335 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 2, 1858. 
are similarly arranged; that is one half of the 
design, round the water. The four matches on the 
east side of the centre, begin with two Araucaria 
Bidwillii, and end with two A. excels a, for c©**-. 
the four vases; and here, Cytisus ramosus, Azaleas, 
and Alba multiflora Geranium, and little Mandarin or 
Otaheite Orange-trees, in bloom, are added to the 
Tulips, Hyacinths, and other bulbs and flowering- 
plants, as in the first half. 
In addition to these, the left-hand-side of the way, 
all round the Crystal Fountain basin, is lined with 
flowering duplicates of all that are in the vases, and 
in the Ceramic Court, where Minton and Co. display 
the marvels of their art; there are several of their 
vases full of flowers, from the forcing house of the 
Crystal Palace. One large oval Majolica vase, fit for 
the Queen’s drawing-room, is managed, as most draw¬ 
ing-room pot flowers should be, and a hint from this 
Court may be useful, just now. All the most costly 
drawing-room vases have no hole, or holes, in the 
bottom, to let off the drainage from the flower-pots, 
for fear of soiling carpets. To get over this, the bot¬ 
tom half of this Majolica vase is stuffed with green 
moss, the pots are plunged in the moss, and the top is 
then mossed with the finest and shortest moss, which 
looks as smooth as green velvet. In warm rooms the 
pots must have water, but the quantity of bottom 
moss “takes it up ” like a sponge, for ten days, or 
more, or less, according to the time, temperature, and 
the temptations to water. After that, the vase is taken 
out of the room of a morning, into the passage, the 
pots are taken out, put on the oilcloth, and the moss 
is squeezed, after the manner of wringing in the 
laundry ; the moss seeds go in the surplus water, and 
the moss itself is green, damp, and comfortable for the 
pots and plants a second, and a third, and many times, 
for nobody knows for how long a time; doing away 
with the expense of purchasing moss, so difficult in 
towns, and with the uncomfortable apprehension, in 
the country, of getting in horrid creatures and crawl¬ 
ing things from the woods. The Messrs. Minton and 
Co. should be consulted on this very practice, both 
in London, and at Sydenham. 
How, for the next summer move of these vases. 
The tops shall be in brilliants, next summer, four pair 
of bush-like Fuchsias, each four feet in diameter, and 
coming up to the centre of the bush. These eight 
j Fuchsias were just “done potting” that day, in 
strong zinc vase-shaped basins, and the basins were 
placed in the stove end of the Palace, where the tem¬ 
perature at night is from 50° to 55°. Strange to say, 
the Fuchsia is among the worst plants which gardeners 
find “ to do ” in lobbies, corridors, staircases, and even 
warm rooms; but in the large volume of air in the 
Crystal Palace, the Fuchsias are among the most ac¬ 
commodating they have. Ho plants do as well as they, 
and the Camellia in the garden of the Alhambra Court. 
But I have so much to say. on the fitness of so many 
i things here, that I fear to break the ice till I have 
i more room to spare. D. Beaton. 
Offspring of the Pink Eye Potato. —In one of your 
late Cottage Gardenee’s, we have, I believe the true history 
of the Fluke Kidney. The writer, however, begs to state, that a 
few years previous to the appearance of this valuable Potato 
in the markets about Manchester and Liverpool, he grew, 
among other kinds, a large flat Potato, which he designated 
the j Ready Boiler. This, too, waS produced from the seed of 
| the Cheshire Fink Eye , growing in a field attached to his late 
residence near Prescot, and was so like the so-called Fluke , as 
to lead to what appears to have been a wrong conclusion, that 
the Fluke and the Beady Boiler , were identical.— Adam 
j Keys, Bring . 
STJRFACE-DRESSIHG AHD MULCHIHG 
FRUIT TREES. 
c +'•' tronra smee.it was a regular custom 
tc VUl■'*/) «.m . . . . — ^ 7 . 
sidered, that when the surface looked smari aim 
there was, of course, good gardening beneath ! As for 
minding the destruction of a net-work of those minute 
root organs, termed fibres ; why, it came not into con¬ 
sideration, so long as the big, black roots, which shot 
downwards, were safe. In these times, sensible people 
not only forbear to dig over the roots, but actually set 
a decoy over them, to tempt these fibres upwards, and 
to secure them when obtained. I need scarcely say, 
that the two practices are the very antipodes of.each 
other. I here invite the particular attention of those, 
who would practise rational gardening, to the very 
opposite nature of the two operations: surely no 
thinking person can pass them by as trifles. 
And, perhaps, I may be permitted to show the 
necessary consequences of each operation respectively. 
There can exist no doubt of the following facts :— 
1st. Deep roots are in a cooler medium, during the 
growing period, than surface roots. 2nd. They have 
a tendency to produce wood of a less fruitful character 
than surface fibres. 
It is pretty well known that the air we breathe, and 
the soil we tread on, are perpetually interchanging 
heat with each other; and that, on each returning 
spring, the earth has to be warmed anew, principally 
by borrowing from the atmosphere, to be repaid most 
scrupulously. If this be admitted, it is evident that 
the surface of the soil must first be heated, and thus 
warmth is transmitted gradually downwards. This 
being the case, it becomes necessary to inquire, whether 
the ordinary heat of the soil, without solar influences, 
would be congenial to fruit trees. It is, surely, needless 
to answer this. If, then, roots enjoy a considerable 
degree of warmth, why not shape our operations and 
practice accordingly ? I have years since paid close 
attention to the results, arising from deep digging over 
the roots of fruit trees ; and have even known what 
might appear anomalous results accruing therefrom. 
The following are the usual phenomena, presented by 
a pertinacious course of practice of the kind. The 
trees becomes barren, their side branches fall gradually 
away, causing them to assume a lean and gawky ap¬ 
pearance ; they are apt to produce much watery, or im¬ 
mature, spray from portions of the tree which had lost 
the true, or original branches ; and that spray generally 
springs forth at, or about, Midsummer, and too late to 
be of any service to the tree. The terminal growths 
are apt to be become long jointed, and, in many cases, 
the points of the shoots die, or become diseased. Moss is 
apt to prevail on the stems, if the trees be of some age; 
and, in general, trees thus circumstanced, are a prey to 
numerous insects, caterpillars, &c. These are a few of 
the evils ; but, in addition, it will be found, that what 
may be termed the principal young wood, is produced 
late, and, by consequence, continues growing late, and 
thereby is generally immature; and caterpillars, and 
other enemies, seem particularly attached to the first- 
made wood of such trees in the spring. I have seen 
Apple orchards, or gardens, within a few miles of where 
I write, thus attacked annually, until they became 
utterly worthless, the owners still hoping on ; but some 
of these orchards have of late been rooted up. They 
were, for years, annually dug and cropped, almost close 
to the stems, with Potatoes; and, what is worse than 
all, on the “ lazy bed,” or raised bed system, in which 
case the soil has to be excavated a foot in depth, to 
soil the Potatoes with. 
But now let us, for a moment, cast our eyes on trees 
j undug, and well-rooted in a proper soil, with abund- | 
