THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 3. 
343 
Geranium affine 
' Goiletia Lindleyana 
„ bifrons 
„ lepida 
Galega biloba 
„ officinalis 
„ orientalis 
Gaillardia pinnatifida 
Genista anxantica 
Heliehrysnm angnstifolium 
Hieracium tomentosum 
Hymenoxis californica 
Lytbrum salicaria 
„ virgatuni 
Lupinus American us 
„ Douglassii 
Lychnis flosjovis 
„ coronaria 
Liuaria tristis 
Linum flavum 
,, Sibiricum 
Nolana atriplicifolia 
GJnothera Frazerii 
Oxalis floribunda 
Platycodon grandiflorum 
Papaver croceum 
,, pyrenaicum 
Platystemon californicum 
| Penstemon diffusus 
,, hirsutus 
Reseda alba 
„ lutea 
Silene saxifraga 
,, maritima 
„ pendula 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
MIGNONETTE DECAYING. 
“ Something is destroying our bed of Miynonette. The 
plants, from time to time, sicken, turn brown, and die; when 
they look ill they pull up quite easily, have no fibrous roots, 
and the main roots look as if a slug had been eating it 
underground Can you tell me the cause, and a remedy ? 
—C. C.” 
[The above is an instance of a very general complaint 
this season, and is a very old and fatal case. A small grub 
gets to the pith at the collar, or at the surface of the bed, 
eats out the heart of the plant, and death is instantaneous. 
A beautiful, wide-spreading plant of to-day, is all dead and 
drooping on the morrow. The cure, however, is very simple, I 
but it is of no use this season. Fresh soot raked in with j 
the seeds is an invariable protection against this and very 
many other garden grubs and evils. Fine wood-ashes, and 
soot, with a little coarse salt, ought to be kept in every 
garden shed, quite dry, of course, and every seed-bed which 
is sown in any part of the garden, ought to have a little of 
the mixture scattered over the surface, and mixed with it by 
the rake. Then, by adding fresh slacked lime, instead of 
salt, and making a thick paint of it and the soot and ashes, 
all the Cabbage tribes would be entirely and for ever free 
from clubs, gouts, knarles, and gnawings, by merely dipping 
the roots and stems up to the leaves in this paint just as 
they are being' planted. The most grubby land, and the 
most clubby Brocolis, with the fastest dying Mignonette, 
and all other fast deaths by earth-grubs and insects, might 
j all be got rid of in one year only, by soot, wood-ashes, lime, 
salt, and deep trenching , and the last is about four times 
more effectual than all the rest put together. Recollect, 
however, anything under three feet is shallow trenching. 
August and September, when the weather is very dry, are 
the two best months for trenching any kind of land. One 
such trenching is equivalent to three winter trenchings in 
succession.] 
MOVING LARGE FIRS. 
“ May I venture to transplant Scotch Spruce, and Silver 
Firs, from ten to fifteen feet high, in an exposed situation ? 
—L.” 
[Most certainly you can, and from fifteen to twenty-five 
feet if you choose. We ourselves planted seven Spruce Firs 
this last spring, at the very worst season, and they averaged 
thirty feet, and in our hurry to tell you the tale we have put 
the cart before the horse, for “ troth to say,” there is no such 
tree in the world as a Scotch Spruce, or Silver Spnice either. 
They call it the Norway Spruce. About the middle of next 
September is about the very best time for you to plant the 
large Spruce and Silver Firs; but, by-the-by, see that they 
do not sell yon Balm of Gilead Firs for the Silver. If they 
do, they will bring upon you disappointment eventually. 
The two are very much alike at that age, but you may know 
the difference by candle light, the end buds of the Silver Fir 
are cased in soft varnish—the actual “ Balm,” in fact.] 
SOWING THE BERBERIS AQUIFOLIUM. 
“ I shai.t. be glad if you will inform me which is the best 
time to sow the seed of Berberis aquifolium. I have abun¬ 
dance of seed ripe, and wish to raise some young plants. 
I suppose they will grow if sown out in the open ground ?— 
Jno. O’Neal." 
[There never was a better time than this very day for 
sowing these seeds, and there never was a seed more palat¬ 
able to all song birds than this very seed; they take to it 
some days before it is ripe, and the sharp acid juice improves 
their songs so much that they come again and again, as 
long as it lasts. Now, if people were to be as considerate as 
you, and gather all this seed for two or three years, all the 
shrubberies, the copses, and plantations, of Great Britain 
might very soon and easily be carpeted with this Berbery, 
perfuming the air in April and May, and filling it in July, 
August, and September, with the improved harmony anil 
cheerful notes of the whole sylvan chorus. The seeds of 
every Evergreen Berberis ought to be sown as soon as they 
are ripe, but more particularly this kind. Any situation will 
do for it, high or low, rich or poor; it would come up on 
the sand hills near Forres, and close to the sea, just as well 
as in Mr. Robson’s celery trenches, or Mr. Errington’s 
sound loam; on the top of Snowdon, as well as at Sydenham. 
It may be sown like Sweet Peas, or Mignonette, like Cabbage 
seeds, or like Geranium seeds, like Turnip seeds, or like 
Wheat or Barley. You cannot forco it to come before its 
time by any known process, and no one can keep it back 
when the time comes, which is next April.] 
IXIA VIRIDIFLORA. 
“ The enclosed blossom was sent me from Ireland, with 
this account:— 1 Some bulbs grow in the open border here 
(near Dungarvan, Waterford), which bear several pretty 
pale green blossoms with dark centre, on a stem about a 
foot high. There were eighteen blossoms oft the stalk from 
which I picked this one.’ The nurserymen here do not 
recognise it, and I shall feel obliged if you can tell me 
the proper name, and where it comes from.—Y. S. L., 
Hereford.” 
[Your beautiful, green, starry flower, with the large black 
eye, is the true Ixia viridiflora of the present day, and a 
variety of Ixia maculata, according to Jaquin and Andrews, 
both of whom figured upwards of twenty varieties of 
maculata, seventeen of which have not been seen in England 
since Masson’s time. For nearly twenty years, Masson sent 
home quantities of these Cape bulbs, which no collector 
has since met with, and a rich harvest now remains for ' 
some one intermediate between Cape Town and the Orange 
River, both on the fiats along the sea-coast and on the high 
hills beyond. There ought to be an act of Parliament for 
growing a bed of this Ixia viridiflora in every garden in 
the three kingdoms. It is about as hardy as Gladiolus 
psittacin as.] 
IMPATIENS GLANDULIGERA CULTURE. 
“ What is the best way of propagating the Impatiens 
glanduligera, which has been sown many times and in many 
ways, and the seeds obtained from different places, and they 
have never come up, showing, thereby, some improper 
method of mixing soil or treatment of them?—W. H., 
Senr.” 
Silene inflata 
Salvia canadensis 
„ sclarea 
„ gigantea 
„ sylvestris 
Scabiosa graminifolia 
„ • agrestis 
„ Webbiana 
„ Caueasica 
„ lcevigata 
Sphenogyne speciosa 
Trifolium pannonieum 
„ rubens 
„ patens 
„ repens 
„ medium 
Tradescantia subaspera 
,, alata 
„ coerulea 
„ virginica 
„ alba 
„ glabris 
Tarmica alpina 
„ grandiflora 
,, rosea 
„ stricta 
Viola lutea 
„ calcarata 
„ canadensis 
Valeriana tuberosa 
Verbascum spectabile 
„ phlomoides 
„ hybridum 
„ vernale 
