December 18. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
183 
benefit by having a sufficient knowledge of fungi to enable 
them to seek the good, and avoid the bad, no doubt can 
exist. 
In the higher groups they are found principally growing 
upon decaying animal or vegetable substances, or upon soil 
arising from their decomposition. These they rapidly 
destroy, and speedily remove, thus rendering what was 
useless to itself useful to its survivors. 
See dying vegetables life sustain ; 
See life dissolving vegetate again : 
All forms that perish other forms supply ; 
By turns we catch the vital breath and die. 
As parasites in the lower groups, they are found growing 
on the living bodies of both animals and vegetables, and 
their injurious effects to corn are by many unhappily too well 
known. In the form of Mouldiness, called by gardeners 
damp, they are very injurious in greenhouses, flourishing in 
a damp cold temperature, but they may be considerably 
checked in their growth by keeping the air in houses hot 
and damp, or cold and dry. 
Credo fcetida (Cankerbrand) and U. segetum (Smut) are 
amongst the parasitical fungi so injurious to our corn. 
Lime-water, and a brine of common salt, each have been 
recommended for keeping seed corn in, as it is supposed 
that either destroys the vitality of the spores (seeds) of 
both of the above fungi. Fields also should be dressed 
with lime and salt where a crop has been affected by the 
same. Speromoedia davits (Ergot of Rye), is another fungus 
which, though one of the most valuable remedies of our 
modern Pharmacopoea, produces a dreadful disease when 
abundant on corn of which bread is made; and may be 
considered a dangerous poison. 
Subterranean fungi are also very injurious to our crops, 
the progress of which may sometimes be checked by deeply 
trenching the ground affected. Merulius lachrymans (Dry- 
rot) is also very injurious to wooden structures; the best 
preventive is to keep timber dry, with free ventilation of air, 
for four or five years previous to using, to which some add, 
saturate with a strong solution of corrosive sublimate; the 
prudence of the latter plan, however, I consider doubtful, 
and it is worthy of inquiry whether some other substance 
might not be equally efficacious, and the use of so dangerous 
a poison be avoided. Upon a small scale, white of egg is 
supposed to be equally efficacious in preventing the growth 
of minute fungi. To the above may be added many others 
too numerous to mention, which prey upon our books and 
provisions, and are otherwise injurious. Cheese, however, 
is sometimes improved by their presence; and it may be 
interesting here to state, that mouldiness which so fre¬ 
quently attacks provisions and books, may be effectually 
prevented by the use of essential oils, or any other perfume.— 
F. Y. Brocas. 
(To be continued.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
The Cottage Gardener, 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London. 
Cow Cabbages (Enquirer). —You will be as gratified as we are at 
receiving the following, for it is an important piece of information:— 
“ In your 166 th number, you state to your correspondent, ‘ that it would 
be useless to transplant these from the seed-bed now, to retard them for 
planting out in May or June; they would only run up to seed next year.’ 
For your information, from my too-forward seed-bed last December, I 
planted, contrary to the advice both of my gardener and farming man, 
some 2,000 on the ground where they were to stand the summer, and I 
am now eating the crop, the bulk of which weigh from 25 to 30 lbs. each, 
and there were not more than a dozen plants run to seed.”— Charles 
Norris, Wood Hall, Yorkshire. 
Azalea Indica in a Window (M. G. C.). —These will bloom in 
spring if the flower-buds are set, which you may now know by their 
plumpness, and feeling firm at the point. You had better give no manure 
water, however weak, until after the new year begins, and the buds are 
more advanced. You must not think of repotting them until after 
blooming—that is, presuming they will do so, nor in any case until spring 
or summer. Give air when you can, and read what Mr. Fish and others 
said about keeping plants in rooms last year. 
Hyacinths in Bowls and Glasses (Ibid). —Those in glasses 
must have the water changed at least twice a-week ; put a few pieces of 
charcoal in the water. If you pot a number of these and other sorts of 
bulbs now, you may have regular successions until they come in the open 
air. You would see the mode of doing all this stated lately. We do not 
think of any kind of seeds that in your circumstances it would be worth 
while to sow now for window display. 
Duration of Hotbed (M. N. 0.). —“If a hotbed of dung, large 
enough to support a two-light box, be made about the middle of Feb¬ 
ruary, how long will it retain sufficient heat—without the process of 
lining—for the purpose of propagating greenhouse and bedding-out 
plants, and raising tender annuals ? ” An important question, but the 
answer depending greatly on the depth of the bed, the state of the dung, 
and the judgment of the builder. With a bed two feet deep, and dung 
not too rank, nor yet too decomposed and close—for then the heating 
would soon be over—nicely built, and mixed with some loose prunirigs, 
or other matter, to keep the interior open, and the bed all round fully a 
foot wider than the frame, you will find as much heat as necessary for the 
best part of three months, to suit the plants you mention, and then 
turning ithe bed, and placing a few barrowsful of fresher dung below, 
would give you heat enough for any thing during summer. 
Plants in a North-east Window (Inquirer). —We are sorry we 
cannot assist you, none of the plants you mention can be grown in such 
a room, unless close to the window-sill. This is your only hope for 
Heliotropes and Cinerarias —the window-sill, and a table or stage two or 
three feet back from it. Of the others, Geraniums of the scarlet kinds, 
Fuchsias, Cacti, Salvias, if large plants cut down, Oleanders, and Aga- 
panthus, may all be kept in such a room for summer display elsewhere ; 
but you must not attempt to grow them, and the colder they are, just 
free from frost, and the drier they are, just not to be quite dry, the better 
they will be. You must not mind their dismal yellow-like look now. 
