December 6, 1861. ] 



JOTTE^AIx OF HORTICULTURE AXD COTTAG-E GARDENER. 



457 



Planting Peaches in a Greenhouse (J. $£.).— Your mode of planting 

 will depend on what yon want to use the house for. If chiefly for Peaches 

 and preserving plants under them in winter, then by all means plant the 

 trees in front of the bed, and train them right over all the roof on a trellis 

 16 inches from the glass. If you wi3h the bed to be used for placing plants 

 inat all times, whether fruiting plants or flowering ones, then by all means 

 plant against the back of the bed and train to a perpendicular trellis along 

 the pillars. You will have abundance of light for this trellis, provided no 

 plants high 'enough to obstruct light are placed before it. The first plan 

 would be the best for a regular Peaeh-hcuse, the second would be best for 

 giving light to a great variety of things in the same house. In either case 

 the bed may be used for other purposes before the trees fill their allotted 

 space. If the trees are planted at back, secure good drainage, or there may 

 he too mnch soil there. Two feet will be ample, or even 22 inches. 



Planting "Wat^ontas, Ixias, Spar axis, Tbitgnias, and Gladiolus fJl F). 

 —The most suitable time to plant the first four is October, and for the Gladioli 

 the latter part of March or beginning of April if the soil be light and well 

 drained; bntif cold and heavy, the end of April or beginning of May is a 

 more fitting time. Directions for planting them will be found in our Number 

 for October 2-5th, page 32S, and we can add nothing to the information there 

 given, save that the distance apart should be 4 inches, and that Watsonias 

 require the treatment of Ixias. The ground in which Gladioli are to be 

 planted should be dug deeply, and forked over once or twice during the 

 winter if it he at all heavy," giving a liberal dressing of manure or leaf 

 mould in the autumn, so that it may be thoroughly decomposed and incor- 

 porated with the soil by spring. Plant 9 inches apart, and cover with 

 3 or 4 inches of soil. These remarks relate to the Gandavensis section, and 

 if yours he of the Ramosus section they shonld be planted in February or 

 March. \ 



Rhododendron Stoces (S. C.).— The Rhododendron pnnticnm is a good 

 stock, and the best we know. Any time -will do to pot Rhododendrons, as 

 they take up with snch fine balls, bat if there is one time better than 

 another to pot them at it is March. If you pot them now, or any time in 

 mild weather from now until spring, they will he suitable for grafting at 

 that season, but they are better established a year in pots, though this is 

 not imperatively necessary if only the stocks are sufficiently strong. The 

 Rhododendron is usually raised from layers, and we are not aware that it 

 can be done successfully by cuttings. The Azalea cuttings two months 

 struck would do better in a temperature of from 45° to 50% than in one of 

 60°, which we presume is the minimum. 



Camellias in Cocoa-nut Fibre Repose (L. S. if.).— The present state 

 of the plants is probably due to .your employing the dust in a fresh state, 

 when it is much too open to be used for potting hardwooded plants ; but if 

 It was pressed firm and mixed with turfy loam we do not see in what way 

 it could bring on the consequences named. The plant3 were most probably 

 neglected, as regards water, when placed on the top shelf of a stage in the 

 greenhouse, and were not shaded from the sun. This is more likely to be 

 the cause than potting in the refuse, for with us the Camellias have done 

 ■well in it, but we reduced it to black or very dark mould. The circum- 

 stance of the leaves being blotched confirms the above conclusions, as they 

 are usually so when the young growths are made under an unshaded roof. 

 The only remedy that we know of, will be to place the plants in a mild 

 hotbed next April— say in one of tanner's bark in a vinery, and to keep 

 them there until new growths are made and the buds set, when they may 

 be removed to a cooler and lighter structure. Camellias prefer a slight 

 shade when making their growth, and a slight increase of heat and mois- 

 ture. Tobacco snioke will assuredly kill tbrips if you fill the house so that 

 a plant cannot be seen, taking care to do so on calm evenings when the 

 plants are dry, and employing the strongest shag tobacco. Smoke twice on 

 alternate evenings, and afterwards whenever tbe insect appears. Tou will 

 do little towards exterminating the pest if the plants are not kept cool, 

 well aired, and supplied with moisture such as is needed. A sprinkling of 

 water through a fine syringe on bright mornings is conducive to the health 

 of Cinerarias and herbaceous Calceolarias. 



