118 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[May 23. 
remedy. You cannot raise any particular carnation from seed; the seed¬ 
lings will come different from their parent. 
Aylesbury Ducks ( Rev. R. R.). —Thanks for your attention. Our 
correspondent writes as follows, and his communication will give infor¬ 
mation to another enquirer. Those who complain of unfruitful eggs have 
too many ducks with the drake. We saw a brood a few days since of 13 
pure Aylesbury ducklings from one sitting; only two ducks and a drake 
were kept by their owner. “ I have found the eggs of this breed very 
uncertain in hatching (although fresh, and the drake was always with the 
ducks). On an average of nests, my first season of trial, not more than 
one in five produced ducklings. But, as I cannot imagine that any differ¬ 
ence can exist in this respect between them and those of other breeds, I 
think it must have been from some error in management. Lately we 
have had rather better success, but not at all a satisfactory produce. I 
may notice that a few eggs (not used for sitting) have been of enormous 
size, one weighed five ounces and a half. While on the subject of poultry, 
let me ask your opinion on a disease in hens, from which my poultry-yard 
has suffered greatly this winter, and which I have not seen treated of in 
Richardson’s book ; I have been told it is congestion of the liver. Every 
case has terminated fatally. When first attacked the hens begin to mope, 
and to stand with their necks contracted into their bodies; they gra¬ 
dually waste away (the appetite all the time continuing voracious) to skin 
and bone, and then die. Nothing passes through them; I have given 
castor oil and calomel without effect.” This we believe to be merely 
torpidity of the bowels, and we should give each fowl so affected a com¬ 
pound rhubarb pill, made according to the formula of the Edinburgh 
Pharmacopaea, in which this pill is made of rhubarb and aloes. Keep 
them warm, and supplied with plenty of clean water. 
Tiie Id.ean Vine {Ibid). —The lines you refer to in The Ladij of the 
Lake are 
“ Where Ellen’s hand had taught to twine 
The Ivy and Idaean Vine.” 
By the last named plant Sir Walter Scott intended the Red Bilberry, 
Whortleberry, or Cowberry, which, in the language of botanists, is Vac- 
cinium Vitis Tdcea. Older botanists merely called it by the two last 
names. It is a native of Scotland, and its berries make the best of jelly 
to be eaten with venison. 
Heating a Greenhouse (A. F. F .).—Your plan only differs from 
that fully described at page 356, vol. iii., by the tube for supplying the 
fuel passing through the boiler, and as that answers yours probably will 
do so. At page 120 of our first volume full directions are given about the 
construction of a greenhouse ; it will repay you for consulting it. 
Myosotis Alba (A. E. D .).— Our correspondent wishes to know where 
she can obtain seeds of this plant. 
Lucerne (P. P. H. H .).—You must not sow this with your wheat, nor 
with any other crop, for you could not keep it liocd, which is necessary 
for obtaining good and permanent crops of it. Wait until the spring. 
You may sow turnips now, feed them off with sheep, and then sow wheat. 
Rose-tree Suckers {AnEnquirer). —Do not remove these now, but 
let them grow on until the autumn, when you may separate them from 
the parent trees, and they then may be planted where you please. 
Pure Peat {Nemo). —By this term (vol. ii. page 198) is meant peat 
unmixed with any other soil. Peat for gardening purposes is not that 
dug for fuel in fenny districts, but a sharp, sandy soil, mixed with the 
dead fibrous roots of heath: and is found upon Wimbledon and many 
j other dry commons. 
Ants {R. P. H.). —We, too, are, and have been for years, “much trou- 
1 bled with ants; ” and the best remedy we find is soot and hot-water 
poured into their nests and on their paths. The hot-water is not with a 
view to scald the rascals, but to raise ammoniacal vapour, which seems 
extremely annoying to them; for they will abandon a fortress on the 
second or third application. We also apply boiling water to them from a 
fine rose. A handful of fresh soot to two gallons of water is strong 
enough. 
Glycine Sinensis {M. B .).—By the best authorities this is the proper 
name of your plants which you say are “doing well, but not flowering ' 
freely.” We should be loth to try experiments with a glycine that was 
promising; still, if you were to give it assistance with liquid manure once 
in ten days, from the first of June to the end of August, you would be 
very likely to get it into full bearing sooner and more surely. Good rich 
garden soil and a south wall are the other best auxiliaries. 
Asparagus (Verax). —We must not give opinions on what appears in 
other periodicals ; but we may remark that editors are not responsible for 
the opinions of their correspondents ; for they do not sit in judgment on 
j these opinions, but to allow and obtain a fair hearing to each and all. If 
i you put more faith in us, follow our directions; and we say most deci- 
I dedly, do not cut the small shoots of asparagus. We have brought round 
many old, weak beds, by abstaining from cutting them. The reason is 
1 obvious: when asparagus produces these small shoots, or sprew, it is 
because the action of the roots is weak ; and that weakness can be removed 
most readily by giving them rest, or abstaining from cutting. 
Dried Geranium Cuttings {A Parson's Wife). —As a set off against 
your disappointment with some plants, we arc glad to hear that you have 
achieved a feat which has puzzled some good gardeners. We allude to 
your drying a cutting of a scarlet geranium last autumn, then potting it 
in January, and getting it to grow. You did quite right in stopping it 
when “ five inches long.” By and bye it will make a fine plant, although 
it did not “ break ” at the time you wrote. 
