230 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Fuchsias are my favourite plants, and nothing, to me, looks 
more wretched than ill-shaped bushes. T dare say what I 
have written you will consider stuff and nonsense, but I have 
never seen this plan recommended; but always “ cut-in,” 
“ prune-in,” &c. I have my strongest plants in No. 2 pots, 
and in a strong and rich compost, and give them weak guano 
water twice a week; their foliage is beautiful, and they are 
covered with flowers and buds, and short-jointed, having been 
kept as near the glass as possible. Several of the Corallinas 
send forth three branches at each joint, which I have not 
seen in other sorts. This is a beautiful out-door plant in a 
sheltered spot, and will grow to 9 or 10 feet in height in one 
season, in a rich soil. I find I commence this pencil note on 
half a sheet of paper, which I hope you will excuse. Allow 
me to add my testimony as to the great value, at a trifling 
cost, of The Cottage Gardener ; and that it may flourish 
like a Fuchsia, is the sincere wish of One who has derived 
BENEFIT FROM IT. 
Laurel-leaves and the Green Fly. —I do not remember 
to have read, either in your pages or elsewhere, that the 
prussic (or hydrocyanic ) acid contained in the leaf of the 
laurel effectually destroys the green-fly. It is known to kill 
wasps; and a muslin bag filled with a few leaves thrust 
into the mouth of the nest, and covered with a turf, would 
probably destroy the colony with much greater certainty and 
rapidity than turpentine. This led me to conceive that the 
fumes would be equally injurious to the more delicate lungs 
of the green fly : and I was not disappointed. 1 placed 
three or four laurel leaves, well crushed and bruised, under a 
bell-glass, on the surface of the earth in a pot. 1 inserted 
some cuttings from a plant which wero well covered with 
green fly. In a few minutes there was a visible commotion 
among the settlers of the colony; and in a few minutes 
more they were all dead. Not a single survivor remained. 
I then removed the bell-glass to ascertain whether they 
would recover, but not a single movement took place. Ten 
minutes, or a quarter of an hour, will be quite sufficient to 
exterminate them. Upon a small scale, where plants can 
be thus enclosed, I look upon it as a very superior remedy 
to the smoke of tobacco, more especially where a greenhouse 
adjoins a sitting-room, as in my own case. But upon a 
larger scale, for a whole house, I do not see how it could be 
applied. Here Brown’s fumigator would not be an available 
instrument, I fear. Some of your more ingenious corres¬ 
pondents may, perhaps, devise some mode of applying the 
principle more extensively; if so, I hope they will commu¬ 
nicate the result of their attempts. Care should be taken 
to cut the leaves into small pieces, and to bruise them very 
thoroughly, in order that the noxious fumes may be more 
readily emitted. I. have tried this frequently, and it never 
fails. But although it effectually kills the insect, it does 
not at the same time detach them from the plant; they 
must be washed off afterwards with a gentle syringe.'—C. I J . 
Shallow Planting.—I live on a strong soil, and the sub¬ 
stratum is what we call “ eatbrain," which is a mixture of 
whitish clay, gravel, pebbles, and sand. Some year's ago, I 
found my apple-trees all canker and fail, when the roots got 
into this subsoil. I planted some young apple-trees on a 
plan which I then fancied was new, by first digging the 
holes to receive them, and then by putting a common 
glazed earthenware milk-pan at the bottom of each hole 
under each root. A friend of mine afterwards planted a 
young orchard, by placing the roots upon the surface of the 
land ; he then supported the stems by a strong stake, and 
carted soil round, that is, upon the roots. By this means, 
the trees hitherto seem not to have found the noxious sub¬ 
soil, but the roots have probably struck along the surface. 
This was the notion I had when I obstructed the descent of 
the roots by the milk-pan, the sloping sides of which I 
fancy threw the roots upwards again. A square flag stone 
would have been the safer process, as the force of the roots, 
when the trees grew large, might break any fragile mate¬ 
rial.—A Worcestershire Man. 
Effects of the Graft on the Stock. —Mr. Evans, of 
the Edinburgh Experimental Garden, recently directed the 
attention of the Botanical Society to a curious instance of the 
effects of the graft upon the stock, which had occurred in a 
tree at Morningside House, the residence of Mr. J. Deucbar. 
The tree in question is Pyrus ana, grafted upon P. aucuparia 
[July 11. 
as a stock. Its entire height is 18 feet, and the stock forms j. 
a clean trunk to the height of 1 feet, where the union of the 
graft and stock is conspicuously shown. At 13 inches from j 
the base of the trunk there are shoots of P. aucuparia, and 
at the height of 1 \ feet branches of P. aria appear (being 2£ 
feet below the point of junction), while farther up the trunk 
a branch has been accidentally taken off, which is believed to 
have been P. aucuparia. 
