May 8.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
85 
this scheme here to our perfect satisfaction, and no plant 
subjected to the ordeal seems to be the least hurt by it. 
| Some years since, I used to make Cayenne pepper for the 
! use of a family by grinding Chilies, or Chili Capsicum, 
of our own growth, as, according to the Lancet, nothing 
of that sort can be had genuine otherwise; and having 
contracted a relish for the article before curry powder 
was recommended for cold stomachs, I contrived to have 
some genuine Cayenne always in the house, and having 
no Capsicums when the receipt appeared in our pages, 
I used the powder of Capsicum or Cayenne instead, first 
putting a small dose under a bell-glass with three little 
tops of rose shoots covered with green flies, but their 
greenness was soon over. A damp hothouse charged 
with this stuff, and shut quite close, is enough to kill a 
Turk or a Cossack, let alone flies; and I would advise 
every one who grows plants, to grow abundance of the 
common large Capsicums this season; dry them well 
when they are ripe, pass them through a coffee mill, and 
bag for future use, instead of the nasty tobacco, which 
makes one’s hair stand on end to think of it. 
Seedlings thin. —Sow thickly and thin in time, is one 
of the golden rules in our line; and, of all the months 
in the year, May is the real time to thin seedlings, and 
you should never thin anything that is choice in dry 
weather, because then the thinnings cannot well be trans¬ 
planted, and, also, the disturbing the surface of a row or 
bed of seedlings might cause more harm than good. If 
dry weather prevails, and seedlings get too much crowded, 
first water the bed well with a rose pot, and, after thin¬ 
ning, water again, but more slightly, to settle down the 
surface between the plants. Begin to water anything 
which you think must needs he watered in dry weather 
before the ground gets quite dry ; to put off watering as 
long as one can, and then to be obliged to do it at last, 
often does more harm than good, by causing young 
sucking roots to be formed quite near the surface, which 
cannot stand two days without being hand-fed, and if 
the plants have got into the habit of trusting to such 
surface-roots for their principal nourishment, away they 
i go, also, under a sudden drought, and you see no more 
of them. 
Double Yiolets. —Be sure and have a fresh supply 
of them, before the month is out, from cuttings or 
runners, or by dividing old plants, and taking the out¬ 
side or younger pieces, as either of these methods will 
answer. A kind gentleman, in the west of England, 
sent me a most extraordinary flower of a violet the other 
day; it was a lusus natures, as he called it; that is, a 
freak of nature — a monster like a calfs snout, or 
Antirrhinum flower, as nearly as could be. 
From the tenth to the twentieth of May is the right 
time to sow in the open ground a large bed of Chtna 
Asters, to flower in the autumn, after being transplanted 
two or three times, and of all plants they are the easiest 
to remove from place to place, up to the very time they 
are in full bloom, so that, independently of their use in 
mixed beds or borders, they come in very handy towards 
the end of August, to fill up whole beds that are getting 
seedy by that time in most gardens. Viscaria oculata, 
one of the very best of our hardy annuals, is just as 
accommodating as the Asters, and may be transplanted 
when it is in full bloom; if you sow it any day in May, 
after the fourteenth, transplant it twice or three times, 
in any out of the way place, it will come in for use for 
the flower-beds or borders, from the middle of August 
till the frost comes. Lobelia ramosa is another most 
lovely blue flower, that may be treated in all respects as 
the Viscaria and the Asters, only that it is safest to sow 
it under a frame or a hand-glass, as the seeds are so 
small that a heavy shower might wash them down too 
deep, or out of the ground. A bed of the Swan River 
Daisy ( Brachycotne ) sown in March, will generally get 
shabby early in September, but a reserve lot of this 
Lobelia comes in at once to fill up the bed next day, 
and be in full bloom too. A bed of mixed Brachycome 
answers remarkably well, and gives one an idea of a bed 
of Cinerarias. D. Beaton. 
THE ROSARY. 
Supporting Tree Roses. —There is no accounting 
for tastes; and so long as Tree Roses are fashionable, 
gardeners must continue to grow them, and look after 
them. In a great many places they are stuck and dotted 
about lawns and the sides of walks in the most approved 
J mop-and-handle fashion; constituting, unless for the 
short time they are in bloom, objects of ugliness rather 
than beauty. Even when in bloom, they are only 
stilted things at best, with heads little more than a foot 
in diameter. In our opinion, Tree Roses are only objects 
of beauty and in harmony, in a dressed lawn or flower- 
garden. First, when the heads assume a conical ap¬ 
pearance, and are at least from three to six feet in 
diameter, masses of bloom, rather than individual fine 
flowers, being aimed at; secondly, when Roses of a 
drooping character, and with flexible shoots, are chosen, 
bedded high, and allowed to droop umbrella fashion, 
but not stiffly, to the ground; or, thirdly, when arranged 
in groups, the tallest in the centre, and mixed with, or, 
at least, having taller and lower dwarfs for the circumfer¬ 
ence. The effect in any one of these cases is very different, 
from seeing a number of whip-handle like briars, with 
small heads of Roses, studded here and there without 
order or method. For any, or all these modes of using 
Tree Roses, they will require, until they are very strong, 
if not always, to be securely supported. Almost every 
mode of doing this by wooden stakes, surmounted with 
a rim to tie the shoots to, is insecure, troublesome, and 
rather unpleasant in its appearance. Having strong 
winds to contend with, and, at one time, a goodly num¬ 
ber of Tree Roses, I used round iron rods, tapering from 
an inch and more at the base, to half an inch and less 
in diameter at the top. These rods were of different 
leugths, generally from three to six feet. From the base 
of the rod, three horns, at an equal distance from each 
other, proceeded horizontally for a foot or fifteen inches, 
and then, from each of these, tines, bent perpendicularly 
into the soil to the depth of fifteen or eighteen inches. 
The rods were securely fastened before the Rose was 
planted. The tines and the cross horizontal pieces 
being under the soil, and the space between them firmly 
packed, there could he no danger from wind, so long as 
the heads of the plant were small; nor yet in any case 
! in sheltered places. To secure them still further, how¬ 
ever, and allow for large massive heads, the upper end 
i of the rod or stake, for a couple of inches, was made 
' square, the point being about the quarter of an inch, 
! and widening backwards. A frame was made to fit this 
square part by welding two rods of iron, or of strong 
wire, three-eighths of an inch in diameter, at right angles 
with each other, beating them flat at the point of 
juncture, and piercing there with a square hole, to fit 
the top of the stake. The length of the rods will give 
you the diameter of the frame. From two to four feet 
will be a good size, unless you wish for a regular | 
drooping umbrella, when it may he nearly as much 
more. The rods should be bent downwards from the 
middle, to give it a slightly circular appearance. A 
strong wire should go round the outside, and be fastened 
to the four points of the principal rods with small wire. 
Finer wire than that round the outside may be placed 
in circles at six inches apart from each other, and here, 
too, fastened to the main rods. A tap with a hammer 
fixes your frame on the top of the stake; and when you 
wish to move it, for the purpose of exchanging it or 
! otherwise, a tap with a hammer upwards, after untying 
