September 29, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



253 



amount of pot-room, and pot bo that the crowns may be barely covered 

 with soil. Allow for about an inch of top-dressing to be applied in 

 spring when the shoots are about 6 inches high, doubling the quantity of 

 cow dung along with the loam and peat named for potting in. Winter 

 the bulbs in a cold frame, protecting them from frost. They will need 

 but little water during the winter; merely keep the soil moist. When 

 they are growing freely water copiously, but avoid saturating and sour- 

 ing the soil by frequent heavy waterings; and if you can afford a cold pit 

 or other cool place, with plenty of light and air, they will grow strongly 

 and flower finely. The main point is to give encouragement when they 

 are starting and up to full growth, and do not disturb the roots by fre- 

 quent and needless repotting and shifting. Keep the plants free from 

 insects. 



Edging Tiles (A. W.).~ There are no better tiles for edging3 to walks 

 or borders than those made of fire clay. You may obtain particulars 

 from those who advertise in our pages. 



Transplanting Evergreens (S. H. S.).— When removed there ought 

 to be good balls with all evergreens of considerable size. We would 

 advise plantiDg now, only the ground is so very dry that it would be 

 difficult to take the plants up with a ball, and they would need to be 

 well watered after planting. If you have rain soon we advise you to 

 move them at once, and if you can move them with a ball, that is quite 

 as good as digging round each plant and leaving it a year. No good is 

 done by digging round the plant3 in autumn, and then waiting until 

 spring in the hope of a ball, for at that time they will be in little or no 

 better state than when they were dug round. A year is necessary to 

 secure roots near the stem. If you do not remove them this autumn, do 

 not remove them before March. Early in autumn and late in spring are 

 the best timea for transplanting evergreens; the autumn is to be pre- 

 ferred if the weather is moist and mild. 



Various (Idem). — It is not too late to put in cuttings in boxes, placing 

 them out of doors in a warm situation, but protect them from frost, and 

 house them early in November. The proper time to put in cuttings of 

 Calceolarias is from the present time until frost occur, inserting them in 

 a cold frame in a dry, sheltered situation, having about 6 inches of soil, 

 and over that an inch of sand. The cuttings may be put in about 

 1J inch apart, and should have a good watering; afterwards they need 

 abundance of air and protection from frost. There are two ways of 

 forcing Rhubarb, one by placing boxes or pots over the crowns, so as to 

 enclose them, ana then covering up with stable litter in a high state of fer- 

 mentation, to cause the speedy growth of the Rhubarb. The other plan 

 is to take up the roots and place them in a house or shed having a tem- 

 perature of 50° to 60°, just covering them with soil. You may practise 

 either of the modes named from the middle of November to March. 

 Salvia patens is freely propagated by divisions of the roots ; but both 

 cuttings and seeds answer very well. The insect on your Ferns is not a 

 thrips, but a male aphis ; both are destroyed by fumigation withtobacco. 

 The insect is probably brown scale. The best remedy is to cut off the 

 fronds most infested and burn them, and to pick off the soft insects with 

 the point of a knife — a tedious but safe mode of clearance. Insect- 

 destroying compounds will also rid you of them. The best way to utilise 

 a piece of ground for growing vegetables for a family, is to trench and 

 manure it well, and plant it with the kinds of vegetables required. The 

 piece of ground is so small, that it could hardly be wrongly planted with 

 a vegetable liked by the family; Potatoes or Cabbages for instance. The 

 fumigating of the conservatory with tobacco will not injure the fish in 

 the aquarium, but with sulphur you would not only kill the plants, but 

 jeopardise the fish. 



Snags on Fruit Trees and List (An Amateur). — The espalier Pear 

 and Plum trees kept closely pinched through the summer should not 

 have the snags cat off until the leaves fall, and then you may cut each 

 shoot to witbin an inch of its base, or, if there are spurs, down to them. 

 The pyramid Apple, Pear, and Plum trees planted in ground deficient of 

 vegetable matter, would not be improved by a dressing of lime, though it 

 would do no harm. Chalk would be better, covering the ground an inch 

 deep with pieces between the size of walnuts and hens' eggs, and then 

 mix it with the soil as well as you can. If your soil is light a good dress- 

 ing of marl would be better. The most profitable Apples and Pears to be 

 trained as oblique cordons on a wall having an east aspect but exposed 

 to the north, would be— Apples : Red Astrachan, Summer Golden Pippin, 

 Margil, King of the Pippins, Sam Young, Golden Pippin, Scarlet Non- 

 pareil, Braddick's Nonpareil, Cockle Pippin, Sykehouse Rasset, Court of 

 Wick, Calville Blanche, Keddleston Pippin, Mannington's Pearmain, 

 White Nonpareil, and Stunner Pippin ; kitchen Apples, Lord Suffield, 

 Nonsuch, Gravenstein, Dumelow's Seedling, Bedfordshire Foundling, 

 Bess Pool, Striped Beefing, Rymer, and Northern Greening. Pears : 

 Beurre Giffard, Bon Chretien, Beurre d'Amanlis, Louise Bonne of Jersey, 

 Comte de Lamy, Baronne de Mello, Beurre Clairgeau, Beurre Diel, Dr. 

