244 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 3. 
FROST AT MIDSUMMER, 
Four Miles South-west of Maidenhead. 
What! Ice on the morning of the 21st of June ? Yes ; 
this morning, at five o’clock, the line, large, horizontal 
leaves of a Burdock, which was growing on the edge of a 
ditch, was as stiff as a piece of wet linen would have been 
after an hour's exposure to 10° of frost, and when 1 
crumpled the leaves up the ice scaled off from it. And the 
Nettles, which the day before seemed to bid defiance to any¬ 
one, drooped their heads as much as if they had been cut and 
placed upright under a wall for three hours in a sunshine 
of 90°, and noli me tengere seemed no longer applicable to 
them. The glass registered 35° during the night. At 
twelve o’clock to day it marked 07°. 1 did not see any ice 
on water, but am told there was some, and also that the 
Potatoes and Scarlet Runners are very much cut in places. 
One man told me he saved his by the cold water system. 
My Pears and Apples are falling very much, I expect from 
the effects of continued cold weather when in bloom, and I 
think if we had had one more degree of frost at that time 
we should liaYe lost the remainder. At my cottage, a dis¬ 
tance of two miles from here, I had all the bloom on a fine 
tree of Uvedale's St. Germain Pear, on the west side of the 
cottage, all killed; also the bloom on a fine bush plant of 
May Duke Cherry. 
I have sent a register of the Beatonian winter, which I 
had copied before, but could not find time to send it. One 
thing strikes me as remarkable, and that is, the temperature 
of two successive nights often being the same. It is the 
same in all you have published, as well as the enclosed. 
Please to tell Mr. Errington, the only Pear-tree I have 
with the American Blight, out of forty trees, against the 
walls, and on his platform, nearly all of them under fifteen 
years old, is the Winter Nelis. I have three plants, hut only 
one affected. I have nearly killed some young Pears by 
dressing them with Lamp black and Neat.'s-foot oil, mixed, 
and put on too thick, for the scale insect. Please to convey 
a junior’s thanks to him for information derived from his 
writings.— Argentum. 
1854. 
1855. 
October. 
January. 
February. 
2Gth 27° 
14th 
25° 
1st 
19° 
19 th 
8° 
15th 
22 
2nd 
19 
20th 
21 
November. 
10 th 
24 
3rd 
25 
21st 
14 
22th 24° 
23rd 24 
24th 23 
25th 32 
20th 23 
17th 
22 
4th 
20 
22nd 
17 
18 th 
19th 
21 
24 
5th 
0th 
29 
30 
23rd 
24th 
21 
22 
20 th 
21st 
18 
19 
7th 
8 th 
29 
25 
25th 
26th 
25 
31 
22nd 
19 
9th 
25 
27th 
32 
December. 
23rd 
24th 
24 
24 
10th 
11th 
17 
11 
28th 
33 
11th 20° 
25th 
24 
12 th 
22 
12th 25 
26th 
23 
13 th 
22 
18th 27 
27th 
21 
14 th 
20 
19 th 25 
28th 
21 
15 th 
10 
27th 20 
29 th 
25 
10 th 
10 
28th 24 
30 th 
22 
17tli 
18 
29 th 24 
31st 
25 
18th 
9 
VINEGAR MAKING. 
Your correspondent, “G. P., Kensington,” page 184, is 
very commendable and praiseworthy in publishing his receipt 
for making pure Vinegar; hut I cannot see how he can call 
it pure Vinegar, while that very questionable compound, 
German yeast, is mixed with it. I do not know what good 
there is in working of it with the yeast, but I can say, that 
for more than two years I have made my own Vinegar, by 
making the water boil, then adding the sugar and treacle, 
mixing it up well together, and letting it stand till cold. 
I then proceed as your correspondent does, only it should 
be in a wide-mouth stone jar, for the glazing in the inside of 
the earthenware jars is liable to be dissolved by the Vinegar; 
and then it becomes poisonous. The maker should also he 
careful that the place where Vinegar is kept is not too 
warm. All that is wanted is to cause it to ferment, and that 
you can tell by the smell it gives off. —T Ellis. 
NATIVE FLOWERS NEAR SEBASTOPOL. 
The following extract from a letter from the Crimea will, 
I think, be interesting to your general readers. It is an 
account of the reconnaissance on the Tchernaya, at the 
latter end of May; and the portion I have selected refers 
principally to the floral aspect of the country, aud, on that 
account, will not, I hope, be considered misplaced in the 
columns of your valuable periodical. 
“ We started at about five in the morning. The English 
force, which was, as you will see, a very small proportion of 
the whole, consisted of the cavalry, Horse Artillery, Guards, 
and Marines, in all 2,500 men; about an equal number of 
French cavalry and artillery, and about 10,000 infantry; 
about 5,000 Turks, and 7,000 Sardinians. It was at first 
supposed that they would march to meet the army coming 
down from Kertscli; but this proved incorrect. We started, 
as I said, about five. The morning was lovely, and every 
one expected some fun. The English were on the right, 
and as they started from Ivadikoi, their course, as you will 
see by consulting a map, was close to the foot of the lines 
above Sebastopol, so that there were no Russians to oppose 
them, and it was evident that if there was to be fighting it 
was not to be there. I, therefore, kept with the French. 
They advanced about two miles aud a half across the plain, 
as far as the Tchernaya, having only the valley between 
them, and the Russians on the heights of Inkerman. This 
plain, across which they advanced, is very beautiful. The 
grass was up to the horses’ knees, and, from the quantity of 
flowers, coloured according to the prevailing variety. Here 
we see acres of a bright yellow, from those flowers that are 
so common in our English wheat-field; here, another tract 
is scarlet with poppies. There, ’tis a bright blue, from a 
flower very common here, the name of which I am entirely 
ignorant of; here is a space of most brilliant purple, of 
larkspur, which is of great height, and which is, as far as I 
can see at present, entirely that colour. Sometimes the 
side of a rise will be covered with low shrubs, whose rich 
green contrasts well with the varied colours of the rest; 
while, in some places, the ground is entirely covered with a 
species of dwarf rose, the flower of which is single, and not 
unlike that of the dog-rose, while the flower grows frequently 
as large as a saucer. The odour is very sw'eet, as is that of 
the wild thyme, which is very abundant. * 
“Besides these flowers, that grow in masses, and produce 
general effects in the landscape, the grass is filled with 
flowers of every shape and hue, with most of whichT was 
entirely unacquainted. So charming a place in its way I 
never witnessed. Many places might have been taken up 
and planted, in patches, in the Chiswick Gardens, on a fete 
day, and would not look out of their place.” 
The Rose referred to would, although a single one, be a 
valuable addition to our gardens, if it attain the size men¬ 
tioned.— The Cottage Gardener’s Friend. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
INSECT INJURIOUS TO SEEDS OF THE 
CABBAGE TRIBE. 
“ Enclosed you will find a quantity of seed of Curled Kale 
eaten by a small weevil or beetle, distinguishable to the 
naked eye, of a white colour. The seed has been grown by 
myself, and kept in tin canisters such as coffee is or used to 
be sold in. It is about three or four years old. I should feel 
obliged if you could inform me whether it was caused by an 
insect at the time of ripening; as I think if one species of 
seed is attacked all of the family are liable.— Basil 
Ferr.vy.” 
* This is probably the Rosa pygmasa, or Pygmy Itose, described in 
Bieberstein’s Flora Taurico-caucasica.—En. C. G. 
