THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 7. 
COVENT GARDEN. 1 
! We cannot expect to have any alteration in the state of 
the markets for some time to come. Everything remains 
in the same stato as when we last reported. There has 
i been a few Early Peas from Portugal during the week, 
which realized 80s. per peck. Forced Strawberries may 
! be had at 3s. an ounce, but all other fruit is scarco, and 
■ realizes high prizes. Forced Grapes make from 20s. 
( to 25s. per pound. Dessert Apples 10s. to 15s. per 
bushel; and culinary sorts from 7s. Gd. to 12s. Good 
i Potatoes are scarce, the best fetching £8 per ton. 
Plants are short on account of the frost, but cut 
flowers are rather plentiful; they are chiefly Camellias, 
Roses, Geraniums, Heaths, Tulips, Crocus, Epacns, 
Cinerarias, Violets, and Hyacinths. II. 
GOSSIP AND GLEANINGS. 
In a former volume we gathered together such frag¬ 
ments of the biography of the Tradescants as time had 
spared, and industry had discovered. Among these 
fragments was this one from the churchwarden’s 
accounts of St. Mary’s, Lambeth. 
“1037-8. Item. John Tradeskin : ye gret bell and black 
cloth. 5s. 4d.” 
This was believed to relate to the burial of Trades- 
cant, the elder, and the belief is sustained by the sub¬ 
sequent discovery of his will. In this document, 
according to a writer in “ Notes and Queries,” ho is 
described as “ John Tradcscant, of South Lambeth, co. 
Surrey, gardener.” The will is dated January 8, 1G37, 
and proved May 2, 1G38. It sets forth that the younger 
Tradescant was his only child, and that the latter, at 
the date of the will, had two children, John and 
Frances Tradescant. His son was the residuary legatee, 
with a proviso, that if he should desire to part with, or 
sell his cabinet, the celebrated “ Tradescant’s Ark of 
Curiosities,” he should first offer the same to the Prince. 
His brother-in-law, Alexander Norman, and Mr. William 
Ward, were the executors, and proved the will. The 
testator held the lease of some property at Woodham 
Water, in Essex, and two houses in Long Acre, and 
Covent Garden. (Notes and Queries, vii. 295.) 
We are glad to learn that a Poultry Show on a more 
extended scale than that of last year is to be hold this 
winter at Taunton, and a preliminary meeting for 
establishing one at Yeovil has been held. 
Not only has tho temperature of the air, but the 
temperature of the earth, during the last two months, 
tended to keep vegetation backward. In February, at one 
foot below the surface, at Chiswick, the earth was 3£ 
degrees colder than the average of the preceding cloven 
years, and at two feet, nearly two degrees colder. In 
March, at the same depths, the earth was about 2], and 
a A degrees colder than that average. 
A correspondent and first-rate gardener, who must ho 
j known to our readers, however, only as Amellus, has 
| favoured us with the following “ drops and snatches of 
j good things ”— 
3 
“ What a glorious plant tho hardy Dracana at Chiswick 
is ! It is a fit companion for the Titanic Pampas Grass. 
Colocasia edulis flourished with me in my out-door hotbed, 
and is probably not too tender to be very ornamental in 
summer, with the treatment of a Vegetable Marrow, or 
ridged Cucumber. Indeed, I could ensure it. I saw your 
hybrid Amaryllids, Josephines and Vallota , and have no doubt 
of the cross, but I thought the other parent had been 
Cyrtanthus.* The Vallota blood was evident to mo. 
“ Henderson has Monsonia speciosa, in his catalogue at 
any rate, and I have ordered a plant. Also Pelargonium 
erection , the best, I believe, of the Echinatum hybrids. 
Pelargonium echinatum , when taken into the temperate stove 
in late autumn, will flower nicely for a week or two. It will 
then grow on steadily and quietly through the winter, 
being kept as light and airy as is possible in such a house, 
but tho most singular part of its habit is to come. About 
this time in the spring it will begin to grow rapidly, and 
flower beautifully, producing seed too. In this growing 
state it will take strong shifts and rich soil. Moreover, 
every good shoot that you strike will go on as if on the 
parent plant, and flower in small pots. It is absolutely 
necessary, however, to strike them under a tight-fitting 
bell-glass, or Wardian case, and each in its own little pot. 
Unprotected they would lose the foliage, and take a long 
while to root. After flowering, the plant should be turned 
out like other plants, putting it in a double pot, i.e., one within 
another. They should be put at first in a close cold-frame 
to prevent the leaves falling, for I do not think a dry leaf¬ 
less rest is necessary. + Many plants will take their nap, 
and a healthy one, too, if in the open sun, wind, and rain, 
and will wake again sooner, and better than if kept “ per¬ 
fectly dry,” as the books call it; certainly better than in the 
“ dry state ” of the poor amateur, to wit, in an undrained 
pot of sour, clotted soil, in an apparently dry place in his 
greenhouse, under that wretched vine idol to which he 
annually sacrifices the pretty children of Flora that would 
otherwise adorn his house.” 
Another correspondent ( Highyatensis ) says :— 
“ I have sent you a sketch of an economical poultry foun¬ 
tain, for your cottage friends. I find it answer the purpose 
quite as well as the most expensive ones. The articles 
required are simply a flower 
pot and saucer. Detach a 
piece from the rim of a flower¬ 
pot, about three-quarters-of- an- 
inch deep, and one inch wide, 
plug the hole in the bottom 
of the pot with a piece of 
cork, fill the pot with water, 
placing the saucer on the top, 
then quickly turn the whole 
upside down, when the water 
will fill tho space in the saucer around the pot. The hole 
in the rim of the pot must not be quite so deep as the 
height of the side of the saucer, and the plug must be air 
light —that is the secret of success. It is easily cleaned, 
simple, and cheap, and no fear of the chickens dabbling 
in it.” 
PLANTING AN ORCHARD OR FRUIT GARDEN. 
* (Continued from page 498.) 
It will be remembered by the reader, that in the last 
paper the case of a Fruit Garden, within walls, was 
considered ; the object being to grow the greatest amount 
of good fruits and good vegetables in a given space; 
and such will, doubtless, suit a majority of our readers. 
As, however, a variety of other cases will occur, it will 
be well to view the question in our outset in as many 
phases as possible, in order that almost every variety of 
soil and contingency of circumstances may be met; and 
that this series of papers may form a tolerably compre¬ 
hensive guide. Not every one can lay hold of a plot for 
* There are crosses from Josephines and Cyrtanthus, by the pollen of 
Vallota. 
t It is through over-drying that so many fail to bloom and seed it.—B. 
