October 21. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
69 
There is one Calceolaria that requires to be preserved 
under glass during the winter months—I mean, Amplcxi- 
caulis; this is a very tender one, but one of the best yellows 
we have.—T. Perkins. 
NOSEGAYS. 
I respond to the remark of your T). Beaton, in The 
Cottage Gardener, that “we want more pultivation in 
nosegays," and whilst reading his short article on the subject, 
at page 18, it occurred to me that I had a couple of young 
friends about to marry, and I would try my hand at a 
bouquet to set on their table after dinner with the dessert. 
The pyramidal form was the one which ran in my head; 
but how to keep the upper tier of flowers as fresh with 
moisture as the lower ones, was a difficulty. At length I hit 
upon the following plan :—I got a straight hazel rod, about 
the size of the stick of a parasol, eighteen inches long, 
and placing this upright, with my penknife I make a cut two 
inches from the smaller end, sloping downwards and in¬ 
wards, a little thicker than the bark, and about half-an-inch 
in depth, then another two inches lower on the other side, 
and so on, alternately, to within six inches of the bottom, 
which was left for the handle; I next drew these cuts care¬ 
fully down, till they stood out like lips or spurs at right 
angles from the stick. It was then covered (save the handle) 
with long sphagnum moss, beginning at the top, and care¬ 
fully widening it down to the base; this was lightly inter¬ 
laced and fastened round with thread; when finished, it 
was about one foot high, six inches in diameter at the 
bottom, of a pyramidal form, and resembled a lady’s parasol 
when loosely closed. The spurs and thread kept the moss 
in its place, at the same time it was open and elastic. I 
then inserted the handle of the stick in a mug filled with 
sand, and placed it on the table, with the flowers previously 
gathered, both hands were thus left at liberty, and the 
flowers were stuck into the moss like pins into a pincushion ; 
no particular plan was followed, but the whole were so 
placed as to reflect each other's beauty, and under the lower 
row, which were darkish flowers, sprigs of Aster elegans were 
so arranged as to hang their silvery plumes over the vase 
or basin in which the nosegay might be subsequently placed. 
The handle, however, could be cut off, so that if necessary 
it might stand in a dish, and when finished, it looked rich, 
light, and elegant; a few of the mossy sprays appearing, 
here and there, among the flowers. To preserve the fresh¬ 
ness of the nosegay, it was only necessary to turn the 
uppermost flower a little on one side, and pour the water in 
at the top, this circulated freely downwards through the centre 
of the moss and stems, and ran out at the bottom without 
damaging a single flower. 
This is only one of a thousand ways in which the thing 
may be managed, and it is merely intended, as “ D. B.” 
suggests in an “ off-hand-way,” to keep the subject alive, 
and for others to improve upon. I look upon flowers 
as elements of refinement, and great as the pleasure is in 
cultivating them, that pleasure must not stop there, but 
bo carried out in their artistic and scientilic arrangement, 
for the purpose of cheering and ornamenting our dwellings. 
My first attempt was not complete, but 1 learnt much, both 
from the points of failure and success. I further tried my 
hand at a domo-shaped bouquet, composed of various 
coloured Dahlias ; but though I had often seen the feat 
performed by women as they sat on their stools in the flower 
markets at Baris, I could not, for the life of me, succeed 
with one, and this is a desideratum much wanted. Perhaps 
some of your intelligent readers, who may have given atten¬ 
tion to the subject, will kindly inform us how they arc made. 
One flower will stick up above another, and there is no 
keeping of the lower ones, as the circle widens, in their 
j places. 
