18 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
April 14. 
eager and admiring eyes, and objects of the most beau¬ 
tiful of nature’s productions to gratify them. Whether 
it is the great change from what we have been accus¬ 
tomed to for some months past, or the effect which a 
return of spring and its associations call forth, we do 
not pretend to say; but we have felt, during the last 
few days, that we never saw a sight so fresh and fair as 
we have enjoyed during our visits to this scene of 
enchantment. We have already forgotten all about the 
frost and the snow, the hail and the sleet, which but 
the other day chilled and pelted us; and one feels in 
these visits as if we had for ever been living in a per¬ 
petual summer of beauty and sunshine. 
The Flowers and Bouquets with which the market is 
now so abundantly supplied are of the very choicest 
description. To describe how they look, and the effect 
they produce, would be almost as impossible as to 
describe the finest and most pleasurable feelings that 
ever were called forth by the highest gratification 
which the heart ever experienced. But, perhaps, we 
are too ecstatic; all our readers may not feel under such 
circumstances as we do. These plants and flowers, 
however, are the only attraction the market presents. 
The fruit is poor, except some forced Grapes and Straw¬ 
berries, and of these there are some very fine specimens. 
We must not, however, forget to notice a splendid col¬ 
lection of very fine cut blooms of Roses, from the great 
Rose-nursery of Messrs. Lave, of Berkhampstead. There 
they are in the beauty of summer, as fresh and beautiful 
as if it were June or July. 
Vegetables are very scarce, as they have been for 
some weeks past, and as they are likely to be for some 
time to come. There are, however, some good specimens 
of Lettuce, forced, of course; and also a few very good 
Cucumbers. H. 
GOSSIP AND GLEANINGS. 
A correspondent (Amellus) wilting of Bulb culture, says 
“ Whenever I have flowered Crinum revolutum, it has 
been in the greenhouse, suspended, with a pan under it 
always kept full of water. 
“Temperature, I am convinced, has much to do with 
the Belladonnas. In Devon, their dry season is often a 
very wet one, and yet the Belladonnas flower regularly 
and plentifully. Begin to protect your leafing plants early 
enough ; indeed, as soon as they show leaf. A top light 
alone is necessary to prevent radiation and to admit 
light at the same time, It is a good general rule to put 
on the lights when the plants ought to be resting, and 
take them off when they ought to show flowers, as the 
leaves in some individuals will remain green till they 
show flower, and a wet summer time is the principal 
thing to be guarded against. 
“ A Spreltelia, called Karwinslcii, had a brighter co¬ 
loured flower, and more tending to scarlet. It bloomed 
earlier than others put in at the same time ; this might 
have been accidental. 
“ In the spring, pull out of the mass of Zephyranthes 
Candida from six to a dozen of the largest bulbs; pot 
these at once, say an incli-and-a-half apart till the pot 
is filled ; plunge the pot in saw-dust, or the open ground, 
in an open situation, and let it remain till flowers appear. 
A few flowers will appear the first autumn. Winter in 
a cold frame, and in the spring give exposure as before. 
The next autumn the pot will be just full of roots and 
bulbs, and these will flower jirofusely, so as to look 
almost like a fine primrose in April. The buds rise 
almost simultaneously, and rapidly some day when we 
are not thinking of their coming. They will never 
flower thus in the same pot again. A succession, there¬ 
fore, is necessary. A shift does not appear to be of the 
same efficacy, as bulbs and roots must be just so much 
crowded and no more." [This is an excellent suggestion. 
—Ed. C. G.] 
No variety of fowl seems so liable to vagaries in laying 
as the Shanghae. We had a letter from Mr. Horncastle, 
of Gray’s, the other day, stating that one of his liens 
had laid a perfect egg with another perfect egg within 
it. We have seen a hen lay one perfect and one shell¬ 
less egg in rapid succession. We have another hen 
which usually lays a double-yolked egg once or twice a 
week, weighing more than 3J ozs., but then she misses 
laying the day following. We have already published 
one well-authenticated instance of a hen frequently 
laying three eggs in the course of the day, and now we 
have another instance, as is thus stated to us by Miss 
A. M. Goold, of Dree Hill, Tyrone:— 
“A Shanghae hen of mine laid, last week, three eggs in 
the four-and-twenty hours ; two were hard, the third a large 
soft one. She had previously laid twenty-six eggs in twenty- 
seven days, and, after resting two days, has began to lay an 
egg each day. She was hatched last April, being one from 
a set of eggs Mr. Punchard sent me. She began to lay in 
December, but I did not at first count the eggs, as other 
hens were laying with her; but at the time she laid the 
three eggs all the others were sitting. She will not be a 
year old till the 6th of next month. She is very large, and 
differs from any other hen in having very long ear-lobes. I 
have written this account as another proof of the extreme 
fertility of these beautiful birds.” 
In answer to a query we ventured to address to Miss 
Goold, relative to her hen laying three eggs in a day, she 
has favoured us with this reply :— 
“ I am quite positive as to the fact of the hen laying the 
three eggs in the twenty-four hours, and for this reason, 
that it was the only one lay ing, my four other hens had been 
sitting on eggs above twelve days. My old servant was the 
first to discover the fact, and she was afraid to tell me, for 
she thought the poor hen had been charmed by a Banshee* 
and that it would never again lay an egg. Pier droll super¬ 
stition has, however, been dispelled, for the bird lays one 
every morning. It rested two days after laying the three eggs, 
i'orty-one eggs in forty-one days, and not likely to stop.” ° 
Last week there was an advertisement in our columns 
of Garden Labels, which have since been tested slightly 
by exposing them to sunshine and rain for several days, 
and by these they seem unaffected. They are made of 
Gutta Percha, and are attached to the tree or plant by 
Gutta Percha thread, which does not decay, nor is it 
hard enough to chafe the plant. The name of the plant 
is stamped upon the label. We are assured that they 
have been extensively and satisfactorily used near 
Colchester. 
* Banshees are little old women that live in no very well-defined place 
in the air. 
