Soptember 5, 1S72. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



197 



sweetened with treacle, and hang them up near the fruit. The wasps should 

 he emptied out, and the beer renewed. Destroy their nests. 



Abiaranthus salictfolius Culture (Goddess).— It does not require more 

 than the temperature of a greenhouse, hut, like all half-hardy annuals, re- 

 quires to be grown in heat ov a hotbed until well established, or up to June. 

 Sow the seed in March. It should have a light and not very airy position, and 

 not be watered until the soil becomes dry, but before the leaves flag, and then 

 b-ave a thorough supply. It may be sj-ringed overhead twice daily. Your 

 plants are very dwarf. Ours are fully 3 feet high, and are in a greenhouse. 

 The plants need shifting into larger pots as soon as those in which they are 

 growing are full of roots, but the pot need not be larger than 9 inches in 

 diameter. The plants to have fully coloured leaves require full exposure to 

 light, and are then fine; indeed, the colours are best developed in the open 

 .ground after May. Your plant is Hot sufficiently advanced to show its character 

 fully. 



Hardiness of Semtervivu3I CALrFORNicrjai (A Constant Subscriber). — 

 It is perfectly hardy, but requires to have a well-drained soil, for if not, the 

 growth is too late and will not stand frost. On your raised bed we have no 

 fear of the plant going off in winter. We have no experience of S. hirtum, 

 except as a rock plant, and there it is fully as hardy as the other, and will, no 

 doubt, succeed as a bedding plant if the soil is not wet and heavy. 



Distance between Standard Roses [Calamus). — The Briar stocks you 

 propose planting where they are to remain for budding, ought to be placed 

 "3 feet from the walk, if 3 feet high and 6 feet apart. They may he 2 feet from 

 the walk, and they will not for a considerable time extend over it. We should 

 prefer them 3 feet from the walk, and if you have any nearer the walk 

 let them be on low stems. If we were to plant as you propose we should have 

 the standards 6 feet apart, 3 feet from the walk, and others with 18-inch 

 stems 2 feet from the walk, the same distance as the taller standards, and 

 midway between them. You may plant in the first instance half the distance 

 named apart, which will be sufficient for half a dozen years, and ultimately 

 thin-out to the full distance. 



Trees for East Aspect Fence (Idem). — The aspect will be suitable for 

 Pears, Plums, and Cherries. Your brick wall facing the north will only 

 answer for Morello Cherries and Currants. 



Compost for Myrtle and Heliotrope Cuttings (A. J?.}.— The most 

 suitable soil for striking Myrtles, the Lemon-scented Verbena (Aloysia citri- 

 odora), and Heliotropes, is equal parts turfy loam, leaf soil, and silver sand, 

 draining the pots well, and surfacing with half an inch silver sand. Primula 

 and Cineraria seed may yet be sown in gentle heat, but the plants will not 

 flower until late in the spring. 



Cucumber, for House {H, H. C). — You do not say whether you wish for 

 fruit in winter, but if you do, we find there is no better variety than "Volun- 

 teer, which is very free-bearing and good-sized, swells well, and is of excellent 

 flavour. If you plant a house, say now, the plants will bear well by Christmas, 

 -and until May, or later, but before autumn the fruit will become " knobbed ;" 

 therefore, we advise you to grow them in frames for summer and autumn 

 supply, or you may plant your house in May, doing away with the plants 

 that have borne during the winter, and your second lot of plants will cany 

 you through the summer and up to Christmas. If you do not care for winter 

 fruit, then plant your house in February, and the plants will produce good 

 fruit until very late in the season. The kind we recommend for all purposes 

 is Cox's Volunteer. 



Carnation Unhealthy (A. C.).— The plant is in a bad plight, and we do 

 not think you will ever do any good with it. Layer it now, or put in cuttings if 

 it is a tree kind, which we think it is ; the cuttings will strike freely in sandy 

 soil in gentle heat. The young plants will not, we think, have the tendency of 

 the parent to become withered at the points of the leaves, a consequence of 

 .the roots being in an unhealthy state. We should winter the plant in a cool 

 airy greenhouse, also the young plants. It is evidently a delicate sort. 



Wintering Bedding Plants in Frames {Digitalte), — It is at best an 

 uncertain mode of wintering plants, especially Geraniums. In unheated 

 structures the great enemy of plants is damp, to say nothing of cold, and we 

 advise you not to try this mode of wintering them. We should have the 

 cuttings established in boxes narrow enough to be accommodated in the room 

 windows, and they need not be more than 3 inches deep. The cuttings put 

 in about li inch apart will have plenty of room, and may be kept in the 

 frames until severe weather commences, then they may be removed to the 

 laouse, and they will only need to have the dead leaves picked off, no water 

 "being given except a little occasionally to keep them from drying up. Remove 

 ■them from the window-ledge to a place safe from frost in very severe weather. 

