THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
the “ spot,” but we really know nothing of the cause or 
cure here in England. Why not ask the good doctor? The 
only real way to get rid of the spot is either to burn the 
plants, smash the pots, and fumigate the greenhouse with 
flowers of brimstone (for it is more “ catching ” than the 
cattle murrain), or strip off every affected leaf, and plant the 
Geraniums on a cool, rich, shady border early in June, going 
over them once a week to pick off the bad leaves, and by 
the middle of August the tops will have grown out of the 
spot, and may very safely be made into cuttings; but unless 
the poison, or whatever it is, is got rid of with burnt sulphur, 
or fire, or water, it will return in the spring. 
Pray let us hear more about the doctor. Ask him how he 
manages to have the bed of that Veronica in flower with the 
native Lotus. With us the Lotus is three weeks later than 
the Veronica. The Lotus has the very best style of growth 
for an edging. The doctor is quite right about the florists; 
they are, indeed, a sad tease to the flower gardeners, for 
they spoil everything they can lay their fingers on. Have 
you not the two British Butterworts in Ireland? Pinguicula 
grandtjiora is not at all difficult to grow on the shaded side 
of a Rhododendron bed, while very few British gardeners 
can manage Pinguicula vulgaris. Mr. Jackson’s Orchid 
grower here manages the Prosera rotundifolia from Wim¬ 
bledon Common as he does the alpine Orchids, and no 
plant can do better. In the Highlands the Prosera and 
Pinguicula vulgaris are almost always found growing to¬ 
gether. Let the doctor, therefore, give a trial to both in 
his Orchid house. That the same treatment will do for a 
Scotch and a Canadian plant as suits Anoectochilus, from 
the hottest groves in the Indian Archipelago, is, indeed, a 
very curious fact, and well worthy of such a “ ’cute ” man 
as tho village doctor. Tell him we drank his health the 
evening we had your letter.] 
PRUNING A WALL PEAR TREE. —VINES NEAR 
LIVERPOOL. 
“I have a horizontally-trained Jargonelle Pear tree on 
a good wall with a due south aspect. Its present number of 
branches is three on each side of the leader. In addition 
to this another branch has started at the right distance from 
the next lower branch, and promises to be a good branch; 
but I should like to have a corresponding branch on the 
other side, but there does not appear to be any buds. At 
the same time this year that the other branch started 
another branch started from the front of the leader, which 
would have just done for a corresponding branch to the 
other had it been at the side. When it had grown about 
six inches I cut it down to the last leaf, which was about 
half an inch from the leader. I wish to know whether that 
leaf, which is on the right side for the branch I want, can be 
made by stopping the central leader, a lateral branch, so as 
to keep up the figure of the tree; also whether an Easter 
Beurre Pear, trained for a wall, will grow on espalier rails 
with a south aspect. 
“Would there he any chance of success with a Vine in 
this quarter, the southern part of Lancashire? The spot 
where I would have it is a wall of a house fronting due 
south ; it has the sun on it from seven o’clock in the morning 
till five in the evening. It is well protected from the east, 
north, north-west, west, and south-west winds. The only 
quarter to which it is at all exposed is the south-east, and 
from this it is protected by a hedge at the distance of four 
yards.”—J. S. 
[You did quite right in cutting in the foreriglit shoot, and 
there is no doubt you will find the eye break again, and may 
possibly furnish you with a horizontal shoot; but we should 
have much preferred to develope the bud on the opposite 
side, even if it had not been in the same line as the one you 
already have, because you could easily take it up with a 
curve to bring it in a line with the other, wherever it might 
have been ; but to secure this you should shorten the leader 
about one-half. An Easter Beurre will do very well on an 
espalier with a south aspect. We certainly would not 
recommend so favourable an aspect to be occupied by a Vine 
in the south of Lancashire, seeing it might be so much 
more profitably employed either with a Peach or a Nec¬ 
tarine. You can never expect to get Grapes worth eating.] 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 23, 1857. 187 l 
VARIEGATED ARCHANGEL BALM, LAMIUM 
ALBUM. 
“Last year I sent you a small specimen of the Variegated 
Mint, and recommended it to your notice. You were pleased 
to approve of my recommendation, and you have since then 
been the means of rendering it quite a popular plant, and 
of introducing it into hundreds of gardens where it was 
unknown before. 
, “ I venture once more to recommend a plant to you, in i 
the hope that I may again prove useful to my gardening 
brethren. I cannot say that I can this time make my re¬ 
commendation with the same confidence that I did before; 
but still I think the plant is one which your practised eye 
will recognise as not unlikely to prove useful and ornamental. 
“ It is, I believe, a Lamium. I saw it first in the garden 
of a neighbouring baronet many years ago, but at the time 
did not think much of it, and had almost forgotten it until j 
last summer, when the sight of a dried specimen brought it 
to my recollection. There are two varieties, one with reddish, 
the other with white flowers. The variegation varies very 
much. In some it is of a golden hue, in others quite silver. 
In striking it from cuttings (which is done most readily) it 
loses all its variegation and becomes a self. I think that it 
makes a very nice edging, is quite hardy, grows anywhere, 
and is one of the easiest things in the world to raise from 
cuttings. In the hope of your giving it a trial in your experi¬ 
ment ground I send a small plant rooted. You will find the 
variegation grow much stronger with exposure to the light.” 
—A Yorkshire Clergyman. 
[We once had a summer-house of blocks and roots of 
trees covered with this very plant, and we can sustain our 
reverend correspondent in saying that it is well worthy of 
being used and tried for edgings and for rockwork. It is 
often called the Archangel Balm, being a native of every 
parish in the kingdom in the green-leaved form. It is the 
Lamium, album of our books, but the red-flowered is just as 
common as the white. The variegated form is scarce.] 
WAR BETWEEN A PARENT HIVE AND ITS 
COLONY. 
“ My bees seemed about to swarm, but the event was 
deferred for a few days, when a very heavy swarm came out 
and settled very well. Ten days after a second swarm from 
the same parent hive was taken, and all settled. Four or 
five days after I found about a pint of dead and dying bees 
near my first swarm; in a few days many more; and yester¬ 
day the buzz was so loud that I prepared to take another 
swarm, when, after half an hour’s bustle, all became quiet, 
but some hundreds of dead and dying bees were on the 
ground before the hive of the first swarm. As I watched 
the whole time I observed the parent hive to be equally 
agitated. The two hives are side by side.”—S. W. 
[You appear to have placed the swarm too near the parent 
stock; the bees of the swarm most likely have, in conse¬ 
quence, flown by mistake to the hive to which they had been 
accustomed, and this has led to fighting between the families. 
It may not be well now to attempt removal, but a board on 
edge might be placed between the hives in'such a way as to 
make a more complete separation,] 
CROSSED TROPiEOLUM. 
“ I w ish again to trouble you to publish your opinion of 
those Indian Cresses inclosed. The creamy buff, or largest 
bundle, is a seedling of the same habit and hardiness as the 
common Tropseolum, but does not grow so rampant. I send a 
bloom of the Triomphe de Prado (a foreign sort) to compare. 
In its habit of growth it is more inclined to be a runner. I 
like my own variety even better—it is more generally useful. 
I have some of them in fine bloom now in pots, and they 
look beautiful. I put, or rather, plant them all out in the 
small pots; it keeps them more compact in habit, and they 
flower better. I put one plant in a patch at the back of the 
flower borders. I should have mentioned that I form a small 
circle of stakes one foot and a half or two feet through, and 
three feet high at most. I plant alternately the two distinct 
