THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 2. 
2C6 
“ Will you oblige me by a few hints on its culture, to 
prevent a recurrence of this failure ? I need scarcely say 
how highly I shall value them. The information conveyed 
in your Journal is always most useful to me. I have 
learned more from it than from any similar publication.— 
Fanny.” 
[If you could have told us of the treatment you had 
given,we shouldhave been better able to advise you. We pre¬ 
sume that as the plants were healthy, and well covered with 
buds, we could give you no advice as to the culture. There 
are two causes, which we have noticed, to produce the effect 
spoken of in well grown plants. The first is, taking up the 
plants out of a bed, and potting them, and placing them in 
a house before the pots were filled with roots. The second 
is, placing them in a rather confined place, without a 
sufficiency of air. A third cause we have noticed, is keeping 
the same plant in the same pot for several years, and not 
giving rich top-dressings. Of course, you give a sufficiency 
of water, and all the light possible. We should like to hear 
again, if none of these meet your case.] 
PROMOTING Tills GROWTH OF CAMELLIAS— 
TECOMA AUSTRALIS, AND HOYA CARNOSA. 
“ I purchased some Belgium Camellias a month ago. The 
plants wore twelve to fifteen inches high, in four-and-a-half- 
inch pots, with two or three flower-buds on each. Three of 
the pots being broken, I repotted the Camellias in five-inch 
pots, with half sandy loam and half peat compost, (the 
peat compost, three parts peat, one part manure mixed 
together a year since.) The flower buds have fallen off the 
repotted plants, and also some of the others. Seeing your 
article of 21st November, (on potting either to produce 
growth or flowers), will you be kind enough to inform me, 
whether I cannot take advantage of these Camellias not 
flowering this season, to induce them to make considerable 
growth, without proventing them from flowering next winter. 
If so, what size of pots should be used ? Will they require 
bottom-heat, (hotbed) ? What degree of heat, and for how 
long ? and should there be any alteration in the potting 
compost before-mentioned? I should also bo much obliged 
if you would inform me whether Tecoma Australis requires 
the same pruning and treatment as T. Jasminoidcs ; and 
whether it flowers on the old or young wood ? Also, whether 
Hoya carnosa will grow and flower in a greenhouse that is 
only heated sufficiently to keep out the frost, but that has 
the full sun upon it for the greatest part of the day ? I 
should also be glad to know tbe name of the plant of which 
I send a leaf, and whether it requires a warm greenhouse to 
flourish. The name I bad with it was Jcssamy alba ; but as 
l cannot find that name in the list of Jasmines, it cannot 
be the light one. The leaves grow in pairs along the 
slender branches, and it appears to flower in threes at the 
end of the branches.—A Lover of Camellias.” 
[The moving of the plants, and the fresh shifting conse¬ 
quent on the breaking of the pots, will sufficiently account 
for the falling of the buds. No plant should be fresh shifted 
as it approaches the flowering state. No doubt your plants 
will grow freely enough in the greenhouse. The greater 
heat to which Camellias are often subjected in spring is to 
cause growth, the setting of the buds, and the consequent 
blooming to take place sooner than otherwise they would do. 
Bottom-heat is not desirable for healthy plants. Unless the 
pots are very full of roots, the next sized pot will be suitable; 
If very full and vigorous, a second size larger. If you wish 
to have flowers early next autumn and winter, you may give 
the plants a temperature of 00° to 05°, in February, March, 
and April, and when the shoots are made, and the buds set, 
place the plants out-of-doors. We are not sure of the leaf 
sent, but think it belongs to Jasminum Sambac, and a green¬ 
house will not suit it all the winter through, unless it is 
made nearly deciduous. We have had little practice with 
Tecoma Australis, but would treat it much the same as 
Jasminoidcs ; have seen it good from spurs and from young 
wood, respectively, when the buds were well ripened. The 
Hoya carnosa likes more he At in winter; but we have done 
it well in a greenhouse. Expose it to every ray of light in 
autumn; refrain from watering much after September; give 
scarcely a drop in winter; keep the plant at the warmest 
end; damp its leaves now and then in sunshine; and by 
April and May renew the waterings, and the flowers will j 
make their appearance. The compost for Camellias will do.] | 
CURING A SMOKING FLUE.—PORTABLE STOVES- | 
“Being very fond of plants, I have erected a small green¬ 
house in my back yard, which is at present heated by a flue, ! 
