HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 81 



themselves. The discovery has also lately been made in France. 



"A curious coincidence, to use a phrase, 



By which such things are settled now-a-days." 



There it gets the name of hydrosulphate of lime. Brandy and water, with 

 a squeeze of lemon in it, in these gentlemen's hands would become the acidu- 

 lated hydrate of alcohol. 



This sulphur and lime mixture is also valuable as a means of eradicating 

 red spider; applied as a whitewash on the underside of the stage during sum- 

 mer, and every part of the greenhouse where the color is not objectionable, 

 red spider will not make their appearance. If they are troublesome in win- 

 ter, paint a little of the mixture on the flues or hot water pipes, if that me- 

 thod of heating be adopted. In this way a slight application will be suffi- 

 cient — otherwise it may injure the plants if a strong heat be applied. 



Anti-humbug. 



Mr. Editor: — In reading the commencement of the article on Heathsby 

 Mr. Saunders, I said to myself, at last here is one with whom I can agree — 

 u Heaths can be grown without peat," and "in a mixed collection of plants;" 

 but when I came to the conclusion of the article, I saw that I was mistaken: 

 that in fact the sarcasms of "Anthophilus" about artesian wells and ice houses 

 are more near to ''F^periment" than to me. Is it possible that such a prac- 

 tician as Mr. S. should advocate such means to grow such plants as Heaths? 

 I could conceive such associations for Cypripedia, for Calopogon pulchellus, 

 Arethusse, &c, but for Heaths, natives of the most southern parts of Africa, 

 and for the most part growing on dry, dreary hills, at an elevation of many 

 hundred, perhaps thousand feet above the sea level ! I know you will say 

 that the atmospheric circumstances are different. I know they are, as from 

 a dry hill to almost a cistern. Do we lose our Heaths in summer in the dri- 

 est seasons and weather ? No! it almost invariably happens after a shower — 

 and the heaver and longer the rains, the greater the chance of losing them. 

 Perhaps you answer — we can cover them to keep off these rains; then I will 

 ask you, if those who have adopted the system of keeping them in doors all 

 the time have had better success, and have never lost anyl If so, where are 

 they? The best collection I have seen in America was in Boston, at the 

 Hon. Mr. Wilder's; they stood in the middle of the garden, exposed to all at- 

 mospheric changes, and yet were in the best condition I should ever wish 

 plants to be. There were not only Heaths, but Epacridae, Lysinema pul- 

 chellum, and L. pungens, plants still easier to lose than Ericas — and all more 

 thrifty than I ever saw them. I have now in bloom Dracophyllum Hugelii, 

 11 



