270 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 17. 
contrivances myself in use last April and May, and my 
best hit is with 
DIELYTRA SPECTABILIS. 
I had two packets of seeds of it last year, from two of 
“ our own correspondents,” one of which I sowed last j 
September, in the centre of a pot of choice seedling 
Geraniums, which were only round the sides; three of 
these were up when the long frost came, but in spite of ' 
me, I lost the three, and none more came up from that ; 
lot. Ater that, and when the winter was over, I sowed 
the other packet, in which were six seeds; in a month, 
one seed appeared above ground, but looked very lan- j 
guid, and in ten days I lost it also. I now began to I 
think very seriously how to contrive with the rest, if 
they should appear ; but I waited and waited for ever 
so long, and at last a second seedling began to heave 
up the surface of the mould and the surface of my 
reasoning, and the two surfaces progressed favourably 
up to this day; but no more seedlings have yet ap¬ 
peared, but this one, which is now, I hope, past all 
mishap. It is on a west border, close under a wall, and 
four loose panes of glass round it—one on each side, 
one in front, and one across the top; on the behind 
side, the wall protects it; this space is six or seven 1 
inches square, filled with best light composts—the ball j 
safely in the middle, and a layer of charcoal grit on the j 
surface ; the glass is not very air-proof at the angles or 
on the top, the pieces being merely stuck in the earth ; 
in the fore-part of the time, there was a box over this 
Crystal Palace, with a glass top to it. Nothing can be 
more healthy than the seedling, but it does not grow 
nearly so fast as I thought it would, judging from the 
growth of an old plant. At the best, and under the 
most favourable circumstances, I think this Dielytra 
will be difficult to rear from seeds; I think it must 
have been propagated by division in China for so many 
ages, that the spirit of seeding is broken within it, and 
that alone accounts for all this difficulty; but I also 
think we shall be able to overcome this, or, I should say, 
rather, that we shall be able to restore the original fiat 
in the plant itself, by degrees; also, that every flower of 
it will cross with some other species, to increase the 
family honours, as soon as the seeding process is re¬ 
stored. I hold it to be next to impossible to cross the 
present or old plant with another species, and rarely 
with its own pollen; and to quicken the process of res¬ 
toration, we ought to know the exact circumstances 
under which our correspondents seeded their plants, that 
others may do the same; for we cannot have too many j 
seedlings from the old species to choose from as parents j 
for crossing, as, perhaps, not more than one plant out j 
of a hundred seedlings will seed more easily than the 1 
parent during the first few generations. 
Depend upon it, crossing will be more popular and 
more fashionable than it ever was yet. The writer, 
your humble servant, had to battle, single-handed, ! 
against the heavy-weight of his day on the subject of 
scientific crossing, but I have hammered the thing so 
well, from the commencement of The Cottage Gar- j 
uener, that I have made some breaches in the Malakhoff 
of practical science; but I shall not rest here. As long 
as thero is breath in me, I shall not rest satisfied till 
the citadel is in the hands of the cross-breeders. 
D. Beaton. 
Death of Mr. Posey. —With no ordinary regret we 
have to record the death of Philip Pusey, Esq., of Pusey, 
near 1* aringdon, in the county of Berks, for although of J 
late he had been incapable of active employment, yet i 
the remembrance of his former services, induced us to ! 
hope, even against hope, that he might once more arise I 
again to confer benefits upon the cultivators of the soil. 
The family name is Bouverie, being a scion of the 
house of Radnor, but the father of the deceased 
assumed the name of Pusey. Mr. Philip Pusey, his 
eldest son, was born on the 25tli of June, 179!), and he 
married, in 1822, Emily, daughter of the Earl of Car¬ 
narvon. Her death was a blow to his happiness, 
from which he never effectually recovered, and the 
paralysis induced by grief and other mental agitation, at 
length brought him to his rest, on Monday, the 9th 
instant. He died at the residence of his brother, Dr. 
E. Pusey, in Christchurch, Oxford, and was buried at 
Pusey. He was one of the oldest members of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, was a contributor to its Journal, 
which, until illness prevented, was under his especial 
superintendance, and no man laboured more earnestly 
than he did, to illustrate the Society’s motto—“ Practice 
with science.” 
GARDEN VISITING.—GARDENERS AND THEIR 
EMPLOYERS. 
Various letters, in defiance of editorial injunctions, 
have prompted me again to refer to this subject, though 
I hardly know where to begin and where to leave off; 
and, unlike some favoured people, who can have leisure 
to sit down and think and ponder over an elaborated 
essay, few of us gardeners, just now, have time to arrange 
our ideas. I have received bundles of thanks for saying 
a word now-and-then quietly, in behalf of “ my order;” 
and something like complaints from others, that I would 
unsettle the minds of servants by giving gardeners such 
a passion for roaming, that home and its employments 
would become irksome and disagreeable. Others, like 
the rattling scolding minister’s wife, who, on asking a 
text from the gudeman, from which to make a sermon, 
and receiving a pithy sentence from Solomon, about its 
being “ better to dwell in a corner on the housetop, than 
with a brawling woman in a wide house,” come at once 
to the application ; but, unlike the worthy woman, who 
at once took it home and made the reproof personal, 
they rather wish to regulate their conduct by mine, and 
ask me, I know not scarcely whether in satire or in 
real earnest—“Now, how often do you go from home?” 
And do you “ go whenever you like, and without saying 
nothing to nobody ?” “ My employer always wishes to 
know where I am, and it is such a bore to be telling 
when you wish to leave the place for an hour or two.” 
Now, had I time and ability, there is quite sufficient 
material, in these varied suggestions and enquiries, for 
constructing a common-sense valuable manual upon 
social and professional economics. Some of the most 
fruitful sources of unpleasantness and disappointments 
among gardeners, arise from a mistaken view of their 
position in reference to their employers, and also from 
mistaken views of those employers as to what their own 
true interests are, so far as their gardeners are con¬ 
cerned. Eor instance: Here is a fine old place, pretty 
well kept up, but the proprietor is of a very retiring 
disposition. He cares nothing for novelties, and allows, 
in consequence, no means for their procurement. He 
does not like to see strangers upon the premises; and 
this is so far a hint to the gardener to make no friends 
in the neighbourhood. The hardy things take pretty 
good care of themselves, but the plants for ornament 
get fewer by degrees and desolately less. Gardeners are 
constantly leaving, and the effects of these transitions 
soon manifest themselves. The place in time comes to 
be looked upon as a mere fill-gap; aud a good gardener 
will stay no longer than it will suit himself. Every 
stimulus and excitement for honourable emulation is 
removed. He might get cuttings from friends, it is 
true; but why trouble himself with cuttings that he 
! 
