THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[March 14. 
324 
the temperature of the house. This will accord with 
the wants of the ordinary plants in the stove at that 
season. Plants that have been growing—or rather 
attempting to grow—and have been some time in 
culture, perhaps in the warm, moist orchid-house, 
may be just now taken out of their pots or baskets, 
and hung up and treated in a similar manner as the 
newly imported plants. We are happy to find this 
treatment corresponds with that which Mr. Gordon 
practises with his fine plant at Chiswick. We are 
bound to admit that Mr. Bassett—a name familiar 
to our readers—does grow and flower this fine species 
in a different manner to the above. His method is 
to pot them in pots filled with broken potsherds, and 
nothing else amongst them. He finds them to do 
tolerably well in that stuff; but we think it unneces¬ 
sary. He, like ourselves, places his Loelias in a cool 
house, keeps them moist when growing, and quite dry 
when fully grown. Perhaps it would be desirable to 
grow small plants in that way, till they made bulbs 
strong enough to flower. There is one advantage 
our hanging-up system has above any other, and that 
is, a freedom from the attacks of devouring insects, 
such as cockroaches and woodlice—those pests and 
destroyers of young roots, shoots, and often of flower- | 
stems too. If our plant is hung up and isolated, so | 
that none of its leaves touch any other plant, and the j 
wire rubbed over occasionally with some adhesive , 
substance like bird-lime, none of these destroyers can j 
possibly reach it. 
Dendrobittm Speciosum. —A noble plant of this 
fine orchid was exhibited on Tuesday; the 19th of 
February, at the London Horticultural Society’s 
rooms in Regent-street, by the Rev. C. Fox Chawner, 
Rector of Bletchingly. It was growing in a large 
pot, and measured fully three feet across. It had 
more than thirty long spikes of its beautiful creamy- 
white flowers, the labellums or lips of each being 
beautifully spotted with crimson. Mr. Duncan, the 
gardener, stated that this handsome plant had been 
grown in an intermediate house—that is, a house be¬ 
tween the heat of the greenhouse and the stove—the 
temperature varying from 45° to 55° in winter, and 
from 55° to 65° in summer. From May to September 
it was kept in a cool pit, where it began to show 
flower. It was then removed into the above-men¬ 
tioned intermediate house, and moderately watered. 
With this treatment it produced the ^above-described 
mass of blooms. 
This plant is a native of New Holland, where the 
air is much drier, and often cooler, than in the dis¬ 
tricts of tropical America and Asia, where orchids are j 
generally found. Mr. Backhouse, when travelling I 
in Australia, observed a very large specimen of this 
plant growung in the cleft of an inaccessible rock, j 
near to the town of Sydney. In this place, secure I 
from the rapacity of the keenest collector, the plant j 
flourished and flowered yearly in great beauty. We j 
mention this to show*that this plant does not require 
much stimulating matter to bring it into a fiorescent 
state. 
Just at this season there are several plants of D. 
speciosum in flower in the neighbourhood of London. 
We have had the pleasure of seeing a magnificent 
one, with eighteen much larger spikes on it than the : 
one exhibited at the rooms in Regent-street. This j 
was in the Horticultural Society’s Garden at Chiswick. 
On the same day, we saw one in flower at Mrs. Law- | 
rence’s, at Ealing Park, with about a dozen spikes 
upon it. The peculiar treatment this plant requires 
to bring it into a flowering state we must defer to j 
another opportunity. 
FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 
We intend giving a rather long essay upon this part 
of our labour shortly. At present, we need only remind 
our friends that there must be no relaxation in the 
two necessary elements of success, in bringing to the 
standard of perfection those highly prized flowers. 
These two elements, or qualities, are unremitting 
attention , and correct judgment in applging all the 
means necessary to that end. T. Appleby. 
THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 
Angelica. —Sow this vegetable in pans, if possible, 
on a slight heat, to be transplanted into rows three 
feet apart, and two feet from plant to plant next 
month, on a well trenched and manured piece of 
ground. 
Asparagus Plantation. —Take advantage of all 
favourable opportunities for well scarifying the sur¬ 
face of the soil, which has already been well forked 
over, and now become pulverized. Sow for obtaining 
the next season’s stock of plants, and with all possible 
speed prepare also for this season’s planting, which 
is now fast approaching. 
Early Cabbage and Cauliflowers. —Encourage 
an early luxuriance by frequent application, in small 
quantities, of strong proof liquid manure; the colder 
and moister the weather, the more their growth may 
be thus promoted. 
Globe Artichokes. —Plant the suckers, and shel¬ 
ter them at first a short time with the sea-kale pots, 
which may now be dispensed with for the latter 
vegetable, or evergreen boughs. 
Sea-kale. —The early forced plants should now 
have their crowns examined, and if not already cut 
down to the earth’s surface, all such as require it 
should be cut down at once. Those putting forth a 
number of shoots should be thinned of all small and 
superfluous buds, or shoots, and a portion of the best 
only allowed to remain, again to be thinned in a 
short time. 
Peas. —Sow now the full crop of the best Marrow 
Peas, such as the Knight's Green and Woodford 
Marrow, the Scimetar Blue and Dwarf Imperial Blue. 
These are all well-proved summer peas for an ama¬ 
teur or cottage gardener. 
Kidney Beans. —Sow in heat, to harden-oft’as soon 
as up, for transplanting on slight-made hotbeds in 
sheltered situations; to be protected with old lights, 
if any to spare, or garden mats, &c. Keep the earth’s 
surface, about those already growing in heat, well 
stirred, and apply tepid liquid manure water. Place 
strings to a few stakes on each side of the rows, on 
small brushwood short sticks, in order to keep the 
plants from falling into disorder. 
James Barnes. 
MISCELLANEOUS INEORMATION. 
HISTORY OF AN APIARY. 
No. 2. 
(Continued from page 203.) 
According to the desire which you expressed to 
me in private, shortly after the receipt of my former 
communication, entitled “ The History of an Apiary," 
which appeared in The Cottage Gardener of the 
3rd week in January last, I will endeavour to fur¬ 
nish you with an account of my experience as a bee- 
master from the very commencement of my practical 
