December 28, 1871. 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



515 



3 feet in front forms a good hotbed. It will need to be slightly moistened, 

 but not made very wet. 



Chrysanthemums from Suckers (Idem).— We prefer taking good, 

 strong, short cuttings with some roots, phicing them singly in small pots, 

 and putting these in any house with a gentle heat. They make the best 

 plants, and have single stems. You may also divide the old plants as 

 you propose, retaining three or more of the best shoots, and removing 

 the weakest. Take away most of the old soil, reduce tbem considerably, 

 and put in pots that will hold the roots, which should be cut-in consider- 

 ably. Place tbem in a cold frame until established, and then harden-off. 



Cineraria Leaves Curling (Berra).— Are you sure that there are no 

 insects on the leaves? Examine them careluUy, and if you find any 

 trace of thrips or aphis, fumigate with tobacco. See that the plants are 

 not subjected to cold cutting currents of air, and keep them near the 

 glass in an airy structure, standing on a cool bottom, and in a tempera- 

 ture of from 40° to 45°, if young, or if advanced to a flowering state, of 

 from 45° to 50°. 



Silver or White-foliaged Plants for Bedding {Longlaitds). — 

 Achillea fegyptiaca, Arabis alpinaargentea, Antennaria tomentosa, Cen- 

 taurea argentea plumosa, Centaurea ragusina, Cerastium tomentosum, 

 Cineraria maritima, Dactylis glomerata variegata, Euonymus radicans 

 yariegatus, G-naphaUum lanatum, Poa trivialis argentea elegans, Santolina 

 incaua, and Senecio argentea. You may obtain seed of the Cineraria 

 and Cerastium, which sown now will be in good order for planting out in 

 May. _ 



Febns Importing from Desierara (Amateur).— We could not name 

 the Ferns that are worth importing from Demerara, but we should con- 

 eider most if not all to be desirable. They should be packed in Wardian 

 cases for transit by sailing vessel, and will need to have air and water on 

 the voyage. You might also arrange to have Orchids sent you, packing 

 them in boxes of moss no more than moist. 



Ked Celery [L. IT.).— Coles's Defiance Dwarf Red Celery is a good 

 and high-coloured kind, but this latter we do not consider any advan- 

 tage, but rather the reverse. Any of them are red enough even with the 

 best blanching, and no deep-red Celery is good far anything— i.e., if it be 

 red after earthing-up. Bo not earth-up and tie the leaves together, and 

 i± will be red and useless. The merit of Celery consists in its being solid, 

 crisp, sweet, and of a nutty flavour. 



Shrubs for Lawn (E. £.).— Portugal Laurel, Chamaerops escelsa. 

 Hollies (Ilex), altaclarensis, Aquifolium flava. Aquifolium pendula, Hod- 

 ginsi. Gold and Silver- variegated Laurustinus. Magnolia grandiflora. Ex- 

 mouth var. Quercus Ilex, Q. Fordi, Q. austriaca. Abies Clanbrasiliana, 

 A. pygmffia, A. compacta, A. elegans, and A. pumila are dwarf varieties of 

 Norway_ Spruce (A. excelsa) ; Cedrus Deodara, C. atlantica; Cupressus 

 Lawsoniana; Juniperus chinensis ; Picea nobilis, P. Pinsapo, P. grandis, 

 P. Nordmanniana ; Finns Cembra, P. excelsa ; Retinospora pisif era ; Taxus 

 adpressa, T. elegantissima, T. fastigiataj Thujopsis borealis ; Thuja 

 plicata, T. orientalis, and vars. aurea and striata ; and Wellingtonia 

 gigantea. Thorns double scarlet, pink, and white, are fine lawn trees. 

 Also have standard Rhododendrons, and Ealmia latifolia. Plant after 

 the ground is in good order early in March, a preferable time to now. 



Stove in Hothouse (A, C. C.).—We cannot advise you to do as you 

 propose. You had better, if you can be supplied with gas have a 

 Shrewsbury's hot-water apparatus. We have known outside blinds quite 

 Eufficicnt to compensate for a slightly deficient heat inside. 



