July 26, 1864, ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



71 



various means. If, as you seem to indicate, the whole ground 

 from north to south slopes to the south, then pipes could 

 easily take the water from the pond to the proposed new 

 garden. The birds will he a trifle after all in comparison 

 with the serious drawback, the want of water. 



If you decide on the removal, we agree with your proposed 

 arrangements. Privet would make the quickest and densest 

 fence. We would trench down the top-spit pasture as you 

 propose, and would not think of dissipating its valuable 

 properties by burning. Burning pasture land can only be 

 recommended when the grass has become of a hard unnu- 

 tritive character, and when the remains of the burnt heaps 

 would, when spread over the fresh-tilled soil, do much to 

 promote a fresh carpet of sweeter and more nutritive herbage. 

 Unless your old Asparagus-bed has a number of young 

 plants in it — that is, from one to three years of age, it would 

 not be worth while to move any of them. You may get 

 nice two-year-old plants for no great sum. For ourselves, 

 we prefer sowing thick, say this March of 1864, and planting 

 them some 3 or 4 inches apart in 1865, when the shoots are 

 about 2 inches high, and taking means to prevent a root or 

 rootlet from being injured. We think the simplest way for 

 growing Asparagus is to trench and dress the ground well 

 in winter, and before planting time to throw it into shallow 

 ridges, say 27 inches apart, level the crest of the ridge a 

 little, place the roots of the Asparagus over it fan shape, 

 cover with the soil, water, and then mulch with rotten dung. 

 After trying many plans we like this better than beds. A 

 little salt and fresh mulching every summer will be sure to 

 benefit the Asparagus, and there will be little risk of rotting 

 from damp. 



The sooner you break down the ground the better, but go 

 little beyond the staple. Tou may stir the bottom of the 

 trench and leave it. The subsoil is best incorporated by 

 only raising a few inches at a time.] 



BJVEKS'S EOYAL HAUTBOIS. 



We have already (p. 11) recorded our high opinion of 

 this variety of the Strawberry ; and we return to it for two 

 reasons, of which the first is that we received a photograph, 

 of which the above is a copy, with the following note rela- 

 tive to the discovery of the variety. 



"I am perfectly charmed with the Royal Hautbois Straw- 

 berry; its clusters are enormous, and its fruit delicious. 

 Its discovery was as follows :— In a bed of a thousand seed- 

 lings raised from Belle Bordelaise, and which seemed such a 

 mass of foliage as to leave no hope that the shy-bearing 



sort would give any variety, two large clusters of fruit were 

 espied. The plants were carefully taken up and planted 

 out as Nos. 1 and 2. The latter failed the next season, and 

 was bad in character ; but No. 1 was so fine that we named 

 it the Royal Hautbois, and well it deserves its name." 



Our second reason for recurring to the subject will be 

 found in this extract from a little note on perfumed pink 

 paper, the handwriting on which is always recognised with 

 pleasure. " What could have induced our old forefathers to 

 call this Strawberry Hautbois ? It is French I am sure ; but 

 Deep (haut) and Bois (forest) neither describe the plant nor 

 its dwelling, for the Hautbois does not delight in shady 

 places." 



This note reminds us of Scott's lines — 

 " So each mortal deems 

 Of that which is from that -which seems." 



inasmuch as that Hautbois is only a corruption of the 

 German name for this species — Haarbeer. The first botanist 

 we know who has mentioned it is Conrad Gesner, and he 

 quotes a notice of it from Bock, whose works we have not 

 seen. Tragus also mentions it, and states that it was found 

 wild in Germany about Spires. 



BEDDING GERANIUMS. 



To treat of this subject more clearly than has already 

 been repeatedly done by the able contributors to this Journal 

 is a very difficult task, and it is rather with a desire to please 

 than because there is a necessity for an article on the subject, 

 that I give a somewhat lengthy reply to " J. H. K.," who, I 

 hope, will find in it that clearness which he desires. 



Presuming that a greenhouse, a cold frame, and a sheltered 

 situation are at command, there will be no difficulty in rais- 

 ing any quantity of Geraniums ; but all admirers of Gera- 

 niums have not these conveniences at command, and some 

 have only a frame, and sometimes not even that, and the 

 room windows have to serve for a greenhouse. To those 

 whose means are limited I gladly devote this paper, con- 

 vinced if it be the means of adding but a plant more to 

 enliven the flower garden and gladden some heart, that my 

 labour will be well rewarded. 



A ny time in July after the beds become furnished cuttings 

 may be taken, selecting such shoots as run one over the other, 

 and which would, if left on the plants, either crowd the bed 

 too much, or be useless from becoming straggling, or being 

 hidden by the foliage of the others. Judiciously thinning 

 the shoots materially adds to the appearance of the beds, 

 of which the beauty consists quite as much in the evenness 

 of the plants as in their fulness of bloom. Before, however, 

 any cuttings are taken, the surface of the bed should be com- 

 pletely hidden by the foliage, and when this is accomplished 

 preparation may be made for propagating a stock of plants 

 for another year. In taking cuttings let it be done so that 

 an observer who does not see the operation performed could 

 not tell that a cutting had been removed, and this can only 

 be done by taking them from that part of the bed which is 

 the most dense. In this way a dense overgrown part of a 

 bed is made uniform with the thinner parts, in which, it is 

 hardly necessary to remark, gaps should not be made by 

 taking cuttings frorn them. In any case the plants will 

 furnish cuttings by the beginning of August, which is a 

 good time to commence providing for another year. 



Having made choice of a young shoot with a growing 

 point and two leaves or joints below it, cut it from the parent 

 with a sharp knife a little above the lowest leaf, making the 

 cut in a slanting direction towards the leaf, and when a 

 number of these shoots have been taken cut each trans- 

 versely through immediately below the lowest leaf, trimming 

 off the two lowest leaves close to the stem, and the cutting 

 will then have a couple of leaves or so and a growing point. 

 The best cuttings are those having short joints, or the leaves 

 near one another, and a top likely to branch immediately 

 without any stopping. About half the cutting, say it is 3 or 

 4 inches long, should have the leaves trimmed off to form the 

 future root portion of the plant, and on the other half the 

 leaves are retained, and down to these the cutting is to be 

 inserted in the soil. There are shoots the joints of which 

 are often 2 or 3 inches or more apart. It is not necessary to 

 insert more than one joint of such as these in the soil, re- 



