346 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 3. 
“ Plunge the pot in the usual way, then take it up, and I 
with a common dibble mako a hole five or six inches deep 
in the centre of the cavity formed by the pot, exactly under 
the drainage hole, then return the pot to its place. By 
this means a better drainage is secured, and the worms 
cannot reach the hole in the pot.” 
[Your plan is very good, if not original. We think we 
have seen it mentioned before, but certainly it is not generally 
known. 
We cannot toll the cause of your Grapes shrivelling, because 
we do not know how you cultivate them. If the roots are 
in an outside border, open the soil for three or four feet 
round the stem, put in some well-decayed dung, and water 
well whilst dry weather continues. Your plant enclosed is 
Thaliclrum Jlnvum.~\ 
APHIS ON THE LARCH. 
“ Sabrina will thank the Editor to give her the earliest 
information he can obtain respecting the aphis of which 
she encloses specimens. It is found in very large numbers, 
at this moment, on a Larch; no other tree of the kind, or 
any other trees in the vicinity being similarly visited. No 
Naturalist in the neighbourhood recognizes it.” 
[Sabrina’s black insect is one of the Aphidee belonging to 
the genus Lachnus, and appears to be identical with the 
L. Pini, of De Geer's Memoires, iii. pi. 0, tig. 1—14. Its 
history has been traced by Bonsel, Lyonet, DeGeer, Ac. Its 
appearance at the present time in such numbers is only 
another instance how much the lute ungenial weather has 
favoured the development of all kinds of plant lice, retard¬ 
ing, at the same time, that of their insect enemies.—W. W.] 
OX-EYE DAISY. 
“ A Subscriber will be much obliged if The Cottage 
Gardener will recommend a good method for destroying 
the enclosed weed. It spreads through the grass, and spoils 
the pasture.” 
[Your plant is the Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, the 
Ox-eye Daisy, or Moon Daisy. Cut them out with a com¬ 
mon table-knife, and drop two or three seeds of Dutch 
Clover in the spots. Much may be done in a little time in 
this way towards making a complete and sweet herbage. 
Or a pinch of salt may be dropped upon every plant over a 
small field, and the other herbage will soon grow over the 
spot.] 
PRUNING TRELLIS OR WALL ROSES. 
“A Celine Rose, growing against a trellis, has several 
■strong shoots from its root. Should all or any of these be 
cut off? The tree is rather bare towards the bottom. It 
has not yet filled the trellis, although it has been in its 
present place four years, and the trellis is but ten feet high. 
—Rosa.” 
[As the plant has not yet filled the space allotted for it, 
do not allow it to put out so much strength at the bottom, 
but as the bottom of the plant is rather bare at present, 
allow one-half of the new bottom-shoots to remain, and tie 
them to the older branches. A less number would do, if 
they give a clothing appearance to the whole bottom. The 
other half cut down to the very bottom, and keep them 
down all the season, if they push, by pinching them back 
again and again. About the middle of September stop the 
bottom-shoots, so trained, cutting off a few inches only, and 
if they push later shoots, stop them also ; no winter-pruning 
to these shoots, and they will bloom next year beautifully, 
and they may be allowed to rise a stage higher. After all, 
these lower shoots may get to the top of the trellis first, and 
if they do, you must begin to cut out some of the older parts 
yearly, till you get rid of the first growths altogether. This 
management suits all kinds of Roses trained against walls 
and trellises, but not for pillar or festoons.] 
I Historical Notes on the Introduction of various 
Plants into the Agriculture and Horticulture of 
Tuscany : a summary of a work entitled Cenni storici 
sulla introduzione di varie piante nett'agricoltnra ed orti 
cnllura Toscana. By Dr. Antonio Targioni-Tozzetti. 
Florence, 18f)0. — ( From the Horticultural Societies 
Journal.) 
