94 
CONTEMPORARY WRITINGS. 
and it is principally on that account that the 
cultivation of the Mume Plum, (which is 
looked upon as something holy, and bears a 
great value throughout the empire) is one of 
the most common and profitable occupations ot 
the country. A dealer offered us, in 1836, a 
bush in full flower and scarcely three inches 
high : this prodigy of gardening is grown in 
a little varnished box with three steps, like the 
boxes of medicine which the Japanese carry 
at their girdles : in the upper step was the 
Mume ; the next step was occupied by a fir- 
tree of similar smallness ; and on the lower 
step was a bamboo, not, above an inch and a 
half high. It is said that the Japanese select 
the very smallest plants, as one means of 
facilitating the dwarfing process. — Siebold's 
Flora Japonica. 
Preserving Walnuts. — To ascertain 
which are perfect fruit suitable for storing, 
the best plan is, to immerse them in water after 
removing the husks : the perfect ones sink to 
the bottom ; while all the imperfect ones float 
on the surface ; these should be used first. 
After they have laid to sweat, they should be 
cleansed by being well worked in a dry sack 
shaken from end to end between two persons ; 
the friction of the sack cleans them perfectly. 
Place them in earthen pans that are quite 
dry and not glazed : cover them with a piece 
of canvass or thick brown paper, with about 
an inch of dry sand over it : store them in a 
moderately dry place ; and as required for 
use they should be placed for eight or ten 
days in a damper situation, which will freshen 
them, and causes the skin to peel off easily. 
This is a sure and easy way of keeping both 
walnuts and filberts, or other nuts. 
Fruit Rooms. — The management of a fruit 
room does not consist merely in storing it to 
the best advantage : frequent and careful 
examination is necessary to remove such as 
may be approaching toadecaying state, before 
they have spread contamination around them : 
such fruit should at once be removed quite 
away, and all litter calculated to produce damp 
or mouldiness should be cleared away, so that 
the fruit room may at all times be as cleanly 
and comfortable as a sitting room. — M. 
Whole sets op Potatoes. — Often as this 
has been recommended by practical men, there 
are theorists who constantly advocate the cut- 
ting of Potatoes upon the unfounded notion that 
large tubers have stronger eyes, and that 
stronger eyes bring better produce. Now it 
has been proved over and over ngain, that 
potatoes as large as a lien's egg or a walnut in 
its green husk will yield as good a produce, 
and stand as well as the finest tubers that can 
be obtained, and that when a crop planted 
thus, fails, if indeed it ever fails, we must look 
for some circumstance totally unconnected with 
the size of the tuber. Whole tubers are in many 
respects better than cut ones, and if as econo- 
mical by reason of their being of the size 
usually sold very cheap, are to be preferred on 
every account. First, they stand wet and 
cold, and heat and drought, much better than 
the best cut sets. Secondly, they are less 
liable to disease. Thirdly, they may be 
planted earlier and deeper without danger. 
Fourthly, in a vast majority of cases they 
yielded a better crop. Fifthly, they can be 
purchased more cheaply of other growers at 
taking-up time, than the same quality of sets 
could be purchased in larger tubers to cut up. 
Lastly, the crop is always more even or equal 
than any with cut sets. Upon the whole, 
we cannot help strongly recommending that 
which practice has proved to be beneficial. Pro- 
cure whole tubers grown on other land; plant 
early, plant deep, and calculate on a good com- 
parative crop, under any circumstances. — G. 
The Polyanthus. — This plant is much 
neglected round London, some say because it 
is difficult to cultivate. This is not the fact, but, 
like all other subjects, it requires attention, and 
rarely obtains it. This spring visitor is shown 
in perfection in worse climates than London, and 
simply, because they go about things the right 
way. Those who exhibit best, grow them in the 
open ground. When two trusses throw up, the 
weakest is removed ; the number of pips 
are lessened when there are too many ; and 
not until the day of show does the plant obtain 
the honour of a pot. The ground is wetted 
almost to mud on the morning of show. The 
earth is cut all round beyond the reach of the 
fibres, and it is transferred to a pot of suffi- 
cient size to take the ball of earth without cur- 
tailing any of the roots. In this state, after 
being again watei-ed, it is shown, and will 
frequently, if well shifted, last several days, in 
what may be called good showing order. 
Round about London, people have attempted 
to grow them like Auriculas in their pots ; 
and as the Polyanthus makes growth in mild 
weather all through the winter, they fre- 
quently suffer from too much or too little 
moisture, alternately being drenched and 
dried, not unfrequently damping off or being 
destro}'ed by the red spiders. The natural 
earth is its most congenial quai'ter. — Q. 
The Picotees Mrs. Barnard and Miss 
Desborough.— The Woolwich growers insist 
that these Picotees are both identically the 
same, but that Mrs. Barnard is a sport from 
the other. The evidence is in favour of their 
identity as one variety : the grass is the 
same, the pods the same, and the habit the 
same, but the flowers, in their proper charac- 
ter, are very unlike. 
Artotrogus htdnosporus. — This is a 
curious parasitical fungus, which is found in 
