240 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
June 30. 
/ 
of the greenhouses ; the two back petals are as in Unique, 
the other three are more of a rose colour. There was a 
very nice Berberis in flower against the conservatory 
wall, called Angulosa, which ought to be better known ; 
the flowers were in the same way, and nearly as elegant 
as those of Berberis Darwinii. Not far from it stood 
Gratccgus crenata, loaded with snow-white blossoms; 
but the name need not frighten one from placing this 
among choice, nearly-hardy shrubs, as it does not grow 
stronger than a Myrtle. Calgcotome spinosa, a yellow, 
Cytisus-looking shrub, was richly in bloom on the same 
wall; also Ceonothus dentatus, rigidus, and papilosus, 
all things of the first-water in their way. A Rose, called 
Compte Robrinshj, might be taken for a double Gloire 
de Rosamene, only not quite so high in colour. Saf- 
\ frano, flowering in a dwarf, stinted form. Adam, a fine 
| Rose, like the Malmaison Rose, was very beautiful, 
l A bed of the White Esclischoltzia looked much better 
[ than I expected it would. Aquilegia Californica must be 
I added to our list of best Columbines, purplish all over 
j it; and Aquilegia Skinner'll would make a new strain 
, by crossing. Beautiful specimens of the Lady Marg 
| Fox Geranium, in the greenhouse, looking just as gay 
j as any of the new sorts. The best variety of the shrubby 
j Calceolarias, for beds, was in the large conservatory— 
large specimens in pots—it is the nearest to the one 
I had at Slmibland Park, called Corymbosa; and here 
I met with a species of Cactus ( Cereus ), from Honduras, 
new to me, with a rich, shining, deep crimson flower, 
with three rows of petals, or seeming to be in three j 
i rows, and nearly as large a flower as any of the old tall 
' Cacti; it is a real good addition to this family of window j 
i plants. 14. Beaton. 
SHADING AND AIR-GIVING. 
Few things are more bewildering to young beginners 
in exotic plant cultivation than shading; and to 
amateurs, whose chief physical engagement is connected 
| with attention to their plants only on mornings and 
i evenings, there are few matters more marked by per- 
! plexing and uncheering disappointments. Gardeners, | 
i in large places, and men of business, with their pet j 
j single house, have often alike to complaiu of want of 
i thought, in the case of their, no doubt, well-meaning 
j coadjutors. Neglect of giving air early enough, and 
! then a burst of it, after the house has been steamed up 
i with sun-heat and vapour ever so high, will produce 
results, less or more analagous to pouring among pot 
plants a blast of hot air from a furnace, just in pro¬ 
portion to the difference in temperature and moisture 
inside and outside of the house. One of the best- 
known, and most successful gardeners of the day, told 
me, recently, of a splendid house of Grapes, the greater 
part of the bunches of which had been completely \ 
scorched from this cause alone. Air was neglected in a 
very bright day, and then a sudden rush admitted, tie 
aptly said—if the house had been shaded, plenty of 
moisture thrown about on paths, stages, &c., and then 
only a very little air given, when the house began to 
cool, the mischief would have been avoided. As a pre- 
| ventive remedy for all cases, and especially applicable 
to gentlemen who are absent from home during the 
day, and cannot depend thoroughly upon shading, 
nothing is so effectual as never taking the whole of the 
air away, night or day; or, if for the sake of heat, it is 
! removed at night, to be sure to give air at the back of 
the pit or house early in the morning. The heat of 
the house, from the power of the sun, thus increases 
gradually; there is no sudden accumulation of scalding 
vapour, and the strong constitution, from the low tem¬ 
perature at night, enables the plant to regale itself in a 
temperature at mid-day without any shade, which 
would be destructive to one coddled up in a high tem- j 
perature at night, or with air given at breakfast-time, 
after the sun has been playing on the glass for hours. 
This early or continuous air giving, is, therefore, to a 
great extent, a substitute for all the bother and litter of 
shading. We thus, likewise, in most cases, place the 
plants in the circumstances they would realise in their 
natural climates. This is a matter of importance to all 
our subscribers who follow gardening in large towns, i 
The night and morning air is ever the freest from sooty j 
exhalations. The more given then, the less will be re¬ 
quired during the day. Instead of a difference of some : 
five or ten degrees between the temperature of night 
and day, many of the plants we cultivate, enjoy, in their 
natural wilds, a difference of 30° or 40°. 
I fully acted on this principle when I gardened in 
London many years ago. Even then I could do no 
great things with Geraniums, Epacris, &c., without 
shading from very bright sun, and a very free appli¬ 
cation from the syringe at all times, .pist saving the 
bloom as much as possible. But I found little difficulty, 
except my comparative ignorance, with any plants re¬ 
quiring heat-—such as stove plants, cucumbers, melons, 
pines, vines, &c.; and these had seldom shading, except 
during sudden changes from dull to bright weather. 
During early spring, even in bright days, the air was 
not vastly increased, because it brought so much soot 
with it, but additional moisture was given to the atmo¬ 
sphere, and air was either left on all night, or given 
early in the morning. After shutting up early in an 
afternoon, I have often given a little air to the tops of 
all my sashes at bed-time, and increased that but little 
during the day, until the atmosphere of summer came. 
In a vinery, for instance, it was no uncommon thing 
to have a difference of 40° between the house at mid¬ 
night, or an hour or two after, and the same house, with 
a bright suu, in March or April, at noon—the tempera¬ 
ture ranging from 50° to 5o° in the one case, and from 
80° to 95° in the other. The fertility and luxuriance 
proved the treatment to be right. Such a difference 
taking place suddenly would have been ruinous with 
such a small amount of air and no shading: the air 
at night, or early in the morning, caused the tempera¬ 
ture to increase gradually. The expanding and assi¬ 
milating powers acted, therefore, in unison. No little 
money was also saved in fuel and shading-cloths. 
These remarks will meet the case of several recent 
inquiries from town-gardening amateurs. In most towns 
of moderate extent any plants may be cultivated in 
summer, unless there are pestiferous fumes emitted 
from some neighbouring manufactory. But in the 
centre of such Babylons as London, or even of Man¬ 
chester, Glasgow, &c., a vast deal of labour in washing, 
&o., will be requisite to keep during the year the denizens 
of the greenhouse. No one likes to cut away their own 
i standing ground, and yet honesty compels me to say, 
that the plants that mostly come under my department 
of labour cannot be maintained in vigorous health, in 
such circumstances, without a great amount of care and 
labour, and hardly even then. The thick smoky fogs 
in winter, unless great care is taken in watering, will 
fill the stems with watery juices, the precursors of hosts 
of insects. If you open the sashes the plants will get 
a saline sooty incrustation. If you keep them shut, and 
shade in a bright day, the plants become weakly and 
drawn. Your chief remedies are—thin bunting, a fine 
gauze wire over the air apertures, to help to sift out the 
soot, and a free application of the sponge and syringe 
to the foliage. Where this labour is deemed too much, 
with the exception of Scarlet Geraniums, Fuchsias, 
Ssucculents, and a few others, which remain at rest 
during the winter, it will be the most satisfactory to have 
the place fresh furnished, or partly so, every spring. 
This last mode, however, would lessen the pleasure of 