Now I am on the subject of Nosegays, let mo add a few 
words on Wild Flowers; more advantage may be derived 
from these than is at present the case, and as the season is 
j approaching when flowers will be scarce, and their value 
| more prized, an opportunity offers for the introduction of 
| wild flowers in the form of simple nosegays as in-door orna- 
1 merits. Let any benevolent lady (for ladies do these things 
| best) who may reside in the country, and not far from a 
I town, just try her hand in the construction of a few bouquets 
of such wild flowers as are in season, and when tolerably 
skilled in the art, let her select a poor girl from the village- 
school, or the family of some needy cottager, and impart to 
her the necessary instruction for gathering wild flowers, and 
arranging them into nosegays of different forms and sizes ; 
and it is not too much to say that a basket full of these glit¬ 
tering treasures would find a ready sale among many 
families in town who have a love for flowers, but not the 
opportunity for procuring them. Should these hints be sue 
cessfully carried out, it would furnish an agreeable occupa 
tion for the hours wasted by many poor children, be a source 
of emolument to their families, and a boon to those who 
purchased the bouquets.—-P. S., Rnshmere. 
THE FLUKE POTATO. 
I procured a few of the Fluke Potato, a sort of late 
kidney, and planted them the beginning of March in an old 
garden near Stroud, in Gloucestershire. The ground had 
been planted with Potatoes every oilier year for a long 
time; and out of five different sorts this Potato was the 
only one almost free from disease, besides bearing a double 
crop on ground not highly manured. The haulm remained 
quite green until the tubers were dug up; and nicer Po¬ 
tatoes to eat are rarely to be met with. 1 strongly recom¬ 
mend this Potato for planting in the next spring. 1 am 
quite aware that it is known to most of the nurserymen ; 
but I find, in some localities, it was scarcely heard of. 
I think it may be useful to many of your readers to know, 
that the seed can be had at Bristol, and most of the large 
towns in this district. The produce, on some soils, I am 
told, is about one hundred sacks to the acre, of sound crop. 
—H. W. Newman, Lansdown-road, Cheltenham. 
VINEYARDS IN AUSTRALIA. 
(Continued from page fi2.) 
In bringing forward inducements for colonists in general 
to embark capital in the production of wine, we may, however, 
leave out for the present the prospect of competing profitably 
with continental Europe in the London market. Inter 
national interests are now rightfully recognized in matters of 
legislation; so that, in mercantile language, protection of 
home or colonial produce is gradually becoming obsolete. 
Granting, therefore, that our wines were generally acknow¬ 
ledged to be equal in quality with the corresponding wines 
of Europe, we have to take into account the drawbacks of 
our colonial position in the matter of labour. The expenses 
of our vineyard produco, from the scarcity of labour, will, for 
a long time to come, prevent us from competing favourably 
with the European wine grower in his own market. 
In the meantime, however, we have a market at home, in 
the colony, sufficiently important to induce attention to its 
demands. The importation of wines into New South 
Wales, during the last year, amounted, in value, to nearly 
half a million sterling; of wines and spirits, with other 
fermented alcoholic liquors, to about a million. Taking tin- 
consumption of Victoria and the other colonies around into 
the account, we are within the truth,in assuming our colonial 
or home consumption of wines to equal in value one million 
pounds sterling per annum. Now, say, that we were to 
make arrangements to meet only half this amount of con 
sumption. In this case, at the average rate of production 
per acre of 200 gallons, and at the average price per 
gallon of 2s. 0d„ the quantity of vineyard ground necessary 
to afford the requisite produce would be twenty thousand 
acres, or nearly twenty times the existent amount of vineyard 
cultivation. Under these circumstances, granting no in¬ 
crease of consumption, we could not possibly supplant 
entirely foreign wines, in our own colonial market, for six 
years to come. The production of marketable wines is a 
process which involves time. As to the means of accom¬ 
plishing the result in question, these are amply abundant, 
inasmuch ns, out of the amount of cultivation, land already 
under grain and grass crop, far more than the requisite 
number of acres, could, if eligible, be forthwith occupied as 
vineyard ground. Nay, for meeting the demands of the 
vastly more extensive markets of Europe and India, time 
only is indispensable. Our arable land throughout the 
