May 9.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
81 
true Bccchwood, the celebrity of which still remains un¬ 
shaken. Tire Hoosainee varieties, however, and the 
Ispahan are excellent kinds, but wo fear too tender for 
the amateur to try his hand upon. 
Solving. —Beechwoods, then, for the latest crop, should 
bo sown m the early part of May. We will pass by 
their culture in a very young state, as that is very simple 
at that period. 
Bed .—In making up a frame for ridging them out, it 
■should, by some means, be built high. Many persons 
commit a great error in this respect; knowing that a very 
moderate amount of bottom heat will suffice at an ad¬ 
vanced period, they forget that when the chills of au¬ 
tumn arrive strong linings will be requisite in order to 
revive the decaying bottom heat of the bed, and to expel 
stagnating moisture. To accomplish this properly, 
much depth of lining becomes desirable; and unless the 
frame is kept high to commence with, such cannot be 
carried out. We should consider at least four feet at 
hack necessary for the height of the bed; and to allow 
for the sinking of the fermenting materials an extra foot 
should be added. We would, nevertheless, by no means 
build to this height with fermenting materials alone; 
for at this period such a course would assuredly endan¬ 
ger the roots by burning. Brushwood, or any rough 
material, might be carried up half the height at least, 
and the remaining portion should be composed of well 
sweetened manure and tree leaves, if to be had; finish¬ 
ing off at the surface with some half-rotten vegetable 
matter. 
For soil we would recommend sound turfy loam; and 
the surface of the bed might have a good sprinkling of 
small charred material. This will tend to correct and 
dry the atmosphere of the frame, which, for late crops 
especially, is a most necessary point in their culture. 
Training. —Much attention should be given to late 
crops, as to keeping the shoots well thinned and regu¬ 
lated; no crowding or confusion should be permitted; 
and the plants should, at all times during the fine wea¬ 
ther, have abundant ventilation, in order to make them 
hardy and robust. This will the better enable them to 
endure the vicissitudes that assuredly await them at the 
approach of autumn. A bottom heat of seventy to 
eighty degrees will be better than a greater height of 
temperature, until the fruits have done their first swell¬ 
ing, which may be about the early part of August; by 
which time the heat will have much declined, as far as 
fermentation is concerned. From this period until the 
early part of September nothing will be requisite but to 
ventilate with freedom, and to syringe or sprinkle them 
on fine evenings at shutting-up time. 
Linings. —We come now to deal with the declining 
temperature of autumn, and the consequent accumula¬ 
tion of pernicious damps, which can only be dispelled by 
a liberal ventilation; whilst the latter may not be per¬ 
mitted unless a lively heat be kept up in the body of the 
bed; and more especially in the upper part of the 
linings, which, for the most part, heat those portions of 
the frame or pit which impart atmospheric rather than 
bottom warmth. Now it is that our suggestion as to 
depth in the frame will tell; for width alone cannot ac¬ 
complish what we feel bound to recommend. 
Towards the middle of September, according as the 
heat of the bed and of the weather may indicate, those 
who undertake the somewhat perilous task of growing 
late melons in dung beds, must betake themselves to 
fermenting materials once more. The old linings must 
be broken up to the very bottom, and some fresh mate¬ 
rial applied; observing to use the most moderate in 
point of fermentative properties at the bottom, and in¬ 
creasing the fermentative power considerably next the 
sides of the frame or pit. Indeed, when above the bed 
level, using the most powerful hot manure, if available. 
And now the benefit of a little bottom heat, reinfused by 
means of the linings, will be manifest; preventing the 
plant sinking into a state of torpidity, by keeping up a 
root action until the fruit is perfected. 
A judicious yet free ventilation must still be practised; 
and if the frame has sunk, the back ought to be raised 
before applying the new lining, in order to give a steeper 
angle for the admission of the sun’s rays. No watering 
will be requisite at this late period ; nevertheless, it will 
be well, on fine afternoons, to syringe the foliage occa¬ 
sionally, in order to keep it fresh as long as possible ; 
taking care that no more water is administered than can 
be dried away on the succeeding day. 
The chief i catering necessary is when the fruits are as 
large as hen’s eggs, or nearly so. Up to this period, 
they should have been kept somewhat dry, or at least in 
a perfectly mellow state; syringing having been practised 
in all fine weather. When thus advanced, the best way 
is to give one thorough watering with warm liquid ma¬ 
nure, which, if well performed, will, with the aid of oc¬ 
casional syringings, or light sprinklings, enable the 
plants to carry out the swelling process. 
By the end of September they will require matting up 
at nights; still, however, leave a little air at back all 
night, in order that no damps be allowed to accumulate. 
To effect this, of course the lining heat must occasion¬ 
ally receive assistance by topping up, or otherwise. 
By these means good melons may be obtained during 
October, and a great part of November, provided the hot 
manure can be spared, and due attention as to labour 
can be provided. 
Clean glass must be secured to them; therefore, the 
lights had better be washed clean in the end of August; 
for all the light our skies afford will be wanted, and 
much more would highly benefit them. Another point, 
too, of good culture is to have them so inured to air and 
light during the heat of summer, that the lights should 
be pulled entirely off on all fine days—thus treating 
them as an ordinary ridge cucumber. This will bo 
found to render the plants less susceptible of injury 
during the dull weather of autumn, and to impart a very 
high flavour. 
We have been now speaking of their culture in dung 
beds ; much superior, however, as well as more econo¬ 
mical, is their culture by hot water in well contrived 
pits or houses, as also more certain ; and when the true 
economy of manures has been settled, we think they 
will generally thus be cultivated. 11. Erbington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Budding Plants : Blue Flowers. —The last colour with 
which we make distinct beds in an arrangement, is blue; 
and I have already treated of most of the best bedding 
plants of this hue, from the little Lobelias up to Lupinus 
Ilartwegii and Salvia patens. This season I shall plant 
two large beds with those mixed lupines of which I wrote 
last March. I shall put three rows, or equivalents, in the 
middle; two rows of Lupinus pitbescens outside that; and j 
finish with a broad band of Lupinus nanus, which was j 
sown in the beds about the middle of April. The other j 
two were sown in boxes a month earlier, it- matters not j 
how early we thus sow all the large Lupines, such as 
these two, and the three kinds belonging to the mutabilis 
section, as if they should come into bloom by the end of 
May they never cease from blooming till they are over¬ 
taken by a smart frost. 
I think that the Lupinus piibcscens would succeed 
better than Ilartwegii on deep, rich or heavy land; but 
hero the latter never misses, and is particularly useful for 
large beds. 
The first blue bed I ever saw (many years back) was 
made of Cineraria amelloules, a very old-fashioned look¬ 
ing thing, but one of the easiest plants in the world to 
