182 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 8. 
Violets. 1 replanted some plants in April, and am afraid 
they are all dead.—I had a swarm of bees on the 19th of 
May, one of the largest I ever saw. Ought I to put a glass 
on immediately? The swarm is in a hive of Nutt’s.— 
! Honey Bee.” 
I [The proper treatment of Russian Violets is to let the 
side-runners grow in April, sifting among them some rich 
sandy loam, and watering them freely to induce them to 
root. At the end of May, make a rich bed in a spot shaded 
from the mid-day sun ; fork up the Violets, old and young 
together, and plant them out singly, a foot apart. Keep 
I them watered in dry weather, and the surface often stirred 
gently. They will be lit for taking up for flowering in 
I October.—Put the glass upon your Null’s hive in which you 
put a swarm on the 19tli, .on, or a day or two alter, the !)th 
of June.] 
CHEIRANTHUS MARSHALLII. 
“ S. H. G. wishes to know if the Gheiranthus Murshallii 
(Marshall’s Wallflower) has ever stood the winter in an 
open border, or would be likely to do so in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Liverpool ? ” 
[It is as hardy as a Crocus, but the damp, or very wet 
ground might kill it during a long winter. We have a nice 
plant of it in a dry border, close by the side of Indigofera 
decora. The latter was killed down to the ground last 
winter, but is now up again, and looking better than before. 
Not a leaf of our Gheiranthus MarshaUii was browned ; and 
what a lovely thing it is just at this season! Like many 
other plants of similar growth, as Rockets, Catch flys, Dian- 
thuses, and Lychnis, this Cheiranthus does not improve by 
age, and is never so good as it is the third year from the 
cutting; therefore, we recommend a few cuttings of it to be 
made every spring, to fill up the places of old plants as they 
wear out. Cuttings of it, however, will grow all the summer 
under a glass with or without bottom heat, except that from 
the natural heat of the sun.] 
FLORA’S CLOCK. 
“ I am a reader of your valuable periodical, and, as I am 
a schoolmaster, would feel much obliged if you would tell 
me with what flowers I could form a Floral Clock, of all out¬ 
door border flowers, for I have neither glass, nor means of 
haying a hotbed. My nucleus is a Goat’sbeard, or, as the 
children call it, ‘ Jack go to bed at noon.’ This interests 
them very much ; and I have a great wish to feed their 
curiosity, and- to teach them what to observe. I have, also, 
a south waU of about 100 feet, and have planted, to nail to 
it, some climbing Roses, Cochorus Japonica, Yellow Jasmine, 
Buddlea Globosa, Wistaria Sinensis, White Jasmine, Passi- 
flora Azurea, Pyrus Japonica, Pyracantha, common Monthly 
Rose, Cotoneaster Erytlioccarpa, Gum Cistus, and Ceanothus 
Azm-ea, which Mr. Beaton so strongly recommends. Can 
you recommend me any other nice trees to nail to my wall, 
besides what I already have ? If so, you will greatly oblige 
me. I want variety, to interest the children, and to give 
them some idea of the Flora of other lands. I find it has 
a good effect on my school children. There is never any 
danger of their damaging any plant, and it leads to much 
enquiry to know the derivation of the names, &c. (for I label 
all of them); and, as I have the valuable Cottage Gardeners' 
Dictionary, I can usually satisfy their many inquiries. AVith 
thanks to the conductors of The Cottage Gardener for 
the pleasing information I have derived from the perusal of 
their pages, I am, &c.—AV. E. A. N. S.” 
[Our correspondent, who we well remember in his pupil¬ 
age, is just one of the characters we are well-pleased to aid; 
and not the less so, because we find that he agrees with 
Mrs. ILemans in thinking, 
“ ’Twas a lovely thought to mark the hours 
As they floated in light away, 
By the opening and the folding flowers 
That laugh to the summer’s day,” 
AVe have no doubt he also joins in its closing aspiration— 
“ Oh ! may we live, so that flower by flower, 
Shutting in turn, may leave 
A lingerer still for the sunset hour, 
A charm for the shaded eve.” 
