Junk 19. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
209 
class 41 .—Runts.— Four Entries,—Mr. Cx. C. Adkins, Birmingham. | “What do you consider is the cause of their not 
Class 42.—Fantails.— Seven Entries.—Mr. G. C. Adkins, Bir- ! thriving ? — J. P. S.” 
mingham. 
Class 43.—Jacoihns.— Seven Entries. —Mr. G. C. Adkins, Bir¬ 
mingham. 
Class 44. — Tcrbits. — Eight Entries.—Mr. Edward H. Burge, 
Taunton. 
Class 45.— Nuns. —Three Entries.—Mr. Thomas Twose, Bridgewater, j 
Class 46.— Archangels. —Four Entries.—Mr. G. C. Adkins, Bir¬ 
mingham. 
Class 47.— Trumpeters. —Six Entries.—Mr. Thos. Twose, Bridge- 
water. 
Class 48.— Tumblers. —Five Entries.—Mr. G. C. Adkins, Bir¬ 
mingham. 
Class 49.— Variety of Tumblers, — Seven Entries.—Mr. E. II. 
Burge, Taunton. (Magpies.) 
Class 50.— Owls. —Seven Entries—Mr. Harrison Weir, Pcckham, 
near London. 
Class 51.— Dragons. —Two Entries.—Mr. T. J. Cottle, Pulteney 
Villa, Cheltenham. 
A SILVER CUP, 
Value d?5, offered to the competitors who won the greatest number of 
prizes, was accorded to Mr. G. C. Adkins, West House, Edgbaston, 
near Birmingham. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDEWING. 
WHY DO NOT SEEDLING OAKS SPRING UP IN 
THE WOODS AT BELVOIR CASTLE ? 
“ I have been asked by a gentleman of distinction, ‘Why 
we do not find young Oaks springing up in the woods at 
Belvoir ? ”—a seedling being a great rarity; yet Ash and 
Sycamore are growing everywhere. Perhaps I ought to say 
that our Oak woods consist principally of trees from twenty 
to seventy years’growth. The ground much shaded by the 
tops. Mice do not at all abound; squirrels are destroyed to 
a great extent; the woods arc inclosed, and the soil various. 
My own opinion not being considered satisfactory, I pro¬ 
posed asking the question through you, hoping I am in time 
for its appearance this week in that practical work, The 
Cottage Gardener.—Areorist, Belvoir Castle.” 
[We would not be dogmatical on this question. Very 
likely various reasons may in time appear. Seedling Oaks, 
self-sown, are common enough; but generally in woods 
where the weight of the acorn embedded it easily in soft 
leaf-mould, or moss, or heath. Seldom or never do acorns 
vegetate in ground so hard or so bare as to expose them to 
all the air and light which can get at them. The chief 
reason why, if the acorns fall in a favourable place for their 
germination, and yet no Oak saplings appear, is, in our 
opinion, because the acorns have been purloined. There 
may be few mice at Belvoir, and squirrels, and, perhaps, 
fewer rats; but we presume that there is no deficiency of 
crows, and pheasants and wood-pigeons. All these, not to 
speak of other animals, seek out acorns as one of their best 
feasts. So well do pheasants thrive upon acorns, that 
gamekeepers frequently interdict gathering them on this 
account.] 
CAUSE OF CUCUMBERS GROWING FREELY. 
“ I am growing Cucumbers and Melons in frames heated 
by hot-water and steam, and I find the plants thrive and 
blossom well, and go into fruit, having, of course, been 
inoculated (This is not necessary), and the temperature 
kept at about 70° to 80° under the glass. All the heat and 
moisture—except now and then some liquid-manure—comes 
from the water under the beds; hut the fruit grows very 
feebly, and without vigour, being crooked and thin, and 
reaches no size. The earth of the beds is about eight inches 
deep, and the space to the glass from the earth, fourteen 
inches in the centre. The shutes conveying the waterround 
the pit are partially covered, so that the steam can escape; 
and the earth is laid on thin faggot-wood, across sleepers. 
[We have had fine weather lately; but if before the 
change you could keep up a temperature of from 70° to 80° 
in your pit, and all the artificial heat had to pass through 
the soil, and that soil was only eight inches thick, then we 
imagine the roots have, scalded, and that a lower temperature 
at bottom, and five or six inches more earth will, in that 
case, remove the evil of which you complain.] 
ILL-SUCCESS WITH HOYA BELLA AND 
MITRARIA COCCI NEA. 
“ Linda has a very fine plant of Hoya Bella, two years 
old, just coming into full bloom, hut the plant is sickly, and 
looks dying, without any apparent_cause, and other plants 
in this neighbourhood are doing the same. Is the above 
(two years) the length of life of this plant? 
“ How can we induce Mitraria coccinea to flower ?" 
[There was a short article on Mitraria coccinea at page 
249 of our last volume; the writer of that article has 
several times succeeded, and several times failed. It seems 
a rather troublesome subject, and we shall be obliged by 
any of our reader.? sending us particulars for its successful 
culture. 
There was a notice of Hoya Bella the other week, page 
129 of our present volume. We have no reason to think 
the plant short-lived. Are you sure that the plant was 
neither too cold nor too wet in winter? and that the 
drainage and the water supply are all right now ?] 
CONSTRUCTION OF A HOTHOUSE. 
“ I am about to erect a hothouse, thirty-five feet long by 
sixteen feet wide, with a span-roof, and light rafters 
seventeen inches apart. 
“ Mr. Fish says, two-and-a-quartcr inches by three-and-a- j 
half are strong enough for rafters thirteen feet long, without j 
support. Will not nine-feet rafters give a good inclination 
to the above house, as it is not for early forcing ; and if so, 
would not bars of two inches by three, or even one-and-a- 
half by three, he strong enough, if kept in their places by 
strips of wood screwed to each rafter half way between the 
ridge and the wall-plate at the top of the upright glasses ? 
Shall I put iron columns to support the ridge? and if so, 
will five be enough ? I propose giving air by means of five 
glazed slides, at the north side of the ridge, seventeen inches 
square, five wooden slides one foot from the ground on the 
south side, and five on the north side, all of the same size; 
and to place fly-wire over them to exclude wasps. Will this 
give me air enough ? 
“ Will sheet-glass, eighteen inches by eighteen, and fifteen j 
ounces to the foot, he strong enough ? if not, would you 
name a better sort ? 
“I pi-opose having a saddle-boiler, tbree-and-a-halffeet 
long by two-and-a-half feet wide, fifteen inches from the 
bars to the top of the inside; hut I cannot see in any of 
your articles how high it should he from the top of the in- ! 
side to the top of the outside, as I want to ripen Muscats of j 
Alexandria, &c., on the south side of the house, and 
Hambro's, &c,., on the north ; hut not to begin forcing until 
the 1st of March. Will this boiler he a proper size 
for my purpose? and should there be a flow and return 
pipe on the south side of the house only; or should there be 
a flow and return all round ? and if all round, should it be 
four-inch, or three-inch ? 
“The stock-hole must he to the east of the hothouse; 
and to the west of the hothouse I shall have a greenhouse, 
sixteen feet square. Can I warm this a little in frosty 
weather without warming the hothouse ? And as this ; 
house is also span-roofed, could you suggest a sort of opaque J 
glass for the south side and west end that would he advan¬ 
tageous to the plants, in moderating the rays of the sun, and 
yet would not prevent my having a few very late Grapes on 
the rafters ? 
“ I propose airing this house in the same way as the 
hothouse. 
