August 2, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



91 



plants; there is no other ventilation. Will the Camellias 

 do in the pit throughout the summer, or must they go under 

 a north wall ? At what time on a hot day should they be 

 syringed ? I could put tiffany over the east end and over 

 the rough plate at the south side if necessary. I like the 

 pit. Some of the Camellias and Azaleas are large plants, 

 and they are protected from high wind and heavy rain where 

 they are ; and I fancy the new growth would ripen well 

 there. — J. A. J., Croydon. 



Fig. 1 shows the east end, one sash ou the south side, and one ou the nnrth 

 side, being tilted. A a are two chocks, which tilt the sashes. The 

 sashes are hinged on the other side. 



Fig. 2.— South side of span. ; The sashes, lifting on hinges, give ventilation 

 at top, bottom, and ends. 



[We think your plan of ventilation is simple as well as 

 ingenious, and have no doubt it answers perfectly. If you 

 can spare the room, the Camellias and Azaleas will do better 

 there than under the north side of a wall exposed. We 

 would syringe chiefly night and morning. If you do so 

 during the day the ends of common glass should be shaded 

 whilst the sun is full on them. We have no doubt your 

 plants will flourish admirably and be more healthy than 

 when turned out of doors. Many of us are obliged to do so 

 because the place will not hold them in summer and flower- 

 ing plants too. Give plenty of air, less moisture, and less 

 shading as autumn] approaches. There will be something on 

 the subject in Doings of the Week before long.] 



PROPAGATION OF THE GOOSEBERRY 

 SAWFLY. 



In June last I fed up a number of Gooseberry caterpillars 

 till they passed down into the earth to enter the chrysalis 

 state. As soon as they had spitn their cocoons I brought them 

 up and laid them out under glass on a sheet of paper. 



The first fly emerged on July 7th, and within a few hours 

 of its birth deposited sixty-eight eggs. These eggs were 

 developed into live larvae on July 12th. Now that a solitary 

 fly — excluded from all others from the moment of birth — 

 should lay eggs from which proceed perfect caterpillars is 

 indeed a mystery ; and I should like'to know whether the 

 law of parthenogenesis prevails here. — R. S. 



CULTURE OF THE SOIL OF PERU. 



This is the main, and morally, far the most salutary 

 source of the future wealth of Peru, although as yet it has 

 yielded very small results. 



We say nothing in this brief sketch of the high table lands 

 between the eastern and western ranges of the Andes — a 

 space of about one hundred miles in width, and from three to 

 fourteen thousand feet above the ocean level. Some of it is 

 very fertile. But we pass to that Eden of the world, called 

 Montana, lying east of the Andes and rolling away in an in- 

 clined plain of hills and slopes to the great prairies beyond 

 the Ucayali river. This name Montana in Spanish does not 

 mean a mountainous, but a wooded or bushy country a 



country covered with clumps of trees or bushes. It is a 

 rolling, farming, feasible, most fertile region, about one 

 hundred miles wide, and the Peruvian portion of it about six 

 hundred long, bounded on the west by the Andes, and on 

 the east by the vast plains beyond the Ucayali, which stretch 

 away to the Brazilian mountains. Of the exuberant fertility 

 of this region I quote three authorities : — 



1. Senor Raimondy, a Peruvian of education, who has 

 made extensive explorations under the Peruvian government. 

 He says : — " No words can give an idea of the immense 

 variety of natural productions, and of the incessant activity 

 of Nature in unfolding her creations. In truth, throughout 

 this region are united all the conditions most favourable for 

 vegetable life ; such as an atmosphere constantly charged 

 with moisture, a temperature sufficiently elevated, and a rich 

 virgin soil. In every direction there is presented to the eye 

 an exuberance of life so great, that every material object 

 seems to be animated." 



2. Dr. Lyman thus sums up its fruits : " Nearly all the 

 tropical productions of the globe are found there. Chief 

 among them are Cotton, Coffee, Sugar-cane, Rice, Tobacco, 

 Cocoa (the Chocolate tree), Indigo, with corn (Barley and 

 Wheat), on the uplands." It should be added, all the fruit 

 of temperate climates can be raised on the highlands. " The 

 forests abound in the various dye-woods of commerce; in 

 ebony and many other kinds of wood valuable for cabinet 

 work, the veneers from which present many beautiful com- 

 binations and contrasts of colours. Trees and shrubs pos- 

 sessing medicinal and other desirable virtues, such as Peru- 

 vian bark, various balsams, Sarsaparilla, Vanilla, India- 

 rubber, Gum copal, and many others are thrown together in 



the wildest profusion Cotton grows wild, and is both 



white and yellow, the latter resembling the Chinese variety, 

 called " Nankeen." The staple is finer than our ordinary 

 production, and second only to the " Sea Island." There is 

 a species known as " hill cotton," the product of a large tree, 

 that bears it in great abundance. This is also of two colours, 

 yellow, and white as snow. It has the softness and gloss of 

 silk. Another production called by the natives " vegetable 

 wool," is yielded in large quantities by a variety of Cactus. 

 It is somewhat like the yellow cotton, but slightly crispy. 

 Several heavy bales of this were recently noticed by the 

 writer on board the steamer from Lima to England, to be 

 experimented on by the cloth manufacturers. The Coffee 

 tree is indigenous in the Montana. When cultivated it 

 bears in three years, and each plant is calculated to produce 

 a crop of at least a bushel of berries. Its quality and aroma 

 are equal to those of the finest Mocha. The Sugar-cane, 

 once set, lasts for a generation. Within six months from the 

 planting, the canes are ready to cut. They are large and 

 more juicy than ours, and each plant yields from sixteen to 

 twenty fully matured stalks. Corn and rice mature in four 

 months, and on the ingathering of the crop the ground is 

 ready for another planting, bearing three crops a-year. 

 " In fact," says a Peruvian officer, long resident in Huanuco, 

 " the fertility of the soil is so great that it is only necessary 

 to burn off the weeds and brush in any place, and then to 

 scratch in the seed, to receive in due time a most abundant 

 harvest." The quality of the tobacco is said to be equal to 

 the best of Cuba. 



For the common people of tropical America, farina and 

 Bananas are the main reliance for food, and are as important 

 to them as rice to the natives of India. The Banana is 

 everywhere abundant. " The clusters are of monstrous size," 

 — in one instance " weighing 159 lbs." The farina, made of 

 different species of the Manihot, is as valuable to the native 

 as the Potato to the Irish, and, in yield, far more abundant." 

 Grapes are abundant, and the Peruvian vintage will yet, 

 doubtless, be very important to commerce. There are also, 

 native to this region, Oranges, Citrons, Nectarines, Avocada 

 Pears, Pomegranates, the refreshing Grenadilla, which is the 

 fruit of the Passion-flower, the Cherimoyer, which not un- 

 frequently here weighs 15 or 20 lbs., while in other countries 

 it rarely exceeds 4 lbs. ; and a bush called "huaco," a de- 

 coction of the leaves of which is said to be a remedy for 

 acute rheumatism and an antidote to the poison of the 

 most venomous reptiles. 



3. Thaddeus Hainke observes : " Of the Indigo there is 

 no end. I can say the same of Cotton and Rice. The 

 precious balsam of copaiva, the Sarsaparilla, the Gum-elastic, 



