THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, September 15, 1857. 381 
same principle that we are now in the habit of growing 
Ferns. The idea first suggested itself about two months 
since, and was immediately put in practice in the following 
manner:—Having a wide-mouthed bottle, about four inches 
in diameter and eight inches high, I placed a few lumps of 
charcoal at the bottom, and over these sufficient light sandy 
soil to raise the whole to about three inches in height. After 
thoroughly moistening the soil, seeds of Mammillaria qua- 
drispina were thinly scattered over the surface, and just 
covered with a little dry soil. The bottle was then tied 
down securely with thin sheet lead (tea lead), and set in the 
south window, the side next the sun being daubed over with 
paste to prevent scorching, if such could be possible. These 
were bottled up on the 22nd of last June, and have never 
been opened till a day or two since, and there are now be¬ 
tween five and six dozen plants of this slow-growing tribe 
from an eighth to more than a quarter of an inch in height, 
nearly all showing spines, but many with numerous mammse 
and their crowning tufts of elegant plumes. 
I have watched the “ rise and progress ” of many a batch 
of “ juveniles,” but never in my life have I derived so much 
interest and real pleasure as in witnessing the changes 
which have taken place, from day to day, in the form and 
appearance of my present pets. Everything is here con¬ 
venient for a close inspection, and with an eye-glass or a 
magnifying lens the minutest parts may be seen distinctly, 
and the progress watched, without in the least degree sub¬ 
jecting the plants to any injurious exposure in the pro¬ 
cess, which can scarcely ever.be done under any other cir¬ 
cumstances. It may thus be made a no mean ornament 
to the study table as well as the library, or even the drawing¬ 
room window; or it may be stowed in an attic window, on 
the tiles , or on a shelf in the greenhouse out of the way. 
Nor is the raising of seedlings the only use to which I have 
found it applicable. Cuttings of several species of Opuntia, 
Rhipsalis, &c., rooted and began to grow in a very short 
time, and long before similar pieces in the soil in a close 
frame showed any signs of rooting. 
Ordinary pickle bottles are the cheapest and best articles 
for the purpose I have been able to meet with, and they have 
this advantage—that they may be obtained in almost every 
village; and I have every reason to believe that this will 
prove by far the best plan of striking many different plants, 
as it affords the surest means of preserving a uniform amount 
of moisture, with convenience for regulating the heat and light 
in proportion. I am, perhaps, premature in speaking of this 
plan before fully testing its capabilities ; but I do so in the 
hope that others may give it a trial, and may have an oppor¬ 
tunity of doing so before it has become too late in the season, 
and I trust it may afford as much gratification to other 
amateurs as it has done to myself.—W. K. Bridgman, St. 
Giles' Street, Nonvich. 
P.S. Some of your contributors have recommended the 
cultivation of succulents. I have no doubt that many would 
gladly grow them, but unfortunately succulents, beyond 
a few of the commonest kinds, are difficult to be got at. 
Nurse^men do not keep them, because they do not pay; 
therefore one can only now and then pick up a cutting, an 
offset, or a sucker through the kindness of a friend, or by 
“ way of exchange.” By means of the latter, if the seed coidd 
only he procured of such species as are otherwise difficult of 
increase, a sufficient number of plants might be raised and 
sent by post in pill-boxes to carry on a system of exchange 
that might lead to the formation of good collections of them, 
and of their becoming as generally grown as Ferns now are. 
Perhaps some of your correspondents can help us in the 
matter. 
ON BULLFINCHES AND TOMTITS. 
