THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S 
goes to prove a fact which is not generally known, namely, 
that all the soft bulbs from the Cape do better if they are 
“ packed as closely together as possible ” in pots and in the 
open ground ; and Dr. Herbert’s explanation of that is this 
—the soil lies lighter over them, and the drainage is much 
assisted. It is never “ out of place” to make such practical 
remarks.] 
STANDARD ROSES.—MANETTI STOCKS, &c. 
“ Can you give me the name of the iuclosed plant, which 
I hope will arrive fresh? It is of a bright orange, with a 
dark, rough leaf, and the smell very offensive. It is, how¬ 
ever, a very showy plant, and was sent to me by a nursery¬ 
man with some Heliotropes, which it seems to resemble in 
its growth.” 
[Your plant is Lantana crocea.] 
“ Have you the Tom Thumb Fuchsia, a compact little 
shrub about a foot high, and hardy, and the double sweet- 
scented Nasturtium, a perennial, though tender, and very 
pretty? If not, I recommend them, and believe that they 
are neither of them common. My garden, the plan of which 
you were pleased to engrave in your number of November, 
1854, is looking well this year. The summer Roses pegged 
down were splendid in June; the weather then was very hot. 
The hybrid perpetuals were not nearly so good, and I do not 
succeed with a group of standards in a clump. Both the 
Manetti and Dog Rose stocks are continually throwing out 
suckers there. The standards do better which are placed 
singly in other parts of the garden. When Roses have 
bloomed particularly well one season they seem to be ex¬ 
hausted, and do not do so well the next. Should they in 
this case be moved ? ”—A Lady. 
[We have very often recommended the Tom. Thumb Fuchsia 
for edgings ; also the little dwarf, double Nasturtium, which 
makes a nice patch. We cannot help having suckers from 
Dog Roses, which are propagated by nature; but it is dis¬ 
graceful for a third-class nurseryman ever to see a sucker 
from the Manetti, which he propagates on purpose for a 
better stock. We would make it conditional not to pay our 
Rose bill if one sucker appeared on fifty Manetti stocks, 
or on 500 of them in five years. A bed of standard Roses 
never looked well yet, and never will. You should plant one 
row of good, bushy, dwarf Roses round them, at least, to 
make them tolerable in a flower garden. In mixed borders, 
and standing singly along the walks in the centre of circles 
of a yard or four feet in diameter, are the only good situ¬ 
ations for standards in a flower garden where there is 
no rosary. A rosary is a very different thing from a flower 
garden, and in it standard Roses are at home, and may be 
disposed of in any way one fancies, and they never come 
amiss. Amateurs who grow little else but Roses make large 
clumps of them ; but that is a different style altogether from 
flower gardening. If the standard Roses have grown very 
luxuriantly they should be replanted at the end of October, 
but not if they are stunted from the last planting.] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Geranium Cuttings {Bromley). —You cannot be serious. There is 
not a word about how they manage their cuttings at the Crystal Palace 
in the whole of The Cottage Gardener, and certainly you cannot 
think they leave out their cuttings there in winter. 
PEAcn Trees ( J. S. L.). —Your tree is completely covered with scale, 
and you may be thankful if it should ever get over it. They should have 
been washed off with a brush as soon as you detected one of them. If 
all are as bad as the bit sent we should advise uprooting the tree and plant¬ 
ing another. In the meantime, if not quite so bad, wash each twig and 
leaf left with soap water, and then syringe with clean, and when the leaves 
are all gone paint over the old wood with clay paint, holding a good 
portion of soft soap and sulphur in it, especially the latter. We fear 
your greenhouse plants will be affected. We used to be troubled with the 
same pest in our Peach house, and got rid of it by smoking the house 
with sulphur after the leaves had fallen. If the wood is not ripened, 
however, the sulphur smoking will kill it, and everything else that is 
green and growing at the time. 
Prolific Swarm of Bees. —“ In my article in the last number on 
this subject there are two or three errors in the figures, not, perhaps, 
very important in themselves, but, as they do not tally with the weights 
given in the following article on the Stewarton hives, may cast an air of 
untruth over both accounts. I may just, therefore, mention that the 
weights as given in the account of the Stewarton hives are correct, and 
he exact weight of the honey and of the four existing stocks obtained 
from one swarm of last year is 102 lbs., not 120 lbs.”—W. B.Tegetmeier. 
