THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 28, 1859. 
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VARIETlES. 
The Beayee—Beater-stone.— I took care to make inquiries 
respecting the process used in preparing the heaver-stone, and 
found it so extremely simple, that I could not help concluding that 
the excellence of this article depends entirely on the animal produc¬ 
ing it; which is more perfectly developed in the high north, where 
Nature scatters animal perfumes in place of fragrant flowers, than 
in lower latitudes. In fact, the preparation of the castoreum 
consists in nothing more than in dipping the bags the moment 
they are cut off, when they are about three inches long, and one 
and a half broad, into warm milk, after which they are dried 
slowly. Neither the oven nor the sun’s rays are resorted to in 
order to expedite this part of the process ; but the bags are hung 
up in a shady place, where they may dry by the current of fresh 
air alone. There is hardly any drug which recommends itself to 
man so powerfully by its impression on the external senses as this. 
The Ostyaks were acquainted with its virtues from the earliest 
times ; and it was here that they kept a supply of it in every yurt, 
that the women might recover their strength more quickly after 
childbirth. In like manner the Kosaks and Russian traders have 
exalted the beaver-stone into a panacea ; for these people, though, 
in cases of danger they habitually look for safety to religious con¬ 
fidence, ave yet inclined to reckon strength of constitution, and 
whatever is thought calculated to promote it, as further grounds 
of hope. To the sentence, “ God arose, and our enemies were 
scattered,” the Siberians add, very characteristically, the apocry¬ 
phal interpolation, “and weave free from head-ache.” To ensure 
this most desirable condition, everyone has recourse, at home or 
On his travels, aud with the firmest faith, to two medicines, and 
only two—viz., beaver-stone, or beaver-efflux, as it is here called, 
and sal-ammoniac. It is not surprising that men should yield to 
the instinctive tendency to generalise, and, from the strength of 
the castoreum, should infer the wonderful virtues of the whole 
animal, and of all its parts. I saw here, at M. Nijegorodsov’s, 
some roundish lumps of fat, which were likewise extracted from 
the beaver of the Obi, resembling the castoreum bags in sizt 
shape, and colour, but without any smell. They were here called* 
pochJci, or kidneys ; and it was stated that they lie on the breast 
of the females, immediately under the skin. The yellow fat 
which forms the mass of these round bodies is covered with a 
brown skin, through which it sometimes exudes. The poefiki 
are not exported ; but the Siberians collect them eagerly, because, 
as they say, gouty swellings disappear rapidly when rubbed with 
this fat. Another offspring of the sympathetic theory, is the 
belief that the teeth of the beaver cure the toothache. One of the 
interesting remarks made by the people of Beresov, with respect 
to the beaver, was, that it alone, of all the fur animals, undergoes 
no change of colour in the course of the season. The winter 
passes over without making any impression upon an animal which 
then dwells and moves wholly in the water ; and it is not unlikely 
that the comparative comfort and equable temperature enjoyed 
by the beaver in this latitude conduce to that organic develop¬ 
ment which renders its produce so valuable. There are always 
two passages leading from the subterranean dwellings of the 
beavers of the Obi; the one opens on the steep bank of the 
stream above the level of the water; the other, so deep under the 
water as not to be closed in winter by the ice, the usual thickness 
of which is here about four feet eight inches. All the stories 
which have been repeated for centuries in European books of 
naturd history respecting the constructive talents of the beaver 
—the dams which they build—-the bars of wood which they cut 
and shape to their purpose—are all related by the hunters of 
Beres iv in terms so perfectly similar, that it can hardly be doubted 
that we are here at the first sources of the information. Two 
assertions, however, made respecting them, were new to me. One 
was tiiat, among beavers, as with bees and men, there are distinc¬ 
tions of ranks ; each chief keeping a number of labourers, the 
toils of which he oversees and directs, without taking part in 
them; and again, it was stated, that the contents of the castoreum 
bags depend on the moon. In regard to the first of these points, 
my information was, unfortunately, derived only from Russians, 
and not from Ostyaks, who are unacquainted with any condition 
of men exempt from labour; and I am, therefore, unable to decide 
whether the assertion might not have originated in the desire to 
trace an analogy between the beaver and the human species, or 
whether it was actually founded on some indulgence allowed 
among beavers to females, perhaps, and to the young. With 
respect to the influence of the moon, it is evident that wo have 
nothing to dp in this cage with varying gravitation, as in the 
phenomena of the tides, but simply with the.changes of light, as 
is manifest on a close examination of the statements made, for the 
two syzygies are said to have opposite effects ; so that both Oslyak 
and Russian hunters maintain that the bags are good for nothing 
at new moon, whereas they afford a rich prize only at full moon. 
But there is reason for suspecting that in the long winter nights 
the advantages of moonlight are enjoyed by the hunter without 
being felt by the animal.— (Erman’s Travels in Siberia.) 
Blowing Out a Candle. —There is one small fact in domestic 
economy which is not generally known, but which is useful, as 
saving time, trouble, and temper. If the candle be blown out 
holding it above you, the wick will not smoulder down, and may, 
therefore, be easily lighted again ; but if blown upon downwards, 
the contrary is the case.— Scientific Artisan. 