Sorx. for Rhododendrons {J£. IT. E.). — As your soil is very light and dry 

 it will not grow Rhododendrons ; but ;f it were dug out in the places where 

 you propose planting to a depth of 1 foot 6 inches, and the holes filled with 

 good turfy peat soil, we have no doubt that you might grow Rhododendrons 

 well. In putting the peat in the place of the soil taken out it should be 

 chopped with a spade, so that it may not lie too lightly and open. In choos- 

 ing the peat select the brown turfy sort; and if Bilberries grow in it prefer 

 that to such as is found on the higher parts where the common Heath grows 

 very dwarf and stunted. 



Seaweed for Asparagus-beds (R. B.). — It is an excellent manure for 

 Asparagus- beds. We applied a mulching of it quite fresh, when the stems 

 of the plants were cut away in autumn, and left this covering on the surface 

 until March. TVe then removed it, and having plenty of decayed seaweed 

 we gave the beds a good coat of this, and just pointed it in with a fork. 



WrNDOw Gardening for the Mant (T, S.). — "We cannot send a leaf 

 without destroying a copy to do so. 



Thrxps on Camellia Leaves {Irish Lady). — There were traces of 

 thrips having been on all the leaves sent except one. Thrips very rarely 

 attack Camellias, this being only the second instance in our experience. 

 Fill the house some calm evening with tobacco smoke so densely that a 

 plant cannot be seen, and repeat the dose the next night but one. Syringe'the 

 plants on the underside of the leaves the day after each fumigation, taking 

 care to have the foliage dry before fumigating again. It may be necessary 

 to repeat the fumigation, for though tobacco smoke will destroy the insect 

 it will not kill its eggs. Repeat the fumigation, therefore, if the pest ap- 

 pears. The atmosphere mu=t have been kept as dry as that of the deserts 

 of Arabia to render the Camellia leaves a suitable "prey for thrips. KeeD the 

 air more moist, otherwise the leaves will drop, and the flower-buds fall like 

 a shower of hail. 



Stove Boiler {A Constant Subscriber). — "We have reason to know, that 

 the boiler named soon burns through, an d that all the so-called boilers with- 

 out setting do the same. There is little if any difference in them, and they 

 all do their work pretty well, subject to the drawback of the outer casing 

 speedily burning through. We cannot depart from our rule of not recom- 

 mending one dealer in preference to another, and we have no doubt the one 

 named will answer as well as others. If you will refer to the Number of 

 this Journal for January 19th, page 58, you will find a notice of a boiler 

 that would suit you. For further particulars oar advertising columns will 

 meet yonr wishes. 



Propagating "Variegated Elder {]£. J".).— Yon may take cuttings with 

 three joints from the young growths, selecting those which are moderately 

 strong, and cutting them transversely immediately below the lowest joint, 

 and slantingly above the uppermost. Insert two joints in the soil, or if the 

 cuttings have five joints three, leaving one in the former case, and in the 

 latter case two out of the soil; the majority will root. Now is a good 

 time to put them in. They grow best, however, from layers. A moderately 

 light soil is best, and the cuttings may be put in in row3 1 foot apart, and 

 from 3 to 6 inches asunder in the rows. 



Liltes of the Yaxley not Blooming- {R. A.). — Ton will benefit them 

 much if you thin out one-half the plants or roots, so that they can obtain 

 more air, planting those removed in soil well manured, and the plants not 

 too close. They are best planted in rows 1 foot apart, and just covered with 

 soil, giving a top-dressing of well-rotted manure or leaf mould an inch 

 thick. There is no plant so much admired in its season as the Lily of the 

 Valley : and yet it is the worst tended of all plants. They are crowded 

 and huddled in aome corner, and do not flower half so well as they would 

 do if better cared for. 



Limnanthes grandiflora Sowing (Mrs. F. IF.).— There are two seasons 

 of sowing this :— September for flowering in May and June, when it would be 

 of most use to bees ; and March and April for blooming in July, August, and 

 September. 



Heating a Small Pit {An Amateur).— We are almost sure that as yon 

 have a boiler and hot- water pipes for your vinery, the simplest and most 

 economical mode for heating the small pit for Cucumbers, &c, at the end of 

 the vinery, would be to take a flow and return pipe to your pit, and from 

 them heat the little pit independently of the vinery. We would have been 

 more decided on this point if you had given us the position of the boiler. 

 Of course, the simplest of the portable hot-water apparatuses would do for 

 such a little place ; but we think the simplest and cheapest of them would 

 cost yeu more labour and expense than heating from the present boiler. 