Heating ey Hot Water (A. J. r.).— Your arrangement of heating 

 seems to be a singular one— taking the pipes round what looks like a 

 number of beds. Nothing is more settled as to heating than this, that 

 the flow-pipe should go from near the top of the boiler, and the return- 

 pipe come in near the bottom of it. As to your particular question, there 

 can be no doubt that you can heat as far as a b separately by the junc- 

 tion 2 furnished with a valve ; but to do this you must also have a valve 

 nnder command at 3, to prevent the flow going its usual course. When 

 you wish the heat to go round as hitherto, you have only to open the 

 Talve 3, and shut the valve in the junction 2. To be thoroughly under 

 control, you want therefore the valves at 2 and 3 instead of 1. 



Heating by Flue &c. '{Midland Counties).— There can be no doubt that 

 a flue would heat a small vinery 33 by 20 feet ; but if you contemplated 

 anything like forcing you had better have the flue all round, or round 

 three sides, to avoid doorways, and have it above ground. A flue 15 inches 

 high and 9 innhes wide would do, though we recommend flues be- 

 neath the floor level for small greenhouses. We look upon such a con- 

 trivance merely as one of the neatest for keeping out frost in winter. If 

 you merely wished to help your Vines a little, and keep Lady Downe's 

 for a good while in winter, then a flue all round under the pathway— say 

 two bricks-on-side deep, 5 inches wide inside measure, and covered 

 securely with a 9 or 10-inch tile, would answer well, and all the better if 

 the floor were tiled for the pathway, so as to leave a slope open at the sides 

 of the flue. As stated already, if you contemplate forwarding the Vines 

 Bjuch, have your flue above ground instead of beneath the floor. As 

 to yournext question, much of the success will depend on sinking the 

 furnace. The fire-bars of your furnace should be 2 feet below the bottom 

 ©f the flue. Sixteen-ounce glass would do very well for sides and ends. 

 Twenty-one-ounce would be more secure against wind and hail. Strange 

 tliough it seem, it is no less true, that in one case even on a roof, 16-oz. 

 was safer from hail than 2l-oz. The latter resisted and was cracked, the 

 other yielded and rebounded to the hail ; but on the whole we would 

 prefer 21-oz. or 28-oz. for roofs. Have nothing to do with coal ashes for a 

 Vine border. 



Names of Plants (TTaiionl.- 1, Zygopetalum Mackayi ; 2, L. crinitum. 

 (Jno. B. Blennerhass€tt).-~YouT Fern is Asplenium marinum, the Sea 

 Spleenwort. We should suppose it worth your while to attempt to turn 

 your discovery to profit— indeed, feel inclined to hope you will be good 

 enough not to run any risk of destroying, or, indeed, despoiling it in the 

 locality yon name. Fern-hunters too often prove themselves nuisances 

 by exterminating rarities, or so hacking their rhizomes, &c., as to soon 

 eradicate them. We look on the plundering of a Fern in a locality where 

 it is confessedly seldom seen as an act somewhat akin to sacrilege. 

 A. marinum is not such a scarcity elsewhere, and not of great value. 

 (A Ten-years Subscriber).—!, Oncidium, not vet identified; 2, Maxillaria 

 picta; 3, Epidendrum ciliare. (IF. J'.).— Some Myrtle, and in all proba- 

 bility a form of the common Myrtle (Myrtus communis), a trifle narrower 

 than usual in its foliage. I 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



FRAUDULENTLY CHANGING CLAIMED BIRDS. 