 Here they may remain until March, when we should have a mild hotbed 

 made ; when it has become mild and sweet put on the frame, and place a few 

 inches of sawdust all over the bed; then pot the Geraniums in 3-inch pots, and 

 plunge them in the hotbed. Put on the lights, and keep them rather close, 

 Dut if there be much steam admit a little air. When they are well rooted and 

 ■are growing freely they may have plenty of air, merely protecting them from 

 frost. The plants will be in excellent condition by planting-out time. Your 

 old plants we should take up on the approach of frost, preserving plenty of 

 roots, but cutting away the long portions -of these ; then pick or rather strip 

 off all the leaves, and place the plants with the root part in boxes, covering it 

 and about 2 or 3 inches of the stem with dry sand. You may keep them in a 

 dry cellar or other place safe from frost. In March you may pot them singly 

 in pots just large enough to hold the roots without cramping, and place them 

 in the hotbed along with the potted cuttings. They will soon start into 

 growth, and when this has fairly begun cut-in any irregularities, and you will 

 have them in a good state for planting out in May. The frames you may use 

 in winter for Calceolaria cuttings, which may be planted out in nursery beds, 

 and be protected with mats kept off the plants by hooping over the beds. 

 Verbenas you may winter in the same way, but they require to he kept drier 

 than the Calceolarias. 



Heating a Vinery and Consertatory (0. P.). — The best book you con 

 have for your purpose is the "Vine Manual," price 2a. Gd., or free by post 

 2s. 7&d. It will be best to have the stokehole and boiler, a saddle boiler at 

 the back of the middle of the house; then, by having a T flow-and-return, 

 and valves on each flow, you can heat each department separately or together, 

 but you must never put a fire on without a valve to one house being open. 

 According as you require late or early Grapes you will require from two to 

 four pipes round the house. Two 4- inch pipes along the ends andfront would 

 keep frost out of the conservatory. If you wanted more heat you would 

 require three pipes. For a small place we should arrange both houses in the 

 same way — viz., a shelf all round back and front 18 inches wide, a yjathway 

 30 inches wide, and a platform or stage for the centre some 3 feet from the 

 ground. Many things could be kept and grown in the vinery, except when 



the fruit was getting ripe, when the fewer plants in that department the 

 better. The main flow and return pipes could come under the pathway, 

 and run beneath the front and end shelves. Arranging and fixing pipes has 

 been much alluded to of late. For lasting, with common socket pipes we 

 prefer on the whole rough yarn and red or white lead; the latter chiefly to 

 finish with. 



Heating a Small Conservatory [Mary). — If we were situated like you, 

 we should try to do better with the stove if it has a flat top to receive a vessel 

 of water, and has the firebox separate from the sides, or, if solid, lined with 

 firebrick. Such a stove well regulated from the ashpit door will do wonders. 

 Even a paraffin lamp requires attention, and if that is neglected as the stove 

 sometimes is, where would you be on a frosty night ? With regard to your 

 objections about overheating or not having enough of heat, the room the 

 stove occupies, the uusightliness of the chimney, &c, all these can bo modi- 

 fied. For such a house a 3-inch pipe often cleared would be ample, and if 

 that stood a foot or 18 inches beyond the glass roof it need not be very un- 

 sightly. The best way to clean such a chimney is with a wooden pole just 

 less than the inside diameter of the pipe. Then the room occupied need not 

 be much. Sometimes we sink a stove so that the top is on a level with the 

 floor ; and a brick or wooden wall round it, 6 inches from it and kept whitened, 

 will alike prevent the heat being too strong, and yet the heat given off will 

 be all radiated into the house, so that the plants nearest the stove, though 

 warmer, still would not be injured. We once had a small stove in the centre 

 of a house 70 feet long, and there were but few degrees of difference in tem- 

 perature between the centre and the ends of the house. To convince an 

 unbeliever we had the stove syringed when the house was shut up, when it 

 was moderately warm and the vapour ascended and went along the top of the 

 house towards the two ends, and then returned along the front towards the 

 centre again. Our argument was that the air heated by the stove traversed 

 the same direction as the sensible vapour thrown off by syringing. We have 

 no fault to find with your proposed mode of heating by a paraffin, lamp, only 

 it must be a large one; and if we were to adopt the plan we should make the 

 kettle smaller, hollow it out still more in the centre, and take a small pipe 

 through it, say a quarter of an inch, to take off the products of combustion, 

 and place the 'lamp, &c, in the house. With two such lamps placed in neat 

 stoves we should dispense with hot-water pipes. We are doubtful if a lamp 

 would heat such an amount of piping as you require. However, there is 

 nothing like trying. We should prefer 2-inch pipes of zinc or tin instead of 

 cast metal. With a little stuve we could, or rather would, dispense with all 

 the trouble of piping. Be assured a paraffin lamp cannot be kept all right 

 without care and attention. 



