October 21. 
THE COTTAGE GAUDENEE. 
5:3 
in bloom for long periods, but scarcely profuse enough to he fit for an 
exhibition-tabic, but wc did not give it much attention. The long flower- 
stalks give it a very singular appearance, when seen suspended from the 
branch. 
Twenty Stove Plants suitable for Exhibition (Ibid). —The 
following we think will suit you :— Allamnnda cathartica, Allam(mda 
Scbnttiiy ACachynanthus specio^tSy 7E. lonf^iflorusy JE. viiniatus, Aphe^ 
landra aurantiaca, Begonia rinnabarinUy B. fuchMoideHy CaRsia corym- 
liosuy Chirita Moonily Clerodendron fallnx, C. splendensy C. Kctmpferii, 
JHpladenia crassinnduy Fyanciscea confertifolia, F. Intifolia, Gardenia 
Stanleyanay G. Demmianay G, FortunianUy Glosrinia grandis, Hoya 
Bellay Ixora coccinea superbuy I. jamnicuy I. grandijioray Medinilla 
RpeciosUy Rondelletia speciosa major, Stephnnntis jloribunda. Take only 
one of a genus if it suits you, and add, Gesneras, GloxinUtSy AchimeneSy 
and BegoniuHy as many as you please. 
Pit for Forcing, Propagating, &c. (B. A.). —We might make an 
instructive article upon the subject of your pit, ten feet wide, twenty- 
five feet long, and divided into two divisions, but we cannot answer your 
(juestions at large, so as to be useful to others, without a drawing. Let 
the following for the present suflice. 1 and 2. If your roof at the apex 
is either a foot higher, or the walls a foot lower, the angle of inclination 
will be better. 3. Depth of earth two feet. 4. Size of ventilators in 
front and back walls opposite each light, twelve inches by six inches, but 
at the front and back sashes more. These, though useful, will not be 
absolutely necessary, but the one opening into the hot-air chamber, and 
the other over the pipes at back, air may be safely admitted, when it 
would not be proper to move the sashes. 5, d. Four-inch pipes will not 
be too large to heat the tank, though three-inch would do. These 
cemented troughs art useful, but w'e have no difficulty in getting moisture, 
by placing open rubble over pipes, and throwing in water when necessary. 
7. We would use three, instead of two-inch pipes, for top dry heat, as 
the water circulates languidly in two-inch pipes, and if we had them at 
all, W’e would rather have them in front, or round the house, instead of 
at the back, as this of itself would preclude your placing according to 
question p. Peach-trees against the back-wall, which, however, would 
not answer so well in such circumstances as vines and cucumbers. We do 
not see how you are to have additional dry heat from your tile drain 
8, in front, as that communicates with the open chamber over the gutter, 
as well as the opening in the side, 7> to admit moist air. Now, by sinking 
your floor, for supporting the bed, some twelve or eighteen inches 
nearer the gutter, and w-e suppose this floor to be of slate, or some ana¬ 
logous substance, you might still have slides in the side for moist air 
at will, and then shafts all round communicating with the flooring would 
give you dry heat at will, besides enabling you to have plenty of rough 
material, such as brickbats, charcoal, &c., below the bed of earth. With 
such contrivance, unless you wanted to force plants and melons very 
early, the two four-inch pipes would be sufficient, especially with a 
canvass covering in severe weather. 8. The boilers will be nothing too 
large. 10. Glass, l6-oz. will not be too strong for panes forty inches by 
twelve inches ; but why have them so long ; just think of having such 
a thing as a crash, and the expense and trouble of replacing them. 
On the whole, we do not approve of your arrangement. Your pit Over 
the gutter or tank is six feet wide, abutting on the front-wall, leaving 
four feet behind, you must open your front sashes to attend to the 
management of whatever you have. Why not place the pit in the centre, 
five feet wide, with two-and-a-half feet wide paths, back and front. You 
w’ould thus have the whole place at command, and find yourself quite at 
home in the worst day, as well as the finest. Before building, examine a 
most economical arrangement of a house, given by Mr. Fish, at page 
337. of our second volume. That house still answers admirably, the 
gardener does little wonders w'ith it. If, however, you are wedded to 
your present arrangement, you might have a pit eighteen inches wdde, 
and two feet deep, placed over your pipes at the back-wall, and there 
■ you may grow vines or cucumbers, to cover the wall, and hang from the 
1 hipped roof. 
