242 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, July 14, 1857. 
quired for use, when a gill may he taken out of the vessel, 
and added to eight gallons of soft water, and applied to the 
plants, without the quality of the liquid being in the least 
deteriorated.—13. B., near Halifax. 
{To be continued.) 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
DIELYTRA SPECTABILIS SEEDLING PROLIFIC.— 
CULTURE OF YIOLA PYROLiEFOLIA. 
“ You may remember a discussion which took place in 
your columns three or four years ago about the seeding and 
raising the seed of Dielytra spectabilis. I remember sending 
Mr. Beaton a few seeds at that time, and he stated that 
plants produced from seed would probably bear seed much 
more freely than those raised from cuttings. I am writing 
this to confirm his opinion, having two very large seedling 
plants which are now covered with seed, and beg to inclose 
you a small branch, that you may see the habit if you have 
not yet. I presume the seed is of no value. Can the fact 
be explained as to the free seeding of plants so raised, for 
it is a fact not to be denied? I have large plants from 
cuttings growing alongside these seedlings, and not a pod of 
seed on them. 
“ While writing I shall be glad to ask if it is possible to 
flower Viola pyrolafolia. I have had it some time, strong 
plants, and can get any amount of .seed from them, but never 
one flower. Can Mr. Beaton give its proper culture? I 
have seen common Violets sometimes do the same.”—A. R. 
[Very much obliged indeed. We proved our hypothesis 
a score times, and you have done so with this Dielytra. 
If you sow the seeds some of the next generation will be 
still more prolific, and in a few more generations the plant 
would establish itself as a native. Before then, if it would 
cross with others of the family, the experiment could best 
be tried on one of the prolific plants. But, to give the fact 
a more practical value, why should not all the Paeonies and 
tree Peonies seed as freely as Pansies, and cross more 
easily, by the very plan you adopted ? We are persuaded 
every plant worth the trouble would yield seeds. 
Divide the old plants of Viola pyrolafolia in the spring 
just as they begin to stock, and make them into very 
little bits.] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Green Rose [Belfast). —What the kind of Rose may be no one 
could tell from the specimen before us, which is a decided case of 
morphology—a large cluster of Roses in which every one of the parts is 
as decidedly green as the common leaves. We never saw a green full¬ 
blown Rose but this, and we never desire to see the like again. Very 
probably it is the Rosier Bengale, a fleurs verts. It was figured in the 
Flore de Serves last year, and M. Miellez states there that it came from 
an English nursery. 
Names of Plants ( Carrig Cathol).— No. 2 has no resemblance to 
Virgineum Geranium, which is as white as virgin snow, and makes the 
best white bed in the garden. No. 1 is most likely true, but is difficult 
to determine in the dried state in which it reached us. No. 4 is Lonicera 
Japonica of Thun berg, which is the same as Caprifolium Chinense 
of Loudon’s Catalogue, and also the same as Lonicera flexuosa of the 
nurseries. Mr. Hogg’s “History of the Vegetable Kingdom” puts 
all this to rights in the lists of genera to each division. After this most 
useful work is concluded we shall pull to pieces such catalogues as put 
wrong genera foremost, and next week we mean to show how ignorance, 
or pedantry, or both, when united, with or without the knowledge of 
the compiler, hurt the trade. No. 3 did not reach us. [Inquirer ).— 
Oxalis, probably floribunda. [F. W. S .).— Your troublesome pond 
weed is Ranunculus aquutilis, or Water Crowfoot. (S. H. W.)—Pro¬ 
bably Combretum purpureum, but we cannot be certain from such a 
specimen. [F. W. S.).— We cannot say from your two leaves ; they seem 
as if irom some species of Amelanchier. 
Boronia Cuttings [Amateur, Waterford).—We should advise you 
to keep your Boronias, and give them a little sweet bottom heat, taking 
care to edge up the corner of the bellglass at night. Sometimes they 
require a good while to strike. Small shoots about two inches long, 
getting iirnush at their base, and taken off with a heel close to the older 
stem, we have found do best. 
Hardy h erns [Kate).- —The only bother you will have will be the 
roots ol the Lilac gettingin among the Ferns, but try and lay the bricks 
hollow over these roots tor a foundation; the rest is as plain as you 
wrote your letter. Any time from the end of September to April will 
do to put out hardy Ferns, but avoid little morsels of plants. Get 
good hearty lumps of roots with balls to them. By the by, which of 
the two plans did you adopt for the flower garden at last, and how does 
it answer ? 
Sowing Stocks (An Old Subscriber). —Did you not read but the 
other day that Mr. Melville, the best grower of Stocks out of Germany, 
sowed them last year in the first week in July, and that the kind was 
the Intermediate Stock ? Mr. James, gardener to the Rev. E. Philips, 
incumbent of Surbiton, is the best grower of the Brompton Stock out 
of Suffolk : his seedlings of them are just pricked off. Mr. James says 
the end of May is better than April to sow Bromptons, because “of 
getting over the winter” with less risk than older or stouter plants. 
