•lG'i THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— September 23, 1850. 
winter, but budded for bloom before the frost, was over, and, and stalks, and sometimes the roots, must be examined to 
consequently, the buds were destroyed.—R. 13." determine the kind.] 
| [The difficulty of getting the Berber !:s Asinlica in quantity 
has been told often. We ourselves sowed seeds of it in 
1843, which were distributed by the Horticultural Society. 
In 1850 some of the plants were ten feet high, and they 
would have made a good, close, impenetrable hedge of from 
i six to seven feet high, with good management, in the time. 
We measured one of the plants the other day. It is a 
standard, five feet high in the stern, and fifteen feet high in 
the whole ; the diameter of the head is five feet, and the 
size of the stem at the surface of the ground was that of a 
stout arm. There is no question about this plant making a 
hedge, the quickest of all our hedge-plants, and it might be 
sold as cheap as Thorn-plants of the same age, or cheaper, 
if there was a demand for it. It seeds as freely as the 
common Hawthorn, and cornes from seeds with one-half 
the bother, and will grow on the poorest land, if it is worked 
deep, as well as the Hawthorns do on lean land. The soil 
where the above-named specimens are growing is sandy, 
and not ten inches deep, on a bed of chalk, and the place 
which the standard Berber! s occupies was a hole for a 
Noisette grandijlora Rose, which died by inches, for lack of 
nourishment. 
Deutzia gracilis , and all other shrubs and trees whose 
blossoms are injured by late spring frosts, must be treated 
just in the same w T ay ns Peach-trees or Scarlet Geraniums. 
They must be covered in some way or other for a little time 
before they come iuto blossom till the flowers are over.] 
WHITE FUCHSIAS IN THE OPEN GROUND.— 
DIVIDING DIELYTRA SPECTABILIS. 
“Will you tell me the names of any hardy White Fuchsias 
that, will stand out the winter in a bed with merely ashes or 
cinders to protect them ? It is a cold clay soil, but the 
hardy red Fuchsias grow most luxuriantly it it, with only 
the protection above named. Will the Duchess of Lancaster 
or the Queen of Hanover stand out the winter? 
“ May I divide a Dielytra spectahilis this autumn ? It is 
three years old, and has quite outgrown the bed in which it 
is planted, being now a large shrub.—A Subscriber.” 
[White Fuchsias should not be left in the ground till the 
roots are full three years old, and if they are four years 
old it would be all the safer. Then, by cutting them down 
in October before the frost touches them , and covering them 
with coal-ashes, and a helmet of straw, stuffed full of hay, 
placed over the cone of ashes, they would be safe. The 
best whites are mentioned in the report of the Crystal 
Palace last week. 
Divide the Dielytra at the beginning of February, or 
when the new sprouts are one inch long from the root, not 
one inch above ground.] 
CLIMBING ROSE.-GERANIUM NOT BLOOMING. 
COCKSCOMBS. 
“ Having lately been beaten with Scarlet Cockscombs, and 
having many reasons to think the prizes have not been 
given fairly, I send you a just description of them, and an 
t answer in The Cottage Gardener will oblige a "Cottage 
J Subscriber." The winning Cockscombs were about nine 
1 inches high, about twelve inches broad each way (not the 
i form I expect they ought to he), the foliage nearly all dried 
away, and the comb had commenced dying in several places. 
Mine were as fresh as could be wished for; the foliage as 
green as a leek, about the same height as the others, and 
about, eighteen inches long by nine inches broad, the stems 
being n little thicker. It may be as well to let you know that 
1 the winning party was a judge in the booth, also, his brother, 
j who awarded the prizes to the combs, both being exhibitors. 
T wapt also to know the good properties of a Cockscomb.— 
A Cottage Subscriber, Durlutm. 
“P.S.—Some of our gardeners about here are selfish 
enough to say, IVhat lius the cottager to do with Cockscombs? 
Why not the cottager advance in the science as well as the 
gardener? If we take a delight in gardening, we ought 
not to be tied to Potatoes and Cabbages.” 
