April 28, 1S63. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



319 



off as little as possible, a straight line and not a raw edge being 

 the object. In addition turned over the soil of beds, and nearly 

 finished digging flower-borders. — R. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUES EECEIVED. 



F. Boshell, 86, High Street, Borough, London.— Descriptive 

 Catalogue of Dahlias. 



A. Verschaffelt, 50, Sue du Chaume, Ghent. — Wouveav.tes pov.r 

 1863. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Anemone (.Subscriber, Dublin).— 11 is Anemone hortensis miniata, or 

 Red-flowered Garden Anemone. The species of which it is a variety, 

 A. hortensis, is a native of Italy, and lias striped petals. 



Grass Seeo (Jesse Carter).— Not knowing anything about the Grass, and 

 not being able to foretell whether seed will be scarce or plentiful, we can- 

 not say what the value is. You had better send full particulars and a 

 sample to some wholesale agricultural seedsusan. 



Heating bv Gas (67. A).— Either plan will answer for heating the little 

 boiler bv gas ; but we have great doubts of such small pipes giving you the 

 heat vou require, or ot the boiler and pipes all of tin lasting any time. We 

 would have as much faith in the heated air from the gas passing through 

 one-inch pipes. II you attended to it yourself, we have no doubt you would 

 make your verv ingenious plan answer. For economy and certainty we 

 would prefer a small stove close to the back wall. It would cost a trifle in 

 comparison of the gas and pipes. 



Repotting Orange Tkees (Subscriber).— We would repot the Orange 

 trees with the fruit on them as soon as convenient if they require it, and 

 keep them in the vinery lor a few weeks alterwards. SU° would be high 

 enough for them, and they must be hardened-off by degrees to the tem- 

 perature of the greenhouse or conservatory. They will root best in a high 

 temperature. , „ . 



Vise Leaves Spotted {A A T ew Beginner).— We should think from the 

 leaves that the roots of the Vines are too moist, and that little sun strikes 

 the soil in which they grow. We hope that your border of 3 feet deep is 

 drained ; if not, it would be advisable to drain it next season, or even this ; 

 . but perhaps it would be best to raise the Vines early in the autumn and 

 put a foot of rubble below the roots, which would leave 2 feet for soil- 

 quite enough. We see no reason why the Vines should not do ; but 

 care must be taken not to sodden the border with water from the plants 

 Btanding over it. It would be well, especially in winter, to have flats or 

 pans for such plants. Vines will do very well planted against such back 

 wall, and trained down under the roof; but the more sun strikes against 

 the soil at the back wall, the better will the Vines do. 



Hot-water Pipes vnder or over a Doorway (B. C. TV.).— If your 

 kitchen boiler had been against the back wall of your greenhouse there 

 ■would have been no difficulty ; but being near the wall on the oppusite side 

 does away with most of the economy of the affair. The boiler being raised 

 considerablv above the floor of the kitchen, and the floor of the Kitchen 

 and the conservatory being on the same level, also increase the difficulty. 

 If the top of the boiler had been sunk a foot beneath the Kitchen floor, all 

 would have been smooth sailing. The position of the pipes in the green- 

 house are below the level of the boiler, and you cannot heat in that manner. 

 There will be no difficulty, except the inconvenience, in getting the pipes 

 through the kitchen, if the lowest pipe in your greenhouse is higher than 

 the top of your boiler. You may then take a flow-pipe from the top of 

 your boiler into a cistern on the same level as your present supply-cistern, 

 or as much below it as vou like, provided it is higher than the top of your 

 boiler— 5 or 6 feet will do very well— and from that take your flow-pipe, 

 descending to any suitable level, provided it is higher than the top of your 

 boiler. This pipe may go round the house, or return ; but the lowest pipe 

 also should be as high as the top of the boiler, and Irom that lowest point 

 the return-pipe may descend and pass under the kitchen floor, and rise to 

 the bottom of the boiler, and thus avoid the doorway, having an open air- 

 pipe at each of the bends. Butthjugh this might answer, we should prefer 

 that the return-pipe from its lowest paint should go through the wall, go 

 round the wall of the kitchen on that level, above the level of the boiler, 

 and thtn descend at once to the bottom. The pipe, if desirable, when 

 going round the wall of the kitchen, could be boxed-up. This would be 

 better than sinking below the boiler. 



