150 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 21. 
[No doubt of it. You could do all this if you were to 
heat every house separately; but though you do not say so, 
we presume you mean to do all you propose by means of 
one boiler to the range; and though that can be easily done, 
by placing the boiler in the most convenient place, there 
will be great expense, and what we should call waste in 
: material in connecting each place with the border separately. 
! And yet this you must do, according to the present arrange¬ 
ment. We do not think you will get much pleasure from 
your ten-foot conservatory. We would give the space to the 
two Vineries, and one of them might be a conservatory in 
winter, if you liked. Then, supposing we had two furnaces 
instead of one, we would place each where the Vinery and 
the Pine-stove joined, and by valves and plugs it would be 
easy to heat them independently of each other. To do 
this with the conservatory, you must either take the pipes 
through the Vinery, or along the back of it outside. To 
heat such a range effectually, and conveniently, by one 
boiler, would require a large one placed at the end of the 
Pine-house—the two Pine-houses being together. That 
house always to receive most heat, with stop-cocks and 
valves to allow top and bottom-heat at pleasure to go to the 
next Pine-house. The same process would be repeated 
before you could heat the first Vinery, and the same, again, 
■ before you could heat the second, which thus must be your 
last house. The defect of this plan is, that you could not 
heat No. 2 without heating No. 1, nor No. 3 without 
i heating both, and so on. Wo should prefer having two 
i boilers, and then the range may remain as it is, though it is 
always more convenient to have the Vines together.] 
FUMIGATING WITH TOBACCO. 
“ I beg leave to inform you, for the benefit of your cor¬ 
respondent ‘ F. G.’ (who asks about fumigating plants with 
tobacco), of the means I use for fumigating, which I find 
most efficacious:—I have a ‘ Carman’s’ Stove, purchased at 
120, Newgate - street; at the bottom of it I place some 
lighted charcoal, to the depth of about four inches, and then 
I put in some brown paper, and about a quarter of a pound 
of tobacco, damped; and then I place it in the centre of the 
path of the greenhouse (a span roof), and from the ven¬ 
tilator at the top of the stove, if turned on either full or 
half-way, will emit a cool ascending stream of smoke, which 
will quicldy fill the greenhouse. When I require to use a 
fumigator for a single plant, I use ‘Brown’s Fumigator, ’ | 
which answers well. The fumigating by the stove will re¬ 
quire, to do it effectually, to lit it be done one night, omit 
one, and then do it the night following. — G. Smith, 
Dalslon .” 
[We have several other modes sent to us, which we will 
publish next week.] 
COBCEA SCANDENS AGAINST A SOUTH WALL. 
“ I have two of this beautiful plant upon a high south 
wall, but which, being planted out somewhat late, have 
failed to colour their flowers before the cold weather set in : 
much, however, to my great surprise, the severe frosts, which 
have entirely cut down the Dahlias, Marvel of Perns, &c., 
have left the Cohen Scandeiis perfectly uninjured ; not even 
are their finest shoots affected : it, consequently, seems a 
I much hardier plant than I expected. Might it not, by nail¬ 
ing matting over it, be sufficiently protected through the 
winter? Your opinion on this subject will oblige,—A Sub- 
; SCRIBER l'ROM THE COMMENCEMENT." 