Pruning Peas Trees— Stopping Vines (R. H.).— Your Pear trees should 

 require but little pruning in October, except to thin out and regulate the 

 young shoots. The buds at the base of the new wood will not " fill into fruit 

 buds " if cut back in October. If you wish your trees to increase in size, 

 where the young wood is conveniently placed so that it has space to dovelope, 

 it should be left from 6 inches to a foot in length. Varieties that make 

 slender growths should be cut-in the closest. All young wood not required 

 should be cut back to one hud. Fruit-budB will form on other ports of the 

 trees if you practise summer pinching or pruning. The leading shoots of 

 your young Vines should have reached the top of the house by this time ; if 

 they have not done so there must be something wrong in the treatment. 

 Some cultivators approve of stopping the leading shoot once in the season, 

 others do not. You may be successful both ways. We do not approve of 

 stopping it. j 



Select Hyacinths (St. Edmunds).— The following are good and not ex- 

 pensive—Bed : Madame Hodgson, Eobert Steiger, Soli aterre, Sultan's Favour- 

 ite, Amy, L'Ami du Cceur (early). White : Grandeur a Merveille, Madame 

 Van der Hoop, Queen of the Netherlands. Blue : Charles Dickens, Baron "Von 

 Tuyll, General Lauriston. The above ore all single, and distinct m colour. 

 For glasses you might add of double kinds, Duke of Wellington, pale rose ; La 

 Tourd'Auvergne, white ; and Van Speyk or Bloksberg. 



Silver Ferns in Fern Case (Idem).— As a rule these do not succeed 

 well in Fern cases. The fronds do not develope properly. Gymnogramma 

 tartarea is the only one likely to succeed, and it will not do so unless air bo 

 freely admitted. 



Wtntering Bedding Plants {Amateur).— Your plants will keep more 

 safely over the winter in the light sandy soil in which they are struck, than if 

 potted in richer soil as soon as they are rooted. Verbenas will winter much 

 more safely in the pots in which they are struck if kept through the ™ter 

 in spare rooms properly heated. Putting them in frames along with Cal- 

 ceolarias does not answer well. They require to be rooted in August or early 

 in September, and then they must be protected in a cold frame, admitting 

 air freely in mild weather, and covering with mats during severe weather. 

 The great enemy to Verbenas in winter is damp. Old plants of Geraniums 

 will keep safely through the winter if taken up before frost, all the soil shaken 

 from the roots, the leaves picked off, and the plants laid for a week or so in a 

 shed; then tie them up in bundles of from three to half a dozen according to 

 their size, hang them up in a cellar, and look over them every fortnight to 

 remove any decayed parts. Their tops should not be cut unless decayed. 

 We do not think Echeveria metallica could be kept safely in the same way, 

 but it might succeed if placed in pots in the cellar, and not watered as 

 Ion" as the leaves remained plump. They would winter better in a room safe 

 from frost. We do not think Dahlia imperialis will flower if you take it up, 

 pot it, and place it in a glass poroh; but it would probably do so if it were now 

 established in pots, and placed in a conservatory having a temperature of 45 

 to 50 Cl at night. 



Name of Nut (D. F.). — It is the Ground Nut, or Earth Nut, met with in 

 our fruiterers' shops. It is the fruit of Arachis hypogsea, a native of South 

 America, but cultivated in all the Southern States of North America, in the 

 south of Europe, in Africa, and in Asia. It is an annual plant growing to the 

 height of 2 feet, with a trailing, straggling, habit. In South'Carohna this is 

 cultivated to a great extent, and there the inhabitants roast the "nuts as 

 they are called, and make use of them as chocolate. When fresh, the seeds, or 

 " nuts," have a sweet taste, not unlike that of nuts or Almonds. The natives 

 make them their principal food, and they form an article of great consump- 

 tion among the negroes. An extremely sweet fixed oil is extracted from these 

 seeds, which, according to some, is quite equal to olive oil, and does not be- 

 come rancid, but, on the contrary, improves with age. After the flowers tail 

 off, the young pods are forced into the ground by a natural motion oi the 

 stalks; and there they are buried, and are only to be obtained, by digging 

 3 or 4 inches under the soil, and hence their name. . 



Insects ( ).— Your fly is neither a "drone" nor a "gadfly," but the 



great gadfly, Tabanus fovinus.-I. 0. W. (X).-Completely smashed. 



