374 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 20, 1850. 
purpose was suggested by Bonchardafc; of corrosive sublimate, 
by Ivyan (hence the process was called Kyanising) ; and of 
chloride of zinc, by Sir W. Burnett (hence the term Barnet- 
thing). — [Chambers's Encyclopedia.) 
Settlement oe African Christians. —Next morning, while 
sitting at our breakfast, of which excellent fruit formed a con¬ 
siderable part, I looked out and saw within a circular fence, at a 
short distance from the house, eight or ten horses driven round 
upon a quantity of straw spread over a smooth hard clay floor. 
This I was informed was their threshing-floor, and thus the corn 
was trodden out—a process which I afterwards witnessed in many 
other parts of the colony. During the day we accompanied the 
missionary and a number of the people t.o then - grazing-ground, 
corn-lands, gardens, fountains, and different habitations. At the 
latter we found the goodwife had usually a cup of coffee and 
cakes, or a dish of Grapes or some other refreshment, waiting our 
arrival. The cottages, though designated by their owners as only 
temporary dwellings, were many of them neat and comfortable. 
All contained a separate and partitioned bedroom ; and I was 
sometimes amused at the accumulation of treasures which the 
outer room exhibited. Each had a table and chairs, or some 
ruder kind of seat, frequently the driviog-box of a waggon. In 
one cottage, where we took some refreshment, the end of the 
room was occupied by two large bins about four feet deep, built 
up in brickwork from the floor, and filled with excellent wheat, 
in quantity, I was told, about forty bushels. At one comer of 
the same room hung the fowling-piece of the master, with powder- 
horns, and shooting apparatus ; at another corner the adze, the 
axe, and the cross-cut saw; and in a third the spade and the 
hoe ; while chisels, augurs, and small tools were stuck into different 
parts of the thatch; and on a pole above hung long strips of the 
dried flesh of the antelope and other beasts. The shelves, in 
different parts, were occupied with articles of crockery-ware, 
besides a coffee-pot, and a brass or tin tea-kettle. Beyond these, 
the skin3 of kids, or other small animals, converted into bags, 
with the hair inside, but the legs projecting,—some apparently 
filled with nails or other valuables,—hung from different parts of 
the walls. The cooking-place was generally in a low shed out¬ 
side. The members of this interesting community (Matzie’s 
Riviere, S. Africa), and there were about forty families, both men 
and women, were all a few years ago slaves. In this condition, 
however, they had received religious instruction, and had become 
Christian men and women. Slavery had made them familiar with 
labour, and this has proved their great advantage. When eman¬ 
cipated, then labour soon brought its return. Christianity taught 
them prudence in the use of their earnings, and thus they were 
soon able to buy a few goats, or sheep and oxen. Two or three 
years ago, eighteen of them, led by the missionary, united in 
renting this farm of 8000 acres. The cultivation of the farm 
enabled them to pay the rent punctually; and a year ago 
they entered, before the constituted authorities, into a legal 
agreement to purchase it for £4000, to be paid by instalments, 
with six per cent, interest. One thousand pounds were to be 
paid in the month of November after our visit, and Mr. Anderson 
said he had no doubt that the money would be all ready by the 
specified time. Every one of the landowners possesses a team of 
oxen, and all but one a waggon. They possess, moreover, a large 
number of horses, besides cows, sheep, and goats. They have 
divided the land into twenty parts : Mr. Anderson, who has led 
them on in every step, taking one part; and they have every 
prospect of soon beholding the whole their own. The few regu¬ 
lations of the community are simple and judicious. One is, that 
no intoxicating drink shall be sold in the place. Every one of 
these men gave his vote at the late election of members to be sent 
by this district to the South African parliament. I was told 
that their suffrages were solicited by more than one candidate.— 
[Ellis's Madagascar.) 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
A List of Bulbs and other Flower Boots cultivated and im¬ 
ported by E. G. Henderson df Son, Wellington Boad, St. John's 
Wood, autumn, 1859, is a bulky octavo pamphlet of eighty pages, 
containing lists and descriptions of all cultivated bulbs, whether 
hardy, half-hardy, or tender. It contains, also, a list of select 
herbaceous plants, Pceonias, Hollyhocks, Pansies, &c. 
A Catalogue of Hyacinths and other Hutch and English 
Flower Boots, by William Rollison Sf Sons, Tooting, London, is 
a broad sheet, containing lists of the best Dutch bulbs judiciously 
selected. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Coronilla and Rose Culture (i. IS. R.). — The treatment of the 
Coronilla has been frequently given. Grow it in peat and loam, and, as 
the plant gets older, give chiefly the latter. Give plenty of water, unless' 
in the dead of winter. From November to April a medium night temper 
rature of from 40° to 45°, if you wish it to bloom then ; if not to bloom 
until spring, from 35“’ to 40° will he enough. In spring give plenty of 
water and air, and by the end of May give it a sheltered place out of doors 
until the middle of October. It will stand well in your cold pit with a 
little protection from severe frost. It might do against the wall of your 
house with a mat over it in severe weather. The same pit will do for 
tender Roses in pots. Your best plan would be to send to a Rose groWtf 
for six of the best kinds, stating the size you wish, as the price Will 
depend on that. That will secure you a good beginning. Roses may ho 
propagated now—all the Chinese, Bourbons, Noisettes, Perpetuals, &e., 
by cuttings ; Damask, Moss, &c., are best budded in June and July. You 
may strike lots now of the Manetti stock for that purpose, or secure the 
wild Rose in November from the hedges. Several full articles have been 
given in this work on the Rose, and all points of its culture. 
