156 
GARDENING CALENDAR FOR APRIL. 
Cyrtopodiums. — These magnificent plants 
may be fresh potted ; give them plenty of pot 
room, and vigorous heat and moisture. 
Stanhopeas, which have not been growing, 
may be expected to flower soon, and in such 
case should not be repotted or disturbed, for 
fear of injuring the flower-buds. The same 
may be said of all those plants which throw 
their flower-stems downwards. 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
Grafting wax is formed by melting equal 
parts of resin, and bees wax, with tallow, 
enough to make it moderately soft. "When 
used it is melted and laid on with a brush, 
just thick enough to form a coating. If 
properly made, it is hardest when cold, and 
melts with a small amount of heat. 
Woodlice. — These are best trapped, and 
then destroyed; or where toads or lizards are 
encouraged, they will keep them under. Any 
hollow body, open at one end and closed at 
the other, serves as a trap ; such as a flower 
pot, or a piece of a hollow stem, or a turnip 
or a potato hollowed out : where the pots 
are used, a little short hay should be put in 
them. The traps may be laid among the 
plants, or placed where the woodlice congre- 
gate ; and they should be daily examined, and 
the captured insects crushed, or killed by 
boiling water. 
JIoss on lawns may, if required, be re- 
moved by watering with a solution of ammo- 
niacal liquor, from the gas works, in the 
proportion of one gallon to four gallons of 
water, applied through the rose of a watering- 
pot. If the moss has been encouraged by 
imperfect drainage, the latter must be recti- 
fied. Where, however, moss occurs on lawns, 
that are not unpleasantly wet, it forms a beau- 
tifully soft and verdant turf. 
Aphides. — The different kinds of aphis or 
plant-louse are very troublesome. Such plants 
as calceolarias, cinerarias, pelargoniums, &c. 
suffer much injury from the green fly if they 
are not speedily dislodged ; and other kinds 
attack out-door crops. For in-doors, or 
wherever the smoke can be confined, fumiga- 
tion with tobacco is the best plan of destroying 
them ; and a calm evening is best suited for 
the operation. The houses, or other places, 
are to be quite closed, and then filled with 
the smoke ; and next day the plants should be 
syringed with clean water. The tobacco 
should be laid over a faw red-hot cinders in 
the bottom of a flower-pot, and then covered 
over with a good thickness of damp short 
hay, the pot being elevated upon two bricks, 
so that the draught of air may reach the hole 
at the bottom. In places where the smoke 
is offensive, and generally out of doors, the 
plants may be well syringed towards evening 
with a liquid made by adding to the tobacco 
liquor of the shops four times its bulk of 
water ; in the morning this is to be syringed 
off" with clean water. "Whichever remedy is 
adopted it is safest to have it repeated once 
or twice within a day or two. 
Garden Tools. — A multiplicity of tools is 
by no means required in a garden, but the 
work always pays for using good and proper 
tools. The execution of garden labour is 
much improved, and the labour itself light- 
ened, by proper care of the tools employed ; 
after use, every day, they should be made 
perfectly clean, and hung up or placed away 
in a situation appropriated to them ; each 
being kept distinct, so as to be easily laid 
hold of when again wanted for use. 
Cuttings. — As a general rule, cuttings of 
what are called soft-wooded plants, such as 
fuchsias, calceolarias, coronillas, &c, will 
root freely, if planted in well-drained sandy 
soil, and the pots placed without bell-glasses, 
in a hotbed, where there is a brisk, but mild 
bottom heat, and where the sashes are kept 
moderately close, perhaps opened two or three 
inches for an hour or two in a day. Hard- 
wooded plants, as heaths, or camellias, should 
be planted in sand, over a layer of sandy soil; 
the pureness and fineness of the sand should 
be proportioned to the size of the cutting ; 
these should be covered by bell-glasses, and 
set where the bottom heat is very slight, or 
quite absent. With the larger cuttings, it is 
a good plan to sink a small pot in the centre 
of the cutting pot, against which the cuttings 
may be planted, as they are found to root 
better than when isolated in the soil. Shading 
must in all cases be attended to. Remove no 
more leaves from the cuttings than is abso- 
lutely necessary ; and cut them clean through, 
close below a joint at the base. Cuttings of 
hardy plants generally succeed under common 
hand lights, in sandy soil ; and of most trees 
and shrubs, in a sheltered shady spot without 
covering. 
Labels. — None are better than those made 
of zinc, the labels being durable, and the 
writing indelible. The face of the zinc should 
be rubbed quite clean and bright, with fine 
sand paper, and the writing effected with a 
quill pen, and Burrows and Thorn's chemical 
garden ink, which is the best preparation 
sold. An ink for zinc labels may also be 
formed by mixing together one drachm of 
sal ammoniac, half a drachm of lamp black, 
and ten drachms of water. The most conve- 
nient form is that of a parallelogram, trans- 
versely attached to a stalk to support it, and 
slightly bent back, so as to bring the surface 
to an angle that will readily meet the eye. 
The mo-t economical form, is that of an acute 
triangle, which does not cut to waste. 
