Novembkr 27 . 
COUNTEY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
151 
purpose to show how j’oung ladles might form them into 
ornaments. Our people call this plant the wild Liquorice ; 
and the roots, in the West Indies, and all other hot countries, 
are nearly as good as our own cultivated Liquorice. The 
hook name is Abrtis j^recaioriiis. The first name means 
cicf/ant, and the second means a, pelitioii, or prayer, aniis 
taken from the fact of the aforesaid rosaries being made 
M'ith the seeds. The seeds are eaten iir Egypt, but are very 
indigestible. Now, as you are not sucJi a giddy girl as 
Gertrude in the “ Lamplighter ” was, and as you will be 
sure to be as good a woman as she turned out to be, you 
will remember all this, and explain it to your young friends, 
for nothing seems so awkward as not to be able to tell the 
history of everything one receives from friends, relatives, 
and well-wishers, particularly if it belongs to any branch of 
Natural History.—D. B.] 
OBTAINING EARLY ASPARAGUS. 
“ I have some old Asparnytis-beds to take np this winter. 
Can I force the mots ? I have a good pit, with a hot-water 
pipe through it; I have also plenty of stable manure. Will 
you, please, tell me the proper time to take up the roots, and 
the best way to ti'eat them to get early Asparagus ?—A. R. B.” 
[Never attempt to force such Asparagus as yours in pits 
heated by hot-water, as long as you have plenty of stable 
manure, which will force them so much better; with plenty 
of this, and good old plants, any one in the three kingdoms 
can have Asparagus to table, two or three times a week, from 
the first day of October till the first gathering in the open 
ground. Nothing is so easily forced as Asparagus, except, 
perhaps, the Dielytra spectahiUs. If the shoots of the 
latter were eatable, we could have them “ in ” with the 
Asparagus, on the 1st of October; and by the same process, 
namely, to cut down the stalks on the 5th or Otb of Sep¬ 
tember, and to take up the roots on the 20th of September, 
with as large balls of earth as they would carry, to set the 
balls quite close together, over a slight hotbed of fresh 
dung, leaf-mould, or rotten tan, or spent mushroom-bed stuff, 
or very loose sandy earth in tlie absence of these ; then to 
work in sufficient of the same stuff between the balls, and 
two or three inches above the balls; to water this gently 
with a rose-pot, to thrust a watch-stick in the centre of the 
bed, and to put on the lights, and shut them down close, 
and to keep them close down till the shoots begin to heave 
up the surface of the bed; then, in October, and mild 
weather, the glass might be off or nearly off all day, and air 
given all night. If the watch-stick is just comfortably warm 
to the hand, without being hot, that is sufficient for bottom- 
heat to Asparagus ; if the bed should get too hot, poke a lot 
of holes in it down between the balls with a blunt stick, 
and put two canfuls of water into the holes, and that will 
chill the dung sufficiently to go on better. But as we 
go on into the winter, the Asparagus forcing-beds ought 
to be made of moi-e worked manure, as for a Cucumber- 
bed, only not so much of it. The requisites are, sufficient 
warmth below to move the roots, and to allow of air being 
given all day and night; the least confined damp or unwhole¬ 
some air after the shoots break through the surface will 
spoil their flavour. Old roots are of no use after being lifted 
for forcing. 
The plant you enclosed is what is sold and cultivated 
under the name of Vitis velutina, but whether it is a true 
Vine, or a Cissus, or what it is, few can decide. IVe do not 
know just now where it came from, but we shall sow the 
seeds from your bendes, and tell you all about it some day.] 
PERILLA JAPONICA, alias NANKINENSIS.—EUC- 
NIDA BARTONIOIDES.—PAMPAS GRASS. 