Some kinds of birds are great friends to gardeners by 
destroying grubs and noxious insects. Still there are times 
when some of them require a check; therefore we cannot 
agree with what Mr. Brent lately stated concerning Bull¬ 
finches and Tomtits. He observed that “ there is always most 
fruit where these birds have destroyed the buds,” meaning, 
we suppose, that they only destroy buds which contain in¬ 
sects that must have eaten them; but most fruit growers are 
aware that Bullfinches often eat Gooseberry buds in spring 
by wholesale merely for the sake of food, and we need 
hardly say that such bushes are fruitless and injured, in 
some measure, for the next season. Indeed, we question if 
Bullfinches ever eat insects at all. We think that we have 
noticed this in these pages once before, and observed that 
poor Sparrows and Tomtits often got the blame of the injury 
they do also to the buds of other fruit trees, especially 
Cherries. Bullfinches’ bills seem to be formed for crushing 
buds and seeds, and not for picking insects like the soft 
beaks of the Tomtits. We never'observed these latter eating 
buds ; their food is chiefly insects. Still they are often very 
mischievous in autumn by picking Peas out of the pods, 
and likewise holes in the stalk ends of Pears. We often put 
net over the fruit to keep off the little fellows, which do 
much good at other times; but we cannot say much in 
favour of Bullfinches, not even so much as we can for the 
Rooks, which sometimes destroy whole fields of young Tur¬ 
nips by pulling them up, expecting to find wireworms at 
their roots. Tomtits, especially the large kinds with a black 
band on their breasts, are most determined enemies to the 
bee-keeper in spring, as they go to the mouths of the hives, 
and rap with their beaks until the bees come out, when they 
kill them by wholesale. The entrances to straw hives are 
often quite worn or injured by these little mischievous 
birds.—J. Wighton. 
ORIGINAL DOMESTIC RECEIPTS. 
To Preserve Large Cucumbers. —Take large and freshly- 
gathered cucumbers; split them down and take out all 
the seeds ; lay them in salt and water that will bear an egg 
three days ; set them on a fire with cold water and a small 
lump of alum, and boil them a ffew minutes, or until tender; 
drain them, and pour on them a thin syrup. Let them lie 
two days. Boil the syrup again, and put it over the cucum¬ 
bers ; repeat it twice more. Then have ready some fresh 
clarified sugar, boiled to a blow. Put in the cucumbers, 
simmer the sugar five minutes, and set it by till next day. 
Then boil thg syrup and cucumbers again, and set them in 
glasses for use. 
To Preserve Small Cucumbers. —Weigh equal portions 
of small green cucumbers and of fine loaf sugar. Rub the 
cucumbers with a cloth, scald them in hot water, and put 
them into the syrup with some white ginger and the peel of 
a lemon. Boil them gently for ten minutes. The following 
day just let them boil, and repeat this three times, and the 
last boil them till tender and clear. 
To Preserve Damsons. —To every pound of plums allow 
three quarters of a pound of pounded loaf sugar; put into 
jars, alternately, a layer of damsons and one of sugar; tie 
them over with bladder or strong paper, and put them into 
an oven after the bread is withdrawn, and let them remain 
till the oven is cold. The following day strain off the 
syrup and boil it till thick. When cold put the damsons, 
one by one, into small jars, and pour over them the syrup, 
which must cover them. Tie them over with -wet bladder. 
To Preserve Damsons. — Another Way. —Prick them with 
a needle and boil them with sugar, the same proportion as 
in the above receipt, till the syrup will jelly. Carefully take 
off all the scum. 
To Preserve Greengages. —Put the plums into boiling 
water, j>are off the skin, and divide them. Take an equal 
quantity of pounded loaf sugar, and strew half of it over the 
fruit. Let it remain some hours, and, with the remainder 
of the sugar, put it into a preserving pan. Boil till the 
plums look quite clear, take off the scum as it rises, 
and, a few minutes before taking them off the fire, add the 
kernels. 
To Preserve Apples. —Pare, core, and quarter six pounds 
of good hard baking apples. Finely pound four pounds of 
loaf sugar, and put a layer of each, alternately, with half a 
pound of the best white ginger, into a jar. Infuse for half 
that time, in a little boiling water, half a pound of bruised 
white ginger. Strain, and boil the liquor with the apples 