 Trousseau, Thompson's, Alexandre Lambre, Beurre d'Aremberg, Alexandre 

 Bivort, and Zephirin Gregoire. 



Foster's Boiler (T. Cox).— We sent your letter to Mr. Pearson, and 

 the following is his reply :— " I have two of the boilers at work, and intend 

 to have another, as they are all that I stated. Unless Mr. Cox's boiler is 

 under the house itself, it is not likely to work if uncovered with brickwork, 

 except at a great disadvantage. The smoke ought to be carried round, 

 and over the outside, as in a saddle boiler. It will also act better with 

 coal than with coke. If well set I am sure there is no boiler equal to it, 

 unless he has one of too small a size. Mr. Foster made some little ones 

 I never did like. Mine cost £19, and they are all I could wish.— J. R. 

 Pearson." 



Melons (Q. Q.).— Meredith's Hybrid Cashmere is a good fruit, not large, 

 as you say, but with two fruit or so on a plant it attains a good size. 

 It is to some extent a continuous bearer, the plant, unlike many other 

 varieties, growing when the fruit is swelling. However, some persons like 

 Melons to be small and rich ; others care not how large they are, nor 

 how much sugar is required to make them palateable. Hecktield Green- 

 flesh or Hybrid is an excellent sort, little, if at all, different from Mere- 

 dith's ; but whether the one or the other be grown, with fair cultivation 

 a good crop of Melons, good in appearanco and quality, will result. If 

 anything, the Hecktield has the better constitution. 



Small Greenhouse (B. S.).— We approve of all you have done and 

 propose doing, excopt adding a fourth of leaves and rotten vegetables to 

 your Vine border. Instead, we would use two-thirds of the marly and 

 sandy fresh loam, and one-third of equal parts of boiled bones, old 



mortar rubbish, charcoal free of dust, and the pigeon dung well exposed 

 to the air. We would add no other animal manure, but you may mulch 

 the border with horse droppings. You had better have two or three 

 squares of glass to open at the apex of the roof, in addition to those at 

 the end, or have tho proposed openings at the top of the wall. We would 

 plant Barrington Peach, Moorpark Apricot, and two Black Hamburghs 

 for one house, and Black Esperione or Royal Muscadine for the other. 

 Plant the Vines as soon as you like, the others by the end of October. Pro- 

 tect the Vine border after planting. 



Flue-heating (W. E. C). — In such a case as yours, the flue would do 

 very well, but for a couple of yards after entering the house we would 

 make it brick-on-bed, and cover with strong tiles. In a close chamber 

 beneath yonr Cucumber-bed, strong slate would be the best covering, and 

 that about 4 inches from the top of the flue. On the slate place 2 or 

 3 inches of drainage below the soil, and and an inch above the slate have 

 two or three upright drain-pipes, by pouring water down which you will 

 obtain a moist heat from the slate, either for bottom heat by plugs, or top 

 moist heat by opening the plugs. If economy is your object, a wall bound- 

 ing your chamber, we would fill-in all round your flue and for 4 inches 

 over it with flints, brickbats, &c , piled as open and as loosely as possible, 

 and then finish with an inch or two of concrete for the soil to lie on, 

 having previously fixed a few upright drain-pipes amongst the rubble, for 

 the purpose stated above, avoiding pouring water at any time directly on 

 the flue. In your proposed quite open chamber, and in this rough open 

 one of brickbats, &c, it would be well to have openings to let out heat 

 to the atmosphere when wanted in a cold day or night. By cementing 

 the bottom of your bed you can always clear out the soil without any 

 trouble. You could place evaporating pans on the end and back flu© 

 where open and exposed. We think the flue would be ample for the place, 

 but if you have the small boiler and pipes doing nothing, you might fix 

 the boiler over the fireplace. Such a boiler so placed might heat another 

 small house. 



Heating a Pit in Separate Parts {Vicar).— You can carry out the de- 

 sired arrangement on your proposed plan by having a valve on your flow- 

 pipe as it passes into No. 2 pit, and though not absolutely require!, it 

 would be as well if you had one on the return-pipe likewise. This is all 

 very well having the boiler at one end, and as you wish the place next 

 the boiler to be generally heated ; but you cannot heat the farther pit 

 without heating the nearer. If you had placed the boiler where the two 

 pitSjOr houses meet, and taken a T now ana return from it, with a valve 

 on each, you could heat either part separately jast as you liked. You 

 could do the same thing without valves, in the way you allude to, by 

 taking the flow-pipe from the boiler into a cistern — say 18 inches square 

 by 12 deep, and placed some 12 or 18 inches above the flow-pipes in the 

 houses. From that cistern take a flow-pipe for each house, and have 

 plugs to fit them, and shut or open as you like. 