Bee-hives in Poetugal.—1 stumbled the other day on a 
collection of bee-hives at Quinta de Graciosa. There were more 
than forty in a row, all of cork, with a little hole or two cut for 
the bees to get in and out, and covered with a rude piece of slate. 
They w-ere a couple of feet high, circular, perhaps a foot in 
diameter, and surrounded by bees “ improving the shining hour.” 
Cork hives are those in common use.— ( Letters of Col. Sir A. 
Fraser.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Ants not injurious to Fecit Trees [R. T. B.). —The shoot of the Peach 
you obligingly sent sustains instead of refuting our statement. That 
shoot was excessively injured by aphides, and the exudation and sweet 
secretions they caused were the food the nnts came after. Ants, earwigs, 
and lady-birds all prey upon the aphides. 
Stopping and Cutting Chrysanthemums (Frenchman).- The large- 
flowered Chrysanthemums should not be stopped later thaD the middle 
of July, in order to obtain fine blooms the same year. If topped later, the 
shoots will not have time to form buds that will bloom in the open air. 
Our correspondent, it seems, is desirous to form compact plants. In an 
open situation in the garden this is not difficult, provided the plants are 
stopped early enough, and well supplied with water in dry weather. The 
main cause of the plants becoming rambling, or drawn, is that of being too 
much crowded and grown under the shade of trees or buildings. Give them 
plenty of room and a free circulation of air, and the plants will naturally 
grow stocky and compact. Cuttings, to make plants to flower next year, 
may be put in as late as the 1st of October; but why drive this operation 
so late ? Days are short then, and nights cold, damp, and long : hence 
the cuttings are longer in striking, and more liable to become mildewed 
and damp off. If you have cuttings, put them in about the middle of 
September; and, with moderate care, they will all root in a fortnight, and 
may be kept dwarf by nipping off the tops. Or if a hotbed can be made 
under your frame in February, cuttings may be put in as soon as the heat 
is moderate ; and such plants then raised may, by moderate attention, be 
formed into fine flowering plants by the blooming season the same year. 
If, however, you prefer the autumn propagating, by all means adopt that, 
season. You will be certain of excellent plants next year. 
Budding and Grafting [R. F .).—We have no experience about the 
value or price of grafting or budding by contract, and wc cannot undertake 
to answer private letters. Mr. Beaton sent us your letter. There is a pile 
of “ stamped ” letters on our table already ; for it is no breach of etiquette 
for public writers not to answer or even take notice of private letters. If 
they did answer them they would have no time for attending to the com¬ 
munications which have to be printed. 
Heating by Tank a Small Stove (A Subscriber from the First).—A 
short time ago, a section of a house heated by a tank, with description, was 
given by Mr. Fish. You will there find directions which will just suit you, 
to far as we understand your case. Did you have a boiler, we should 
prefer a small conical one of Koger’s, or the amateur’s retort of Thompson’s, 
for such a house. But we see no necessity for a fresh boiler, nor yet for 
water pipes, unless as a connection between the boiler and the tank, until 
you have tried your present boiler, and if your tank is water-tight. As the 
lid of your boiler is moveable, the water in it and in the tank must be of 
the same level—the flow proceeding from near the top, and the return 
from near the top. On looking at your sketch, however, we perceive the 
tank occupies only a small narrow space at one side, and that will not he 
sufficient to give heat to the house. Had your centre slate stage a tank 
under it, you would have had no difficulty in getting plenty of bottom and 
top heat. If you had a fresh boiler, we would have pipes' or the tank for 
bottom heat and pipes for top heat: and to do it efficiently, you would 
want about fifty feet of four-inch pipe for one purpose, and as much for the 
other, and both to be used separately when desired. 
Plants tor a Bockery (F. Tf. ]}.).—Begin with a Pampas Grass or 
two at the top or back of the rockery, and keep it four feet from the 
stonery, the right name for such rockeries. Well, after that, a lot of 
Cistuses, or l ock P.oses, should be planted high up, to trail down ; also, the 
trailing Junipers and Daphne encorum , in large patches, with here and 
there a Cineraria maritime, or frosted-silver plant, which does best of all, 
if much confined at the roots, up high on the spur of a projecting rock. 
Variegated Thyme, and Cerastium tomeniosum, to run down on the steepest 
faces; Cotoneaster microphylla to support a shelving threatening to fall 
down part of the concern, and as many Campanulas, and wild Heather, 
in dwarf, close tufts as you can find. Then two or three dozen kinds of 
Saxifrages, all the hardy Geraniums, Sedums. Ilouseleeks, and such 
avowed rock plants as you will find in the Chester nurseries, or in some of 
the back volumes of The Cottage Gardener. 
Deutzia gracilis—Dielytra stectabilis (C. C. II.).— The two worst 
plants in the catalogue to do in pots— Deutzia gracilis and Dieli/tra spec- 
tabilis —the great wonder would be, that you could get a good shoot of 
bloom from them by that way, unless you were a first-rate gardener. The 
way to do them, is to cut down the Dielytra as soon as it is out of bloom, 
and to plant it in the open ground, and then to leave it “ to itself” till the 