Wisteria Sinensis.— This beautiful plant blooms in the 
spring, before unfolding its leaves, and often so early that the 
blossoms are cut off by frost ; this spring, however, the check 
was given before the flower-buds were set, and though June 
1st, it exhibited nothing but naked branches, it is now coming 
out in full perfection. Query .—Can any mode of culture be 
adopted to retard the development of the plant, say for a month, 
until the spring frosts are over ?—S. P., Rushmcrr. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
* t * We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
Tiik Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustitiuhle trouble and 
expense ; and we also request our coadjutors 'antler no circumstances 
to reply to such private communications. 
Suckers of Pine-apples Falling (Delta). —Your suckers of Pines 
grown on the Hamiltonian system must have sticks, hut they must be 
weak, through bad roots, to fall down. Cannot you, also, thrust some 
new tan amongst their stems. For summer and early autumn, we re¬ 
commend the best sorts of Queens ; for late purposes, and through the 
winter, nothing can exceed the Black Jamaica. V ou will see a paper on 
Pines shortly. 
Bees not staving in Hive (IV. Speed). —You say that the swarm 
put into a clean hive without any smearing of the inside remained ; whilst 
the swarm also put into a new hive, but the inside ot which ‘ was well 
smeared with honey,” suddenly took flight and were lost. In future do 
not smear your hive; if you refer to former numbers you will sec that we 
deprecate the absurd practice. 
Second Swarms (J. B. P.).—“ Mr. Payne says, that if a first swarm 
goes off, a second (or cast) will certainly follow. Now, on the 31st May, 
two strong stocks threw swarms, and since the seventh day I have 
assiduously listened every evening to hear the piping of young queens, 
and examined every morning to discover any royal nymphs or young 
queens cast out; neither has happened, nor has a second swarm de¬ 
parted.” Yours is certainly an exception to a general rule. The 
cloudiness of the weather just at the time of throwing off the second 
swarms, and the general unfavourableness of the season for bees, must 
be considered as the cause. It will be in vain to look for second swarms 
now, and as the season is, perhaps it is much better not to have them ; 
should, however, your stocks be seen to cluster at the mouth of the hives, 
put a small hive upon each of them. 
Ice-house [Delta).— Nothing more has been done to the iee-liouse i 
you name, nor to the way of managing it, and it answers very well indeed. 
Bromtton Stocks (F. W. T.). —Mr. Beaton told us last year that he j 
never saw such fine Brompton Stocks as are grown about Ipswich ; and . 
we know that many cottagers in Suffolk, who do not possess even a hand¬ 
glass, succeed with them as well, if not better, than many who coddle | 
them in pots and cold pits through the winter. Some people succeed in 
getting an early crop of fine cauliflowers by keeping the plants in pots 
over the winter, while others grow only <( button heads” that way. 
Sow your Brompton Stocks now, and try one-half of your seedlings in the 
open ground, transplanting them to their final places next March, and 
please let us hear the result. We never pot or shelter ours, and they do 
pretty well. 
Stephanotis Fi.oribunda ( F. W. T.).— Your cuttings of this will 
readily root in a hotbed under a bell-glass, any time from March to August. 
Those short growths which are produced near the bottom of the plant 
make the best cuttings for amateurs, and March or April is the best time 
to put them in. 
LiaUID-MANURE FOR FUCHSIAS, GERANIUMS, &C. (C. J. P.). \1 hat 
it should be made from, and what its strength, will depend upon what 
you can get. Deer-dung, sheep-dung, and cow-dung, after they have 
lain some months to sweeten, are good, either separately or unitedly for 
this purpose. A good shovelful will he enough for a dozen of gallons. 
Soot, also, is a valuable fertilizer for Buch plants. A small handful will 
he sufficient for six gallons of water. A little lime will clear it, but rob it 
also of a portion of its ammonia. Guano and super-phosphate of lime 
arc the cleanest and easiest used. Three ounces of the former, or four of 
the latter, will do for four gallons of water. Even these you must give to 
your plants alternately with clean water. 
Cactus done Blooming (Ibid). —Do not keep it dry yet, hut encourage j 
it to grow until the autumn. See what Mr. Fish says in another part of . 
the paper. 
Gardenia Florida Plena (Florida). —The plant which has become 
so ” melancholy looking,” by loosing Its leaves, and dropping its buds, 