The investigation of the origin ami introduction of the 
vegetable productions raised for the use of man, is not only 
an interesting study in a critical, historical, or geographical 
point of view, but it may bo applied to practical use by the 
cultivator. In showing how very few of these plants are to 
he met with naturally in the state in which we grow them, 
and how, by careful and persevering cultivation, their natural 
properties have been modified, so as to suit the purposes 
they are applied to, a stimulus is given to our exertions in 
the still further improvement of those already known, as 
well as for the introduction and conversion of new species 
or varieties to the use of man. At the same time, the 
knowledge of the readiness with which, in some instances, 
a worthless weed has been changed into a valuable esculent, 
and of the lengthened period which has at other times been 
required to effect the conversion, may often suggest to us 
the modus operandi to be attempted on future occasions. 
No conclusion is come to as to the real origin of our four 
staple species, Wheat, Barley, Rye, and Oats. They are all 
shown to have been amongst the earliest grains cultivated 
in Italy ; it is admitted that none of the indications of sta¬ 
tions where they have been supposed to have been indi¬ 
genous are to he relied upon, yet it seems still to be presum¬ 
ed that these cultivated forms are distinct species, which 
still exist, or have existed, wild in some hitherto unknown 
regions, with the same characters which they exhibit in our 
fields. The recent investigations of Mr. Fabre, of Agde, as 
to the effect of cultivation upon JEgilops, and the conclusions 
to be deduced from them, if accurate, appear to be unknown 
to him. Yet, however little the remarkable changes ob¬ 
served by Mr. Fabre may he credited by some, they bear so 
strongly upon the question, that, until refuted, they must be 
taken into account by all who would write on the subject.* 
We ourselves have no hesitation in stating our conviction, 
as the result of all the most reliable evidence bearing upon 
the subject, that none of these Cerealia exist, or have exist¬ 
ed, truly wild in their present state, but that all are culti¬ 
vated varieties of species now growing in great abundance 
in Southern Europe or Western Asia. We believe that 
most, if not all, of our cultivated varieties of wheat origin¬ 
ally sprung from one botanical species of .Eg Hops (HU. 
ovata), excepting the smaller spelts of southern Europe, 
which are modifications of JEgilops caudata and Crithodium 
cegilopdides; that our harley and oats now grow wild in 
Europe in the form of some one of the recognised species 
of Hordeum and Avena respectively, although data arc still 
wanting to determine precisely which is in each case the 
true typo, and how many of the forms described as species 
it should include; and that our rye is a South European 
and Asiatio plant chiefly from the neighbourhood of the 
Black Sea, the Secale montanum of Gussone, and S. fragile of 
Bieberstem, being varieties at least of the original botanical 
species. 
The different Millets mentioned as cultivated in Tuscany 
belong to four botanical species, the niiglio (Tanicum milia- 
ceum), the panico (Setaria italica), the sogyine in spiga 
(Penicillaria spicata), and five varieties (or, according to 
some, species) of saggine proper, (Sorghum). Of these the 
Panicum miliaceum and the Setaria were already known to 
the ancient Romans from a very remote period ; the black- 
seeded Sorghum is recorded as having been introduced 
from India in the time of riiny ; and the other varieties, as 
* The various specimens of JEgilops grown in the botanical garden of 
Avignon, where the late M. Requien had bestowed particular attention to 
the genus, showed modifications produced by culture which were many 
years since most puzzling to us as to the intermediates between JEgilops 
ovata and Triticum sativum. One great character relied upon as the 
strongest proof of the impossibility of their having a common origin, the 
articulation of the rachis in J.Egilops , has always a tendency to disappear 
by luxuriant cultivation, not only in the ears of the Gramineae, but also 
in the pods of Leguminosce and Cruciferos , and in other parts of various 
plants. The fact that wheat, cultivated as it is in all climates where it can 
be made to grow, will nowhere propagate itself as a weed of cultivation, 
is a further proof that it is in a state much altered from its original wild 
form. 