Seedlings (A l'oung Subscriber near York). — Good border flowers, but 

 not superior to others already in cultivation. Nothing no-\ el about them. 



Yucca filahentosa not Flowering (E. H.). — The last three years 

 have not beeu so favourable for Yuccas blooming as the three preceding 

 seasons, and we fear your having removed your plant lately will not favour 

 its blooming this season, although it is likely it will facilitate its doing so 

 another year. We have had as many as a dozen spikes of Yuccas out at a 

 time, and no flower that we are acquainted with looks more noble. The 

 spike of Y. fllamentosa is about 3 feet or more high, and thickly set with 

 cup-shaped bloom of a creamy blush colour. Yucca gloriosa, aloifolia, 

 and recurva are much larger, spikes of 8 feet and upwards being not un- 

 usual. The individual blooms are much the same in colour as Y, fllamen- 

 tosa, but more bulky and numerous. They flower best in a dry sunny 

 situation and on dry or chalky soils. There is no fixed time for their 

 flowering, for we have had flower-spikes rising in October, and, of course, 

 were cut off in winter, and we have had them early in May. Where there 

 is a number of plants they flower at irregular times. We should think that, 

 unless the bloom-buds of your plant were formed during the fine 

 ■weather of last autumn, your shifting it lately will prevent its blooming 

 this year ; but it may be otherwise. Hot dry summers and autumns suit 

 this plant, and you will doubtless be favoured with a bloom from it in due 

 time. The plant in bloom you send is Phlox setacea; the other not in 

 bloom seems a Saxifrage, and most likely S. hypnoides or S. tridactylites. 



Flower-garden Plan (An Amateur, Eareham). — The only change we 

 would recommend is to cross your colours at the sides of the diamonds, 

 instead of having all warm on one side and all cold on the other. Thus 

 make 9 and 19 Gazania, and 10 and 18 Lobelia, or dark Calceolaria, and 

 so on. 



Double Purple PF.RrwraKLE (if. S.).— Yours is the donble variety 

 usually met with. We cannot tell whether our Worcester correspondent 

 would exchange some of his double blue for some of it. 



Double and Singie Violets (E. E.).— After the double Violets have 

 done flowering, scatter a little sifted leaf-mould amongst the shoots, which 

 will encourage them to root, when, some time towards the end of May, the 

 self layers may be taken off in showery weather and planted in some 

 suitable place. The old plants may be trimmed back into tufts somewhat 

 larger than they were the year before. This trimming, however, had 

 better not be done until the growth of the season is nearly completed, after 

 which the blossom-buds will be formed, and they may at the same time be 

 treated to judicious doses of liquid manure. The name of your plant No. 1 

 is lost, but No. 2 is Coronilla glauca. 



Cutting Back Peach and Nectarine Trees (J. E.).— Although the 

 blossom has not set, it would not be advisable to cut them much back if 

 they are in a vigorous condition and no fruit on them, or they will pro- 

 duce wood much too gross to expect much fruit next year. At the same 

 time, if last year's wood was not sufficiently thinned, a part may now be 

 cut away with advantage. The great thing is to balance the number of 

 shoots of the current year with the support afforded them by the root, so as 

 to insure healthv well-ripened wood of a uniform size in all parts of the 

 tree, and none of it too gross and succulent. A too-severe cutting-m may 

 induce the latter if the trees be vigorous, while, if otherwise, they will he 

 benefited bv a timely pruning. 



Thrips on Cucumbers (An Old Subscriber, Mrs. E. T.).— Heat and dry 

 atmosphere are the delight of the thrips; successivesniokings with tobacco, 

 and frequent syringings and a moist atmosphere the chief cure. We would 

 remove a good many of the infested old leaves and burn them ; but at this 

 season we would raise young plants in another place, and when strong get 

 rid of the old ones. There are many modes of keeping them down, as 

 catching them with a moist finger, but they are difficult to get rid of. The 

 advantage of having a canvas blind is the using it only in bright sunshine. 