' Hollyhocks. —A Constant Sluhscriher recommends Queen of Eng^ 
land (Chater and Son); delicate pink; very fine ; beautiful. Aurnniin 
'■ (Kivers); salmon and or.Tnge; beautiful, Obsnura Suberba {Chater [iwil 
I .Son) ; silvery-shaded puce; a decided improvement upon Obscura. 
j Beauty of Haverhill (Chater and Son); silvery-lilac; beautifully veined. 
I Napoleon (Powis); slate, edged with light; fine. Bella Donna (Woods); 
I white; one of the best out. Meteor (Bircham); crimson; fine. No- 
blissima (Chater and Son); rosy-red; mottled and veined ; fine. Rosy 
I Queen (Chater); rosy-blush. Lady Cullum (Chater and Son); rosy- 
I crimson, glowing as if shot with purple; fine. Susannah : creamy- 
1 white ; very fine. Abricote (Chater and Son); colour apricot; fine shape ; 
; large size; a noble flower. Surprise (Chater and Son); roay-crimson ; 
fine. Joan of Arc (Parsons); silvery-blush; very flne. Yellow Model, 
or, rather, Frimrose Model (Bircham); this is very fine. 
; Prolific Ducks.—M r. Edwards, Station-Master at the Lyndhurst- 
Roiul Kailw.ay Station, Hants, has a couple of ducks of the pure white 
; Aylesbury breed, which have laid this season the prodigious number of 
2fil eggs. One of them laid in daily succession 14fi eggs; and she is now 
I running about with a brood of 12 young ones. The other laid llSalto- 
I gethcr; and she has now her A-ccowd brood, having brought up her first 
I brood of 13 early in the summer. 
New System of Swarm-managemf.nt. —A Country Curate, says, 
1 “ I have been all along puzzled to account for the rather peculiar failure 
of “ B. B.’s *’ trial of the new plan ; but at last he has furnished us with 
some clue to the discovery of the probable cause. He had not learnt his 
lesson with sajfieient care, wlien he applied himself to give my plan a 
trial. I have never myself stojiped up a hive *‘from twenty-four to 
thirty-six hours,” (from which a swarm had issued w'//wm////) ‘‘as soon 
as the swarms had left the hives;” nor do I remember anywhere to 
have recommended such a treatment! I have said, indeed, that it man 
be well to stop up such a hive for a few hours on removing it to a frcsli 
stand, hut I have generally left my old hives so treated (juite open from 
the first! To stop them up, h(»wcver, for such a length of time, so full 
too of bees as they still usually are, after the issue of a natural swarm, 
I should at once have deemed a most mistaken method of proceeding. 
It is far otherwise in the case of a stock from which an artifrial swarm 
has been taken. In this instance there are usually but a nery small 
number of bees left in the hive, the drones are mostly all in company 
with the swarm, and there is no royal brood to suffer. But in a stock 
from which a natural swarm has issued, many (perhaps most) of the 
drones remain. This, from the nature of the case, we might expect; not 
only so, there are usually many bees left, and above all, there are young 
royal queens, perhaps all in a state, and of an age reijuiring the most 
assiduous attention. Now what follows in both instances where the old 
stocks are shut up for so long a space ? In the one instance, where the , 
swarm was forced out, the temperature, owing to the paucity of bees, 
can seldom rise, from the nece.ssary agitation within, to any very incon¬ 
venient height; at all events there is no royal brood to suffer. In the 
other case, however, when the swarm issued naturalh/y the heat from the 
large population might be expected to rise to a very dangerous height, 
and it would be almost sure to follow that the royal bees still in the grub 
state would suffer from that, or from neglect. This, to me, appears to 
afford quite a sufficient explanation of “B. B.*s” failure. lt\9.ihe manage¬ 
ment, not the system, that is at fault here. But, moreover, I should very 
much question the policy of ” running honey” out of the old hives, 
unless in a very thriving condition. I have never advised it. No doubt, 
too, the failure of ” B.B.” must be put down in part to the very bad season 
W’e had almost everywhere in June. Few mid-June swarms or their 
parent stocks will be found to have done anything this year. I shall be 
obliged to ” B. B.” to give us his opinion of the value of the above remarks. 
I cannot make out ” H. S. N.*s ” observations. He is not particular 
enough in narrating his facts. For instance, is he speaking of the stock 
or the swarm when he says, “ I could not by any means induce them to ; 
work in the super ? ” ‘‘ No. 3 natural swarm ” could not possibly have | 
come out of the stock, in whose place it was put, else there would have 
been no such fighting as he speaks of. The “fighting,” which he says 
he has seen “more or less at all the swarms that have been put where the 
stock formerly stood,” must have been only in appearance^ I have 
never observed it. It is a had sign to see drones in September, but worse 
in October. If any are seen now, fumigate and plunder. 