Filling Blanks on Kitchen-garden Walls (Ibid). —Fill up the 
walls where you have now Peaches and Nectarines with the same ; and 
for this purpose I would move the Nectarine, where it stands in the end 
wall by itself, and add it to the others; but if variety is an object, instead 
of having the long wall all Nectarines and Peaches, have two trees of 
Moorpark Apricot. The place from whence the Nectarine was taken 
fill up with a Coe’s Golden Drop Plum, or a Marie Louise Pear: and on 
your other wall remove the two apples, and fill it entirely with Cherries; 
the most westerly aspect with Elton and Circassian, and the most 
northerly with Morello. It is always an advantage to have the same 
trees together. The direction in which your garden points is not in our 
opinion a desirable one. If you preferred Pears to Cherries, most of the 
best French kinds would flourish on such a wall. 
Greenhouse (C. A.). —Yours has a western aspect, is 18 feet by 14, is 
not to be heated, and you ask what to grow in it in winter, and whether 
Camellias and Tea-scented Roses will? Undoubtedly; and yet we feel 
sorry that an occasional, not a perpetual, fire during winter, is found 
such a trouble and annoyance. If you merely wish to keep the plants, 
then, unless in very severe weather, when a little protection would be 
necessary, you would succeed admirably; but if you expected the plants 
to open and delight you with their bloom in winter, then both frosty and 
dull weather would be a greater annoyance than the fire has been. What 
more annoying than to see a fine bud refusing to open, or nipped just as 
it is expanding its beauties? Yet you cannot help yourself, because the 
fiat has gone forth, that a fire shall not be made. Some time ago, lists 
of the hardiest greenhouse plants were given for such a house, and the 
means of protecting them by a covering inside in very severe weather. If 
you packed your roses in moss, &c., they would want no covering what¬ 
ever, and would make fine specimens in early summer; but if you should 
consider all covering as great an annoyance as the firing, the best thing 
for depending on for ornament in winter, would be the hardiest and early 
flowering Heaths; such shrubs as Laurustinus, and such plants as Wall 
Flowers. We will, however, think the matter over ; but really we advise 
you to resolve to have a fire now and then. 
Bad Gravel Walks. — One who appreciates The Cottage Gardener 
says :—“ We have a garden walk of some extent, on a sandy bottom ; in 
the summer it was topped with about an inch of fine gravel, which had 
been too long dry before it was put down, from which, or some other 
cause, it has never bound, and sadly retains the wet and damp.” Y r ou 
should remove the coat of sand altogether, but concrete cannot stand if 
made now ; the middle of March will be early enough to begin to make 
concrete. The old gravel will do all you want, up to the very last coat, 
which need not be thicker than the eighth-of-an-inch. 
Pit (Ibid). —Twelve feet by six is a good size for a three-light pit; and 
your gardener will soon get reconciled to the angle you propose, by the 
back being three feet high, and the front two feet, for it is a very 
good one. If you can get the rough plate glass, use it in preference to 
sheet; but there is some difficulty in getting it true. Six inches wide, 
and about eight inches long, are good proportions for pit glass. Jaune 
Desprez requires very little pruning indeed; it, and all tender roses, 
should be pruned either at the end of October or at the end of March. 
Before the frost sets in, and after it is over, are the true seasons for 
cutting tender trees of all sorts, as well as tender roses. 
Hardy Fruit (./. S., Newcastle-on-Tyne).—Kitchen Apples: Manks’ 
Codling, Dumelow’s Seedling, John Apple. Dessert Apples: Kerry 
Pippin, Golden Reinette, Pitmaston Nonpareil, Pearson’s Plate, Lamb 
Abbey Pearmain, Sturmcr Pippin, Hicks’ Fancy, Red Margaret, Boston 
Russet. Pears (dwarf standards) : Jargonelle, Louis Bonne of Jersey, 
Beurrd diel, William’s bon Chretienne, Beurre d’Amanlis, Glout Mor- 
ceau, Hacon’s Incomparable. Plums: Wilmot’s Orleans, Royal Hative, 
Rivers’ Favourite, Reine Claude Violette, Golden Drop. Cherries: May 
Duke, Black Eagle, Royal Duke, Elton. Red Currants: The Houghton 
Castle, or ltaby Castle, or Goliah, all the same; the May’s Victoria we 
do not know. Black Currant: The Black Grape; and White Dutch. 
Raspberries : White Antwerp and Fastolff. Strawberries: Black Prince, 
Keen’s Seedling, British Queen, and Elton. Stocks: The Apples on 
Paradise, Pears on Quince, the others on ordinary stocks. Let us advise 
you to procure and practice the advice on platforms in our back num¬ 
bers—planting entirely above the ground level— for we know the New¬ 
castle climate well. We confidently urge this advice. 
Raspberries Failing (G. H. Fastolff, Hull). —Have you any moss 
or peat soil in your quarter ? Any black loose vegetable or alluvial soil 
of a loose character ? Obtain plenty of this, mix nearly a half with your 
soil, road sand, manure, &c., and you will soon conquer the raspberry. 
Keep your soil high, and a foot deep, and give heavy mulching. Your 
mint is a confirmatory matter, both are half starved ; root action not 
speedy enough for the demand. A deep and dark loose soil for mint. 
Cuttings of Roses ( J. H. Wilson). —No time should now be lost in 
putting in cuttings of the roses you name (Bourbons and Perpetuals). 
The spring is not at all a good time to put in cuttings of roses in general 