Linnteus gives the following list of plants, with the hours 
of their opening and closing; and they are flowers, with but 
few exceptions, which are native of the British Islands :— 
Opens. Shuts. 
Tragopogon luteum (Yellow Goatsbeard) .. ;!a.m. 9a.m. 
Crepis tectorum (Smooth Succory Hawkweed) 1 10 
Sonchus oleraceus (Common Sowthistle) ..6 11 
Sonchus arvensis (Corn Sowthistle) .. .. (i 12 
Lactuca sativa (Common Lettuce). 7 10 
Hieracium pilosella (Creeping Mouse ear) .. 8 2p.m. 
Calendula arvensis (Field Marigold) .... 9 9 
Mesembryanthemum poraeridianum (Afternoon 
Fig-Marigold).10 :) 
Omithogalum 'umbellatum (Common Star of 
Bethlehem) .11 ;) 
Mesembryanthemums in general.12 
Scilla pomeridiana (Afternoon Squill) .. . llp.sr. 
Silene noctiflora (Night-flowering Catchfly) .. (i 
Cereus grandiflorus (Night-flowering Cercus) 7 or 8 
Convolvulus purpureus (Purple Bindweed) .. 9 or 10 
A Floral Clock, or Horologe, composed of the above and 
a few others, was exhibited, some years ago, in the Jardin 
des Plants, at Paris. 
Another poetess has thus alluded to some of them :— 
” In every copse and shelter’d dell, 
Unveil’d to the observant eye, 
Arc faithful monitors, who tell 
How pass the hours and seasons by. 
The green-robed children of the Spring 
Will mark the periods as they pass, 
Mingle Avith leaves Time’s feathered wing, 
And bind with flowers his silent glass. 
Mark where transparent waters glide, 
Soft flowing o’er their tranquil bed; 
There, cradled on the dimpling tide, 
Nymphcca rests her lovely head. 
But conscious of the earliest beam, 
She rises from her humid nest, 
And secs reflected on the stream 
The virgin whiteness of her breast. 
Till the bright day-star to the west 
Declines, in Ocean’s surge to lave; 
Then, folded in her modest vest, 
She slumbers on the rocking wave. 
See Hieracium’s various tribe, 
Of plumy seed and radiate flowers, 
The course of time their blooms describe y 
And wake or sleep appointed hours. 
Broad o’er its imbricated cup 
The Goatsbeard spreads its golden rays, 
But shuts its cautious petals up, 
Retreating from the noontide blaze. 
Pale as a pensive cloistered nun, 
The Bcthlem Star her face unveils, 
When o’er the mountain peers the sun, 
But shades it from the vesper gales. 
Among the loose and arid sands 
The humble Arenaria creeps ; 
Slowly the purple star expands, 
But soon within its calyx sleeps. 
And those small bells so lightly rayed 
With young Aurora’s rosy hue, 
Are to the noontide sun displayed, 
But shut their plaits against the dew. 
On upland slopes the shepherds mark 
The hour, when, as the dial true, 
Cichorium to the towering lark 
Lifts her soft eyes serenely blue. 
And thou, ‘ Wee crimson tipped flower,’ 
Gathercst thy fringed mantle round 
Thy bosom, at the closing hour, 
When night-drops bathe the turfy ground. 
Unlike Silene , who declines 
The garish noontide’s blazing light; 
But, when the evening crescent shines, 
Gives all her sweetness to the night. 
Thus in each flower and simple bell, 
That in our path betrodden lie, 
Are sweet remembrancers w ho tell 
How fast their winged moments fly.” 
HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS AV1IICH FLOAVER 
IN ArRIL OR MAY. 
“Miss V- will feel obliged to the Editor of The 
Cottage Gardener, if lie will give, in his next number, a 
list of spring-flowering plants, such as would blossom out-of- I 
doors the whole of May, before the tender plants will bear 