Paulownia imperialis prom Seed [E. P.). —Unless it were for the 
curiosity of the practice it is not worth the trouble to grow this tree from 
seeds, as it might be increased by the roots as fast as Horseradish, and itt 
two months, after the first leaf on a root-cutting has appeared, the plant 
from that cutting will be stronger, and much older in effect, than a three- 
year-old seedling. A strong root-cutting, which was made in the Garden) 
of Plants, at Paris, soon after it flowered there in 1840, made a growth of 
fourteen feet high in one season ! the growth was measured for us by alt 
English gentleman; and the first plant of Paulownia which came into 
England was sent to us by chat gentleman from that batch of root-cuttings. 
If you have good seeds of Paulownia they should he flat, thin, and of 
little substance ; and yet some of them will not vegetate, probably, till the 
6eeond year. The way to manage them is thisKeep them in soft paper 
in a drawer till the middle of next March, then sow them in a 48-pot or 
pots in light sandy soil, such as would do for any of the flower-garden 
seeds ; put the pots in a cutting-frame, or any slight hotbed, hut not on a 
Cucumber-bed, which would be too hot and too damp for them, unless you 
were a good gardener, and could see at once if the least danger were at 
hand. As soon as the seedlings are up, the same treatment as for the 
little blue Lobelias will do for them till all the Dahlias are planted out; 
then they may go out after them, out of the pots, and out in or on a very 
hot wall border ; and of course they will want watering for a long while, 
also to he protected from the frost the first winter, even at Exeter. 
Cocoa-nut Refuse por Ferns {H. N. E.).— Mr. Beaton has pledged his , 
credit on the fact that every plant will root faster in this refuse than in 
anything else. But of all plants, Ferns and dying Orange trees are 
the soonest benefited by Cocoa-nut refuse, but not Ferns in pots ; for all 
plants in pots Cocoa-nut stuff comes in the place of sand and no more. 
Instead of sand, we use Cocoa-nut sawdust; for all manner of plants and 
for drainage, the short fibre we sift out of the sawdust. If your 
soil is light for the hardy fernery, trench it full two feet deep, then put 
one foot thick of the refuse all over the ground, and with a fork mix it to 
the depth of the first twelve inches of the border, which will give half-and- 
half; and, after planting and watering, put full one inch more of it all 
over the surface. Then, after six months’ growth, you may challenge any 
old fernery within ten miles of you. But if your soil is elay, or very stiff 
loam, trench only eighteen inches deep for Ferns; drain it as completely 
as a flower-pot, except the lowest corner for marsh land Ferns—such as 
the Royal Fern, Osmunda regalis. Put one foot of refuse as before, and 
mix it with the first eight or nine inches; plant and mulch as above. But, 
remember, if there is a timber or any other large tree near such a fernery, 
the roots of such tree will most assuredly find out the tempting mixture, 
and kill the Ferns, or starve them out. The Deodar, the Araucaria, and 
Wellingtonia root in the refuse as Rhododendrons do in peat; hit no peat 
for a hardy fernery where plenty of the Cocoa-nut refuse can he had — 
nothing hut common soil—stones, blocks, boulders, with Cocoa-nut fibre 
as above. 
Barren Fig Tree (Old Subscriber).— See what is said in another page 
to-day. 
Pannell’s Boiler. —We shall be obliged by any one sending the address 
of the maker of this boiler, Mr. Pannell, late of Chesterfield, to the Rev. 
H. F. Hall, Datchet, near Windsor. 
Ribbon Beds (A. C. Oakley).— Mr. Beaton tells us he was in St. Paul’s 
Churchyard last week looking at the ribbons there, for suggestions for 
planting ribbon borders, and not any two of the several customers who 
called during the time, would, or could., agree as to this or that, or the 
other style of ribbons to be bought and worn. “ Well,” thinks he to himself, 
“ suppose I were to choose for all the customers of that ribbon establish¬ 
ment, they would all decry my judgment except one class.” Now, what 
he could not do in St. Paul’s Churchyard, he could not do elsewhere. There¬ 
fore, he never undertakes to choose ribbons, or plant ribbon-beds, except 
for “somebody,” whose taste he already knows. After all, ribbons take 
the same range as flower-beds, and we would he the last to lessen that 
range to the compass of any one capacity. We had the dimensions of 
many of your plants from another correspondent. 
Coloured Geranium Leaves ( Peter Grieve). ■ —We were quite con¬ 
versant with these leaves, so to speak, before you sent. We had a long 
talk about them the very day they reached us, with one of those birds 
which wing their way to all such offices as ours. It roosts over at Hard¬ 
wick. The three kinds have the best marked colours, certainly, of all that 
have yet appeared. The question is, will they last so out under a summer 
un ? No. 1 has a Golden Chain edge, a starry crimson band mixed with 
brown, and a green and yellow blotched centre, medium size leaf, and very 
splendid. No. 2 same arrangement, with less crimson. No. 3 the same, 
with less brown and more crimson. We know one seedling with a lighter 
ground than these; therefore, not so rich, hut it has much more crimson. 
Only to show, however, in spring, and late in the autumn, yours must 
he more permanent. 
Names op Pi ants ( T. C. Atkinson). —Yours is Statice latifolia, or 
Broad-leaved Sea Lavender. [W. S. E.).— We cannot be certain of the 
name of your seedling, hut we think it is Physalis edulis. ( IV. Clarke).— 
Your plant is Diplacus glutinosus, and is sometimes called Mimidvs 
glutinosus. It is a greenhouse plant long since introduced. 
