526 
CONTEMPORARY WRITINGS. 
possible to raise a crop of anything. Sowing 
a plot of ground with quick-lime just before 
daylight will kill every one that the lime 
touches ; so also will salt, but there is great 
danger of the plants, because if there is enough 
to be effectual with the slugs, there would be 
too much for all tender crops. It has been 
recommended to put cabbage leaves in an 
oven, or in some other way to partially roast 
them before laying them down on the ground, 
because it draws the vermin from a long dis- 
tance ; but this is often troublesome, and there 
is one thing quite certain — whatever be the 
remedy or remedies adopted, they will require 
to be persevered in a considerable time, for 
you will hardly find any abatement of the 
nuisance for many days. We recommend, if 
they can be had, cabbage leaves strewed upon 
the ground and taken up once or twice a-day, 
knocking off all the slugs into a pail of salt 
and water ; tedious as it may seem, it is the 
best, the safest, and the most permanently effec- 
tual plan. It is very probable that one lot of 
leaves may be enough to extirpate the larger 
quantity ; and when the leaves are done with, 
watch the opportunity before day break and 
sow lime on all the stragglers that are out and 
exposed. — G. 
Weeds on Neighbouring Premises. — 
There is very little thought of the neighbour- 
ing ground while we keep our own clean 
within ; but if there be a hedge and ditch at 
any part, and the weeds are allowed to grow 
on the bank, or in the hedge, or in the ditch, 
it will make incessant labour ; for it always 
sows your ground with the seed, and harbours 
millions of vermin w^hich travel far and near 
after more palatable food than the ditch or 
bank affords, and how often has the reader 
seen on a dull evening, or dark showery day, 
the enormous black slugs crossing his path 
and leaving their slimy track for many yards, 
showing at once what distance they will go in 
search of food better than they have where 
they are harboured. Therefore, clean out 
ditches, rake out weeds at the bottom of 
hedges, let there not be in the garden nor in 
the neighbourhood a dirty corner, or an over- 
grown neglected spot ; for wherever vermin 
can remain undisturbed, they breed in pro- 
digious numbers, and supply an interminable 
quantity of mischief and vexation. — G. 
Stakes for the Support op Flowers. — 
There is hardly any part of the gardener's 
work that requires more attention than the 
supporting of plants to protect them from 
the effects of wind, or hold them up in their 
weakness. Some people carelessly drive th^ 
stake into the ground so as to hide the stems 
of the plants, instead of so di-iving it that the 
plant shall hide the stake. There is a good deal 
of taste to be displayed in supporting a patch 
of sweet-peas, or a dahlia, for if well done 
they look to be growing free and supporting 
themselves. Plants like peas should be sup- 
ported with brushwood; that is, small branch- 
ing wood that is hardly perceivable. In any 
open situations, even hollyhocks are obliged 
to be fastened to a stake, but the stake should 
be so placed as to be hidden by the plant on 
the principal side. In like manner, standard 
roses, if supported by an iron or stake, the 
plant should be before the supporter, and not 
the supporter before the plant ; that is to say, 
the stake or iron should be on the side of the 
plant that is least seen. — G. 
Bruckea grandieolia. — " For some time 
I took Brlickea for a shrubby plant, since I had 
always found it in full flower from eight to 
twelve feet high ; subsequently, however, I 
discovered it from thirty to fifty feet high, 
loaded with innumerable flowers. The stems 
of trees this size were from fifteen to twenty 
feet long and from six to eight inches thick, 
and surmounted by a head of a roundish pyra- 
midal form. The bark of the stem and the 
branches is of a bright ash-grey colour : the 
young branches, also, are studded with warts, 
and covered with short, yellowish-grey wool. 
This property is likewise common to the 
peduncles, pedicels, calyx, and the mid-veins 
of the leaves. The leaves are opposite, lanceo- 
late, from three to five inches long, and two- 
thirds of their length is from 1| to 1| inches 
broad, ending in a sharp point, and becoming 
gradually narrower towards the base, where 
they have the form of a leaf-stalk from | to | of 
an inch long. They are entire, and coria- 
ceous ; their surface is of a shining green, 
which is somewhat fainter or paler on the 
under side, more or less hairy at the mid-rib 
and the other larger veins : the somewhat pe- 
culiar parenchyma of the network formed of 
the anastomose veins, shows on the under side 
small warty pimples. The flowers are deve- 
loped at the same time with the leaves, at the 
axils of which they are produced. In January 
and February may be seen, at the axils of the 
young leaves, a glomerulus or little round 
head, supported on a short stalk, and composed 
of small flower-buds, which are surrounded 
with small curvilinear bracts, in the manner 
of a capitulum, or little head. In the axils of 
the more advanced leaves, this small head 
assumes the form of a perfect cyme. The pe- 
duncles are nearly the length of the leaf- 
stalks ; the pedicels, that of the calyx. All 
those parts are irregularly studded with small 
rugosities. The calyx is from three to fovir 
lines long, recurved, and keeled. The tube of 
the flower is white, cylindrical, and somewhat 
longer than the calyx, by which it is loosely 
surrounded ; its inner surface is slightly hairy ; 
the divisions of the extended five-parted 