, Cineraria Seedlings .{Ibid). —Your seedling cinerarias raised last 
autumn were starved. They should have been potted in January and 
again in March ; but now, if you water them well and pot them next day, 
using rich soil, and pots two sizes larger, they will repay you yet. Repot 
your recent seedlings as fast as they fill each sized pot, and they also mil 
bloom. Try some of both sorts in the open ground without the pots. 
The cineraria “white tipped with pink,” of which you sent a leaf, is 
Prince Albert. None of this family like to be checked in any way ; try 
some of these also in the borders. 
Nemofiiila Maculata {Ibid). —This beautiful annual died with 
dropsy, induced by too much rich soil, water, and cold. It will come 
from seeds in the open ground as freely as the blue one. You had better 
plant out the seedlings of it at once. 
Cuphea Platycentra {Ibid). —When young plants of this, struck 
last autumn, turn yellow in the leaves, the best way is to cut them down 
to the last two or three joints early in the spring, and they will spring up j 
freely by the beginning of May. You should cut it back now, and the 
natural warmth of the season will be sufficient encouragement for it. 
Neapolitan Violets {Ibid). —You are by far too kind a nurse, other¬ 
wise those “covered with buds” at the time of potting, would have | 
bloomed safe enough. Did you not give them too much water ? 
Verbenas {Ibid). —The severity of the winter was the cause of their 
death; but of course you will try the plan again and again. 
Watering {Ibid). —What is “plainly impossible,” is not very pro¬ 
bable to be achieved even by an editor! No one can say at a distance . 
how much and how often a plant should be watered, although in our zeal ; 
we sometimes transgress the rule, and even now we are tempted to break i 
the law to please you; but we had better escape by saying, follow the dic¬ 
tates of your own good sense. 
Rhododendrons Weakly {A. A .).— Stable-manure is not a proper 
dressing for unhealthy rhododendrons ; far from it—very rotten cow-dung 
would answer better ; but we question the propriety of giving stimulants 
to any kind of plants in a sickly state. First, encourage plants to make 
new roots, by giving them a very sandy compost of earths or peat; and 
then begin with moderate doses of weak liquid-manure, and as the plants 
increase in strength, increase the strength of their food. Your rhodo¬ 
dendrons having been sickly these three years, in stiff soil, will never 
recover without being cut down more than half way, and now is a good 
time ; after that add some sandy peat, cover the bed with short grass or 
some mulching, and water them twice a-week with pond water till the 
end of the dog-days ; and if it is possible to save them, depend on it that 
is the best way in your case, and give up all idea of stimulants this season. 
Pyracantiia {Ibid). —It will do for a south trellis on your stiff soil, if 
you give it a little light compost to begin with ; and for other climbers 
take those evergreen climbing roses we recommend. 
Removing Bees (T. S .).—If the bees are suffered to remain till the 
next day, there will be honey as well as combs in the hive ; and when the 
latter is broken down, the former will run amongst the bees aud kill them. 
The better plan will be to send them by the middle-day coach on the day 
they swarm, should they be early enough ; but it would be better still to 
purchase a swarm in your own neighbourhood. 
Nutt’s Hive {M. J. T .).—The best plan would be to put two swarms 
into Nutt’s centre box ; you would then obtain a glass of honey from the 
top, and some in one, if not in both, the side boxes. The method of 
uniting, as given in page 104, vol. ii. of The Cottage Gardener, is 
very simple. If a swarm is put into each box they can never be united. 
Auricula Sowing {W. II. G.). —You may do this as directed for 
the polyanthus, at page 248 of vol. ii.; and the future management of the 
seedlings is the same. 
Plunging Potted Plants in Hotbed {R. Whin). —It is worse than 
useless to do this when you have no frame. The action of the roots would 
supply sap far more rapidly than the leaves w ould have power to digest 
it ; and this, together with the cold nights, w r ould soon render them 
diseased. We cannot write private letters. 
Feather-stemmed Savoy {Billcricay). —Send us an envelope ready 
directed, and tw r o postage stamps. Thanks for your suggestions relative 
to The Cottage Gardeners' Dictionary . 
Cuttings of Fuchsias {W. T. Gidney). —July is a very good month 
for putting in cuttings of any kind. Your plant is Poly gala cordifolia f j 
or Heart-leaved Milkwort. 
Names of Plants {II. II.). — Yours is Daphne Pontica. It will flou¬ 
rish anywhere in England in the open air, and preferring a cool situation. 1 
(A Cottager). —1. Eupatorium corymbomrn. This will do for bedding 
in a poor soil. In a rich soil it grows too gross to flower freely. 2. Pole - ' 
monium casruleum , or Jacob’s Ladder. 3. Pulmonaria officinalis, Com¬ 
mon Lungwort. 4. Trollius Enropceus, European Globe flower. 5. I 
Ornithogulum nutans , Neapolitan Star of Bethlehem. (T. M. W.). — J 
Your lentils, we think, are the seeds of the Ervum lens. A subscriber, 1 
w'hose initials we have mislaid, sent us “ a heath-like plant,” w r ith a 
white flower at the end of each shoot. It is Fabiana imbricate, usually 
mentioned as a greenhouse evergreen ; but it is quite hardy, if grown i 
against a wall. It is a native of Chili. 
London: Printed by IIarry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalcndar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of 
Christ Church, City of London.—May 23rd, 1850, 
