Decejirkr 11. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, 
1H7 j 
force; tlierefoi'e, in cases where chemical power enjoys free 
dominion, he will attain to positive resnlts more easilj' and 
rapidly than in others, where the vital force, over which he 
can exercise no sway, comes at the same time into opposition 
with him. 
“Finally, chemistry possesses a detective function, where¬ 
by it proves useful to every man, and therefore to the farmer, 
since it iliscluscti fmuds and nape.starc.s, to which, as is well 
known, all are at present moi'e exposed than formerly. 
Pure goods ! Genuine goods ! Solid goods ! Real goods 1 
What manufacturer or merchant does not now-a-days deem 
himself justilied in stamping one of these commendatory 
appellations upon his articles of trade ! And yet his real 
linen perhaps contains cotton; his choicest soap, water, glue, 
or clay; his genuine syrup, starch-sugar; his guano, or 
bone-dust, sand, earth, lime-stone, Ac. Against such 
adulterations and losses, chemistry offers the most solid and 
secure defence, since it possesses the power of bringing to 
light admixture.s and adulterations, however cunningly con¬ 
trived, which our eyes and other means of proof are unable 
to detect. Many chemical tests of this kind have been 
already so simplified, that any one may use them for himself 
without much cost or trouble.” 
Fr.ouA OF THE Colosseum op Rome. By R. Dealcln, M.D* 
A MORE useless book has rarely issued from the press. 
It is too drily' scientilic to be popular, yet enough of poetry 
and common-place is mixed with it to make the botanist 
view'it as a work j'or amusement more than of science. It 
is a book suited neither for the learned nor the unlearned. 
It cannot even be relied upon for the spelling of the names 
of plants. We open it at pp. lOfi, 1!)7, and on one wo find 
Asparaynx no/fc/b/bes, instead of “ acut/folius;” and on the 
other, ilusEus, instead of Kusens. 
Treatise on the Vine Disease. By James CntliillA 
The, disease alluded to by Air. Cuthill is the Mildew. 
The pith of his amusing jiamphlet is contained in the 
following extracts :— 
“ I once planted two large vines in a new' hot-house at 
Fulham ; the plants, taken out of a conservatory, were 
upwards of ten years old. The I'oots were lu uned, and in 
the second year after planting they liore excellent crops. 
This was more than twenty y ears since, and the vines are 
now every year bearing splendid crops of grapes. It 
would be useless to multiply examples; w'e gardeners, 
living in such a changeable climate, are compelled to 
experiment continually upon all sorts of fruits, flowers, and 
other vegetable productions. 
“ In England, w’hen we find a house of grapes going 
wrong, we first look to the roots. If we find, on taking 
oti‘ the mould, that the roots have got too low down among 
the subsoil, we bring up as many as we can of the fibrous 
roots, and cut off the larger ones, leaving them, according 
to circumstances, from five to ten feet long. Fresh mould 
is then placed under them, .and every .root brought to 
within a font of the surface. I here speak in reference to 
old vines. 
“The roots of the vine in the wine countries will derive, 
much benefit from pruning; the plants would be better 
nourished, since the roots would be much more fibrous, w'hile 
the whole would be better under control. The present plan 
allows the roots to choke or eat one another up. 
“ In the next place, early pruning of the vine in autumn 
must be enforced. If the plants are pruned early in 
November, the grapes will be ripe a fortnight or three 
weeks earlier the next summer. Any one will be convinced 
of this who looks at the well-swollen eyes of those vines 
whose shoots are left on through the winter. Cutting them 
off after they have accumulated and deposited so much 
of the elaborated food, is a total waste of what nature 
would otherwise concentrate in the stems destined to bear 
the next crop. 
* Flora of thf. Colosseum at Ro.me, or illustrations and descrip¬ 
tions of four hundred and twenty plants growing spontaneously upon 
the ruins of the Colosseum of Rome. By R, Deakin, M.D. London: 
Groombridge and Sons. 1855. 
t Treatise on the Vi.ne Disease, which is now destroying the 
crops of Grapes throughout the Vineyards of Europe, &c. liy James 
CafAfff, Horticulturist Ac. London: Hamilton and Co. 1855. 
