rotten timber ; hence and frjig *£, * * 

 which it is designated in Uuii* 



d 