I WISH to direct your attention to a very disagreeable fact con- 

 nected with the late poultry exhibitions, which I think might, 

 with advantage, be commented on by the Editors. I allude to 

 the theft of valuable birds. That the poultry and Pigeons which 

 have disappeared so mysteriously during the last twelve months 

 were stolen from exhibitions, for the most part probably during 

 " packing-up time," I have no doubt. Every one must acknow- 

 ledge that such thefts, unless strong and prompt preventive 

 measures be taken, will speedily bring fowl-fancying into such 111 

 repute as to make all right-thinking persons recoil with horror 

 from a pursuit so intimately connected with fraud. I could 

 write a little volume ([ mean a large volume) upon the varieties 

 of fraudulent practices in which "the fancy" indulge; but 

 having no wish to overtax your patience, I will simply give one 

 instance of roguery, of which I was the victim. At the same 

 time I enclose for your perusal two letters, one from our most 

 esteemed Judge, the other from an exhibitor of the highest in- 

 tegrity, both sufficiently corroborative, I fear, of the unpleasant 

 statements with which I have felt it my duty to furnish you. 



This month, a year ago, at one of the most important poultry 

 shows held during the season, I claimed a pen of Coloured Dor- 

 king pullets at eight guineas. After the show was over two old 

 hens were forwarded to me in place of the birds I had claimed. 

 Unless much mistaken, I had observed these hens (one of them 

 even then in a dying state) unnoticed in the Selling class. Hav- 

 ing ascertained from the Secretary that Mr. Hewitt was one of 

 the Judges of the Dorkings, I at once wrote to that gentleman, 

 asking to be allowed to forward to him the birds which I had 

 received from the show, that he might substantiate my asser- 

 tion that they had not constituted the pen which I had claimed, 

 and to which the third prize had been awarded in the pullet 

 class. Mr. Hewitt, in reply, sent me a very kind letter, but in 

 it he justly observed that he could not undertake to arbitrate in 

 matters of dispute between vendors and purchasers. 



So kind, however, was his letter, that I ventured to write to 

 him again for his assistance to this eSect : — " I want very good 

 Dorkings. I am a fair judge of a fowl for an amateur, but I 

 never can obtain good birds ; for if on the one hand 1 ask 

 would-be vendors of certain prizewinners to send on approval, 

 they shirk out of it ; and if on the other hand I claim a pen of 

 birds at a poultry show, they are stolen. What can I do ? " 

 In conclusion, the following quotation from Shakespeare ex- 

 presses my humble opinion in relation to " the fancy," and it 

 might, I think, be advantageously adopted as a motto by ardent 

 amateurs generally : — 



*' Because I will not do them 

 The WTons to mistrust any, I will do myself ^ 



The right to trust none." 



— (Much Ado about Nothing^ Act i. Sc. 1.) 

 — -H. Seymour Fbasee, Headley, near Petersfield. 

 Mr. Hewitt's letter was as follows : — 



" I really am sorry to find complaints so very general, as they evi- 

 dently are becoming, respecting the identity of ' claimed ' fowls, as it 

 must at least compromiBe the honour and credit of some one or more 

 parties. It seems at first blush incredible, but it is nevertheless a fact, 

 that since ytw affair no less than three parties have written to me 

 for advice to this effect, ' What can they do ?' One says, he ' claimed 

 a pen of birds more than a month ago. They went back, and he says 

 be can prove that the birds he has got were bought and sent on direct 

 to him from a dealer, and never shown at all. I advised this applicant 

 to ' take the case to the County Court, and prove it to conviction, if 

 certain that it is so.' The other cases are both alike. Tbey saw the 

 birds at the time, bought them, and, as one expresses it * they aint them.' 

 I really do not myself know how to advise, but this I well know, such 

 mean actions will help a good deal to break np the fancy among many 

 of its most creditable and most-to-be-valued supporters. Again, I 

 cannot help thinking that at least some of these cases are beyond 

 question facts, and I grieve to find it so. — Edwaed Hewitt." 



[It is very disheartening, but not to be wondered at, that 

 villains mingle with true-hearted poultry fanciers. Not only 

 would we sue for compensation if the birds we bought were not 

 sent, but others in their place ; but we would indict the vendor 

 for felony — it being undoubtedly a larceny. One poultry 

 changer suffering six months imprisonment with hard labour 

 would have a most wholesome effect. We advise all committees 

 to give notice that they will not deliver claimed birds to anyone 

 who has not a written order from the purchaser. In future, 

 when purchasing at a show, we shall give notice in writing to 