“ R.y the long-continned cropping on the sliallow system, 
the land mu.st be greatly impoverished; and I do not 
hesitate to tell the wine-growers, that their laud is starved ; 
of everything hut that which God gives them for nothing— 
water, and too much of this, without proper proportions of 
other ingredients, w ill hriug on disease. 
“ 1 see in the Gardener’s Chronicle, that the growei's 
round Naples have followed the plan which I published iu 
the London papers, that of keeping the vines near the 
ground, with much better results than any other. | 
“I have this day (Oct. SOth) been to see another case of ! 
flat training, at IMr. linker’s, near the Old Kent Road, lie 
has two vines trained upon a flat trellis, projecting about 
eight feet from the cottage, this canopy being about seven : 
feet high. One vine had seventy, the other one hnndred- 
aml-fifty bunches, all nearly ripe, and those lllack Ham¬ 
burgh. A sewer passes beneath, where they' feed from; 
his vines are always pruned at the fall of the leaf in 
November. Mr. Raker is very careful never to allow any 
superlluous shoots during the summer’s growth. He has * 
never had the disease.” 'We presume that it is meant that j 
his Vines never had. i 
i 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
CARDENiNC. 
V j 
FERNS UNDER SHADE j 
“ X. Y. Z. would he much obliged to the Editor of The 
Cottage Gardener for a list of hardy Ferns, loving shade; 
be., tliat may be cultivated under the shade and drip of ^ 
established deciduous ti'ces. He proposes to make a rock- 
work under the trees, .and to plant the Ferns on it. His 
gardener brought home, amongst some cuttings, in the 
summer, some, pieces of a Salvia, which he called ‘■Cordata.’ 
X. Y. Z. does not recognise it, and ivould be glad to know 
its synonymic and culture; also that of Salvia strictijinra 
[For your shaded border the following Ferns would do:— 
Alhyrinni jUi.r-fwmina, Osmanda riyalis, Bnlypodiiim driop- 
tvris, Onoclea scnsihilis, and Polysticlnim lonchilis. 
Salvia stridijlorn is as old Peruvian plant, of no great 
beauty, and one which has been out of fashion for the last 
twenty years, or since it was published iu the Botanical 
Afayazinc, in l.Slil. It is, liowever, a member of a distinct 
section of the genus, aud, therefore, a useful plant in a 
botanic collection. Such men as Mr. Baxter, of your 
Botanic Garden, are the best authorities for such ^ilants; 
but the culture of Salvia strictiflora is very simple. A cold, 
dry frame is the best place for it iu the winter, to be. re¬ 
potted in April, in rich, light soil; to be increased from 
cuttings in .Inly and August, after the plant lias done ^ 
flowering, and to keep it yonny, —which means, that two-year- - 
old plants should be thrown away, to he replaced with last j 
year’s plants, from cuttings. | 
Bentham, in his “ Labiatarum genera,” mentions and : 
describes Salvia, cordata. He says it is a native of South ^ 
Brazil, lias large blue, flowers, and is about three feet higli. 
It is a greenhouse herbaceous perennial.] I 
LEiMON-TREE NOT BLOOMING.—HINT TO | 
ADVERTISERS.—POTTING FERNS. 
“ I grafted, four years since, a Lemon upon a stock two 
inches round, at least, potted in an 8-inch pot, in which it has 
been ever since, with yearly top-dressing. The head is a 
good sturdy one, ivood ice/t ripened; hut it has shown no , 
appearance of fruiting. IIow long should it be before doing 
so? I keep it in a cool greenhouse, heated only to start my 
Vines, or keep out frost. Should I re-pot the tree into a 
larger pot, or let it remain as now? I fear the re-potling 
would make wood and retard fruiting. When should it be 
re-potted ? 
I think the llorists wlio advertise in your columns would 
do well if, whenever they observed very particularly good 
plants noticed by your able writers, tliey would price it iu 
their advertisements the following week. I have often felt ' 
disposed to buy a thing after reading about it, but have been 
