THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[May 8. 
90 
of its situation, or there is need to increase it, then up with 
the whole plant, and divide its crowns, with the fingers 
and thumb, into as many pieces as are required, selecting 
one of the best pieces for the border again, and inter¬ 
change its spot with some other plant, its equal in height and 
colour. If not convenient to change the spot, then change 
the earth, adding with it a little turfy loam and leaf-mould, 
and it will be all the better if a little peat be mixed up with 
it. The long, stringy, and fibrous roots should never be 
cut, or otherwise injured at the times of border dressing. 
Melixta grandiflora. —This species, or variety of the 
preceding, requires precisely the same treatment, but is a 
very much nobler looking plant, and is altogether of a 
lighter hue, with very large whitish-purple and violet- 
coloured fiowers. It is, also, more upright in its growth, 
but rises to about the same height. Both of them flower 
in May and June; and both I have lifted into pots when in 
’ full bloom, without injury to the plant in any way. 
Betonicas. —These, also, belong to the natural order of 
Lipworts; and the whole genus are pretty ornamental 
border flowers, not excepting our English one, B. officinalis, 
j when singled out into a buuch in the border. All of them 
will flourish in any good garden-soil, and grow from nine 
inches to a foot high. The best of them is B. grandiflora, 
being not only the largest grower, but the largest flowered. 
It grows from one foot to fifteen inches in height, producing 
an abundance of large light blue flowers ; and in well-kept 
rich borders the plant increases fast, so that it should be 
taken up and divided every two or three years at farthest, 
to keep the plant to the mark of perfection. It dies entirely 
down in winter, which is not the case with many other of the 
species of this family, but it affords a good reason for labels 
being always placed with the plants, so as to know where to 
find them at any time. This beautiful plant flowers in May 
and June. 
Prunellas belong to the natural order Lipworts, and 
pretty little interesting plants they are, as front border or 
rock plants; for scarcely any of them rise more than six or 
eight inches in height, except one which is called P. pensyl- 
vanica. This is the noblest species of the whole family, 
being twelve inches high, and a profuse bloomer. The 
flowers are very large, of light blue colour. Its chief time 
of flowering is June and July, but by keeping the old flower 
j stems cut away, the plants will throw up others till the end 
of autumn. This is a spreading plant, therefore it should 
be taken up, divided into moderate-sized pieces, and re¬ 
planted every year. Any common soil suits it, and it would 
be excellent for rather a cool situation, because this would 
lengthen its season of flowering. The next best species is 
P. hyssopifolia. This is a pretty, little, upright-growing, 
j freely-flowering plant, and requires to be treated much the 
J same as the last-mentioned species. Its light blue flowers 
appear from July to September. P. grandiflora is also a 
desirable plant, but though so called, it is not nearly equal 
! to the first-mentioned species.—T. Weaver. 
MILDNESS OF THE PAST SEASON. 
I do not know whether it is worth mentioning, but as an 
indication of the extraordinary nature of the past season, it 
may be so, that in one garden, which is in the part of Bedford¬ 
shire, close upon Dunstable, plants of verbena and calceo¬ 
laria have remained in the borders undestroyed. Crocuses 
and snowdrops were in bloom in January. Hepaticas, double 
j wallflowers, Van Thol tulips, anemones, daffodils, polyanthus 
• narcissus, Virginian stock, polyanthuses, besides snowdrops, 
and crocuses of all colours, which came up later, now deck 
| the borders, and most of them have done so for three weeks 
I past, if not more. Nectarine blossom, is here and there 
open. Pear blossom beginning to develope itself into its 
single component buds. Roses in such a state, that if we 
have sharp cutting weather, our chance of bloom will be 
very bad, except with the autumnal ones. Jacques 
Lapile, and La Reine, and Barrone Prevost, in the state 
they would usually be found in the early part of May; and, 
which I forgot to mention before, Erysimum Perofskiannm, 
in flower; this latter it is a great mistake to call an annual, 
as many do. Pheasant's eye, and potentilla, have also been 
gathered in the garden, and the common shrubby white 
candytuff, I think it is (the folks here call it “ Marry-rae- 
quick”), is in flower in large bunches.—T. H. Ii., March list. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Greenhouse and Vinery (it. 0.).—This is 16 ft. by 12 ft. against a 
south wall. If you mean to plant your vines outside, then the position 
of your doorway, two feet from the front wall, will answer well. If you 
design to plant them inside of the house, and close to the front wall, so 
that the roots may find their way out through arches, then we would 
borrow half a foot more ; and then, supposing you have a nine-inch or a 
foot flue, you can have a little border between it and the front wall in 
which to plant your vines. We say this, because your flue will be most 
effectual if it passes along the front of your house; eighteen inches from 
the front wall, if you plant vines inside; and a few inches, if the vines are 
to be planted outside. We like the first best, but then your border inside 
must be higher than that outside. The fire-place may either be at the 
front or back; it is generally more out of the way in the latter. If you 
sink your stoke-hole deep enough, you need not have your flue above 
ground until you pass the end and get to the front of the house, and this 
will prevent the necessity of sinking it at the pathway. If you mean to 
have a pathway right through your house, with a door at each end, then 
the flue must sink at the pathway; but if you have only one door, then 
continue the flue round the end, and let it either rise there into a chim¬ 
ney, or be returned along the back wall and let it ascend above the fur¬ 
nace, through, across the ends, and along the front is quite sufficient for 
such a house. The making of flues, &c., has several times been refer¬ 
red to. 
