■^74 Queries, ulnsivers, Remarks, SfC. 
Date Trek, —Sirs, having' observed a singular notice respecting the Date Tree, 
at page 428 of the Ilorticnltaral Register, the same purporting to be an extract 
from the Travels of the Abbe Mariti,^! beg in reply to state, that I have been in 
Africa, and am well acquainted with the Date Tree, which I have raised, not 
however in the manner described in that extract, (which being so opposite to the 
ordinary course of nature, merits not the smallest credence,) but as other trees 
are propagated, from seed. 
VV. M. M, 
Propagating the Cactus by Seed. —In answer to your correspondent, S-, 
page 227, as to what method he should pursue with the seed of the Cactus Jenkin- 
sonia, I beg to inform him that I sow the seed in the wet state, immediately after 
being gathered from the plant, and ruhbed out of the husk ; in a pot filled with 
a mixture of equal parts of peat-earth and sand, and plunged in a hot-bed, and 
if the seed is good, it will make its appearance in a month afterwards. 
_ C.Mackay. 
Pine Apples. —In answer to G. I. T., page 380, we would say our reason for 
stating in the Calendar for January, “ Be careful that the pine-pits experience 
no declension of heat, &c.,” is, that if pines are allowed to be kept in too low a 
temperature in January and February, they not unfrequently all start into fruit 
by their being subjected to an increased bottom heat at the .spring shifting, in 
March. Mr. Knight’s Pines, we conceive, have quite a different constitution to 
plants grown in bottom heat. 
Conductors. 
Couch Grass. —Gentlemen, I shall feel much obliged if any of your correspon¬ 
dents would inform me, through the medium of your interesting Register, of the 
best and easiest method of eradicating from a lawn, what we in Cambridgeshire 
call “Twitch Grass.” Some years since we cleared away, hy means of a fork 
for the purpose, all the daisies, but the parts once occupied hy them, now appears 
covered by this unsightly intruder, I have tried boiling water, in which salt was 
dissolved, but although apparently successful for a time, the noxious plant re¬ 
appeared in full vigour. Taking up the roots one by one seemed equally ineft’ec- 
tual. 
On the Culture of the Tigridia Pavonia. —In answer to a query respecting 
the management of the Tigridia Pavonia, I wish to inform your correspondent, 
C.N., that I have found this beautiful flower succeed admirably, by being planted 
in a warm situation, in front of a vinery, where the earth is richly manured on 
account of the vines. 1 had during the summer, the pleasure of seeing a succes 
sion of flowers, sometimes 13 at a time, and averaging 6 or 7 daily. As the flow¬ 
ers remain open several hours longer during the autumn than in the summer, 1 
conclude they like moisture. Many seedling plants which had survived the win¬ 
ter re-appeared, and should they be preserved during the present season, will 
probably flower in the summer ; but the roots (although our original stock was 
very small and unhealthy) have by this management increased so abundantly, 
that we have taken no care of the seedling plants. Upon the approach of frost 
the roots of the Tigridia Pavonia were taken up, and carefully planted in pots or 
boxes with their leaves on ; they were preserved from frost, and occa.sionally 
watered during the winter. In the spring they were divided, and tliose intended 
to be brought forward by heat were planted in pots or boxe.s, and when all danger 
of their being injured by frost was over, they were planted in the situation 1 have 
