2G5 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 26, 1858. 
done than others. Some of the great London growers of 
Hyacinths competed in Edinburgh in March last. How did 
they stand with the growers in Scotland ? If my memory 
serves me right, they stood dux at the ivrong end. In then- 
case, perhaps, a little moss might have been not a bad tiling. 
There was a Mr. Robt. Watson, gardener at Moredun, for 
many years, who died about eight or ten years ago. Moredun 
is three miles south of Edinburgh, on the Dalkeith road. Is 
this not the place Mr. Beaton had the pleasure of calling at in 
the year 1828 ? There is a fine Holly-hedge there; as also at 
Colinton House, and Haile’s House, all near Edinburgh, which 
I shall take the first opportunity of looking at, and report.— 
Wit. Baxter. 
ACHIMENES ATRO SANGUINE A. 
Presented by Messrs. Knight and Perry, under the above 
name. 
This is a beautiful species, with the habit of A. Sh inner/', 
but with slender flowers nearly an inch and a half long, with 
a yellow tube spotted with dull purple, and a vivid scarlet 
limb as bright as that of Mimulus cardinalis. 
It is perfectly distinct from all other hitherto described, and 
ranks amongst the handsomest.—( Horticultural Society's 
Journal.) 
PLANTING POTATOES. 
I SEE in No. 483, page 201, a few remarks on planting the 
j Potato, which, according to my estimation, are far below the 
standard, unless “The Doctor’s Boy” is favoured with a far 
lighter soil than myself. He says there are three ways of 
planting here (Worcester) :—“First, by trenching the sets in 
i as the ground is dug ; and, according to my experience, this is 
the best way of planting, be the ground in whatever state it 
may. The other and the most general way is to put them in 
with the hoe after the manner of planting peas or wheat. 
| And the last by the dibble, an instrument that I have not 
seen for years, and never appreciated.” 
Now, my plan of planting the Potato is very simple and 
very easy, both in planting and earthing-up. Generally,I 
pick out my ground in the autumn, that is to be Potatoed 
the ensuing year. That ground I get vacant as early as 
circumstances will permit, and throw it up roughly into two- 
feet ridges ; and there it lies till I think proper to put in my 
Potatoes. The putting-in is very easily performed by laying 
the sets in between the ridges; then, with the hoe or the 
spade, chopping down the sides of the ridges. Then, between 
the rows, about half of each ridge is left standing, exposed to 
the March winds and the sun. Just about the time the 
i Potato shows its head above ground, there is generally a very 
! good crop of seedling weeds. I then give them a flat hoeing. 
This fiat hoeing has a double advantage in this system of 
planting the Potato. It destroys all weeds, and moves the 
remaining portion of the ridge; and there it lies crumbling 
till I catch a fine dry day, and my Potatoes have a good stout 
head. Then the process of moulding-up comes : and how 
pleasant it is when you go amongst them, and see your com¬ 
post crumbling, to what it would be if it were so much hard¬ 
bake ; which would be the case in our soil, if planted as our 
Worcester friend suggests. 
I have tried all ways of planting the Potato, for I have 
grown them largely for the last filteen years in my present 
situation; but I have found none to succeed so well as the 
one I have just mentioned. II any of your numerous readers 
will tell me of a more easy method, and a more suitable one 
to the tubers, I shall be happy to try it.— T. Windsor, Gar¬ 
dener to C. Cannon, Esq., Kidderpore Hall, Hampstead. 
THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 
The London Horticultural Society is now without 
the two officials who ought to be most instrumental to 
its good. Last week, we recorded the death of its 
Secretary, Dr. Royle; and now we have to chronicle 
the death of its President, the Duke of Devonshire. 
His Grace died at his seat, Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, 
on the 17th instant; and the grave could not close 
over a more liberal man. Gardening has especially 
lost a loving and munificent patron; and his ever-ready 
expenditure to promote its objects, has largely tended 
to promote its progress. The gardens at Chatsworth, 
would be enough to produce as evidence, on this point; 
but, when in addition, we can enumerate as his country 
residences—Chiswick, in Middlesex; Hardwick Hall, 
in Derbyshire ; Bolton Abbey, in Yorkshire ; and Lis- 
more Castle, in the county of Waterford ; and observe 
that at all his annual expenditure was most liberal, no 
further comment need be added. We hear, on good 
authority, that his Grace expended £1000 weekly at 
Lismore alone. He was elected President of the Hor¬ 
ticultural Society in 1838, on the death of its first 
President, T. A. Knight, Esq. If he had done no 
more for gardening than to have given Sir Joseph 
Paxton opportunities for developing his abilities, he 
would have conferred on it an obligation permanent 
and worthy of general acknowledgement. A statue 
should be erected in Chiswick gardens to his memory. 
FEEDING BEES—BEE BOXES—BEE 
FLOWERS. 
Although the season of last year was one of the finest 
possible for bees ; yet, in consequence of the very mild weather 
in November, December, and January, as far as it is gone, 
bee-keepers will do well to examine their stocks and see, or 
feel, whether there is sufficient honey to keep the bees until 
May. 
Mr. Neighbour’s boxes are getting very much into use, and 
they form a very ornamental adjunct to the bee garden; 
every gentleman, who can afford it, ought, to have one at 
least—I mean every real apiarian. But it would be desirable 
if a box of a much cheaper construction covdd be invented to 
suit the cottager, or the middle-class man, all over the country. 
In a list of bee flowers, which I sent to the Editor about 
five years ago, I omitted the Salvia nemoralis (not nemorosa, 
as it is called by some)—that beautiful puce-coloured spirv 
flower, which, when in blossom, is covered with bees, and 
lasts for two or three months. It has been advertised in 
The Cottage Gardener (in October last), for sale.— 
II. W. Newman. 
Keeping Pears. —I only received the December part of 
your most valuable Magazine last Saturday, or I should have 
addressed you sooner regarding an article in No. 479, headed, 
“ Keeping Pears wherein the writer mentions, as a matter 
of regret, that the Napoleon, Marie Louise, and some other 
Pears, ripen about one time, and seldom last through No¬ 
vember, or, at least, to the middle of the next month. Now, I 
have just eaten a Napoleon Pear as sound and as firm as the 
day it. was pulled, only much more mellow ; and in my fruit- 
room there are a few more dozens of the same, which, from 
their present appearance, might keep for another month at 
least.— Wm. Inglis, Kirlcmay House , Fifeshire. 
