THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I 400 
depends entirely on room and experience. Pots or boxes 
will keep them, and no pots or boxes will do, without one 
has the knack of looking well after them. We do not 
happen to know Ivery's Scarlet Geranium. The pink Geranium 
is probably Tom’s Rival. Tho Princess Alice differs nothing 
in tho leaf from Lucia Rosea. 
Delphinium sinense should be roared in a slight hotbed, 
in the spring, to got it into bloom by August; but the 
easiest way is to sow it out-of-doors at the beginning of 
May, to come in tho year following. The seedlings will 
flower in September and October; and the best of them 
should then be marked, and their roots taken up and saved 
over the winter; after that, to sow seeds only from the best 
sorts, and to keep the best of all tho seedlings just as we 
keep Salvia patens. There should be a packet of seeds of it 
saved every season, as the old roots wear away in time. Of 
Dwarf Scarlet Geraniums, there are none that we know of 
better than Tom Thumb and Baron Hugel. The latter does 
not grow half so strong as Tom; but it is an excellent 
edging plant, and for very small beds. The Trentham 
Scarlet, Frogmore Improved, and several others that way, are 
only varieties like Tom Thumb.'] 
BLACK ITALIAN POPLAR. 
“ How is it that the cottony-pods on the Black Italian 
Poplar are so seldom seen ? Do all Black Italian Poplars 
bear them, or only female trees ? and if so, how can the 
female trees be distinguished in their youth ?— Linda.” 
[All the Poplars and all the Willows, and very many other 
trees and shrubs, have the sexes on two trees—one tree for 
the male and one for the female blossoms. The sexes in 
the vegetable kingdom make no difference in the aspect of 
the trees. No lords and ladies among them are to be 
discerned by common eyes ; and the reason for this may be, 
that all the male disciples of Malthus would not grow, or 
suffer to grow near them, any but male trees only. Another 
class of persons, found in every well-regulated kingdom and 
country, would Only grow female trees, and between the two, 
those who have no objection to an increase of population 
might go without seedlings altogether. As it is, there are 
many more male than female plants of the Black Italian 
Poplar in this country; but the female trees only have the 
cottony-down, and by that we know them.] 
ROSES.—VERBENAS.—FUCHSIAS. 
“ Is it true that the Rose Blar'd No. 2, is a Rose that will 
boar very little pruning, and which will not flower if tho 
shoots are too much cut away ? (It is quite true, as we have 
often said.] 
“ What pink or red Roses amongst the Pcrpetuals are the 
fastest climbers ? (The old original China Rose, and Felenberg 
Noisette.) 
“ What Roses do you recommend as underwood, which 
might be suffered to grow wild on a poor soil, and under the 
drip of trees ? Are there any Perpetuals which would 
} answer this purpose? (Wo never recommend Roses for 
underwood at all. None of the Roses do well under trees.) 
“ My Scarlet Verbenas have not flowered well this year ; 
they were kept in the greenhouse till the end of May, and 
then planted out. I have since been told that they were 
probably kept too warm. How much protection do they 
I require in a mild climate, in the south of England, and 
j gravelly soil ? 
“ Is it safe to leave every kind of Fuchsia out-of-doors 
during the winter, cutting the plants down, and protecting 
their necks with ashes ? The common varieties of Fuchsia 
answer very well out-of-doors in this place.—E. H." 
i [Your case with the Scarlet Verbenas is only one instance 
among many; nine-tenths of them, all over the country, 
j have been very bad indeed, and a black fly took to them in 
•July and made their appearance worse, hy far, Your 
Verbenas seem to have been roasted with too much sun- 
heat in that greenhouse. Most Verbenas were scalded by 
the frost out-of-doors in April. No remedy is now of any 
avail this season. If the frost is merely kept from Verbenas 
it is enough all the winter. 