 Were', we to heat such a little place for ourselves, we would fix a brick 

 Arnott's sLove, with or without a flue in the house, but to be fed from the 

 outside low enough to have a chamber for giving bottom heat and means 

 for imparting moisture to the top heat. 



Charcoal-heated Stoves — Hot-water. Apparatus — Yenttlating 

 Greenhouse {A Subscriber). — We think the canaries will decidedly suffer 

 unless there is a little ventilation at the top of the house night and day, or 

 the laps of the glass admit fresh air. That the hot- water apparatus to 

 be heated by lamps will be effectual for a house 21 feet by 12, will depend 

 on the height of the house and the size of the lamps. For a house of that 

 size, a little furnace would often be the best. There should also be a funnel 

 to take away ike products of combustion from the lamps. If the water in 

 your pipes is not more than 160° or 170 p , you will require at least 50 or 

 60 feet of three-inch pipe. Where frost was merely to be excluded, we 

 would prefer a small iron stove with a flat top for placing a basin of water 

 on, with a pipe through the roof to take away the products of combustion. 

 We object to the charcoal stove unless you have a funnel to take off the 

 products of combustion. A stove, though small, if supplied with charcoal or 

 broken coke, will give off a great amount of heat. The only care required 

 is not to place the stove too near tender plants, and to neutralise the dry 

 heat by moisture. Notwithstanding all improvements, the most economical 

 plan for a single small house is a moveable stove, which may be taken out of the 

 house from April to the end of October. Brick stoves are better than iron;, 

 but then they are fixtures. However, neatness is always gained when the 

 fire either of a stove, or a furnace, or a boiler is fed outside of the house; 

 but in a single house we believe it is gained at the expense of economy . "V en- 

 tilation is not always wanted at the top of such a house, but it is desirable 

 to be able to give it there when necessary. For a house only 21 feet long, 

 however, you may dispense with the ugliness of ventilators in your fixed 

 roof, by having a piece of the angular ends close to the apex made to open- 

 say a right-angled triangle, with a base and perpendicular of IS inches. 



Destroying Insects in Herbaria {W. R. E.).— The best way of doing 

 this is to gire the specimens a dressing with a solution of corrosive subli- 

 mate in methylated spirits of wine. It can be done with an ordinary 

 painter's brush, and the sheets afterwards laid out to dry. 



Names of Fruits {Tyro).— No. 1 (Apple), Sturmer Pippin; 2 (Pear), 

 Striped Yirgouleuse. {A. T.). — l t Cornish Gilliflower; 2, Marmalade 

 Pippin; 3, Pigeon; 4, Autumn Pearmain. 1 (Pear), Benrre" Bosc. Grape 

 Trebbiano. 



Names of Plants (<?. S., Cornwall)*— Tecoma jasminoides, a native of 

 New Holland. It requires a greenhouse in most parts of England, and its 

 being in full bloom on November 28th, against the front of your house, is aa 

 evidence of the mildness of your situation. {Conifer a). —The scraps of 

 Scolopendrium it is impossible to identify. No. 8 may be digitatum starved. 

 {C. C. ). — Lastrea montana, synonymous with L. oreopteris. Tbe other 

 specimen apparently a starvling of Ferdinanda eminens. {W.R.E.). — 

 1, Ruacns aculeatus; 2, Salix ambigua. {Mary X>.).— Calceolaria scabiosa> 

 folia, {Kentorian).—\, Drynaria mussefolia; 2, Gymnogramma chryso- 

 phylla; 3, Asplenium raarinum; 4, Selaginella cuspidatum. {Dr. Sandi- 

 ford).—Yom- Queensland Cotton is the variety of Gossypium barbadense, 

 known as » l Sea Islands Cotton." {Orchidophilus).— Ornithogalum can- 

 datum. The Saxifrage appears to be a tufted and much-cleft variety of 

 S. hypnoides. {C. Jt. B.).—\, Cyanotis vittata ; 2, Coleus sp. I (bad speci- 

 men). [C. B. P.).— The Orchid is Epidendrum cochleatum. Gymno- 

 stachyum Verschaffeltii and Anthurium leuconeurum are totally distinct 

 plants, wide as the poles apart. Send us a leaf and we will tell you which 

 your plant is. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE 



POULTRY JUDGES. 

 We have received an unsigned letter, but bearing a post- 

 mark indicating whence it emanated, asking in no very 

 courteous phrase "Whether we shrink from the sound 

 opinion we formerly held that dealers should not be selected 

 as judges." Our reply might be more brief than the query. 

 We do not shrink from that opinion ; but we have a few 



