336 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 26. 
be advisable to separate the seed from its receptacle, 
because it is very apt to turn mouldy, and rot the seed. 
Season for Solving. —This choice seed should have 
choice care bestowed upon it, for every seed is valuable; 
if one or two are destroyed, it is quite possible that these 
might be the very ones that would have produced the 
finest flowers. Being so choice, it is not desirable to 
expose it to being sown in the open border or bed, for 
here, again, some of the best may perish. The best 
way is to sow the seed about the month of April, in 
wide, shallow pans, placed under a cold frame, upon a 
stratum of rough coal-ashes, at least two inches thick. 
Sow it on a soil formed of loam, three parts, leaf-mould, 
one part, with a due proportion of sand. Cover the seed 
about a quarter-of-an-iuch thick, and see that there is 
no ingress for mice or slugs; the former will feed upon 
the seeds, and the latter upon the seed-leaves, so that 
what escapes the former will be destroyed by the latter. 
Water apply through the fine rose of a watering-pot, 
renewing the application whenever the soil becomes 
dry. Give plenty of air daily, or the plants in this 
young and feeble state will infallibly fog or damp off. 
The plants, when advanced two or three leaves, may be 
set out-of-doors in a sheltered nook or corner for a short 
time, to harden them off, and, in the meantime, a bed 
should be prepared to transplant them into. This bed 
should be well drained, and consist of good loam, en¬ 
riched with a good portion of very well-decomposed 
dung. Dig it over at least twice, to incorporate the 
manure well with the soil; rake the surface over, and 
plant out your seedling hollyhocks at six inches apart 
every way. This will be space enough for them until 
the September following, when they should be planted 
out where they are to bloom. T. Appleby. 
{To be continued.) 
CONIFERfE. 
{Continued from page 275 .) 
Cedrus Africanus, syn. elegans (The African, Mount 
Atlas, or Elegant Cedar).—This is, as its name imports, 
a truly elegant tree, with much of the appearance of 
the Cedar of Labanon, excepting that the branches are 
not so decidedly horizontal, and the leaves are much 
more silvery ; hence it is sometimes popularly known as 
“ The Silver Cedar.” It grows to a considerable height, 
is quite hardy, and its wood is so hard and durable as 
to render it very valuable for various purposes. 
C. deodara (The Deodar, or Indian Cedar).—In its 
native woods this most beautiful treo rises to the Height 
of 120 feet, and must then make a truly handsome 
object, combining elegance with majesty. Even the 
Indians are sensible of the great beauty of this tree, for 
Bishop Heber says it is “ a splendid tree, with gigantic 
arms, and narrow dark leaves, which is accounted sacred, 
and is chiefly seen in the neighbourhood of ancient 
Hindoo temples.” We have, on a former occasion, eulo¬ 
gized the graceful beauty of this now well-known tree, 
we need not dwell upon it now, but will just notice that 
Dr. Falconer gives the dimensions of a fallen Deodar, 
which he saw on the Himalayas, as being 30 feet in cir- 
cumferenco at the base, and 130 feet in length. He 
also says that the wood of this tree, taken from a Hindoo 
temple, supposed to have been built a thousand years 
ago, was apparently as sound as the day it was placed 
there, no insect being found in it. This is the more 
remarkable, because in that country insects abound 
and increase amazingly. Sir A. Burnes states, that the 
frames of houses are made on the Himalayas, and 
floated down the river Hydaspes or Schem to the My¬ 
sore ; the durability and fragrance of the wood recom¬ 
mending it for building more than any other tree. On 
this river the Macedonians, lie says, constructed their 
fleet of the wood of this tree by which they navigated 
the Indus. Mr. Loudon, in his “ Arboretum Britan- 
nicum,” remarks, that the wood has a very clear, close i 
grain, capable of receiving a high polish ; so much so, 
indeed, that a table formed of the section of a trunk 
nearly four feet across, sent by Dr. Wallich to the late 
Mr. Lambert, has been compared to a slab of brown 
agate. Combining all these facts as to its beautiful and 
elegant appearance, its usefulness and great size as a 
timber tree, its power of resisting the attacks of insects, 
the high polish to which its wood may be brought by 
the labour of the cabinet-maker, and, lastly, its almost 
incorruptibility, this is surely a tree to be highly prized 
and most extensively planted, especially as it has been 
proved to be perfectly hardy; and, furthermore, as it 
has now become sufficiently cheap (Is. each) to be 
planted out as a forest-tree on our waste moors, in¬ 
termixed with the Larch and the Scotch Fir to pro¬ 
tect it from the blasts of autumn and winter, and 
draw it up so as in time to form such a tree as 
to approach the magnitudes alluded to above. By 
planting them thus thin, and filling up the space 
between each with nurse trees, a much less number of 
these trees would be required per acre. It is quite true, 
it would not thrive so quickly if planted in the manner 
that too many of our forest trees,arc done—that is, just 
a hole scratched, and the trees thrust in anyhow. The 
Deodar is worthy of a little care and attention at the 
first.—See our remarks on planting Coniferte in a former 
number. The Deodar, like its equally valuable and 
interesting relative, the Araucaria, is well adapted to 
form avenues to a baronial residence, a temple, or in 
the centre of an arboretum. If the avenue was formed 
by a front row of Araucarias, and a back row of Deodars 
planted in the openings between the Araucarias, the 
effect would be surpassingly grand and imposing. The 
dark foliage of the Araucaria would contrast beautifully 
with the grey tint of the foliage of the Deodar; the 
latter would (in this country, at least) grow much quicker 
than the former ; hence the spectator would imagine he 
was looking down a double avenue of two kinds of the 
most beautiful trees in the world, placed so as to show 
the beauties of each to the greatest advantage; and if 
each tree were examined in detail, the effect would be 
equally agreeable to the eye of taste. Let any one of 
our readers that have time and means, visit Elvaston 
Castle; there they may sec what can be accomplished 
in the way of avenues with these two noble trees. It is 
true they will not see trees one hundred feet high; but, 
with a very little stretch of the imagination, they will be 
able to realise the effect such avenues will have fifty 
or a hundred years hence. 
Tli ere are, it is said, several varieties of Deodar, 
respectively named crassifolia, tenuifolia, and viridis. 
We have also seen one much more drooping than the 
species; but none of these variations are, in our 
opinion, of sufficient importance (except as curiosities) 
to be cultivated largely. T. Appleby. 
{To be continued.) 
SOME WINTER CROPS. 
Some time ago, when we urged on our friends to 
occupy the ground then vacant, wo suggested the pro¬ 
priety of their leaving, or arranging a well-sheltered 
border for Winter Spinach, and an open, yet dry, airy, 
plot for Onions ; not but that the latter would like a 
warm corner too, but then such honoured situations 
must be kept for less hardy occupants. 
As Onions stand the rigours of a moderate winter 
pretty well when the ground is not naturally too much 
saturated with moisture, a well-selected portion of the 
open square will do very well. In so arranging, we 
generally contrive to have such low crops as this at an 