Boiler for Small Greenhouse (A. B.).— A very small common saddle- 

 back boiler, exposing 2 square feet of surface to the fire will be 

 best. Any of the boiler-makers who advertise in our columns can 

 supply you. 



Heating from House Boiler (W.S.).— The height of the greenhouse 

 floor above the kitchen floor is of little consequence. The great point is 

 to have the pipe3 in the greenhouse higher than the top of the boiler. A 

 flow pipe taken from that which goes to the top of tbe house would go to 

 the greenhouse on the right level— that is, rising a little. The valve at a 

 would be useful in directing the flow horizontally instead of vertically, 

 and wight be opened as soon as the flow took place. On that flow pipe 

 to the greenhouse you must place your valve or stop-cock. It would be 

 of little or no use as you show it on the return pipe at f. There would 

 be a little risk of a careless person leaving the valve on the vertical 

 pipe shut. To prevent any unpleasant contingency, and as there seems 

 to be a little distance from the boiler to the greenhouse, we would cut 

 out an opening in the top of the boiler to screw in a 1-inch strong gas 

 pipe, make th >t the flow to the greenhouse, and have a return of the same 

 size screwed into the present return pipe to the boiler. These could be 

 packed iu a box of sawdust. Let them he joined with cap ends to 3-inch 

 pipes iu the greenhouse, two of which would keep out frost, but three the 

 length of the house would make all more safe. Even then it would be 

 well to have the pipes in the greenhouse rising to the farther end, say 3 or 

 4 inches, and at that end fix the smallest gas pipe, taking it up as high 

 outside the house as the height of your hot-water cistern. We are thus 

 particular because, though we have seen different levels heated horizon- 

 tally from one vertical pipe, the heated water has such a tendency to rise, 

 that the loweBt levels have the most sluggish circulation. 



Names of Fruit (J. B.).— Brown Turkey Fig. [A. H.).—lf the flowers 

 are small and of a deep red colour, we should say it is Red Roman Nec- 

 tarine, a clingstone variety unworthy of cultivation. {Harrison Weir). — 

 We cannot recognise the variety. (H. M. G.).— Pears: 1, Flemish 

 Beauty; 3, Navez Peintre; 5, Beurre d'Amanlis; 7, Pomme Poire 

 (Apple); 8, Seckle. Apple: 1, Broad-eyed Pippin. Your examples^ arj 

 so small and scrubby, possessing no characteristic features, that it is 

 next to impossible to recognise them. (J. F. Lombard).— Pears ; 1, very 

 beautiful fruit, which we do not recognise; under what circumstances 

 was it grown ? 2, Althorp Crassane ; 8, Doyenne Blanc ; 7, Fondante d'Au- 

 tomne ; others not known. (J. W. Laurie).— Apple not received. Pears .- 

 1, Easter Beurre; 2, Black Achan. (J. P.).— Apples : 2, King of the 

 Pippins ; S, Brabant Bellefleur ; 6, Rymer ; 8, Dumelow's Seedling. 

 Pears : 4, Beurre de Ranee ; 7, Hacon's Incomparable ; 9, Easter Beurre ; 

 10, Beurre Bosc. (Scyber).— Pears : 1, Beurre d'Anianlis ; 2, Althorp 

 Crassane ; 3, Marie Louise. 



Names of Plants (M. R.).—l, Platyloma falcata ; 2, Pteris cretica ; 

 3, Doodia caudata ; 4, Polypodium loriceum; 5, Davallia bullata. (A 

 Constant Reader).— 1, Origanum Tournefortii ; 2, Pentstemon gentian- 

 oides; CratEegus, name next week. The Pear was rotten when received 

 by us. {A Lancashire Lad).-— the Fern was Asplenium Ruta-muraria : 

 quite true. The scrap of plant sent was much crushed, but appeared to 

 be Datura Stramonium. The leaf was not that of the true Pepper plant, 

 but of a shrub, Schinus Molle, the leaves of which have a warm peppery 

 taste, so giving rise to the name. {Memorandum). — 1, Maranta lineata ; 

 2, Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis fl.-pl. ; 3, Begonia xanthina marmorea ; 4, Liuaria 

 Cymbalaria ; 5, Calathea bicolor ; 6, Aspidistra lurida variegata. (M. H.). 

 — 1, We do not recognise this Composite at present; 2, Buphthalmium 

 salicifolium. (Subscriber No. Sti.) — Muhlenbeckia complexa. (Jamet 

 Carter, Ilford). — Both are Oenothera missourensis. (A. Sayer). — Sweet 

 Scabious, Scabiosa atropurpurea. 



