I 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
1C5 
JtJNE 1. 
iii the west of Scotland aud Ireland; from three to eight 
inches high; colour a dark vinous-red. 
8. C. Brodiei (Brodie’s). — On marine plants; of a 
brown-red colour; rare ; found on the coast of Northumber¬ 
land. “ The general outline of the frond is ovate." 
0. C. tetragoxiuji (Four-sided).—“Near low water¬ 
mark, on the larger algse ; frequent;” colour a full red. I 
have had tine specimens of this plant from the Isle of Man. 
10. C. braciiiatum.—V ery like telrugonum, and, like it, I 
have had specimens of great beauty from Miss Ileslop, Isle 
of Man. 1111611 in perfection it is a lovely rosy-pink, but 
dark when old. The best specimens ever sent to me were, 
unfortunately, stopped at the Post-office, Liverpool; some 
of the juice had oozed out and stained the paper; so, 
instead of my beautiful and much-wislied-for plants, I liad a 
printed letter from Col. Maberly, saying that it was not 
allowable to send liquids by the post. I lost fine fresh 
specimens of Delesseria sanguineum in the same way last 
summer.—S. B. 
( To be continued .) 
ARTIFICIAL MOTHER FOR CHICKENS. 
1 send you the following facts, from my poultry-yard, in 
case they may be of use to any of your readers, under simi¬ 
lar circumstances. 
On the 31st of last March, a pullet hatched six Dorking 
chickens, which were taken from her, but getting tired of 
sitting on the rest of the eggs, she forsook them, and would 
not take to the chickens, andl had no other hen that would. 
I remembered seeing, in one of your numbers, that winter 
chickens might be reared under a cucumber frame, and I 
determined to try the plan with my orphan chickens. They 
were kept under the frame all day, the frame being upon 
the dry ground in the garden, with no heat whatever from 
manure, a mat put over part of the glass when the sun w r as 
hot, and the top open two or three inches. They had no nest 
of any kind, but at night were put iuto n basket, and set in 
the kitchen, and the frame quite closed up, to be kept dry in 
case there was rain in the night. They are now seven 
weeks old, all alive, and as strong and fine chickens as any 
in the yard ; the last week or ten days they have been turned 
out with the rest, and roost in the chicken house. The 
weather has been in their favour most of the time, but 
during the wet days the soil under the frame was always dry, 
and the chickens were perfectly well. We gave them groats 
and barleymeal, a few small earth worms, aud a bit of 
parslyor green food every day.—W. A. E. 
BENEFITS OF SHALLOW HIVES. 
As the swarming season is closely at hand, I beg to sub¬ 
mit, for the information of your Apiarian readers, the follow¬ 
ing fact, verified in my own experience. On the 5th June, 
185-'}, I drove (a la “ Country Curate,”) a swarm into one of 
Payne’s Improved Cottage Hives, fourteen inches by seven, 
inside measure, placing the newly-driven swarm, until night¬ 
fall, upon the stool previously occupied by the parent stock, 
removing the latter, for the time, to a new situation, when 
I removed the swarm to Aigburth, (a distance of eight miles 
! from where the parent hive stood), where it remained 
I until the 9th of February, without any extra covering, and 
with very little artificial food in the autumn, and it is now 
in a very forward and promising state ; insomuch, that I am 
daily looking for its throwing off a swarm, drones being seen 
on the 14th inst. 
The conclusion I draw from the foregoing remarks, and to 
which I wish to draw particular attention, is two fold ; firstly, 
that broad and shallow hives are more conducive to the 
■ prosperity of bees than deep narrow ones; and, secondly, 
that exchanging places at the time of swarming is judicious, 
because it prevents casts or second swarms. 
