280 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
self-sown plant wherever you will, at the border-dressing 
season, it may he taken up and planted again with the 
dibble in suitable places, after the borders are dug and 
made neat. There these plants not only flower early, but 
will, if well plucked from for nosegays (for which it is very 
desirable), continue to flower up to the end of the season, if 
not until Christmas; and the same plants thus flowering, 
will also mature a few pods of seeds during their season 
of growth, which, when ripe, should be collected from the 
plants ; seeds may be sown also in beds or otherwise about 
the end of March, and in April. The plants rise from two- 
and-a-half to three feet high. 
Hardy annuals. —The following are really first-rate among 
the very hardy kinds of annuals, and may be sown either in 
autumn or spring; that is, about the 12th of August, or 
during the month of April, and may be sown at both times 
in the open ground. 
Godetia Lindleyana, light red; and Eubicunda, red; Col- 
linsia bicolor, light red; Erysimum Perofskyanum, yellow; 
Iberia violacea, deep purple; I. nmbellata, pale purple; I. 
odorata, white; Gilia capitata, light blue; G. versicolor, light 
blue and purple; Clarkia pulchella, purple; and pulchella 
alba, white; and Fcedia gracilis, red. This short list are 
among the very best of the quite hardy kinds, and most 
useful for nosegay flowers. T. Weaves. 
DEVONSHIRE CROPS—TEAR TREE SHELTERS. 
As you desire to receive accounts of the fruit crops from 
different parts of the country, I sit down to tell you, with 
much regret, that such a fatal year in our gardens has not 
been known for many years. All our most desirable out¬ 
door fruits, peaches, apricots, plums, and pears, were stripped 
of their produce by the hailstones of May, although at that 
time they were well set, and most of them of the size of peas. 
Of other crops we have a fair show. I was peculiarly un¬ 
fortunate, for I had covered my peach trees and a consider¬ 
able number of Mr. Rivers’s pear trees, from the 1st day of 
February:—the bloom had been superb, and the fruit was 
well set when I removed the coverings in the middle of 
May, a few days before the hail-storms came and blighted 
my hopes for the year. No experience is so good as that 
which is dearly bought, and the first of June, please God, 
next year, shall still see my pet trees covered. 
Mr. Rivers will, perhaps, be glad to hear through you 
that I have invented a covering for his dwarf trees, which 
has completely saved the fruit of my friends, who were 
wiser than myself, and kept them up till after the hail¬ 
storms ; and, as I believe that it will enable the inhabitants 
of the more northern counties to ripen their pears with 
success, I will briefly describe it. Round the tree, I insert 
in the ground four stakes, just clear of the trees, when the 
buds begin to swell, and tie cross pieces at the top (leaving 
two or three inches projecting) to steady the others. On 
this top I fasten anything that will keep out the frost, can¬ 
vass, old carpet, Ac. I then procure some straw (reed we 
call it here) ready for thatching, and dividing it into parcels 
of eight or ten straws each, I tie these along a piece of tar 
cord (as you do the tail of a kite) within an inch of the cut 
end. I then hang the straw curtain all round the four 
stakes on the projecting points of the cross pieces, letting 
the head hang down, and to fasten this, I run round the four 
stakes, about three-fourths of the way down the straw, a 
piece of tar cord inside and then outside the straw, giving it 
a turn round each stake. By this means the straw and 
stakes are kept steady, and as the heads of the straw are 
not fastened together, I can open and shut these curtains 
just as I would bed-curtains, and tie them to the stakes to 
keep them open if I wish to do so. The great advantage of 
this covering is, that you may put it up in November, and 
have it there till June; ten minutes will open or shut the 
coverings of fifty trees; and the expense I calculated at 
about one penny for eacli tree of three feet high. I used for 
stakes the old scarlet runner sticks. The appearance is 
this, two sides being shown open, and two closed. 
I have, also, hit upon a plan, by which time, trouble, and 
money are saved in fumigating plants, which I have proved 
to be highly successful. I remove the plants infected with 
green fly to a shady part of the lawn, place them close 
together in the form of a parallelogram, pots touching; 
[July 31. 
drive into the grass five stakes, one at each comer, and one 
in the middle of all the pots, the exact height of the plants; 
cover this with a wet sheet, and inserting Brown’s fumigator 
under the sheet, fill the place with smoke; in three hours I 
uncover them, place them out singly on the lawn, water 
them with a little lime water to kill the green beasts on the 
surface of the pot, syringe them well all over with clean 
water, and replace them. As there is no spare room, and 
no smoke escapes, I find that one ounce of tobaccco does 
for this, much more effectually than when I used to spend 
half-a-pound two nights running to smoke my greenhouse. 
—Ponsonby A. Moo he, Bishop$teighton t South Devon. 
A FEW DAYS RAMBLE AMONGST THE ROSES, 
IN THE MIDLAND AND N0KTH-M1DLAND COUNTIES. 
Having for twenty years been an enthusiastic cultivator 
and admirer of the rose, I am induced to send you, from my 
diary, a copy of notes recently taken by me on this most 
interesting of all flowers, while on a short torn’ in this part 
of the country. 
We frequently hear of the far-famed Rose Gardens of 
Hertfordshire, and the great perfection in which they are 
there grown, but I have no doubt that many of your very 
numerous rose-loving readers, who are situated in the more 
northern parts of England, would like to hear what roses 
flourish the best in these less-favoured climates, for here 
many of the favourite Perpetuals, Tea, Bourbons, &c., 
flourish amazingly. 
We confess we were most agreeably surprised when calling 
at the Rose Gardens of Mr. Godwin, of the Collycuft 
Nursery, Ashbourne, to find so extensive a collection, in 
so comparatively isolated a situation, amongst the romantic 
hills of Derbyshire. 
Here we observed the far-famed Geant des Batailles in all 
its glory. Its extreme brilliancy, fine foliage, early and late 
flowering, render it one of the most valuable of roses; 
pegged down on its own roots for massing, or grown on two- 
feet stems, it is admirable. Barrone Prevost, and Duchess of 
Sutherland, were flowering remarkably strongly and finely; 
indeed, these two old favourites will take many new ones to 
beat them. Pius IX., amongst this class of Perpetuals, 
appears a free bloomer; it is a large imbricated rose, nearly 
as large as Prevost, but the colour, a deep purplish crimson, 
by no means bright, has no beauty, and only novelty to recom¬ 
mend it. Amandine was flowering beautifully; this is really a 
good rose, well-worth growing, as also, Sidone , Standard of 
Marengo, a delicate grower, fine colour, and tolerably fine 
flower, but a little more than semi-double. We consider 
Geant des Battailles worth a hundred of it. Due d’Alencon 