 We would leave it off at night, and evenings, and mornings, before the sun 

 became strong. ,. t „ .. , 



Flower-garden Plans (E. S. C).— You deserve credit for the mode 

 you have attempted to colour your beds in. The first group is very nicely 

 arranged, as to ground plan, there being a hexagon for centre, stx pointed 

 ovals round that, and six rounded triangles round them, the points coming 

 in in the openings between the ovals. Such a group is just made for 

 balancing ; and if, after what has been said on planting tlower gardens 

 generally, it pleases you to have all these thirteen clumps different, why 

 jou have a perfect right to please yourself. You would also see what has 

 been said of Roses for a centre lately; but you could relieve yours 

 by Stocks and Asters; we would have the Stocks outside instead of the 

 Asters. The outside of the six ovals, being of Cerastium, will give an idea of 

 sameness ; but they will be a considerable distance apart, and that will 

 relieve them. Four of these beds are to be filled with Verbenas one with 

 Heliotrope, and one Carrots and Phlox Drummondii mixed. The other 

 six beds are also all different, and on the system you have adopted we 

 think the result will he very good, though every separate bed is distinct and 

 different, there being no pairing or balancing. We cannot say, however, 

 that we like the idea of Carrots in a flower-bed, however pretty the foliage. 

 There is such a difference in admiring the merely beautiful, and thinking 

 of the accompaniments of boiled beef. We do not like the plan of 'No. 2 

 nearly so well, there is too much likeness in form to the first, lhe two 

 No. 3's seem also to be offshoots, destroying the regularity of the figure or 

 group ; and, then, it has no centre to fall back upon as it were, otherwise 

 we l.ke the system of balancing better; and as you have done this with 

 1 1, 2,2 3 3, so as, we are sure, to look weU, we would carry this system 

 out in aU this figure by pairing 4 and 6, 5 and 7, and 8 and 9. The two 

 groups will be planted then on two systems. We have no doubt your 

 ribbon-borders of four rows Punch Geranium, Red Beet, Calceolaria Aurea 

 floribunda, and Cerastium and Lobelia mixed, will please many, tor our 

 part we would prefer purple Spinach or Perilla to the Beet. It will be so 

 apt to conjure up ideas of a well-dressed salad. • _ 



Insects ( W Eailettj.—The black insect is the destructive Otiorhynehus 

 sulcatus, wh.c'h must be sought for after dark, a cloth having been pre- 

 viously spread under the Vine. On the approach of a light it falls to the 

 ground, and must be destroyed. The pale-coloured insect is the common 

 cuckoo spit insect, Ophrophora spumaria. It is only an accidental visitor 

 to the Vine.— W. ... 



Names of Plants (IF. Taylor).— Erythronium dens-cams, or common 

 Dog's-tooth Violet. (Anne).-The blue flower from the wall is Lmana 

 cvmbalaria: but, not being magicians, we cannot tell the name ol an 

 Acacia from a single leaf. (Novice).-l, Edwardsia microphylla; 4, Per- 

 nettva mncronata. The other specimens are not even in leaf ! (An 

 Amateur, Londo?iderry).-Uase(iri moschatum. 1, Polystichum aculeatum 

 lobatum ; 2, Lastrea semula. We do not know that the variegated Japan 

 Honeysuckle has been tested, but the species of which it is a variety is 

 generally considered hardy enough. (.Alumnus).— The numbers were nearly 

 all displaced. The box contained not Primula elatior, but P. vulgaris urn- 

 bellata P. veris, Adenandra uniflora; 4, Doronicum, perhaps plantagineum, 

 but vou have not sent root-leaves ; 5, Ranunculus amplexicaulis ; b, Arabia 

 albida (E. M., Sandyn>ount).—Ribes speciosum. (A. i.).— Beiberis aqui- 

 folium, Pyrus or Cydonia japonica. The first would do m a shaded border ; 

 the other is more suitable for a wall or trellis. 



POIT LTBYrBEE, and HO USE HOLD J3HR01TOLE 



WHICH OWL DESTEOTS GAMEP 



Totjr correspondent, W. H. Beadon, inquires which owl 

 destroys game. Mr. Warren the head gamekeeper here 

 (Thornham Hall) informs me that he has seen the horned owl 

 take away young pheasants, and also that he saw the barn owl 

 with a young rabbit in its clutches on the branch of a tree. 

 The above facts are, I think, sufficient proof that owls like a 

 taste of game; and why should such beautiful specimens of the 

 feathered tribe be deterred from tasting some of the good things 

 amongst which they dwell ? What can be more lovely than to 