Vegetable IMarrow, Sic. {RosasoliSs) —It is Vegetable Marrow, 
wad not Mallow, and is a kind of gourd. Jxias and Sparaxis arc pro¬ 
pagated both by seeds and by offset bulbs; and both ought now to be 
potted or sown in pots, in good turfy peat, with a little sand, and placed 
in a cold pit, or on a shelf in a greenhouse ; tlie soil to be kept mode¬ 
rately moist all through the winter, and free ventilation whenever the 
weather is mild. 
Bignonia rAdicans (Ibid). — It requires to be close pruned like a 
grape vine; and, after it comes to a flowering age and strength, it is 
generally a free bloomer on a south wall, or inside a cool greenhouse in 
less favourable sifuations Can any of our Irish readers tell him what is 
the right name of a plant there called Melidore ? 
Fuchsias and Geraniums (R. E. S .).—The Fuchsias will stand 
out with a clight protection from frost, and all your old Geraniums must 
be taken up, their green tops cut off, and the hard bottom parts and 
roots, after being partially dried, may be packed in a box or hamper with 
dry fern or hay, and put away from the frost like so many potatoes ; but 
look at them from time to time, to see that they do not turn mouldy, j 
Cuttings will do no good now. 
List of Bulbs (5. <S. S.).—We shall begin to analyse your bulb list 
immediately, and we hope between us to be of great service to m.any of 
our readers. Accept our best thanks for your share of the undertaking. 
Flower-Garden Plan {J. H. N .).—Your pl.an will be engraved as 
an example of a very useful and easy way of managing such a space. As 
to your Allamnnda, with seven upright shoots, two feet high, cut four of 
the weakest shoots down to within two joints of the old wood, and the 
other tliree cut to one-Iialf their length ; this pruning to be done in 
March, as soon as you perceive the least appearance (»f growth ; do not 
give the ])lant much water all the winter. A good gardener would ])rune , 
so weak a plant of AUnmunda at the end of this month ; keep it nearly ' 
dry all the winter, and “ set it to work” in a hot-bed by the end of 
February ; shake away the soil from tlie roots on the first move of growth, 
trim the roots, and put it in a smaller pot, force it vigorously for three 
months, and give it two, if not three, shifts before the end of June, and 
would have it in bloom nearly by that time; that way would be most 
dangerous to a less experienced person. 
Garden near Glasgow. —J. C. says : “ In our garden on a south wall 
we liavfi Clianthus punireus (the largest I have even seen, and a perfect 
picture in April and May), Acacia armata, Aloysia citriodnra, and a 
great variety of Teaand other Hoses, all of which stand the winter without 
any protection. Fuchsias grow with us to an immense size. As I have 
noticed several inquiries in The CottAgk Gardener regarding the 
Noisette Rose Soifnterre, I may mention that we have a plant covering 
a large part of the front of our house (I say our, for it is my father’s, but 
my brother and I are the gardeners !), which has been in constant 
flow’cr since the beginning of May last, and still showing buds ; it was 
not pruned at all this spring. We have also had some very fine flowers 
on (doth of Gold, budded on the Crimson Boursault. All the above are 
growing in a well-drained border, composed of peat, loam, and sea-sand, 
the former predominating, in the greenhouse, we intend growing Tea 
and other Roses for spring and late autumn flowering, and we purpose 
planting them in a border formed all round the house, instead of growing 
them in pots, as our time being limited would not admit of the constant 
attention necessary, as to waterings, tkc., were they grown in the 
latter way. Although Koscs arc principally what we intend growing, yet 
we piirpose having a selection of other suitable things, and I shall be 
glad if you would furnish me with a list of such things (including 
climbers), as you think would be likely to st.and the winter without fire- 
h<‘at; and here I fancy I hear you .sny—But why not have a flue or brick 
stove, in case of severe frosts? Well, because as wc are residents in 
town during the winter months, and leave no one who understands the 
matter to attend to the fire, we thought we should be less likely to have 
our hearts broken by trusting to Jack Frost, than by \e 2 iV\ng fire-heat in 
the hands of a bungler. Don’t you agree with us? ” [Yes; certainly.] 
Gr.\pr for a Cold Greenhouse (Ji C.). —The Royal Muscadine , 
is the best white, and the Hambro* the best black, for such a house as ) 
