107 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 24, 1859. 
“light in proportion to heat.” I could not reconcile my mind I 
to the mat shading—it seemed to make the plants look so 
unhappy. This season I have rigged up a shade of tiffany ; first 
sewing it two widths together to make it wide enough (six feet), 
and then mounting it upon two splines, one top and one bottom. 
The Cucumbers thrive first-rate, and there is not the slightest 
risk of scalding from the sun’s rays. To indolent or busy folks 
it is invaluable, as, if it is put on about nine o’clock, it may 
remain without any attention till two or three.—G. W. Biteton, 
Southtoion. 
ACHIMENES. 
To have these early and in succession, introduce a few 
at different times into a moist heat from January to the 
end of May. For the last crop, the little scaly tubers 
should be kept after March in a cool place, free from 
frost, or they will spring and exhaust themselves before 
potting. Many admirers of these sweet little things 
have no means of exciting them early; and yet look 
to them to help make their house gay in the autumn 
months, when Geraniums, &c., are past their best. May 
will be quite time enough for them to pot their tubers. 
Supposing they have been kept dry, and in a cool study, 
safe from frost, they will be starting of their own accord, 
whether they have been kept* in sand, or in the pots in 
which they last grew. Shake the tubers clean of all 
earthy matter, without breaking them, which is very easily 
done. Prepare some sweet well-aired soil, neither wet 
nor dry, consisting of about equal portions of fibry loam, 
peat, sand, leaf mould, or very old decayed cowdung, 
that has been sweetened and dried by exposure. Pans 
three to four inches deep would grow them well, if 
drained properly. Pots will also do well enough; and, 
in this case, the strongest tubers should be placed in the 
centre, so that when covered the soil will be from one to 
two inches from the surface. This provides room for one 
or two surfacings of rich top dressings, which greatly 
assist the plants, and cause them to keep healthy and 
bloom longer. Eor a six-inch pot, from six to twelve roots 
will be enough, according to the strength of the variety. 
Larger pots will require more. To ensure symmetry in 
outline, it is best to start the tubers thickly at first, and 
when two or three inches high, separate them and place 
them in their blooming-pots, as you can then place your 
strongest shoots and roots in the centre. For encou¬ 
raging them at first in a common greenhouse, the pots 
or pans may be placed in a shaded hand-light, and kept 
close, or a little box may stand in one corner, covered 
with a large square of glass, or a piece of glazed calico. 
These means will keep the pots warmer and moister than 
the general air and temperature of the house. A single 
light shut off in a cold pit will answer the same purpose. 
After the plants are up and growing freely, the chief 
things will be giving plenty of moisture and air, with 
shade at first in bright sunshine, and so regulating air 
and shade, that the powerful rays of the sun never strike 
the plants until the foliage has previously become dry, 
or there will be danger of sun printing. After commenc¬ 
ing to grow freely, the plants may safely be treated as if 
they were half aquatics. When the plants show signs of 
fading, then curtail water, and ultimately let them get 
quite dry in the sun, which will mature fine tubers for 
next season. 3L Fish. 
Wild MtrsnEOOMS in Janitaey. —Your correspondent, “ G. 
Jennee, St. Julian’s, Seven Oaks, Kent,” mentions his having 
found Mushrooms, growing wild, in the meadows, last March. I 
beg to inform you, that on the 6th January, 1853, I gathered 
about one gallon and a half of that delicious fungus, in an upland 
field, in the vicinity of our ancient city. And on the 8th, 11th, 
and 24tli, of the same month, I picked up a few more each day. 
I made some catchup from a portion of them, and the flavour of 
it was equally as good as though they had grown in the proper 
season.—W m. Beent, 2, Military Road, Canterbury. 
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 
(Continued from page 94.) 
Magnesia, generally present in soils, is soluble in water, and is 
found in many plants. Indeed, lime and magnesia in combination 
with phosphoric acid exist in all plants. They resemble each 
other very much ; and some facts are known which seem to show 
that they may take the place of each other. In all our published 
analyses of Wheat, Oats, and Barley, the proportion of magnesia 
greatly predominates in the grain, while that of lime is larger in 
the straw. This is not in favour of the view that they are 
capable of taking the place of each other in the several parts of 
healthy plants. 
On the other hand, in the Tobacco leaves from the Bannat, 
Will and Eresenius found the potash much less than in other 
varieties, while the magnesia was much greater—as if magnesia as 
well as lime could take the place of potash. The same was 
found by Hruschauer in the stem of Indian Corn. Of the in¬ 
organic matter present in the mature leaf and stem, however, we 
do not really know how much is accidentally present, and how 
much is essential to its healthy existence. We must, therefore, 
defer our judgment in regard to this point. 
The most apparently decisive experiments on this relation of 
lime and magnesia are those upon the composition of Linseed. 
German Linseed, of which the ash was analysed by Leuchtweiss, 
and specimens of Riga and Dutch seed examined in Professor 
Johnstone’s laboratory by his assistant, Mr. Cameron, contained 
respectively of lime and magnesia in their ash—- 
German. Riga. Dutch. 
Lime . 25.27 ... 8.46 ... 8.12 
Magnesia. 0.22 ... 14.83 ... 14.52 
These analyses, if they are to be depended upon, show that 
magnesia may either be almost entirely wanting in these seeds, or 
that it may be present in large proportion, and that, when mag¬ 
nesia is scarce in them, lime is abundant. In other words, that 
these two earthy bases may, to a certain extent, replace each other. 
Iron is present in all soils, in all natural waters, and in all 
plants. 
Manganese is found in some soils, is soluble in water contain¬ 
ing acids, &c., and is found in a few plants. 
But none of those substances in a state of purity, either 
simply or combined, have ever been found capable of perfecting 
a plant through all its stages of growth when moistened only with 
distilled water ; the contrary is the case, however, when the water 
contains in solution vegefable or animal matters, as the dung of 
animals. Now these matters contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, 
nitrogen, and various salts : the three first are absolutely necessary 
for the existence of all plants, every part of which is chiefly com¬ 
posed of them. Nitrogen is found in most plants ; and the im¬ 
portance of salts to vegetation is demonstrated by the facts that 
Clover will not flourish where there is no sulphate of lime; that 
Nettles follow tlio footsteps of man for the nitrate of potass, 
which always abounds near the walls of his habitation; and that 
marine plants linger for the common salt of their native haunts. 
Salts of some kind or other are found in every species of plant, 
but none of which the constituents have not also been detected 
in soils. During decay, vegetable and animal matters also exhale 
various gases. Carbonic acid, hydrogen, carburetted hydrogen, 
ammonia, &c. are of the number; all of which have been applied 
to the roots of plants with great benefit by Sir H, Davy and 
others.—J. 
(To be continued.) 
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY’S MEETING. 
The May Meeting of the Entomological Society was held on 
the 2nd inst.; H. T. Stainton, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair. 
Amongst the donations received since the last Meeting were the 
publications of the Linncean Society, the Society of Arts, the 
Royal Academy of Bavaria, and Mr. Wilkinson’s new volume 
containing descriptions of the British Tortrices, forming a com¬ 
panion volume to that published by Mr. Stainton upon the British 
Tinese. 
Mr. Samuel Stevens exhibited a number of new and beautiful 
lipidopterous insects, recently captured in New Guinea by Mr. 
Wallace. 
Mr. Westwood exhibited a number of specimens of Oxytelis 
sculptus, one of the smaller species of Rove Beetles, which had 
been found by a correspondent upon young Cucumber plants 