I [Until the morning of the ninth, all the flowers-beds in 
j Bedfordshire, Heliotropes, Geraniums, Dahlias, &c., were as 
! fine as they were in August. Just as in your case, the 
j Oobcea, not against a wall, but along a trellis, is, as yet, un¬ 
injured. The frost, however, has not yet been severe. We 
would advise you to do as you propose, though we will not 
hold out any great certainties, that after all your labour 
the plant will get on better than one housed in doors, in a 
young state, and turned out in May ; or even much superior 
to a young plant raised in a hotbed in March. Sometimes 
we have secured an old plant out-of-doors, that by its sub¬ 
sequent vigour and fruitfulness in flowers more than repaid 
the labour; and when we did succeed, we proceeded in the 
following manner:—A great part of the head of the plant 
was cut off, and all the younger leaves. A cone of ashes 
was raised about the roots, to keep them dry, and exclude 
slugs and worms. A little clean wheat-straw was spread 
over it, hood or umbrella fashion, the upper part of the 
straw surrounding the stem, or stems, lightly; and the whole 
was neatly covered with a mat, or a piece of water-proofed 
calico. By the end of March, air will be required every fine 
day. During the winter, the stems were several times 
examined, to remove all traces of damp. We have also had 
the plant very fine by cutting it down within a foot or eight¬ 
een inches of the ground, and protecting the roots in a 
similar way: and we may mention, that the same plan | 
answers well, in general, for Maurandgas and Lophospermums ■ 
against walls. But even with this great success at times, it 
will generally happen that a young plant, in a robust state \ 
and properly hardened off and planted out in May, will grow 
and flower quite as well. Were you very anxious, we would j 
almost advise protecting one plant, and taking up the other 
and potting it, leaving it two yards long.] 
POULTRY. 
MALAY FOWLS. 
“ May I ask how it is, that in most of the Poultry prize- 
lists for this season the poor Malays are excluded ? or, what 
is, perhaps, worse, insulted with the offer of an inferior 
prize? My experience convinces me they are deserving of 
more consideration. They get their own living upon a walk 
where a Dorking or Cochin-China would starve (and this is 
no slight recommendation in these times of dear food); they 
do not, perhaps, lay so well as the Cochin-China in the cold 
winter months ; but they will, at any rate, lay better at all 
times than the over-praised Dorking. 
“ I see, in your number of the 24tli ultimo, that you con¬ 
sider it an unsettled point as to what breed of fowls is best 
suited to the wants of the farmer and cottager. The Malay 
would, I think, be found more desirable than either Dorking 
or Game: much hardier than the former, and less pug¬ 
nacious than the latter.— Cathe. Anthony, The Willows, 
Herefordshire.” 
[As a distinct breed of fowls, the Malays are always found 
in the prize schedules of our leading poultry Societies, and 
it is, certainly, an error to exclude them from that position. 
As to their economical properties, we should not be dis¬ 
posed to rate them so highly as you do; regarding the 
Shanghae, in that respect, as a more valuable bird. In com¬ 
parison with Game and Dorkings, again ; these last would 
certainly have the preference, in our estimation, as a table- 
fowl, both as regards the quality and comparative quantity 
of meat afforded by them.—W.] 
Historical Notes on the Introduction or various 
Plants into the Agriculture and Horticulture or 
Tuscany : a summary of a work entitled Ccnni stoi-ici 
sulla inlroduzione di varie pianie nell’agricultural ed orti- 
cultura Toscana. By Dr. Antonio Targioni - Tozzetti. 
Florence, 1800. -— ( From the Horticultural Societies 
Journal.) 
(Continued from Vol. XII., page 607.) 
The Finocchio, so highly prized by the Italians, especially 
in the southern portion of the peninsula, is comparatively a 
modern vegetable. It has, however, produced several marked 
races or permanent varieties, amongst which the principal 
are the finocchio forte, but little removed from the common 
wild fennel, the finocchio dolce or sweet fennel, and the 
finocchio di Bologna or Jinocchionc, with the lower part of the 
stem (or head) much enlarged and succulent. These three 
varieties are considered by modern Italian botanists as so 
many distinct species, the two last stated to be of unknown, 
but probably of “ Grecian or Syrian ” origin. But Professor 
Targioni admits that they are not mentioned by any Greek 
writers, and that the finocchio di Bologna was a new vege¬ 
table brought to Florence from Bologna in the middle of the 
sixteenth century. They are surely all cultivated varieties , 
of the common fennel, which is truly wild in most parts of j 
Mediterranean Europe. 
Four other Umbelliferce are cultivated in Tuscany as | 
