March 3, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



177 



Last season, though it was next to impossible for Calceo- 

 larias to clo better, we felt the want at planting time of small 

 plants for edgings. To secure them this season, we have just 

 prepared for taking off a good batch of cuttings, which will also 

 make the plants more stubby. For this purpose, beds with 

 hot leaves were prepared much as described the other week for 

 Verbenas. A few inches of rotten dung and leaf mould were 

 thrown over, and a little lime being added to sweeten it, it was 

 trodden firm. Then about 3 inches of compost were thrown over 

 it, and also firmed, and then dusted over with sand. The compost 

 consisted of one part fine sifted leaf mould, one part burned 

 earth and charred rubbish, one part drift sand, and three parts 

 fresh loam, rather adhesive than sandy, put on in a state dry 

 rather than wet. In a few days we will dib the cuttings in, 

 much the same as described for autumn work, only we will keep 

 the glass close and syringe the tops offcener, in the middle of 

 sunny days. The cuttings being from 15 to IS inches from the 

 glass, will rarely require shading. Among the autumn-struck 

 Calceolarias are some Aurea floribunda, rather yellowish and 

 sickly. On examination we found that the cuttings had been 

 planted quite deep enough, and the soil used had been old 

 instead ot fresh. — R. IP. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Cerastium tomentosum Culture (A Constant Subscriber). — Old plants 

 left in the ground may be dug: up, and the soil they have been growing- in 

 exchanged for fresh ; then the plants, being- divided, may be planted 

 somewhat like Box-edging, taking care, however, that sufficient of the 

 couch-like roots be buried to keep the top alive. We find this the easiest 

 way of managing it. Cuttings do as well if taken off beforehand, and 

 struck in heat; but this mode of propagating is more troublesome, 



AltssdiU variegatum for Edging (Idem).— It would not be advisable 

 to have older plants than those struck last autumn. These, with others 

 struck in early spring, are what we use ; and we have not found any differ- 

 ence between the two when they are rooted about alike. Old plants might, 

 perhaps, do ; but they are bulky to keep through the winter, and are not 

 so handy as young ones. 



Applying Liquid Manure to a Poor Garden {Aston).— If your soil 

 be light, liquid manure of any kind may be used almost at any time. Let 

 it be well diluted and clear in dry weather, but on a rainy day you might 

 puti.t on stronger. Very stiff ground, however, is not benefited by this, 

 but lime will do it good. If liquid manure be inconvenient you might try 

 guano, being sure that it is genuine. Avery little of this is sufficient, and 

 it can be used at any time wichout ihe disagreeable smell of liquid manure. 

 The inexperienced amateur should be careful to use exceedingly little 

 until he has found out how much should be given. 



Pruning Filberts (B. C.).— Those not versed in the matter can tell by 

 certain appearances where the female blossoms are, they being small tufts 

 of a bright rose colour. The male blossoms are produced more abundantly, 

 and there is seldom any danger of cutting all of them away. Usually these 

 show themselves early in the autumn, and a succession of them continues 

 up to the time the female blossom is out and gone. Little regard is there- 

 fore paid to these at pruning time, but the small tiny buds showing the 

 least bit of red are carefully preserved. They are generally at the base of 

 small shoots, and in Kent are ab the present time (Feb. 24), fully open; 

 the trees were all pruned some time ago. This subject will be adverted 

 to again by a writer from the Filbert district, who has promised us notes 

 of his experience. 



Sowing Pinus Seeds (/. TT. IF.).— If your seeds be attached to the cone 

 they are best separated by forcing an iron spike like the prong of a hay-fork 

 up the centre of the cone's stalk, and so dividing them without mutilating 

 them. This is especially advised for the large kinds. Sow in well-drained 

 pans or boxes in a rather sandy soil, covering very slightly, or, in fact, 

 scarcely at all. Some of the larger seeds may be secured to their place by 

 fixing the wing part of the seed in the ground, and the germ only half 

 covered. Some shading from bright sun will be necessary. A cold pit or 

 house will do for them, but some of them germinate more quickly in heat. 

 We do not advise a hot-water soaking which, though it removes the coating 

 of resin or gum, we think injures the embryo. Good seed ought to 

 vegetate without this unnatural process. 



Shoots op Orange Trees Dying (TT. 0. S. E. D.).—lt is impossible 

 to judge from the sprig you have sent what is the cause of your trees going 

 off so suddenly. There seemed a little brown scale, but that was nothing 

 particular. Has any poisonous substance found its way to the roots, such 

 as an escape of gas? Has saltwater or any poisonous matter been in any 

 water-pots or buckets used in watering them? Orange trees at times 

 become diseased, but they become so gradually ; while you say yours were 

 healthy and looked well only a few days atjo. There must be something 

 more the matter than we can account for without being on the spot. The 

 roots, we think, from some cause will be found to be defective. Is the 

 drainage sufficient ? 



Seedling Cinerarias (Ogston Hall).— That with dark centre, white- 

 based and mauve-edged rays is a first-class flower. The other is only fit 

 for the garden-borders. 



Stephanotis floribunda (Stephanotis).— The Number containing cul- 

 ture of Lisianthus Russellianus can be obtained at our office. You have 

 no chance of the Stephanotis flowering in the summer of this year if you 

 eut it down now. If you train the four-feet shoot round some sticks, and 

 the shoot has well ripened, you may have a chance of some bloom this year. 

 The best treatment would be to encourage growth without any cnttin<* 

 and cultivate for flowering in 1864. The Amaryllis seeds, sown now, will 

 bloom in two, three, or more years according to the kinds. 