but am sadly plagued with the smoke getting inside the j 
house, besides some of my neighbours grumbling at the j 
smoke from the chimney as a nuisance. 
“I have seen, at different times, Joyce’s and Carman’s i 
Patent Stoves advertised in your valuable paper, The Cottage ; 
Gardener. Would one of them suit me ? Do both require 
patent fuel? Would they keep the smoke out of the house ? j 
and if so, which is considered the best ? Perhaps some of . 
your readers may have tried them, and could give the inform- 
ation. 
“I have some double White Camellias, which, a month : 
back, had commenced swelling their buds very nicely; but ! 
now every one has dropped off. Would smoke do it? or too j 
much dampness? Standing on tbe same shelf, I have some 
variegated ones that have not shed a single bud.—A Working 
Man, but an Anxious Amateur.” 
[Tbe smoko would not get into your house if the joints 
of the flue wore properly laid in soft well-made lime 
mortar. Your neighbours would have little reason to 
grumble if you used broken coke instead of coals ; and in 
cither case, keep the burnt fuel forwards, and the fresh fuel 
behind, and part of the smoke will be consumed before it 
can reach the chimney-vent. Of course, you have a rise of 
a foot or s» more from the bottom of the furnace to the 
bottom of the flue. We can give you no encouragement to 
try any of the stoves to which you refer. Human lungs are 
sensitive enough; but stoves that will do in a shop or ware¬ 
house, we have found ruinous in a shut-up greenhouse. 
The smoke would injure your Camellia-buds; so would extra 
damp, without a sufficiency of heat and air; so would too 
many buds being left. We have treated two plants similarly 
alike, thus far differently :—One was left with buds thick¬ 
set, and they nearly all dropped ; the other had its buds 
well thinned, and every one left, bloomed, and expanded in 
perfection.] 
CUTTING DOWN POINSETTIA PULCHERRIMA.— 
RED SPIDER IN CUCUMBER HOUSE. 
“You will oblige by stating in the next Number the best 
time to cut down Poinsettia jmlchcrrima. One more question ; 
that is on Cucumbers. There is here a stove, and inside, 
along the back, a narrow border about fifteen inches broad, 
same in depth, and underneath the soil runs a flue with a 
tank of water upon it covered with slates. Now, when the 
Cucumbers were planted they did well for a short time, and 
then began to die off. They soon were attacked by the Red 
Spider and Thrip. Should you think it injurious either to 
Pines or Vines, if I was to paint the wall over with gas-tar, 
on the back ?—J. R.” 
[You may cut down Poinsettia pulchcrrima any time after 
it has done blooming; but we prefer allowing the plants to 
stand thick together and rather dry until spring. We do 
not think the roots of Cucumbers are injured by too much 
heat, in the circumstances, more probably at this season by 
too little. Sulphur fumes and the syringe are the worst 
friends tho Red Spider has ; but if you rub sulphur on the 
flue, put it at the farthest end of the house, and see that 
it is not hotter than about 50°, and thence to 00°. We do 
not think that the gas-tar would injure the Vines in a state 
of rest, as tho fumes would be gone before they broke; but 
we should not like to try such an experiment with anything 
living and growing—plant, or animal.] 
HINTS ON THE PRESERVATION OF OBJECTS 
OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
{Continued from page 250.) 
Skinning and Preserving Birds. 
When a bird is killed, stop its mouth and nostrils with 
tow or cotton. The covering of the seeds of Comphocarpus, 
