Ji22 
TIIE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 27. 
Other communications have reached us in answer to 
our inquiry for the descriptions of implements useful, 
hut which may be little known, to gardeners; and among 
those communications are the following, both especially 
desirable for the present season of green flies and queen 
wasps; - 
lett has transferred his services as gardener to Haver- ; 
ingland Hall, near Norwich, and many inquiries reach¬ 
ing him relative to the construction of such baskets, he 
has published a pamphlet, well illustrated with litho¬ 
graphed plates, entitled Practical Rustic Worlc; or the 
Uses to which the Cones of the Fir Tribe may be applied. : 
Many are they who admire rustic work for the edging 
of flower-beds, receptacles for flower-pots, arbours, &c., 
and to those many we recommend this little publication. 
Directions are given for making them, and drawings of 
designs, with the dimensions, are given. Having seen 
the baskets, we can state confidently that they are excel¬ 
lent for the purpose intended. 
FORSYTH MSS. 
“A Fitmigalor .—This is a machine of my own conjuring 
and making. The covering is an old scarlet moreen curtain, 
made to lit by the women. On one side there is a flap-door, 
i for the purpose of lighting a self-acting cigar; which capital 
idea for fumigating frames, <fcc., was suggested in The Cot¬ 
tage Gardener some time since. I think I have improved 
upon it a little, and detail the preparation and make:—1 oz. 
of saltpetre dissolved in a pint of boiling water, in which 
some coarse brown paper is to be well-soaked and thoroughly 
dried; it then constitutes touch-paper. Cut this touch- 
paper to any desired length, and about one-and-a-half inch 
in breadth. Procure a smooth tapering piece of stick, then, 
I with a needle and thread, secure the end of the paper to it, 
spread some tobacco upon the surface, roll it around the 
stick, allowing one edge of the paper to overlap.the other as 
you do so, and do not wind it too tightly; then, with the 
needle and thread, stitch the edges of the paper together on 
one side, beginning to do so at the largest end of the cigar ; 
draw out the stick, the whole is completed, and an open 
orifice is left running up the centre, through which the air will 
rush and act as a sort of bellows, to assist the touch-paper 
in its self-consuming process when the cigar is lighted. 
Now procure a stick, slit it at the top, and intrude a small 
stone, or something of that sort, to keep the fork open; 
fasten the stick in the soil, and the cigar in the slit. Place 
the large specimen pot-rose, geranium, or what not, that 
may be infected with the fly, alongside, and the fumigator 
over all, untie the flap, light the cigar, tie the flap again, 
and woe betide the unfortunate aphides. In large gardens 
they can afford to “manage these things better,” "but for 
little people like myself, a like construction will be found 
exceedingly useful. I have had it in use two years, and 
should not like to be without it.— Upwards and Onwards.” 
The next implement is Underwood's Wasp Catcher. 
This may be obtained of the inventor, at 56, Hay- 
market, London, and is very effective not only in catch¬ 
ing queen wasps, but any other insect. Every wasp 
killed during April, May, aud_ early June, prevents the 
foundation of a nest. 
Last year Mr. H. Howlett, at that time gardener at St. 
Osytli Priory, near Colchester, obtained the prize offered 
by Mr. Savage, in our pages, for six baskets suitable for 
entrance halls, plant-houses, &c. Since then Mr. How- 
Thf. last letter we quoted closes the correspondence of 
Mr. Anderson with Mr. Forsyth. We know of no 
reason for its thus terminating, for the one did not die 
until 1804, and the other survived him nine years, and 
died in the island of St. Vincent.* In 1798 he for¬ 
warded to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts 
and Manufactures an Essay on The state of some of the 
most valuable Plants in the Botanic Carden in the Island 
of St. Vincent’s. The Essay is published in their Trans¬ 
actions, as were two others in 1802, on the Culture of 
the Clove and Cinnamon Plants. For these papers he 
received a silver and gold medal from the Society. Mr. 
Anderson was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edin¬ 
burgh, and some authorities state that he had conferred 
upon him the degree of Doctor of Medicine, but we do 
not know by what University, nor whether he really 
attained to that honour. Mr. Anderson died about the 
year 1813, and since his death the botanical garden at 
St. Vincent’s has been abolished. 
The next man of science from whom a letter to Mr. 
Forsyth appears among this correspondence is Sir Joseph 
Banks. At page 109 of our 4th volume we gave a biogra¬ 
phical sketch of this distinguished patron of science, and 
awarded to him due praise. We did not allude to the 
weak point of his character, because the good that he 
effected renders that weak point comparatively incon¬ 
spicuous. The letter now before us, however, renders 
it necessary to explain that Sir Joseph coveted promi¬ 
nence, and to have his power acknowledged ; he loved 
not only to be “first fiddle,” but to have his leadership 
rendered apparent. Mr. Anderson laments this in more 
than one of his letters to Mr. Forsyth, and Sir Hum¬ 
phrey Davy said of him, “ he required to be regarded as 
patron, and readily sanctioned gross flattery.” There is 
reason to believe, that although President of the Royal 
Society, to which office he had been elected in 1777, yet 
that when the Presidentship of the Society of Anti¬ 
quaries became vacant, in 1799, he aspired to that 
office also. The friends of the Earl of Leicester, who 
wished this noblemen to fill the office, made public this 
design, and the publicity they gave to the alleged design 
* We have readers resident in the West Indies; will they, or any other 
friend, oblige us by obtaining for us the inscription on Mr. Anderson’s 
monument ? 