Flower-garden Planting (H. S. B.).— We like both your arrange- 

 ments, but prefer B, but would improve 2 with a margin or pink. We 

 think your centre bed is too large for the rest of the group, but a broad 

 band of Perilla will render that excess less apparent. The Perilla will 

 require much pruning to keep it below Bijou. 



Flower-pots Becoming Green (Kate). — You may, when they are clean 

 and dry, paint them with whatever colour you admire most. If you used 

 stone-colour paint, and before it was dry daubed it over with silver sand, 

 your pots would look as if made of stone; and thus painted the green will 

 be kept off for a long time. If the paint is well dried before the pots are 

 used no injury will be done to the plants, if the soil is rather open and good 

 drainage secured. If, like Grant Thorburn, you paint the pots green, the 

 green niucor will never be seen even if it come. 



Pomegranates not Blooming (G. 5".).— Your Pomegranate had better 

 stand out of doors after June or in the middle of May. Give it all the sun 

 and air possible ; and in pruning manage so as to ha\ e abundance of slender 

 twigs, and do not stop or cut them, as they will produce the flowers. If 

 you do not have bloom this season you may have it next. There was an 

 account of the management a few weeks ago. 



Mildew on Greenhouse Roses (H. A 7 .).— The causes are chiefly their 

 being tender and our climate moist. The remedy is giving plenty of air, 

 and dried a little in winter and spring if the Roses are started early ; and 

 dusting with flowers of sulphur if the mildew does appear notwithstanding 

 that treatment. 



Propagating Lycopodium denticulatum (Mary). — Divide the moss 

 into the smallest pieces with or without roots, and plant in sandy heath 

 mould and a little loam. Keep damp, syringe rn sunny weather, and shade 

 a little until well established. You may as well cut over the brown fronds 

 of the Maiden-hair Fern, and give it a warmer position, and fresh fronds 

 will come all right. In your heat the Fern will be brown in winter. 



Hoya carnosa Colture (Idem).— It should not be so dry as to wither 

 the leaves. If they are merely a little limp it will be all right enough. A 

 little more heat will also doit good, and before deluging the roots much 

 you taay syringe the leaves a number of times in a day, so that they may 

 absorb moisture. In watering make a few holes in the soil, and fill them 

 now and then for several weeks before deluging the soil. Except when in 

 a high temperature in summer and in bloom, this thick-leaved plant needs 

 no great amount of water. The heat should average 45° in winter, and 

 seldom or never be below 40°. 



Glazing Frames (Z. A.).— If your frames are at all flat, you cannot do 

 better than glaze in the common way, and use quarter of inch laps, and 

 place the glass oneway in order that the laps maybe as close as possible. If 

 the sashes were to be litle moved, the squares finely cut and placed end 

 to end would do, and there would be no drip, but then you would have a 

 good deal of trouble if a square were broken to fit it as nicely again. The 

 same remark applies to fitting-in glass in grooves in the saeh-bars, and very 

 little putty is needed ; but there is great trouble in mending so as to clean 

 out the groove. 



Foreign Horticultural Papers (Gillaume).—- We believe the "Revue 

 Horticole" is the most widely circulating horticultural journal in France. 

 We do not know anything about the Russian journals. 



Address (Constant Reader). — Messrs. Carson's address is 9, Great 

 Winchester Street, Old Broad Sireet, London, E.C. 



German Sausages (Olivia). — Wurst kraut means sausage herbs, such 

 being Sage, Thyme, Marjoram, &c. No particular herb is known by that 

 name so far as we are aware. 



Cuba Bast (P. Q.). — It is made of the inner bark of Paritium elatum, 

 a species hardly separable from the genus Hibiscus. It is a native of 

 Jamaica and other tropical islands. The strips of inner bark are there 

 made into cordage. From another species, P. tiliaceum, native of Otaheite 

 and elsewhere, a fine matting is made of the bark films. The last edition 

 of tlie tr Cottage Gardeners' Dictionary" is dated 1857. It may be had 

 free by post from our office for 5s. $d. 



Names of Plants, &c (D. D.). — 1, Evergreen Oak; 2, Escallonia 

 rubra; 3 Winter Codlin Apple. (£. F.).— The Fern appears to be an 

 Hypolepis, but is immature. (Old Subscriber). — 1, MonochuBtum, ensi- 

 ferum; 2,'Blechnum spicant ; 3, Taxus adpressus. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



WHICH SHOULD BE ESSENTIAL POINTS IN 

 POULTRY? 



"Whilst reading week after week the able writing in your 

 Journal, I have noticed one constant 8uccession of complaints 

 against the awards of prizes at our different shows, and also an 

 endless discussion on the varied points that constitute a really 

 first-class pure bred bird. 



I hear individuals speak of a fixed standard ; of poultry clubs 

 which are to rule all exhibitions throughout the kingdom, and 

 fix decisions for a never-satisfied crowd of poultry-breeders. 

 Now, the bane of our shows is, that we are not content with the 

 higher and real points that are the marks of prize birds, but we 

 descend to particulars which I think are beneath any common- 

 sense individual to support for a moment. 



Why are we to set aside Aylesbury Ducks because their bills 

 have a tinge of yellow ? Why withhold the prize when Dorkings 

 have only four toes ? Or, why, in that noblest breed of birds, 

 the Game, to bow to the caprice of a judge who may think that 

 they should have different-coloured legs to what they possess ? 



I take these simply as instances, and I know from experience 

 that numbers of birds of the purest strains in England possess 