Portullaca (Sarah). —You may transplant this to a sunny knoll in 
the beginning of June. 
Verbenas and Petunias (Ibid). —We shouldnot like to risk these in 
the beginning of May, unless we could screen them at first. We prefer 
I letting the first dozen of days go past, preferring security to haste. 
Camellia done Flowering (Ibid). —As you have no greenhouse, 
keep it in the window, and give little air until it has made fresh shoots ; 
then give more air by degrees, and when the shoots are a little firm, set 
the plant out of doors in a shady place, and house it again before winter. 
Oleander and Crassula (Ibid). —These will flower in your window, 
but you must recollect that it is only the shoots that are made in one 
year that bloom the next. After June, set the Oleander in a position out 
of doors slightly screened from the sun; give the Crassula, after the 
same period, all the sun you can 
Azaleas not Flowering (A Weekly Reader). —These will flourish 
in heath soil only, a little gravel along with it will do them no harm. 
Very likely they are over-potted, at any rate they had better be reshifted 
in sandy peat, kept close and warm afterwards, and syringed and well 
watered to encourage growth ; then, in about six weeks, give air, first 
rather sparingly and then abundantly, and ultimately set them to rusti¬ 
cate in a rather open but shaded place out of doors, and get them housed 
in October. 
Dielytra spectabilis (Ibid). —This is supposed to be quite hardy. 
When grown as a greenhouse plant, it should be kept rather dry all the 
winter, and when it begins to push, it may be either top-dressed or re¬ 
shifted. If shifting is delayed, the flower racemes will be injured. Hence 
it is as well to shift before growth commences, and then the roots get 
into the fresh soil at once. Propagate by division of the root; by young 
shoots in sandy soil, taken off as mentioned to-day for Erythrina ; by 
cuttings of the stems after flowering, and very likely by seeds. The cut¬ 
tings are very apt to damp if not looked after. Sandy loam is better than 
sand alone, and no higher temperature than the plants were growing in ; 
cover with a glass, but not close. 
Nemophila (H. W., a Subscriber from the Beginnhig). —Your 
Nemophila with maroon-coloured flowers, and small white blotches, is 
unknown to us; but it is almost impossible to tell what a plant is by 
mere description. We should say, from experience in other plants, that 
yours is a new hybrid. Will you oblige us by sending us a flower when 
you have one in bloom ? Nemophila aurita is blue. 
Ipomea Burridgii and Dicksonii (J. W. F., Tavistock). —These 
are mere varieties, though very beautiful ones, of I. major. They require 
to be struck from cuttings to be quite certain of the varieties. They are 
hardy enough to grow in the open air during the summer months, but, 
like their parent, do better if sown in a gent e hotbed in March, and 
transplanted in the open border in May. They will bloom very well if 
potted into 8-inch pots, trained to a trellis, and kept in the greenhouse 
to bloom and produce seed. 
Pit Heated by Dung (A. G.). —The best way to make you under¬ 
stand Mr. Appleby’s meaning in the article you refer to, which appeared 
in No. 126, page 335, will be to give you the dimensions of the pits he 
describes.—The space they stand upon is 32 feet long and 15 feet wide ; 
the pits, or raised frames, are each 11 feet long and 5$ feet wide. The 
spaces between each pit or frame are filled with dung in a fermenting 
state. There are no back or front walls; the slates rest upon the end 
and central cross walls. The hollow spaces between the cross walls are 
filled with hot dung, which is renewed as the heat declines. Care must 
be taken that the dung lining outside reaches and is kept above the lower 
edge of the frame. This is to keep the heat from escaping from the 
under side of the slate. 
Bees (A Constant Reader, Sudbury). —The material of which the 
vessel is made in which honey is stored makes no difference whatever in 
its quality ; but if intended for sale, that in glass fetches the best price 
by 2d. or 3d. per pound. If the hive having comb at the top be of 
straw, put no bees into it; if of wood, see there are no moths in it, and 
if perfectly free from them, hive your swarm into it—the combs will be 
very acceptable to your bees, and a great help to them. 
Transplanting Hardy Annuals (W. K.). —All the hardy and half- 
hardy annuals will transplant, as we have often said ; their height and 
their colour you can easily see by referring to the index, or to The Dic¬ 
tionary, as you take it in. If we were to occupy space with repeating 
the same things over and over again, we should be of little use to you; 
nevertheless, if you make out a list of what you wish to grow, and 
number the names, we will give you the heights and the colours. 
Oxalis ( Royalist ).— Oralis purpurea, if you have it true, is quite 
hardy, and is a most beautiful thing for a patch on a narrow border, or in 