COMPANION, September 15, 1857. 883 
Names of Plants (An Old Subscriber). —Your plant is the common 
double Soapwort, Saponaria officinalis pleno. This double variety has 
been found wild in many places ; for instance, at Haughmond Abbey, 
Shrewsbury, at north Glenham, in the road to Swefling, between Cheriton 
and Bramdean, Hants; in the road to Sittingbourne, Kent; at Corn - 
forth, Lancashire; and many other places in England and Ireland. 
This double variety is often cultivated in gardens as an ornamental 
plant. Bruised and agitated with water it makes a lather like soap, 
which removes grease spots ; hence its name, and “ Fuller’s Herb,” as it 
is sometimes called. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
October 1st and 2nd. Worcester. Sec., Mr. G. Griffiths, 7, St. 
Swithin Street, Worcester. Entries close Sept. l.Qth. 
October 7th. South West Middlesex Agricultural Society. 
At Gunnersbury Farm, Ealing. Sec., J. Gotelee, Hounslow. 
October 8th. Bucks Agricultural Society. Sec., Mr. Charles 
Fuller, Chiltern House, Wendover, Bucks. Entries close Sept. 24. 
November 30th, and December 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Birmingham, i 
Sec., John Morgan. Entries close the 2nd of November. 
December 16 th and 17 th. Nottinghamshire. Entries close No- j 
vember 18th. Hon. Sec., Mr. It. Hawksley, jun., Southwell. 
December 30th and 31st. Burnley and East Lancashire. 
Entries close December 1st. Secs., Mr. Angus Sutherland and Mr. 
Ralph Landless. 
January 1st, 1858. Paisley. Poultry, Pigeons, and Fancy Birds, 
Sec., Mr. W. Houston, 14, Karr Street, Paisley. 
January 4th, 1858. Kirkcaldy Poultry and Fancy Bird 
Show. Sec., Mr. Bonthron, jun,, Thistle Street. 
January 9th, 11th, 12th, and 13th, 1858. Crystal Palace. 
ham. 
January 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd, 1858. Nottingham Central. 
Sec., Mr. Etherington, jun., Notintone Place, Sneinton, near Notting- 
February 3rd and 4t.h, 1858. Preston and North Lancashire. 
Secs., Mr. R. Teebay and Mr. H. Oakey, Preston. 
N.B.— Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
GLOUCESTER POULTRY SHOW. 
Tiie first Exhibition of the Gloucester Society took place 
on Monday, the 7th, and the following days, in a most com- ! 
modious temporary wooden building erected in a field close ; 
to the town. The entries were between 500 and COO in j 
number, and included birds from many of our most suc¬ 
cessful exhibitors. The prize-list was beyond all question 
the most liberal that lias ever been issued. In the classes 
for old birds there were three prizes of <£20, To, and <£2 ' 
respectively, and in the chicken classes three prizes of T10, 
£2, and £1. In consequence of its being originally stated 
that the Show would not be carried out unless there were 
1000 pens entered, and also from the fact that the whole re¬ 
sponsibility rested on one individual, many persons did not 
enter their birds; but the suspicions were unfounded, for 
the Show has been carried out, and with a degree of spirit 
and energy that has not often been witnessed. Mr. Churchill, 
jun., took all the labour upon himself, replying to every 
letter by return of post, superintending every necessary 
arrangement, being untiring in his energy and liberal in his 
expenditure. 
As to the payment of the prizes, in which matter some 
persons imagined that there might be a difference from the 
course generally pursued, we can state that there were two 
most important differences, so that the suspicions were not [ 
unfounded. Firstly, that instead of pieces of plate chosen | 
by the Committee, the winners had orders given to them by ! 
which they were enabled to go and select useful instead of j 
useless articles from the silversmiths in the town; and, 
secondly, that the prizes were paid in the Show, so that j 
several of the successful exhibitors took home their silver 
teapots, &c., on the evening of the opening day. Mr. 
Churchill did not wait to see whether the Exhibition paid, 
but he paid at once ; and should it turn out that the Show, 
from the very unfavourable weather, lias entailed any severe j 
pecuniary loss, we can only throw out a hope that the 
winners may present, in their turn, a piece of plate to by j 
far the most deserving man connected with the Exhibition, , 
namely, the Honorary Secretary. 
In the classes the Game came first, Mr. Rothschild and 
Captain Hornby dividing the prizes for the old Reds. In , 
the Black Red chicken class Mr. Dyer took first; but the 
gem of the collection was Mr. Cox’s third prize pen, though 
not equally forward with his second prize birds. 
In Dorkings Mr. Titterton took first with a pen that was 
