TIIE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mat 17, 1859. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Day Day 
of 1 of 
M’nth Week. 
MAY 17—23, 1859. 
Weather near Loni 
Barometer. Tlicrmom. 
ON IN 18 
Wind. 
58. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.andS. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
afterSu'i 
Day of 
Year. 
17 
Tv 
Witsenia partita. 
29.956—29.928 
60—53 
s.w. 
.10 
8 af 4 
45 af 7 
21 af 9 
15 
3 
52 
137 
18 
W 
Witsenia raraosa. 
29.912—29.858 
67—42 
S.W. 
.04 
6 4 
46 7 
23 10 
16 
3 
51 
138 
19 
Th 
Witsenia corymbosa. 
29.962—29.883 
62—37 
S.W. 
— 
5 4 
47 7 
14 11 
17 
3 
49 
139 
20 
F 
Zichya coccinea. 
30.078—30.002 
72—41 
S.W. 
— 
4 4 
49 7 
50 11 
18 
3 
46 
140 
21 
S 
Sun’s declin. 20° 8' n. 
29.904—29.722 
73—45 
S.W. 
.08 
2 4 
50 7 
morn. 
19 
3 
43 
141 
22 
Suv 
4 Sunday after Easter. 
29.821—29.785 
67—44 
S.W. 
— 
1 4 
52 7 
17 0 
20 
3 
39 
142 
23 
M 
Leucopogon j uueperoides. 
29.819—29.704 
66—44 
s.w. 
.43 
- IV * 
53 7 
36 0 
21 
3 
35 
143 
Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last thirty-two years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 05.8° and 43.8°, respectively. The greatest heat, 86°, occurred on the 17 th, in 1833 ; and the lowest cold, 29°, 
on the 18tli, in 1838. During the period 120 days were fine, and on 94 rain fell. 
IN-DOOR GARDENING OPERATIONS EOR 
THE WEEK. 
GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 
Attend carefully to tlie stock of plants for summer 
and autumn decoration, and do not allow them to suffer 
for want of pot room and water. 
Azaleas.—C ontinue to encourage all that have flowered 
by timely potting, syringings, and applications of weak 
liquid manure. 
Camellias. —Introduce a gradual declension of artificial 
heat amongst all that have completed their growth. A 
curtailment in the supply of water, giving merely suf¬ 
ficient to keep them from flagging, will induce the pro¬ 
duction of blossom-buds. 
Epacris. —Repot with a pretty large shift the early- 
flowering sorts that have freely commenced their growth. 
Use good fibrous heath soil, rejecting any of a spongy 
or greasy nature. Such plants, for some time after being 
newly shifted, require particular attention in watering, 
that the soil may not become soddened. Let the plants 
be placed in a cold pit, and be slightly shaded during 
bright sunshine. The stopping or pinching out the points 
of strong shoots must be regularly attended to during 
their growing season, to establish a uniformity of sturdy 
growth. 
Heaths and New Holland Plants. —All that have 
flowered, and have made their season’s gi-owth, may be 
removed to cold pits, or frames, to allow those that re¬ 
main, and are promising to flower, more air, sun, and 
light. 
STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE. 
Keep up a liberal supply of humidity, with ventilation, 
at favourable opportunities. The plants here should now 
be growing very freely, and should, therefore, receive 
frequent attention as to stopping, training, &c. Keep 
them properly accommodated with pot room, and allow 
them all the sunshine they will bear without scorching ; 
also, allow them sufficient space for the development of 
their foliage. Plenty of moisture is now requisite to 
encourage a free growth in Orchids, to get their pseudo¬ 
bulbs firm, well nourished, and ripened in good time. 
Eree ventilation in favourable weather and a slight 
shading in bright sunshine are also requisites for their 
healthy growth. 
forcing-houses. 
Cherries. —When the fruit is ripening, air to be given 
freely, even to the drawing the lights off completely in 
favourable weather. Fires may be discontinued alto¬ 
gether, unless the nights are very cold. 
Figs. —Give them plenty of water in all their stages 
of growth ; discontinue the use of the syringe during the 
ripening process. They frequently require attention in 
stopping all long young shoots. 
Melons. —If there is a sufficient depth of soil for the 
plants, they will not require any large supplies of water 
after the fruit is swelling off; but it will be necessary to 
sprinkle the plants overhead, and to shut up early every 
No. 555. —Vol. XXII. No. 7. 
fine afternoon with a good heat. Lay the fruit on a tile 
or piece of slate. 
Peaches. — When the fruit is swelling off, or beginning 
to ripen, admit air freely in favourable weather, even to 
the drawing off the fights entirely, so as to admit a free 
circulation and the direct influence of the sun, by which 
flavour and colour are best attained. Continue to stop 
all very-luxuriant shoots, and thin out the young wood. 
Some persons lay in plenty of young wood to select from 
in winter pruning; but fruit-bearing wood, regularly dis¬ 
posed all over the tree, is best attained by the judicious 
and successive thinning of useless shoots during their 
growing season. Continue to tie in the shoots of the 
late houses. 
Pineries. — When the repotting of the plants has 
recently taken place it will be necessary to shade for 
several hours, during bright sunshine, for a few days; 
but for the general stock shading should be dispensed 
with as much as possible—as short, stiff leaves and sturdy 
growth are best attained by judicious airings and hu¬ 
midity. Do not water much at the root immediately 
after repotting. Maintain a brisk bottom heat to the 
succession plants. Admit plenty of air during favourable 
weather. 
Vineries. —As the fruit in the early houses become 
coloured, it is advisable to remove all superfluous or 
rambling shoots; but to retain and to preserve with the 
greatest care the principal leaves—as the good quality of 
the fruit and the healthy condition of the tree for the 
ensuing season will depend upon the number and healthy 
state of the principal leaves. William Keane. 
MOSS GARDEN AT FOREST HILL. 
I had seen, in 1824, the walks in the old botanic garden 
at Brodie House, between Nairn and Forres, completely 
covered with Spergula saginoides under the name of 
Sagina procumbens , and a very old man who was gar¬ 
dener there in the time of Mr. Brodie, the Scottish cryp- 
togamist, after whom the genus Brodiaea was named, told 
me that if that gentleman had lived long enough he 
intended to do some wonders with that plant. I recollect 
very well, in the pride of my own prospects, to have 
thought, “ Pity you were not dead with them, for being 
so stupid as to think it worth mentioning that any credit 
was due, for a fancy, to allow the walks to be covered 
with that weed.” Brodie’s plant was the one I had 
grown at Shrubland Park, which I called the “carpet 
plant;” and I kept to the same name for it. I had it 
from the old botanic gardener at Brodie House; but 
Sagina procumbens is a very different plant—being an 
annual. 
In May, 1881, I saw paths covered with Spergula in 
the woods of Deepdene, near Dorking; and since I have 
been to Forest Hill I have been trying a comparison in 
my mind between Spergula saginoides and the “ Grass 
which needs no mowing ”— Spergula pilosa; and I find 
that the two do not tally, as I first thought. But I must 