[We cannot, from description, decide upon the merits of 
| antagonist flowers ; but we can say, without any reservation, 
I that for an exhibitor to be a judge, and for the brother of 
j that exhibitor to have awarded him a prize, were circum¬ 
stances which should never occur at any exhibition. It 
1 must give rise to suspicion, and, more than that, the sus- 
I picion is justified. Length, and breadth, and colour of 
| comb, and height and vigour of the plant are the chief 
| points in the Cockscomb. The best of which we have a 
note was one foot high from the rim of the pot; comb, 31-J 
inches long and 141 inches broad; the leaves were vigorous, 
and almost covered the rim of the pot.] 
GRASS UNDER A PEAR-TREE. 
“ I have a large Pear-tree in my garden, and I can get 
nothing to grow under it. I have had in this season Stocks, 
Sweet Peas, Mignonette, Roses, &c., but they have all done 
very badly. Will you be so kind as to tell me what will do, 
so that it may look at all decent, and correspond with the 
other part ? 
“ I mentioned Grass to my gardener, who is one of the 
old school, and be says that it would grow very rank under 
a tree.—S ubscriber,” 
[Grass would do well, and need not grow rank if turf 
with fine-growing Grasses is made use of. Get some Grass 
seeds from any great dealer in them, telling him the soil 
i and situation, and usking him to send the appropriate 
kinds.] 
“ Tho list of climbing Roses I require is for a dwelling- 
house, to Btand in a window in a drawing-room. t 
“ 1 should he glad if you could tell me the nallie of the 
Geranium I have enclosed ; I believe it to he oiio of the 
i Cranesbills, hut 1 never saw one like it before. 
| “ Will you tell me the best thing to do to a Geranium 
that is apparently very healthy, hut has not blossomed this 
year? It all turns to leaves. It is one with a small, sweet- 
scented leaf, and was, during the spring stopped a good 
; deal.— Sibyl.” 
[Oh, Sibyl! what would you have thought of the ancient 
craft it' we had recommended the Filicite Perpetuelle Rose 
for a “house" which turns out to be only a drawing-room, 
and the inside of one too ? And, but too true it is, a real 
climber for that drawing-room has not yet been discovered. 
The Sweet-scented Geranium was stopped too late in the 
spring, and allowed too much root room afterwards, else 
ail that class flower very freely. Keep it in the same pot 
it is in now till next June, and it will flower better than ever 
j it did, and make a tine large specimen plant. It has got tho 
gullet of Storkbills (nectariferous tube on the pedicels), 
which no Cranesbill has; it is, therefore, a Pelargonium, j 
and is either P. sanyuineum, or one very near it; hut leaves | 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Propagating Olrandkus ( J . S.J.—'The young shoots that start from 
the base of the flower-stem will do if placed in a bottom-heat j the tops 
i oF voting shoots that have not bloomed xyill answer better ; failing these, 
< the stems that bloomed last season will answer well, cut into lengths 
from six to twelve inches long, several of the lower leaves, if remaining, 
■ being removed, and the base cut across at a joint. The first t«o kinds 
! of cuttings will strike best in moist, sandy soil in the usual way ; the last 
kind will emit roots soonest in water, such us in a wide-mouthed phial, 
i and the water frequently changed. All of them will root quickest by 
obtaining the assistance of a hotbed. Those struck in water should not 
remain long in it after roots are -emitted, and they will require to he 
kept more moist afterwards, for a fortnight or so, than those sttuck in 
sandy soil. If you have a hothouse or hotbed, you cannot strike too 
soon in the spring. If you have no convenience but a greenhouse, it 
will be time enough to place them under a glass in the warmest part 
there in April. In the first case, you may obtain blooming shoots the j 
1 following season; in the second case, you can hardly expect them until ! 
the second summer. The potting should proceed as soon as the plants I 
I arc struck. Small pots should lie used, and rather light compost, to 
encourage rooting; sand, leaf-mould, and peat may share with loamy 
I ingredients in sevorol first shitting*; as the plants progress in size and 
| age, nothing is better (ban one part dried cow-dung to two of stiflish 
| fibry loam, with a little charcoal, In all cases, where you expect bloom 
1 the following year, the last shift should be given by August. 
Naming Plants (IF. S.).—If you send us ilowers or leaves of the 
plants we shall name them as we do for others, bend them numbered, 
