46 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 15. 
I may mention, as a curious fact, and a very curious 
fact it is, that I never met with this Geranium in prime 
order in the garden of an amateur; I mean, where no 
gardener was kept. When well done, in a large garden, 
it is the best of all our variegated Geraniums yet. To 
bring it out in all its features the bed should be large, 
and the nearest bed to it to be of the gayest colours. As 
an edging plant, it is not nearly so effective as Flower 
of the Day; the white of the latter is so clearly brought 
out by the green and scarlet of Tom Thumb that no 
other Geranium can surpass it. The strength of 
Mangle’s Variegated lies in its white being grey at a 
short distance, therefore the best neutral plant we have 
for the centre of a flower-garden, where the Flower of 
the Day might be too conspicuous. Plow would a 
centre of Flower of the Day look with a broad band of 
Mangle's Variegated round it as a centre figure ? 
D. Beaton. 
Jerusalem. —The Greeks are cultivating land to a 
great extent in and about Jerusalem, planting olive and 
mulberry trees, and building silk-mills. They have 
lately made a very good road to the Convent of the 
Cross, which has been almost rebuilt, and where they 
have a College. 
Almost all travellers now succeed in visiting the 
Great Mosque of Omar, the site of the Temple, though 
they have to make largo presents for the privilege. The 
Jews, however, are still unwilling to enter the Temple, 
from fear of defiling it, because they believe that the 
Ark of the Covenant, containing the two Tables of 
Stone, was buried on that spot by Jeremiah, when Judah 
was carried away captive to Babylon. The excavations 
under the city of Jerusalem are also frequently explored ; 
but the entrance, being exceedingly narrow and low, is 
very difficult. These excavations are of very great ex¬ 
tent, and are formed into vast arched chambers, which 
seem to have been used as a quarry to supply the 
materials for the walls of the Temple.—Times, April 3rd. 
COMPARING NOTES.—PROPAGATING AND 
KEEPING OF BEDDING-PLANTS. 
“Your able coadjutor, Mr. Fish, in a contribution to The 
Cottage Gardener, March 18th, expresses himself as of 
opinion, that “ the practice of striking the greater portion 
of bedding-stuff in the autumn, in cold frames, and pro¬ 
tected there through the winter with mats, Ac., as practiced 
by Mr. Caie and Mr. Scobie, is one whereby no trouble or 
labour is lost.’’ Now, with all deference to the better judg¬ 
ment of Messrs. Fish, Caie, and Scobie, I beg to say, I 
cannot well see the economy of labour in this over the prac¬ 
tice of keeping, in greenhouses, or pits, through the winter, 
a few stock plants from which to take cuttings in spring. 
Of course, I am understood to speak of soft-wooded plants, 
such as Verbenas and Alyssum. No one would think of 
leaving until spring the propagation of a full stock of 
Calceolarias, if he had room anywhere to keep them from 
autumn until planting-out time, and a cold frame is just 
tlie right place for most of this invaluable class of bedding- 
plants. 
“ Experience has taught me, situate in a less genial 
locality (Ayrshire) than either Mr. Caie or Mr. Scobie, that 
the cold frame practice is attended with many inconveniences, 
not to speak- of the anxiety one. is very naturally thought to 
feel for the comfort of their precious little charges, on 
coming out of a morning after a severe frosty night, some 
such as we occasionally have in our more northern latitude. 
I may say, I require a good many bedding-plants, and, 
perhaps, succeed in having as many by bedding-out time as 
most people do with like means at command. And, now, 
1 never burden myself through the winter with more than 
is absolutely necessary to produce a sufficiency of cuttings 
in the spring to form a full stock against bedding-out time. 
Of course, I act upon the Beatonian, or compound, style in 
propagating, and as Verbenas are such easily-rooted tilings, 
I am not content with fifteen to the dozen. Any careful 
person putting in, the beginning of February, a pot with 
thirteen cuttings, might reasonably expect to treble them 
before May. And who will say it is not much easier to 
keep sixty Verbenas —each in a tbree-incli pot—in a green¬ 
house, or pit, through the winter, to keeping six or seven 
hundred in any number of pots in a cold frame ? And that 
that is too much to expect from the given quantity of stock- 
plants ? Sure Mr. Fish or Mr. Beaton will not ? 
“ In conclusion, I hope Mr. Fish will not think me 
impertinent in expressing my doubts of the cold frame 
practice economising labour. Indeed, it was some time 
before I could bring myself to put them on paper, in con¬ 
sequence of a diffidence, natural to me, to meddle with 
those catering for the public benefit and amusement through 
the pages of your very valuable journal, and that you 
yourself will forgive the trespassing on your precious time 
by your humble servant— Corvus.” 
The gist of this letter of our intelligent correspondent 
from Ayrshire, consists in the idea that it is more 
economical, and involves less trouble, to keep merely as 
many plants over winter as are wanted for furnishing 
cuttings in spring, and to depend upon these spring- 
raised plants for a supply, than to keep a large stock 
over the winter, and thus so far obviate the necessity of 
so much spring propagating. 
As there is no rule without exceptions, so the pro¬ 
priety of this course will depend greatly upon the cir¬ 
cumstances of the case, and the means and room at the 
command of the operator. Although we have many 
first-rate gardeners among our readers and advisers, we 
must not forget the title of our work, nor the recollection 
that many readers can command a frame or cold pit 
that do not possess a heated structure, nor the skill to 
make and manage hotbeds for spring cuttings, nor even 
the time to attend to their minutiae. 
In Scotland, I have been given to understand that, 
where the bedding system is much in operation, the end 
of July, August, and September, are the months for the 
chief display; hut in the neighbourhood of London it 
is desirable to have a fine display by the middle of June 
and onwards. Upon the well-known principle, that 
plants propagated in autumn, and kept cool and stunted 
in winter, will bloom much sooner than plants propa¬ 
gated in spring, in all such cases, the main depcndauce 
must he on autumn-struck plants. If exceptions are 
allowed, they are just the plants mentioned by our 
correspondent, Verbenas, Alyssums, &c., which bloom 
well in a young state; and, in some situations, bloom 
longer and healthier than older plants, especially if the 
latter have been curbed and coddled in pots. 
I freely admit, that in the short paragraph, page 448, 
Vol. XV., there may be a want of clearness and explicitness. 
These articles are frequently written with little time to 
weigh all the outs and ins of a question. I merely 
wished to record a fact interesting to many readers, that 
in cold frames and pits, the Messrs. Caie and Scobie bad 
a fine stock of bedding plants, after the severe frosts of 
the winter had passed; those frosts, to my own know¬ 
ledge, having found their way into many a greenhouse, 
and laying the inmates prostrate. Even though, like 
our correspondent, I propagate Verbenas largely in 
spring, and, like him, can make a cutting, or two 
cuttings, out of every joint when necessary, I should 
still have felt bound to state the practice of theso 
gentlemen, even though my own practice had not con¬ 
firmed its correctness. The longer we live, we come to 
see more vividly that there are few royal roads to suc¬ 
cess iD gardening; and that, like what the moralist said of 
governments, may often more truly be said of modes of 
plant-treatment, “ that which is best administered is best ” 
It is quite right, and essentially necessary, in these days, 
to have a principle of action to guide us; but liow^vor 
