124 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 27 
gang of 652 Dhangah coolies; for cholera appealing among 
them, midway between Hazareebaugh and Assam, they took 
fright—‘ the whole gang disappeared in one night, and no 
trace of them could be found 1 ’ 
“ The direful effect of the climate (it being so malarious, 
that, as the documents before us state, no European can 
exist there during June, July, August, and September), has 
been another disadvantage against which the Company has 
had to contend ; and it is testified by the facts, that within 
the preceding twelve months, Mr. Duffield, Dr. Lamqua, 
Mr. Murray, Mr. Marlay, and Mr. Paton have fallen before 
its death-blast; and Mr. Bruce himself was not only inca¬ 
pacitated from attending to his duties, but reported, ‘ that 
at one time, during the past season of production, he had 
not an individual able to superintend, or to move about 
among the people, who were equally sickly.’ These melan¬ 
choly losses, and this prevalence of sickness, will decrease 
as the clearance and cultivation of the land diminishes the 
generation of malaria.” 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS, BIOGRAPHIES, AND CULTURE. 
Heath-like Pulteney (Pultenau ericoides). — Gar¬ 
dener’s Magazine of Botany , iii. 145.—Here is another 
addition to this beautiful genus of low, bushy green¬ 
house shrubs, of which about fifty species already have 
been introduced and described. They all are natives of 
New Holland and other parts of Australia, and all have 
yellowish pea-blossom-like flowers. The subject of our 
present biography was sent from the Swan River Colony 
by Mr. Drummond, and was raised from seeds by the 
Messrs. Henderson, of the Pine-Apple Nursery, the 
spirited employers of our friend Mr. Appleby, with whom 
it first flowered in April, 1850, and again this season. 
It seems an excellent pot-plant, having much of the 
aspect of a close-growing heath with strong leaves, 
the flowers are produced freely, in close heads, round 
the top of the young shoots, a tuft of the top leaves 
appearing in the centre of each head, as is shewn by 
our woodcut. Altogether this new plant may be classed 
among those now much esteemed, from their close 
habit and neat appearance, for exhibition specimens, 
and which every lover of good greenhouse plants should 
cultivate in preference to the usual mixtures generally 
selected. The genus Pultenaa was named by Sir 
Edward Smith in honour of Dr. W. Pulteney, a patron 
and historian of botany. It belongs to the Natural 
Order Leguminous Plants (Fabaceae), and a large 
section of allied plants from Australia are called after 
it— Pultenaa, of which we may mention Burtonia, 
Daviesia, DiUwynia, Eutaxia, and Gastrolobium, as well- 
known genera to every gardener. In the system of 
Linnaeus, Pultencea is in the first order of the tenth 
class, Decandria-Monogynia. B. J. 
Cultivation and Propagation. —This, like a host of 
stiff woody plants, inhabitants of the greenhouse, is 
increased by short cuttings of half-ripened side-shoots, 
under a bell-glass, in very sandy peat, with a layer of 
clean sand on the top. Some cool, close situation 
should be devoted for such cuttings until they are on 
the eve of making roots, when a mild bottom-heat would 
hasten their rooting; but it is not a safe plan for 
amateurs to give much bottom-heat, or a long con- i 
tiuuance in heat, to this class of cuttings; for if the ! 
cuttings are thus forced to make unnatural growth, 
the young plants will become liable to mildew and 
other diseases. When the cuttings are rooted, the 
young plants should be put into nursing-pots, four or six 
in each, in sandy peat, and at the next potting, a little 
yellow loam should be added to the compost. Pull- 
grown plants will require one-third turfy loam, the rest 
fibry peat and sand in the usual way. D. Beaton. 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
the black currant. — rest-pruning, &c .—(Continued 
from page 112). 
Amongst all the fruit-bearing bushes, the subject of 
the present article holds a very important position, 
whether in confectionary or in its medicinal bearings. 
This currant is somewhat more difficult of culture than 
the red, or, perhaps it ought to have been said, more 
difficult to please with regard to texture of soil. 
No soil that does not retain a considerable amount of 
moisture during dry weather will grow it in high per¬ 
fection. The fruit is liable to cast, and the whole bush 
to become severely blighted on hot and hungry soils. 
It attains a high degree of perfection trained to the 
wall; and as it both bears and loves a partial shade, is 
very well adapted for walls contiguous to town or sub- 
urban buildings, or such as we frequently find enclos¬ 
ing what are termed back-yards, where any aspect would I 
suit it, excepting the north, and there the Morello cherry 
would be found to succeed best. Those who try it in 
such situations, should take care to provide a foot in 
depth of good sound soil, with a border nearly a yard 1 
wide, and some sort of edging six inches above the 
ground-level, to retain mulchings, which are of greater 
benefit to this fruit than any other under culture. 
And now, whilst remarking briefly on training, which, 
as before observed, is (in some cases) a necessary pre¬ 
liminary to rest-pruning, it may be observed, that this i 
fruit would no doubt succeed exceedingly well on a 
simple “ strained-wire ” trellis, such as we see employed 
in some places as ordinary field or paddock enclosures. 
Such may be put up at a small expense,—so trifling, 
indeed, that we wonder much that they are not employed 
in all gardens. When we get the “ rest-pruning” well 
brought up, we do hope to point to the great eligibility of 
such espalier lines for various fruits, whether as useful 
