206 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 16. 
ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 
I am glad to see attention drawn to the culture of Aspa¬ 
ragus. I have just had pricked out 250 seedlings, where¬ 
with to try experiments. My object is to prolong the 
| season hy forcing and retarding. The result, if I live, you 
shall know. An old Clergyman whom I knew, grew asparagus 
i in the same bed for thirty years ; liberal treatment in giving 
and taking was the only secret, and the bed never seemed 
likely to decay under his management. 
I am sure that the high-mounded beds are meant only for 
heavy and wet soils. I have thrown up no mould on mine 
for two years, and this season I have had no stalks cut 
thinner than my little linger (a lady once told me, my fin¬ 
gers were all thumbs), nor any with less than four inches of 
green. My soil is a hungry sand. In November, I lay on 
about four inches thick of the richest stuff from the bottom 
of my dung-pit; rake off the straw about the end of March, 
and very lightly fork over the beds. Sigjia. 
SHANGHAE POULTRY SALES—REES. 
I think a caution would save some of your subscribers a 
great deal of anxiety, trouble, and expense, about their 
Shangliae fowls which they intend to sell. I have attended 
Mr. Stevens’s twice, the 3rd and 31st of May, and on both 
occasions find that dark-coloured birds do not sell at any¬ 
thing like the prices of light-coloured fowls, and, in numerous 
cases, they did not sell at all. The average prices of dark 
birds are from Cs. to 12s., and very rarely higher. Euff, 
with clean or unfeatliered legs, sell for about the same prices. 
It is only the very light-coloured birds, well-feathered on the 
legs, and of extra size and shape, that bring from At to 
.£30 or A‘40, according to merit. 
There is also another point not to be forgotten, that even 
a dark hackle round the neck detracts considerably from 
the value of the light-coloured birds. If what I have written 
be correct, it leads to the supposition that Shanghae fowls 
are in future to be considered more as a fancy fowl than for 
any particular good quality they possess; because we should 
expect a dark bird to lay as many and as large eggs as the 
light birds, and for table use dark poultry generally has the 
best coloured flesh. For instance, the Spanish fowl, and 
black Turkeys, are always considered to produce the whitest 
and best-looking flesh on the table. What, then, but mere 
fancy, can lead us to pay so much more for light Shanghaes, 
in preference to dark ones, seeing that neither a dark- 
coloured plumage, nor feathers on the legs, nor a dark 
hackle on the neck, can make any difference in the taste of 
the flesh, or the number or quality of eggs laid. 
In conclusion, let me warn your readers, that though they 
may have first-rate birds, they must not expect to obtain 
within thirty or forty per cent, of the prices realised by such 
breeders as Messrs. Sturgeon, Fletcher, and others, who 
have a fame for these birds. Now, I am not wishing to 
run down the Shanghaes, but my object is rather to show 
your readers that none but really first-rate, light-coloured 
birds, and well-feathered on the legs, will sell at anything 
like prices they may have been led to expect, and that ere 
long we must expect a considerable decline in prices, except 
for very choice specimens. 
Mr. Payne will, I have no doubt, wish to hear when the 
first swarms of bees come out this year. A neighbour had a 
swarm on the 20th of May, and T was told of one on the 
25th of May. I have not seen a drone yet in my own stock. 
Any one visiting Guilford, and having half-an-honr to 
spare, should call upon Mr. Whitburn, butcher, Spital-street, 
and ask for permission to see his garden, which I know he 
will have much pleasure in showing, and most visitors will 
be very much surprised to see. It is very small, but full of 
choice plants, and kept in such a manner as to he a lesson 
to any gardener. He has a Wisteria sinensis now (June 3) 
in full bloom. We counted fifteen bunches of bloom hanging- 
down in one cluster, and there are dozens such. He has 
also a plant of Tropceolum Jarratlii in full bloom, which has 
been in the open ground two months, and he has been 
trying several years to make this a hardier plant, but he has 
not yet succeeded to his wish. His manner of treating 
Fuchsias, Verbenas, Geraniums, and other tender plants, in 
winter, would, I think, interest you much, and would be 
worth knowing to those having only a limited space for that 
purpose. August and September he considers his best 
show months.—J. Newlane. 