It is quite safe to leave ali, the Fuchsias out-of-doors in 
wintei', with a good protection, but not a tithe of them are 
worth the trouble. You will see the names of the best in 
August 22 . I 
our volume for 1852-3 and 1854. Coralina and Serrati/olia 1 
are the best of them for climbers in a greenhouse or 
conservatory. Carolina and Riccartonii are the best for 
twining out against walls in summer, and to be housed half 
dry in winter. Plants of them, ten or twelve feet high, and 
four feet across, look splendid against a house with such 
white kinds as Pearl of England and Prince Arthur, planted 
in stripes between the red ones.] 
CULTURE OF ISMENES. 
“ I have several pots of tsmene bulbs of the varieties of 
Amuncas and Calathinum the foliage is very strong, but 
they show no signs of flowering. Will you be so good as to - 
inform me what culture I should pursue with them ?—T. C., ! 
Colchester." 
[The usual bars to the early and free blooming of these 
beautiful bulbs are, too much heat, and a too generous diet. 
The open air at Colchester is too hot for them in July, and 
there is hardly a spadeful of earth, between Mr. Mechi’s farm 
and Manningtree, sufficiently poor and sandy for the propor 
growth of all the bulbs in this genus. A deep border of 
pure white or yellow sand, in the open air, would grow 
Amancas to perfection. Then it would rest from October 
to May, and flower as soon as it began to grow. Calathinum, 
and the seedlings between it and Amancces, would do better 
with a fifth part of sandy loam added to the sand-bed for 
Amancrcs. All of them will grow enormously in the best 
loams and richer composts, and stand house and pot-culture 
to admiration, as far as leaves and bottom thick columns 
are concerned, but no flowers, or but few of them, are ever 
produced in this genus under generous treatment; peat is 
not good for them either. Very sandy loam, or rather very 
sandy soil, such as from the bonks on a common, is the 
right thing for them; perfect rest in a dry cool place, 
from October to April; and to bo turned out in a south 
border as soon as the flowers are over, are the main points 
in their management. Seedlings from them will flower the 
the third, or, at most, the fourth season; offsets will flower 
the second or third season, according to size, provided the 
above treatment is strictly adhered to; but not one seedling, 
nor one offset, out of a score, will bloom under i5 or 20 
yeai-s if they are treated like loam bulbs and house plants. 
We have seen Calathinum with leaves a yard long, and a 
cylindrical column nearly six inches long, and all in the 
utmost health, in a stove-room with Hippeasters, and under 
the name of Pancratium amcenum ; not a hundred miles from 
Colchester; and one of the best gardeners in that part of 
the country thought his Pancratiums did not flower at all 
because the house was not hot enough for them! How 
different from the old Jacobcea Lily, from Mexico, which 
requires exactly the same winter treatment as Ismene, but 
need not necessarily have it so long. The richest and 
strongest loam, and the heat of a good stove, agrees with it 
just as well as being turned out-of-doors into a common 
peach border, when the flowers are over, in May. Many of 
the best crosses in Ilippcastcr have the like appetites and 
constitution ; no amount of heat seems to affect them if 
they get a long rest; yet they, or rather a great many of 
them, are very hardy greenhouse plants. By the way, if you 
should cross your Ismenes when you get them reduced to a 
breeding condition, we have not the slightest doubt your j 
treatment being “too good by half;” the seeds must be 
sown as soon as they are. ripe, say in the autumn, they will 
not vegetate till the end of the following spring, at least, j 
you will not perceive that they vegetate till the following 
spring; but the truth is, they vegetate almost in a week, and ! 
form a good sized bulb, without showing or making a leaf or | 
leaves. Then they rest all through the winter, like their I 
parents, and sprout at the end of April like them. Without | 
knowing this, you might throw them away the first winter 
as soon as you discovered the seeds were gone, without ! 
knowing tho young bulbs were deeper down.] 
AGRICULTURAL. 
FATTENING PIGS. 
‘“A Subscriber’ will be greatly obliged by an answer to the j 
following Queries, in regard to the best and most economical 1 
way of keeping pigs and fattening them. Our pigs have 
the run of a good sized yard attached to their styes, with 
