J88 
THE COTTAGE GARDENEK. 
December 11. 
at a loss to know where to loam the price of it. Perhaps j 
the liint might be taken, and found advantageous. 
Can you tell me how the Fountains, named in your last 
I week's number, page lid, are supplied with water, and of 
i whom they may be purchased ? 1 have several good Ferns 
ill (i-inch pots doing well; but the pots seem »|uite full of 
roots ; should 1 re-pot them, and at what time'? I have one 
plant I call Hare’s-foot Fern, from the root from which the 
i'ronds siiriiig resembling a hare’s foot, that is, quite ci'ammed 
with these feet. Ought I to re-pot it, and when ? I wish to 
make them specimen plants for a show.—L. E.” 
i [If the wood of your Lemon plant was well grown last 
I year, and well ripened in the autumn, the llowers should 
I appear as soon as you give the plant enough heat to grow 
; freely. The heat used to start the Vines will just do ; but, ! 
provided the wood was not well ripened, you will not have 
many flowers, and must take care not to let your plant 
I stand all the summer beneath the shade of the Aflnes, or 
: the young shoots may be barren the second year. If not j 
I much pot-bound, we would advise seeing to the drainage, 
j and rich surface dressings, instead of shifting. Let the 
I potting, if necessary, be done just as the temperature is 
; increased, to encourage growth. 
Any respectable nurseryman would tell the price of any 
article, on application ; but mere price, independent of size [ 
and quality, is an imperfect criterion. All new plants are 
dear; most, after the second or third season, are cheap 
enough. A Geranium may be dear at Is., and one of the 
same kind cheap at 5;s. We quite agree with you that it 
I would be an advantage to have the prices in advertisements 
nevertheless, as one knows what expense he is going to 
before the bill comes. 
You will have seen an answer last week about the Foun¬ 
tains. We would not touch your Ferns until the spring, as 
the heat and sun increases. You may shift them without 
any risk of injuring them. In a good stove they may be 
done at any time; but it is best to secure growth directly 
afterwards.] 
length, but with little or no difference in the result. I may 
also add, that I do not find the lately-advertised “ August- 
flowering” varieties at all answer to the character given to 
them; indeed, they have proved with me very little earlier 
than the average of those before brought out. 
“ I ought, perhaps, to add, that in more favourable 
localities I have not experienced the difficulty respecting 
which I ask your assistance.—A. C., Chelmsford." 
[You are quite right in your opinion about the projicr soil 
for the Dielytra, but not as to the aspect or exposure ; for 
it Avill grow on bari’en heaths and moors in the most open 
parts in this country. But in very rich soil, and more 
particularly in wet, undrained borders, it gets so top-heavy 
that a gust of wind blows it over and strangles it, or breaks 
its neck outright, and any such accident, with too much wet 
at bottom, would account for its rotting-olf. 
Speaking of Chinese Chrysanthemums is apt to puzzle one 
now-a-days ; and we do not recollect to have ever heard of 
any one who said, or pretended to affirm, that a single kind 
of that race did bloom, or could be made to flower sooner 
than the first day of November. We can say, positively, 
ourselves, that no art of man can induce any of the Chinese 
Chrysanthemums to bloom one week sooner than that 
period,, without forcing them, by heat, so as to spoil the 
appearance of the plants ; but we can understand how' early 
kinds may be had—some day—so as to come in as early as 
the French Chrysanthemums, or Bompones. One thing is 
quite certain from our own expeilnients ; that is, if yon 
make a cutting in February or Marchj and continue to 
grow it on all the season without stopping, you w ill not get 
it to bloom one hour before a cutting made on the loth of 
June, and “ nipped in ” on the 15th of July; but by cutting- 
in strong shoots and strong plants in September, it is quite 
possible to have Chinese Chrysanthemums in bloom up to 
the middle or end of May. One of our correspondents 
makes it a yioint to have them for his Easter parties, and 
has done so for some years back.] 
TAKING UP LILIUM LANCIFOLIUM BULBS. 
