May 22. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
185 
another, from the same amount of learning. You can 
write very well, hut can you tell us how to write a letter, 
“ similar to those ” written by Queen Victoria “which are 
generally ” very beautiful, and so forth. 100 gardeners study 
the business, under favourable circumstances, for half a 
lifetime, and yet one of them will win a prize for growing 
Pelargoniums over the other ninety-nine. Rut more than 
that; there are 15,000 good gardeners in these kingdoms 
trying to grow Pelargoniums as you wish to grow them, but 
there are only five or six of them who can come up to the 
mark—how, then, is an amateur likely to excel 10 or 12,000 
good gardeners by merely being told ? If you turn to 
“ Pelargonium,” and to “ Geranium,” in auy of our indexes, 
you will see all that we can tell about the matter. A good 
little book on “ Pelargoniums,” by Mr. Dobson, is just 
published. 
As to the Crocuses, much depends on the ground and the 
drying. If they have been a long time undisturbed, they will 
improve by being taken up, but not by drying out of the 
ground. The best way to treat them is to pick out the 
largest roots for planting again, as soon as good, fresh soil 
is put into the place, or the old soil is trenched. Never 
think of keeping Crocuses out of the ground longer than 
you can help. One of the most difficult things to learn is 
the proper drying of bulbs.] 
GLOXINIA CULTURE.—PLANTING OUT DIELYTRA 
SPECTABILIS. 
“ I have some Gloxinias, they are fibrous-rooted, the 
plants having from three to seven shoots, and are in 6-inch- 
pots. I know nothing of their culture, but am anxious to 
do the proper thing. The Cottage Gardeners’ Dictionary 
tells me the tubers should be put into pots according to the 
size, hut these not being tuberous rooted, I wish to know if 
the pots they are in are likely to be large enough to carry 
them through the blooming period. The Dictionary also 
tells me I can propagate them from leaves with or without 
a bud. When is the right time to take the leaves, and how 
deep should they be put in the sand ? 
“ Can I cause the beautiful Dielglra spectabilis to produce 
seed ? 
“ With regard to this last plant (as a subscriber to your 
valuable paper) my best thanks are due to Mr. Beaton for 
the instructions given in No. 329 for increasing the stock of 
it. On the 30tli of January 1 took up from the open ground 
the root of one plant, which I divided into nine ; they were 
potted and put at once in the greenhouse, where five or six 
of them have flowered beautifully, some of them began 
flowering five weeks ago; the whole of them commenced 
growing immediately they were potted, and the rest are now 
coming into flower. I shall want to put them in the border. 
When may I do so ? I am possessed of that first-rate work, 
the Cottage Gardeners’ Dictionary. —G. H. T.” 
[Your Gloxinias are quite new, or extremely rare. We 
never saw or heard of a “ fibrous-rooted" Gloxinia before. 
They will do in the six-inch pots all this season without 
repotting, hut they must have moist heat, not under sixty 
degrees in the day-time, nor under fifty at night. Also, must 
be well-watered, that is, never be allowed to get dry. If they 
should not flower this year, they must have this treatment, 
and by the end of the season you will find large tubers to 
them after all. They will come from cuttings of the leaves 
as well as anything. About Midsummer is the best time to 
make them, and if an inch of the footstalk is firmly put in 
the sand it will soon root, hut, of course, the leaf is left on 
the footstalk. 
Plant out the Dielytras as soon as you read this, without 
disturbing the balls, and let the balls be one inch deeper 
than the surface of the pot. The more books you read on 
gai'dening the more you will be struck with how little you 
know, and, consequently, the number of your questions.] 
GRAPES TURNING YELLOW. 
“ Having to take the charge of a Vinery, I am quite dis¬ 
heartened at the prospect. The house is nine yards long 
by four yards-and-a-half wide, heated by a smoke flue. There 
are about fifty beautiful bunches of Grapes at front of the 
house, above where the fire enters the flue, and twenty at the 
top of the house; the remainder, instead of coming into 
bloom, have turned quite yellow, and fallen off. They were 
started to force the 1st of January, and the thermometer ; 
was never allowed to exceed 60° until after the Vine came 
into leaf, until, by degrees, it reached 75°, and is now 
kept as near to that as possible. The Vine itself looks 
remarkably healthy—fine strong shoots, and not an insect 
in the house. If through the medium of your valuable 
journal you can give me any information respecting it you 
will greatly oblige. 
“ 1 have another Vinery about the same size, the Vines 
just coming into leaf. Would you be so kind as to give me 
a hint respecting its management at the same time?—A 
Subscriber.” 
[We should have liked to have seen the Vines, and even 
then might not have been able to solve the mystery. The 
weather has been cold since January. Are the roots of the 
Vines protected ? If not, that may prove one cause of par¬ 
tial failure. Just over the flue, and at the top of the house, 
are the places where the greatest amount of stimulus would 
be applied, and there the Vines would suffer last from 
deficient root action. A slight, sudden check will frequently 
cause the bunShes to curl, shank off, become tendrils, Ac., 
when the wood suffers but little. You do not say what 
Vines you have. If Muscat , they require more heat. We 
presume you mean 75° for night heat. Now, unless when 
Muscats were in bloom—for then, afterwards and previously, 
and for most others—we are content with 60° at night, allow¬ 
ing the house to get to 70°, 75°, and 78° during the day. 
By such a high temperature at night you exhaust prema¬ 
turely the excitability of the plant. Try the 60° at night 
temperature with the later house, and you will save labour, 
economise the fuel heap, and get good Grapes into the 
bargain.] 
THE WOODS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Tiie Commissioners of the Paris Exhibition have issued 
a kind of skeleton catalogue, which, although in general 
answering the purpose of a mere index, contains some in¬ 
formation relative to the woods—perhaps the principal 
feature in the Exhibition—which we deem worthy of re¬ 
publication. The following is the classification of the trees, 
and a general account of the country from whence they are 
obtained, as given in the Catalogue :— 
A short description of the general features of the kinds 
of woodland, from which have been collected the majority of 
the specimens of Woods hereinafter described in detail, 
with a few observations upon the general character of the 
latter, would seem to be a desirable introduction to the 
Catalogue. They will be useful, in rendering the subject 
more intelligible to all who have not had the opportunity of 
informing themselves by personal observation. For greater 
convenience, the different descriptions of natural woodlands 
will be included under three classes ; and the letter denoting 
its class will be inserted opposite to each specimen of wood. 
Class A .—Forest more or less open; generally composed 
of trees with little or no underwood ; their trunks more or 
less naked and lofty, height being a more conspicuous 
feature than diameter; their heads small in proportion to 
the trunks, divided into few secondary or tertiary ramifica¬ 
tions, and thinly clothed with persistent, dry, dull-coloured, 
thick, leathery leaves, abounding in essential oils, and in 
their decomposition adding little to the vegetable matter in 
the soil. The different species of Eucalyptus and Ango- 
phora, with Melaleuca, Callistemon, Syricarpia, and Lophos- 
temon, compose the larger trees which furnish all the 
common durable hardwood timber used in Sydney and the 
adjoining districts. Occasionally these dry forests pass into 
tracts crowded with trees, generally of a single species (still 
with little or no underwood), their trunks being drawn up to 
a great height, and of small diameter. The trees of this 
class are usually produced to a greater size, and with better 
quality of timber, on lands rather poor than good; the more 
fertile lands commonly producing trees of comparatively 
small dimensions thinly scattered over their surface. The 
rich alluvial lands on the margins of rivers are exceptions 
to this rule. They are almost always heavily timbered, and 
towards the coast their character passes from A to C. There 
are some characteristics applicable to the whole of the large 
