February 12. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
301 
cheap seeds as they would cheap plants, and to deal j 
with none but respectable firms. 
Messrs. J. Weeks and Co., of the King’s Road Nur¬ 
sery, Chelsea, inform us that Ahebia quinata is now in 
flower. 
They describe it as stem twining; leaves composed of five 
unequal, obovate, petiolated leaflets; flowers produced in 
racemes from the axils of the leaves of the young shoots ; 
of a purple colour; corolla, none ; calyx, of three cupped 
sepals. It is a very desirable new Chinese climber for a 
cool greenhouse or conservatory, being a plant of easy cul¬ 
ture, and producing its flowers in great abundance; grows 
and blossoms well in a 16-sized pot. When kept in a stove, 
it becomes an evergreen, otherwise it is deciduous ; but the 
foliage and flowers come together. 
The glebe lands, belonging to the Vicar of Ormskirk, 
below the church, are now marked out into garden allot¬ 
ments of half a statute rood each. 
The Vicar, the Rev. W. E. Rawstone, has let them out to 
workmen, at 13s. per annum, or 3d. a week, free from all 
rates and taxes. More land would have been taken on these 
terms if it could have been procured. 
A clergyman, near Cork, writes to us as follows :— 
As I communicated a few trifling particulars which were 
inserted in Gardening Gossip in The Gottage Gardener 
of December 11th, perhaps some readers might like to know 
how some of the plants there mentioned are getting through 
the winter. The Solly a heterophylla and Escallonia rubra, 
also the Eccremocarpus , <fec., are flourishing in high health, 
also Richardm Ethiopica. This last protected at night, but 
none of the others. Of the Verbena beds, covered with 
earth in November, any stray shoots left overground at the 
edges of the bed look healthy. The Cupheas and Heliotrope 
were cut down, and collars covered with ashes, to be left in 
that state until spring opens. One night’s very severe frost 
in the beginning of December, cut down the Salvia splendens 
and Fuchsia cordifolia, till then in such fine bloom ; they 
are now covered up similarly to the Cupheas. Had they 
been protected that night they would doubtless have con¬ 
tinued doing well, as there has been no such frost since 
then. 
Some years ago, no little amusement was created 
amongst those versed in north country affairs, by the 
appearance, in a London pictorial paper, of an engrav¬ 
ing representing her Majesty and Prince Albert, when 
in Scotland, as stopping to witness the shepherds shear¬ 
ing their sheep. Considering the time of year in which 
it occurred, it rather startled south country farmers to 
learn that the Highland breed of sheep were so hardy 
as to afford losing their fleece in the month of October; 
but there it was, in unmistakeable print, and a sketch 
of the operation going on, as drawn by “ our artist on 
the spot.” Fortunately, there were papers published on 
or near the spot also, and they, too, recorded the move¬ 
ments of the royal pair, without the embellishments, and 
amongst other excursions, mentioned their having been 
to the shearers. Here lay the key to the mystery, which 
afforded our north country friends their joke in the 
affair. The word shearing , as generally used in the 
northern counties and Scotland, means the reaping, or 
cutting of the corn, when done by the sickle; and the 
local papers having simply recorded her Majesty and 
the Prince as stopping to look at the shearers, the 
London artist put the illustration to the credit of a crop 
of wool, most likely after consulting the Scotch paper 
and Johnson and Walker. 
Now, though such an incident shows too clearly the value 
of such engravings, we do not here stop to make comments, 
but to enquire if some of the terms we are in the habit of 
using may not be similarly misunderstood. Nothing is 
more common than the expression, light and heavy soils. 
Now, taking the first of these, a dry sandy soil is called 
light, although, bulk for bulk, there are few heavier sub¬ 
stances than sand, and when added to other composts, 
increases their density rather than their bulk. Again, a 
clayey soil is called steely, livery, pinny, and we do not know 
how many names besides, as well as those more expressive 
of its character, as stiff, cold, and retentive. Now, though it 
would be difficult to express the condition of any particular 
soil in other than the local language of the district, we 
question very much if such explanation is not often mis¬ 
understood, at all events we think so. A correspondent in 
a gardening paper once complained at another using the 
term broad-shearing, as denoting an operation which differs 
widely from either of the cases we mentioned above, being 
in fact a scarifying of the ground to destroy weeds, instead 
of ploughing, the operation being performed by adding 
a certain plate or portion to that implement. But, the word 
being a local one, and we believe the process limited to that 
district, perhaps no suitable name could be given, and those 
not versed in the phraseology of different districts, forget to 
add some explanation by which the process may be known. 
The raising of improved breeds of poultry is a taste 
participated in even by the native princes ol Java; for 
Mr. Jukes, in bis Narrative of the Surveying I oyage 
of H.M.S. Fly, says, that the Sultan of Bankalang, in 
that island, exhibited some very handsome cocks, appa¬ 
rently crosses between domestic and wild breeds. They 
were kept in large cages, entirely for show, and were 
most beautiful and noble birds. If the Sultan would 
send some as a contribution to our Queen’s Windsor 
Poultry-Yard, they might still further improve our 
breeds. 
We have often heard surprise expressed at the low 
price at which rice can be imported from Java and 
elsewhere, considering the enormous distance of the car¬ 
riage; but when we know that the rent is nothing, that 
flooding with water is the only manuring, and read the 
following relative to the price of wages, and the sim¬ 
plicity of implements, the surprise will cease :— 
The daily wages of a man here were 5 duits, or not quite 
5-6ths of a penny English, and for this he could live very 
well. Rice is from 3 to f) duits the catty, which is about 
1| lb. English, and plantains and other fruits cost little or 
nothing. These are the chief food of the natives, the rice 
being flavoured occasionally with a little salt fish or stewed 
vegetables. Of clothing, the labourer requires little for 
ordinary wear, beyond a wrapper, and in a day or two he 
can cut bamboo enough to make a very’ sufficient house. 
All the laud seemed well cultivated, and carefully irri¬ 
gated, though most of it was now fallow, or being ploughed 
and harrowed. The plough was very simple. The coulter 
was nothing but a large knife, stuck on to the end of a long 
bent handle, forming the tail, and from the junction of the 
two a long piece of wood projected forward, at the end of 
which was the cross piece or yoke for the oxen to pull it 
along. The harrow is equally simple, being nothing but a 
large rake, drawn by oxen, with the man who drives them 
sitting on the cross-piece. The small brown oxen, some¬ 
thing like the Brahmin bull in shape, are most commonly 
used, and are said to stand the heat better than the great 
buffalo or mud ox, the skin of which is of a dark mouse 
colour, and nearly hairless, and which has huge spreading 
horns. 
THE ORCHARD HOUSE. 
As a desire seems somewhat prevalent amongst our 
readers to be instructed in the routine business of these 
simple and useful structures, we will endeavour to 