“ I have cultivated, according to the instructions in The 
Cottage Gardeners' Dictionary, the fine bulbs Lilium land- 
folium, \n 11-inch pots, three in a pot, which were truly a 
magnificent sight throughout August and part of September. 
I have taken the bulbs out of the pots, and repotted the 
offsets, and have put the old bulbs away in a drawer, 
intending to keep them there till next IMarch ; but the 
outside scales of the bulbs look so withered and wrinkled 
that I am afraid I have done wrong.—G.” 
[It seems to lie a natural law, from which there is no 
exception, that all bulbs wdiich are made up of scales suffer 
I severely by being dried out of the soil, and it is not good 
practice even to let the mould about them in pots get quite 
I dry. Pray pot your bulbs at once in soil that is not quite 
I dry, but give them no water for the next six weeks. It is 
j poor economy for private growers to increase them from 
1 scales—in these days—an apt illustration of the penny w'ise 
[ and pound foolish school.] 
THE PdUiTBY eHROilSLE. 
POITLTEY SHOWS. 
Birmiwgham. 11th to 14th of December. Sec., J. Morgan, jun.. Esq. 
Entries closed November 10th. 
Essex. Dec. 27 th, 28th, and 29 th, at Colchester. Sees, Mr. G. E 
Attwood, and Mr. W. A. Warwick. Entries close December 15th. 
Hants (South). lUh and 1 5th .Tanuarj', at Fareham. Sec. James 
James, Esq., Fareham. Entries close December 3l8t, 1855. 
Liverpool. I6th, 17 th, and 18th of January. See. W. C. Worrall, 
Esq., 0, Lower Castle Street. Entries close December 24th. 
Nottinghamshire, at Southwell, IQth and 20th of December. Sec. 
K. Hawksley, jun.. Esq., Southwell. Entries closed November 20th. ( 
Preston and North Lancashire. Jan.gthand 10th, at Preston. 
Secs. Messrs. Burnett, Leigh, and Hayhurst, Preston. 
Vale ok Aylesbury. January 2nd and 3rd. Secs. J. D. Muddiman, 
and Jas. Allen. Entries close December 20lh. 
N.B .—Secretaries vnll oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
SOIL FOR DIKLYTRA SPECTABILIS.—EARLY- 
BLOOMING GHRYSANTHEiMUMS. 
“ Didytra spcctahilis .—I was not more fortunate than | 
your correspondent “ Berkshire Kate ” witli the above ; 
flowers last winter ; I lost several plants in yiots, and also a 
strong one in the open border. They rolled away. I am ' 
I disposed to think, tliat only in light, well-drained soils, or i 
I sheltered places, can this plant be justly said to be hardy,! 
I in the sense in which our indigenous Fumitories are so. j 
‘‘ Chinese Chrysanthemums. —My garden is open to the , 
north and east, and although I can get these plants to grow I 
i freely, and from buds, I cannot get them well into flower 1 
before the frosts come on and destroy their beauty. Is any i 
plan known of accelerating the bloom without artificial j 
heat? protection under glass it does not suit me to give, i 
Last year, I nipped in some of the first shoots, and it struck 
me that this might have thrown the bloom back, and I, 
j therefox'e, suffered this year’s growth to remain of the full 
STATE OF OUR VARIOUS BREEDS OF 
POULTRY. 
I 
{Concluded from page W.) j 
The great size of thg Malay was, doubtless, a recom- j 
mendation to many poultry-keepers, so long as no other I 
fowl competed with it in this respect, but on the introduction j 
of the Shanghaes, this advantage was only held in common 
with the latter. The properties and liabits of the Hhanghae, 
moreover, were in many points such as justly entitled them 
to the preference, and, as a necessary consequence, Malays 
are less frequently seen at the present day than in by-gone 
years. This, of course, could not happen without a cor¬ 
responding diminution of fii'st-class specimens, and thus it 
accounts in every way for the reiterated complaints now 
heard of the inferiority of this class at our exhibitions. 
Regret, however, must be expressed at this result. Ot all 
