THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 16, 1859. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
283 
Day ! Day 
of of 
M’nth Week. 
AUGUST 16-22, 1859. 
Weather 
Barometer. 
NEAR LONI 
T her mom. 
on in 1858. 
ttt* i Kain m 
Wmd - Inches. 
.Sun 
llises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
Kises 
and Sets 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef.Sun 
Day of 
Year. 
16 ; Tu 
Erica suaveolens. 
30.039—29.840 
80-42 
S.W. 
_ 
48 af 4 
20 af 7 
0 
8 
18 
4 
8 
228 
17 W 
Duchess of Kent born, 1786. 
29.771—29.680 
83—56 
s. 
— 
49 
4 
18 7 
12 
8 
19 
3 
56 
229 
18 Th 
Chironia linoides. 
29.705—29.620 
83—55 
s. 
.01 
51 
4 
lfi 7 
25 
8 
20 
3 
43 
230 
19 i F 
Clethra arborea. 
29.700—29.654 
80—57 
S.W. 
— 
53 
4 
14 7 
41 
8 
21 
3 
30 
231 
20 S 
Boeckia diosnuefolia. 
29.871—29.777 
71—4G 
N.W. 
— 
54 
4 
12 7 
3 
9 
22 
3 
16 
232 
21 | Sun 
9 Sunday after Trinity. 
29.846—29.653 
63—51 
w. 
.36 
56 
4 
10 7 
32 
9 
© 
3 
2 
233 
22 | M 
Sun’s declin. 11° 54' n. 
29.961—29.774 
69—41 
S.W. 
— 
57 
4 
8 . 7 
17 
10 
24 
2 
48 
234 
Meteorology op the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during tlie last thirty-two years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 70.8° and 53.5°, respectively. The greatest heat, 94°, occurred on the 17th, in 1857 ; and the lowest cold, 40”, 
on the 18th, in 1840. During the period 151 days were fine, and on 73 rain fell. 
IN-DOOR GARDENING- OPERATIONS EOR 
THE WEEK. 
GEEENHOUSE AND CONSEEVATOBY. 
As the majority of greenhouse plants are out in the 
open air, or in pits, where they have either set, or are 
setting, their blooms, preparations should be made for 
their return, by scrubbing and washing all the shelves of 
the greenhouse, and clearing out all crevices and corners, 
to banish all insects that may be secreting there. When 
by scrubbing, brushing, &c., you have brought everything 
to the ground, let no time be lost in clearing the insects, 
rubbish, &c., off the ground, and also out of the house. 
If painting and glazing are necessary, the sooner they 
are done the better, leaving the house entirely open for 
three weeks or a month, that the effluvium from white 
lead, which is prejudicial to plants, may pass off before 
the lights are put on again. 
STOVE AND OECHID-HOUSE. 
Shift into pots a size larger any small plants, or indeed 
any plants that you are desirous to grow fast, or to make 
specimen plants, as soon as they have filled their pots 
with roots. 
Cuttings inserted in pots of light, sandy soil, well 
drained at the bottom, will readily strike when plunged 
in the tan-bed, where there is a little bottom heat, and 
covered with bell-glasses; that will allow of the edge being- 
pressed into the soil inside the pot. 
Henceforward a certain degree of care and consider¬ 
ation will be necessary to have the summer growth of 
plants generally—and especially that of all those whose 
period of excitement is continued over a certain portion 
of the autumn—so arranged and circumstanced as to 
secure its perfect maturity, or, in gardening terms, to 
have it “ well ripened.” For that purpose it is necessary 
to avoid the application of moisture beyond what is 
necessary to prevent a decided check in the growth of 
the plants, to expose them to the influence of light, by 
not suffering them to crowd or overhang each other, and 
to prevent from what cause soever the too sudden declen¬ 
sion of the average temperature to which they are exposed. 
The Oechidaceous Plants that are growing to have 
plenty of moisture and heat, it will be easily seen when 
their growth is completed, and then it is proper to let 
them go to rest by gradually lessening the supply of 
water, and removing them to a cooler part of the house. 
Any Oechids that you are desirous of increasing may 
be separated or potted into small pots, or fastened to 
blocks, or placed in baskets. Fill pots with pieces of 
turfy peat the size of Walnuts, and peg them altogether 
until they form a cone above the pot. On the summit place 
your plant, which is, in fact, a piece cut off another plant, 
and with four pegs or wires make it fast. Let the roots 
o-o where they please in the pot, or outside it. Orchids 
depend more for sustenance upon the atmosphere and 
moisture, than upon the soil. 
FOBCING-HOUSES. 
Peaches.—I t is advisable, when practicable, to get the 
No. 568.— Yol. XXII. No. 20. 
lights off the early houses, presuming that the trees are 
fast advancing towards a state of rest. The practice is cer¬ 
tainly not absolutely indispensable, but it is of much 
benefit to the trees. Whether the lights, are off or on, 
attention may now be given to the repairs of glass or 
woodwork where necessary, and to finish with a coat of 
paint and whitewashing, if possible. 
Pines.— The plants swelling their fruit to be carefully 
looked over in hot weather that they may receive no 
check for want of water. Continue to pot or plant suckers 
as soon as they are taken off the parent plants, as they 
are apt to shrivel much at this season, if left out of the 
ground. Attend to the state of the linings to dung.pits, 
as all Pine plants, in whatever situation, will require a 
lively bottom heat of 90°. 
Vines. —The houses containing late Grapes to be shut 
up warm and rather early (about four o’clock), in order 
to dispense, if possible, with fires, giving air by seven 
o’clock in the morning, and increasing it abundantly 
towards noon, and to be then diminished at intervals, in 
accordance with the state of the weather. 
William Keane. 
FLOWER-BEDS AND BEDDING—RUSTIC 
BEDS. 
The unique bed, or rustic bed, made out of and round 
the bole of the old Yew tree, is but one of several kinds 
of rustic beds which give great satisfaction to the owners 
thereof and. to their visiting friends. After the system of 
basket and rustic beds, with their necessary accompani¬ 
ments, comes the classic vase system; then the promenade 
method and the rock garden ; then through an archway 
into the real Experimental itself, where is exemplified the 
composition and balance of colours along the left hand, 
and the true and beautiful ribbon style on the right. 
Then, again, there are the mixed borders ; in front of 
shrubberies are lawn plants, as Pampas Grass and Tritonia 
uvaria, with Conifers and concise botanical plants; the 
rarest to be seen of which is a mathematical grass, that 
blooms and seeds, or tries to seed, from long horizontal 
spikes issuing from the top of the straw, or stem, in a ray 
all round. The name is Chloris radiata, a dwarf grass 
from the West Indies, which comes to perfection with us 
out of doors. It is the next prettiest thing after the 
Feather Grass for drying and using that way; but we 
have not had it long enough to enable me to chronicle its 
ways and its wants all the year round. 
That frosted-silver stand, with the green glass for 
flowers, is still on my “ keeping-room ” table. The 
pyramid-like nosegay with which it is filled this week is 
overtopped by one spike of Chloris radiata, which looks 
like an umbrella without the covering. The handle is 
the straw; the joint the spring; the ribs the radiating 
axes on which the seeds coine. That is our umbrella 
grass and their Chloris radiata. 
But what I was going to answer is the oft-repeated 
question, Which is the best of all these plans for showing 
off flowers in a garden ? 