Ten-week Stocks are sown from February to June. 
Chrysanthemums for South Wall [J.J. B.). —If the border is 
ready plant them out at once, and lay the shoots against the wall in 
the form of a lady’s fan, and if there are more shoots than will allow of 
six inches between the points of the shoots, supposing them to be from 
nine inches to a foot long, cut out some to allow the spokes of the fan 
to lie at that distance. Give water occasionally, and keep the shoots 
nailed to the wall as they grow, and remember this rule— every side- 
shoot from the roots to within six inches of the top of the shoots must 
be cut out —not merely stopped, but cut below the lowest bud on it. 
That is the only secret in growing Chrysanthemums against anything 
or anybody. 
Cheap Ice-house. —“ I shall be much obliged for any hints as to 
the construction of aq, inexpensive ice-house. My ground is fiat, but 
there is a small lime-stone quarry near, where a slope could be managed 
to assist the drainage. Any directions and information as to the probable 
expense would oblige.”—E. P. 
Hymenofiiyllum Wilsoni [K. 31.).— No doubt it can be raised from 
its seeds, or spores, but we have no experience in the practice. Like its 
relative, H. Tunbridgense, it is usually propagated from rooted pieces. 
Any reader who can give us directions for raising these Ilymeno- 
phyllums from seed will much oblige us. 
Roses with Green Centres (F. C. D.). —Many Roses, such as 
Souvenir de Mulrnaison, are liable to this morphology, or conversion of 
the stamens into leaves. Gardeners have failed either in discovering the 
cause ora remedy. It seems to occur chiefly in the most vigorous. 
Osage Orange Seed (-4 Constant Reader). —If we wanted any 
quantity we should write to some leading seedsman in New York. It 
cannot be obtained in England. The American nurseryman would give 
you every information. 
Mowing Machine (Cochin). —The first, and the smallest size. Even 
the smallest requires all a man’s power. 
Various ( H. J. W.).— You will see in to-day’s paper an article on 
the common kinds of garden vegetables which will meet your case; 
others will be following, and if you peruse our pages that treat on the 
culture of flowers you will then see what is best to be done at each re¬ 
spective season, as well as the best varieties of each species most 
generally grown, not only in new things, but also in neglected old ones, 
for our purpose is as much to restore the latter to their proper level 
as to support new ones, 
Sal Ammoniac for Plants ( J. S. A.).— A piece of this the size 
of a hen’s egg, or the same of sulphate of ammonia added to a hogs¬ 
head of water, will benefit your plants, given not oftener than once a 
week. We should omit the lime. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
July 20 th. Royal Agricultural Society. Salisbury. TheEx- 
hibition will be open to the public on the 22 nd. 
July 28th, 29 th, and 30th. Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and 
North Derbyshire. Sec., William Henry Dawson, Fig Tree 
Lane, Sheffield. 
August 8 th, 10 th, 11th, and 12 th. Crystal Palace. Sec., W. 
Houghton, Entries close on the 11 th of July. 
August 19. Bridlington. Sec., Mr. Thomas Cape. 
Aug. 29 th. Calder Vale. Sec., W. Irvine, Esq., Holmefield, Halifax. 
September 2 nd. Dewsbury. Sec., Harrison Brooke, Esq. 
September 7th, 8 th, 9 th, 10 th. Gloucester. Sec., Mr. H. Churchill, 
King’s Head Hotel. 
October 1st and 2nd. Worcester. Sec., Mr. G. Griffiths, 7, St. 
Swithen Street, Worcester. Entries close Sept. 19 th. 
November 30th, and December 1st, 2 nd, and 3rd. Birmingham. 
Sec., John Morgan. Entries close the 2nd of November. 
December 16 th and 17 th. Nottinghamshire. Entries close No¬ 
vember 18th. Hon. Sec., Mr. R. Hawkslev, jun., Southwell. 
December 30th and 31st. Burnley and East Lancashire. 
Entries close December 1 st. Secs., Angus Sutherland and Ralph 
Landless. 
January 4th, 1858. Kirkcaldy Poultry and Fancy Bird 
Show. Sec., Mr. Bonthron, jun., Thistle Street. 
January 9 th, 11 th, 12 th, and 13th, 1858. Crystal Palace. 
January 19 th, 20th, 2lst, and 22 nd, 1858. Nottingham Central. 
Sec., Mr. Etherington, jun., Notintone Place, Sneinton, near Notting¬ 
ham. 
N.B.— Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
THE CRYSTAL PALACE POULTRY SHOW. 
We were reading a newspaper in a railway carriage when 
we were pleasingly interrupted by a nice little girl, who 
asked us to read her something. We are very fond of j 