This hive being the first of this size 1 have tried, I has¬ 
ten to acquaint your readers with the fact, that they may 
be encouraged to try it, as well as the plan of changing posi¬ 
tions, for themselves during the forthcoming season ; feeling 
convinced that they will be benefited as well as satisfied 
with the result.— C uristophe it Wade, Free son’s Road, 
Liverpool. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
CUTTINGS OF THE BED-FLOWERED THORN. 
“ In March last, I planted some cuttings of the red-flower¬ 
ing Thorn, ( Crateegus) under a hand-glass, and they are now 
(May 19th,) out in full leaf, apparently healthy and flourish¬ 
ing, having also several buds upon them ready to burst 
into bloom. Can you oblige me with your advice how best 
to manage them ; and if I should nip off the incipient bloom 
or not ? I fear taking off the glass and exposing them to 
sun or air would be too much for their present delicate 
growth.—T. M. W." 
[Notwithstanding their favourable appearance justnow.it 
is questionable if they will ever form roots ; at any rate, it is 
unusual for any of the raco to root from cuttings. By 
all means, nip off the flower-buds at once; it cannot hurt 
them in the least to remove the glass for so short a 
time. If you succeed in rooting them, pray let us know, 
that others may be benefited by your experiment.] 
STOPPING VINE-SHOOTS. 
“ Last March twelve months, I put out into a Yine- 
border nine Vines, grown from eyes two years previous. 
The Vinery is twenty-five feet Ipng, and sixteen feet in¬ 
side, and heated with water. The border outside of the 
house is thirty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and three 
feet deep, at the farther end from the house, and two 
feet six inches nearest the house; the bottom of the 
t ine-border is paved and drained; over the paving is one 
foot of rubble and broken stones; on the top of that, old 
| turf was placed to prevent the soil stopping up the drain¬ 
age, and then old turf chopped and mixed with mortar- 
rubbish, in which the Vines were placed. Last November, 
j 1853, the border was covered with long horse-manure, to 
keep out frost and nourish the Vines ; and the first fire was 
, lighted on February 1st, 1854. The Vines are doing well; 
they were pruned in January,1854, to three eyes, the two 
side-slioots have been stopped, and the leader is about eight 
feet long. The question I wish to ask is this.—Should the 
leader be stopped in the summer-pruning; or should it be 
allowed to grow as much as it will all the summer ? The 
spur system is to be adopted, and we purpose, in the win¬ 
ter-pruning, to reduce the leader to five eyes.'— An Amateur.” 
[It must take two years, at least, to establish your Vines 
on the spur system, if you wish for long-continued success 
and a durable constitution. Some would take three years, 
for the sooner you greedily tax their powers, the sooner 
will they break down. We should, therefore, let the leader 
ramble about tbree-fourtbs the length of the rafter this season, 
and then stop it, say about Midsummer. This will cause 
side-eyes to be developed, and these may be pinched 
progresively, beginning at the bottom, leaving a few leaves 
to each lateral. Do not hurry this pinching process; let 
them “rollick” a bit.] 
MOVING BULBS WHILST THEIR LEAVES ARE 
GREEN. 
“ Which is the best plan to manage with Crocuses, which 
have been grown in great abundance, round beds and baskets 
on a lawn, and are now so very long and unsightly; and 
where Nemophila and Mignonette arc coming up round beds 
intended for Geranium Tom Th umb ! Also, the best plan for 
treating Tulips in the same beds which will not be withered 
in time for the Tom Thumbs t —E. H. Hamstead." 
[This question about spring bulbs was answered at the 
beginning of May, and is entirely a question of good garden¬ 
ing. There are some clever gardeners who can transplant 
all kinds of hardy spring bulbs as soon as they have done 
flowering, with no loss to the bulbs; and there arc some who 
cannot remove a common Crocus without hurting it. That 
they can safely be removed, therefore, is beyond a doubt; 
and that there is great danger attending the operation, gene¬ 
rally, is equally certain; but it is better to remove them 
three times than to cut off 1 their leaves once. Anything 
rather than touch the leaf of a bulb.] 