“ I often bit}', in tlie spring, packets of new flower-seeds, 
which I see advertised, and am often more dissatisfied than 
pleased with the result of my novelties. There is one new 
annual I got last spring, which I have never seen noticed in 
The Cottage Gardener, the Fcrilla nankinensis. Ic is de¬ 
scribed as a half-hardy annual. I sowed it in a slight hot¬ 
bed in April, and planted the seedlings out in a mixed 
flower border as soon as the danger of frost was over; it 
grew luxuriantly, and reached from fifteen to eighteen inches 
high, and has large, bronzy, purple-coloured leaves, which 
produce a very fine effect among other plants. Mr. Beaton 
certainly must never have seen it, or he would have come 
out with a chapter on it before this time. I think it a plant 
admirably adapted for producing a fine effect in that system 
of flower-gardening he writes so much about. (Mr. Beaton 
has “ certainly” seen the Perilla in question, and yon must 
be a forgetful reader, else you would have minded Mr. 
Beaton’s “ Chapter on it,” this time two years (vol. XI, 78), 
but “ effect ” is not its part in a flower-garden, according to 
him, but a contrast. There is no “ effect ” in such plants as 
are neutrals, like this.) 
“I have also tried Eucnida hartonioides as a pot-plant, 
with which I am highly pleased. I have it now in full 
bloom in the window.” (So have we, and we can back you 
here.) 
“Would the Pampas Grass {Gyncrium argenteim) grow 
and flower in a high situation in Northumberland ? ” (Yes, 
it would grow there ; but w’ho knows if it will flower ? ) 
“ I would respectfully suggest that the papers you are 
now publishing on the British Ferns be continued weekly, 
instead of ttvo in the month ; as there ai’e about sixty spe¬ 
cies, it will require nearly three year’s to complete them, at the 
rate you are publishing them, and makes it very tedious for 
reference when it is continued through so many volumes. 
The same suggestion will apply to “ The Fruit and 
Fruit-Trees of Great Britain.—J. S.” (When a book is 
written on 'Ferns, or Fruits, or any one subject, it is 
filled with that subject only, and those who are interested in 
that subject are the only purchasers ; but a periodical can¬ 
not be devoted to one subject, or to one-and-twenty subjects ; 
and such subjects as Ferns, for instance, can only claim a 
share of the space. Three years are not long enough to 
saturate the public mind with any one subject of even 
one-half the extent and interest as that about Ferns; there¬ 
fore, the longer the subject about Ferns can bo “ kept 
alive” before, the public, the better will the public taste be 
worked upon. However, the British Ferns will be com¬ 
pleted in less than three years ; or two either.) 
SOAVING ECCREMOCARPUS-CHRYSANTHEMUM 
SUCKERS. 
“ Can you inform me of the best mode of raising the 
Eccremocarpus from seed ? Also, the name of the enclosed 
specimen, whether hardy, and if it may be left in the open 
border during winter ? I find my house Chrysanthemums 
are surrounded by healthy, vigorous shoots ; must they re¬ 
main, or be removed ?— Eliza.” 
[The enclosed specimen was a Mesemhryanlkemum. It 
will not survive the winter out-of-doors. Eccremocarpus 
should be sown in the early spring, say February, in gentle 
heat. AVhen strong enough, the seedlings to be potted off 
into small pots, and their growtli encouraged. They will 
flower the same season. Chrysanthemum shoots, we pre¬ 
sume suckers, may be topped in close.] 
STOCKS, THEIR KINDS AND MANAGEMENT. 
“ I shall be much obliged by being told the best w’ay to 
have Stocks in flower about next April and May, without 
glass. AVhat is the difference between the German, Ten-week, 
Intermediate, and Brompton Stocks? Are they all hardy 
enough to stand out the winter without protection ? Will 
they do best in pots, or planted out on a warm border, 
taken up in March, as they are required for flowering in 
pots.? AYhen is the be.st time to sow the seed? and how 
ought I to manage the plants wdien up ?—R. S. E.” 
[You are too late with your query. Stocks, to flower in 
April or May, should be sown during the summer months, 
July, August, and September. The first sowing should be 
of the Brompton and Queen Stocks, which are biennials. 
The next two sowings should be the Ten-week. Moss’s 
Intermediate is a garden variety between the Brompton 
and the Annual, or Ten-week Stock. The only difference 
between the Brompton and the Ten-week Stock is, that the 
first is a biennial, and the second an annual. The Inter- 