SEA WEEDS.—No. 3. 
Having spoken in the preceding chapter of the three | 
classes of Sea Weeds as distinguished by their colour—the 
Melanospemiecc , or Olive-coloured, the Rhodospermew, or ; 
Pied, and the Chlorospermete, or Green—I shall, in this 
paper, speak of the order Fucace.e. “ Olive-coloured Sea 
Weeds, inarticulate, and whoso spores are contained in 
spherical cavities immersed in the substance of the frond.” 
The root is generally a disk; the fronds, olive-brown or 
olive-green, when living, hut very dark, or almost black, 
when dry. “This order,” says Dr. Harvey, “is much the 
most extensive among Melanosperms, comprising within its 
limits upwards of two hundred and thirty species. 
“ The British species are but fourteen, and yet they cover 
more surface of tidal rocks than all the other Alg<c put 
together. They are the most valuable of marine plants: 
the decayed fronds are used for manure; kelp is procured 
from their ashes; they are the chief source of iodine ; and 
several afford a grateful winter pasturage to the herds of 
cattle along the inclement shores of northern Europe.” 
The British genera are Saryassnm, Halidrys, Cystoseira, 
Pycnophycus, Fucus, and Himanihalia. 
SARGASSUM. 
The Sargassums can scarcely he called British, being only 
now and then cast upon our shores. The species are chiefly 
natives of the tropics. The Gulf Weed, which was so 
striking to Columbus and his companions, making the ocean 
appear like a meadow, is Saryassnm bacciferum, which, 
strange to say, has never been found growing, but floating 
about in the deep sea. In a packet of weeds which I received 
some time ago from Jaffa, were specimens of Saryassnm 
vulyare (Common), and Saryassnm linifolinm (Flax-leaved). 
Many of these specimens, when floated,* were disposed of 
for the benefit of the descendants of those to whom the Holy 
Land once belonged, and who shall yet again possess it. 
To return to a description of the Fucacew. The first 
species is Saryassnm vnlyare. — Ay. — Stem flat, slender, 
alternately branched; leaves linear, lanceolate, serrated, 
dotted with mucous pores; air-vessels few, spherical, on 
flat stalks; receptacles cylindrical, branched. Occasionally 
cast on our shores. 
Saryassnm bacciferum (Berry-hearing).—Stem cylindrical, 
slender, much branched, flexuose; leaves linear, serrated, 
mostly without pores; air vessels abundant, spherical, on 
cylindrical stalks; receptacles unknown. Occasionally driven 
ashore like the preceding, together with cocoa-nuts and 
other tropical productions. 
HALIDRYS. 
“ Frond compressed, linear, pinnated, with distichous 
branches; air-vessels lanceolate, stalked, divided into several 
cells hy transverse partitions ; receptacles terminal, stalked, 
cellular, pierced by numerous pores, which communicate 
with immersed, spherical conceptacles. Name from two 
Greek words, signifying the sea and an oak or tree.” 
Haliduys Siliquosa (Podded).—Branches linear, very 
narrow; air-vessels compressed, linear, lanceolate ; slightly 
constricted at the septa (partitions); mucronate (having a 
small projecting point); variety /3. minor, smaller in every 
part, with fewer vesicles. On rocks and stones in the sea 
—common on the British shores. Perennial;—winter and 
spring. Air-vessels resembling pods, whenco the specific 
name. 
CYSTOSEIRA.— Ay. 
Fronds much branched, occasionally leafy at base; 
branches becoming more slender upwards, and containing 
strings of simple air-vessels within their substance ; recep¬ 
tacles terminal, small, cellular, pierced by numerous pores, 
* A technical term for arranging. They have to be floated in water 
before they can be spread on paper. 
