NovKMnr.ii 21. ] 
Till'! COTTAGL GARDENKit. 
m 
Black .Jamaica, enjoy an amount of atmospherics mois¬ 
ture which would bo prejudicial, if not totally ruinous, 
to plants iii dung pits, There is a double reason for 
thin; there in and must he a more liberal amount of 
atmospheric heat. There are greater vicissitudes occur¬ 
ring in such struotures; for, of course, the amount of 
perspiration from the foliage in greater, and it also lies 
in the power of the operator to permit at intervals a 
greater amount of dryness in the air; and thin some¬ 
times becomes necessary for a few hours, especially after 
a series of dull and damp days, when, of course, all the 
functions of the plant are at a minimum point, and 
when a long continued moist atmosphere would in part 
induce what we must for the moment term a vegetable 
strangulation. 
It may here he observed, that when pines in different 
stages of fruiting are wintering in the same house, a 
thing not by any means unusual in these days, a com¬ 
promise becomes necessary. Those swelling off, or ap¬ 
proaching the ripening process, will require a liberal 
amount of atmospheric moisture; those ripening or 
colouring are averse to a dump air; and those merely 
showing fruit require an elevation of temperature, in 
order that a free ventilation may he encouraged ; these 
things being necessary to what is practically termed 
“ good setting.” The last is, of course, a somewhat un¬ 
important section ; at this period they are few in num¬ 
ber, and not to he relied on. It behoves the pine grower, 
therefore, to bend to the majority, such being indicated 
by their probable usefulness and value. from now 
until the end of .January a bottom heat of from seventy- 
five to eighty must be insured, and an air thermometer 
ranging from sixty at night to sixty-eight in the day 
i may be allowed, permitting, nay encouraging, an ad¬ 
vance of some eight or ten degrees on sunny days or 
bright intervals, which should lie instantly taken advan¬ 
tage of, if only for an hour or two. 
Those who are deficient in atmospbcric moisture, had 
better immediately apply some evaporating tiles on the 
surface of their hob-water pipes or flues. Let it be a 
maxim to provide an almost surplus of means for this 
essential, reserving the question as to whether they 
should he filled, and when. 
Lot us advise above all things, clean glass; and O 
that we could persuade every amateur in the kingdom to 
take as much pains over bis horticultural glass in 
general, at this season, as his butler does over his wine 
glasses! This, to some, will seem fussy enough, but let 
our friends and coadjutors, Messrs. Kish, Appleby, and 
Beaton, be consulted in back numbers of Tun (Joitaok 
Gaiiokxkii, and we, have no fear of our opinion being 
ignored in the matter. U. LaatMoroM, 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Bunn us, low trees, and other plants very suitable for 
planting at this season in and round flower-gardens, 
pleasure-grounds, and home-leads, arc as familiar to 
most gardeners in large places as Hcnrlet geraniums, or 
cloves, and Bweet Williams; and the way for transplant¬ 
ing them and securing them afterwards from the effects 
: of cold winds, frosty weather, heat and drought, is as 
l familiar as planting cabbages to all our readers who 
think anything about such decorative work. Therefore, 
tlic ground being thus in a great measure cleared and 
reaily to plant, all that remains is to sit down, count 
the cost, and look over some good and well authenticated 
list from which a selection may he mode to suit the 
given locality of the planter, and the weight of his purse. 
Mere names, however, are next to useless to all those 
who do not happen to know something of the things 
represented by name only, and to those who know all 
about them; iists are only remembrancer*; hence it is 
that unless time and space can be afforded to explain to 
the uninitiated—-some peculiar fitness in the plants for 
particular purposes and situations — a string of long 
names in alphabetical order, or in no order at all, for 
amateurs, might just as well lie copied from the cata 
loguo of Theophrastus as from an Knglish list; and 
hence, too, my own dislike to what is called, cud often 
called for, lists of such and such plants, when no clue 
can la: given as to their properties and uses, or fitness, 
for those to whom they arc specially intended. 
Mr. Appleby is the only writer to whom I can point, 
on the spur of tlm moment, as tic: best manufacturer of 
lists, such as, I am quite satisfied, arc at all useful to 
amateurs-- -aye, and to gardeners too ; and when the new 
mode of giving Knglish terminations to names, and 
orders, and sections, and I,ho nearest alliance of the plant 
spoken of is understood and appreciated, I am ouually 
confident that no list can go beyond his in usefulness, 
and, according to our present knowledge, is all that pen 
and ink can do- brains must do the rest when the list 
is before us. Of course, I do not include in this cate¬ 
gory such lists as extend to monographs, or certain 
families of plants such as that lately noticed by the 
Kdilor from the Messrs, Knight and Kerry, the oi lebralcd 
proprietors of the Kxotie Nursery, Chelsea, and which 
monograph, on the conifers or fir tribe,i, is the most 
complete and useful one in our language, and should Is: 
read and studied by gardeners, young and old. To read 
a book and then lay it by, is no better in these days 
than whistling an old tune; we must study them by 
reading over and over again. 
One more feature in lists, and I am through with 
my preface; that is, I,lie giving under each kind all 
the synonymes referring to it. 'This is of immense 
advantage; and here again the conifers have the ad¬ 
vantage of most other families. The most correct list 
of them extant is given this autumn in the .Journal 
of the Horticultural Bociety. Nothing is so provoking 
us to find that one has bought tlm same plant three 
times over under three different names; and yet, the 
thing is often unavoidable in the absence of a lull num¬ 
ber of synonym on appended to catalogue lists And 
half the world cannot conceive how such accumulations 
of names take their rise—but the explanation is very 
easy, Suppose four clever men now ut the mines of 
California, as much bout on finding new plants as gold, 
and suppose each of them has made a small collection 
of specimens of the rarest plants round about, and that 
they arc now on hoard the same vessel on their way 
back. After getting across the Isthmus of Kanarna, one 
of them goes to New York, one to Karin, another to 
Vienna, and the fourth to London. Now, let us suppose 
again that a magazine of botany is issued monthly, or at 
any staled period, in the four large cities, and that each 
of the travellers has given his collection of dried speci¬ 
mens to the botanist in chief for each magazine ; he ex¬ 
amines them, and compares his description with all the 
plants that are desert laid in his hooks from that quarter, 
and finds that one of the dry specimens is really a new 
plant; it does not answer to any of the sorts formerly 
given out, nor to any in the same order to wfiieli it 
belongs from other quarters, therefore it must he new, | 
and lie gives it a new name, and gives a, description of 
it in liis magazine. This plant being new to science, I 
and in the four collections, must, of course, go through [ 
the same process in four different parts of the world, 
and very likely gets four names stamped on it at once ; i 
and who can help it'/ l.et us follow the circle, and sup 
pose a London nursery mini has got hold of this new 
plant, and calls it by the name ^iven to it in London; 
lie has a standing order with a New York nurseryman ; 
to send him over every novelty which comes to hand : 
this same plant arrives under the American name, the | 
same from Kalis and Vienna, and our London friend • 
