62 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 3, 1859. 
HERBACEOUS CALCEOLARIA. 
April and May are the chief months for these ; and 
much of their beauty will depend on the pots being full 
of roots by the beginning of April, and the pots standing 
on a cool medium—such as damp moss, and never know¬ 
ing what it is to want water. After April and May, a 
house well shaded, or rather one with a northern aspect, 
and with plenty of ventilation, and room between the 
plants, will keep them longest in bloom. The foliage 
may be frequently sprinkled in the afternoon ; but the 
leaves should be dry before the sun’s rays beat on them, 
or they will run the risk of exhibiting nature or sun¬ 
printing. The sprinkling and the cool airings will help 
to keep insects at a distance. If green fly .appears, smoke 
with shag tobacco, doing it when the leaves of the plant 
are dry, and taking care that the smoke is cool, however 
the tobacco is used. The great advantage of a regular 
fumigator to an amateur is, that however rapidly he 
turns the handle of his instrument, the smoke is poured 
on the plant cool, and he can apply the smoke just where 
the insects congregate. We generally use a garden-pot 
with a hole in its side, to blow the fuel if necessary. A 
piece of lighted cinder is placed in the bottom, a bit of 
paper on that, and then the tobacco, dry at first and 
wetted above, and then a good thickness of damp moss 
as a covering, through which the smoke comes cool. Tor 
want of the moss, we have had plants, and chiefly their 
tender leaves, injured, especially when a large house was 
to be smoked. All amateurs who wish to study economy 
should have a little close box of some kind, where they 
may place their insect-infested plants, and smoke them 
there. A pinch of tobacco would then be enough. When 
to smoke a house, half a pound might be necessary. The 
plants may also stay in the box for a day or two, and 
even get a second smoking if deemed advisable ; and it 
will be sure to be advisable and necessary, if the plants 
have been at all dirty before they were taken there, as 
there will be fresh generations to come from eggs after 
the old fat flies have been destroyed. This is not all: 
you will escape the annoyance of having lady visitors 
suspecting that you, at times, turn your greenhouse into 
a convivial smoking-room. It is impossible that they 
can see much beauty in your flowers, or know anything 
at all about their fragrance, when they rush out as fast 
as they can, after being nearly as much punished as the 
fly with the stink of tobacco. The odour of the weed 
will hang about such a smoked house for days. If there 
are ladies who love such tobacco fragrance, why let them 
enjoy it by all means, and, consequently, dispense with 
a smoking-box; but I must own that one of the things 
that do surprise me in these go-a-head days is to see 
an elegant lady, walking with, and clinging to the arm 
of, a gentleman, who feels the honour just so much, that 
he must turn his mouth into a tobacco-smoke chimney. 
Had I the government, which, by courtesy at least, we 
allow the ladies to have, I would take a lesson from Lord 
Palmerston, and, in such circumstances, cause all such 
gentlemen-chimnies to consume their own smoke. 
Badinage aside, there is something as respects the 
comfort of plant-houses ; and economy also, in having a 
small place, to be used as a plant-hospital. If that place 
were large enough to permit a person to sit in it comfort¬ 
ably, it might be used as a smoking-box both by the 
man and his plants. A heavy smoker told me several 
times, that he only thoroughly enjoyed a pipe when the 
place was so small and close that it could be densely 
filled with smoke; then the most wonderful and glorious 
ideas flitted through his brain. Of course, like the China¬ 
man with his opium, he paid for such exultation with 
subsequent depressions. How, what a fine place for col¬ 
lecting all the insect-covered plants ! The tobacco would 
thus rid the plants of enemies, if it injured the smoker ; 
and, at least, he would have the satisfaction of pleasing 
himself in his own way, without annoying his neighbours 
or friends. The smoking-box might, therefore, be just 
large enough for the double purpose. I have a small 
one for plants, with the roof of glass. On the road from 
Exeter to Exmouth we noticed, last autumn, a large 
barrel stuck up on its end in a meadow. The upper end 
had evidently been knocked out, and to give more head 
room, a high peaked roof was placed over the barrel. On 
inquiry as to the object of such a singular structure, the 
coachman informed us, that at a neighbouring mansion 
the ladies did not like the scent of tobacco. A servant 
lived with them who was very fond of it, and this barrel- 
room in the meadow was erected that he might enjoy 
himself without giving them any annoyance. Of course, 
a door was cut out on one side, and I presume there were 
the necessary conveniences within. We had so much 
banter about the barrel, that my friend declared I should 
be putting it in The Cottage Gardener. I had for¬ 
gotten all about it until the Calceolarias and their insects 
brought it into mind ; and I may just add, that, among 
other ideas, that barrel furnished me with three as rules 
of action. 1st. The importance of being charitable and 
tolerant to the eccentricities and peculiarities of others. 
2nd. The importance of so indulging in any peculiar 
tastes of our own, as not to prove an annoyance to those 
who have no sympathy with such tastes. 3rd. The case 
with which a small smoking-box for plants might be 
formed, and thus the houses, in general, kept sweet, even 
though not so large as to do for a smoking-parlour for 
the owner, or the gardener. Such a barrel as that referred 
to, with part of the roof of thick glass, would make a 
nice plant-hospital. 
If seeds of such Calceolarias are desired, the best 
flowers should be hybridised; without artificial fertili¬ 
sation the best kinds will be apt to refuse to seed. 
R. Eish. 
BROCCOLI. 
Eew things continue longer in season than Broccoli; for, like 
the Potato, this vegetable, with its near relative the Cauliflower, 
may be had almost any day in the year. In mild winters it 
is generally to be had; but in very severe ones, unless there is 
space to accommodate a quantity in some way free from frost, 
the onward progress of the plant is either wholly slopped, or so 
much retarded, as to be unable to furnish that succession of good, 
useful heads which is much wanted and sought after, its we 
are all anxious to maintaiu a succession, it is prudent at all times 
to plant the kinds likely to secure that, not forgetting a good 
proportion of those most capable of withstanding a hard winter. 
As some definite information is better than mere general 
terms, I will endeavour to give the young beginner a few hints 
as to the management of this important family, which, like all 
the members of the Cabbage tribe, are linked together in a way 
calculated to produce hybrids, or monsters, wherever they are 
left to produce seed in close neighbourhood to each other; but, 
as this is more especially the seedsman’s business, the remarks 
here made will be confined to the varieties known to be good 
and true. 
As before stated, the Cauliflower is closely allied to this family, 
and its services are generally prolonged from June to December; 
while, very often, it is in great abundance early in May. Suc¬ 
cessions of Bowing, from the earliest hotbed-sowing in February 
to the end of June, will carry on the succession to as late a period 
in the year as frost will generally allow their use. Sowing in the 
early part of September will also produce the plants to stand the 
winter under protection, as has been described in these pages. 
Cauliflower is not necessarily the only vegetable of its kind 
for the summer. The Broccoli most nearly related to it—the 
Cape —is by some preferred to Cauliflower, and is 60wn and 
planted instead ; while the hardier kind of Cape Broccoli —the 
Pink or Purple variety—will stand more frost than the White, 
and ought to bo planted in moderate quantity to come into use 
in December, or even later, if the weather be mild. In fact, in 
sheltered places in the south of England, where severe frosts 
are not expected, a large proportion of Cape ought to be planted, 
as it is often most useful. But, supposing the winter to be severe, 
recourse must be had to other and hardier kinds ; which brings us 
on to the third class, of which the Walcheren may be regarded 
as the type. This useful variety and its fellows— Snow's Winter, 
