117 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 22, 1859. 
strewed with, russety dots. Eye small and open, set in a 
shallow basin. Stalk an inch long. Elesh white, buttery 
and melting, with a rich sugary, vinous, and highly per¬ 
fumed flavour. 
An excellent hardy pear, in use from November to 
January. 
(To be continued.') 
SALE OF ME, FORTUNE’S PLANTS. 
We would call the attention of our readers to Mr. J. C. 
Stevens’ announcement of the sale of Mr. Fortune’s new plants 
from China, which is to take place on the 30th inst., and follow¬ 
ing day. It includes many plants of great interest and novelty, 
among which are the new double-flowering Peaches, some beauti¬ 
ful new Camellias, Torreya grandis, Primus triloba, Abies i 
Kaempferi, a new purple Lilac, and many other novelties which 
are destined to occupy a prominent place in British gardens and 
pleasure-grounds. 
GARDENIA CULTURE. 
“ F. P. C.” will be much obliged by being instructed as to 
what soil and management are best suited for Gardenias. The 
plant in question is the growth of four or five years. Last winter 
it was placed in a hothouse, which was constantly heated, and 
several flower-buds were formed ; but all chopped off long before 
coming to maturity. A few young shoots are now showing; but | 
the plant still looks weak and sickly. 
[The dwarf sweet favourite “Cape Jasmine,” as it used to be 
called, is the best ill-used plant in cultivation, the best flower to 
stand a London drawing-room of all woody plants, and the most 
difficult plant to put right when once it is on the road to ruin by 
bad management. Because the Jacobcea Lily would force into 
bloom among Pine Apples, our fathers put it down as a stove 
bulb ; and all Lily-like bulbs had the same treatment till they all 
died under it. The next generation are forcing this Gardenia 
out of the world as fast as it wall go; but a few knowing people 
increase and multiply it faster than the rest can kill it, and they 
make a good trade of it—so it will never be lost, though we should 
never have any of it to spare. A good Fuchsia will stand the 
heat of a Pine-stove, and grow there all the winter and spring for 
years, and be all the better, or all the sooner up to the mark for 
the shows, or for placing out of doors as a huge bush in summer. 
The Flower of the Lay Geranium will pay better in a Pine-stove 
all the winter than the Queen’s and Cayenne Pines themselves. 
Yet the Fuchsia and Flower of the Lay are not stove plants : ' 
and if they so rested in winter that stove heat could not set them 
growing, the stove would soon ruin them, as it has done 
thousands of this Gardenia, which is exactly of the same hardiness 
as Flower of the Lay with respect to winter, and three or four 
times hardier in actual frost; for seven or eight degrees of frost 
will not hurt the Gardenia much. Not one atom but the best 
peat to grow in, kept in a moist hotbed of stable-dung in 
spring up to the opening of the first bloom, to flower in a 
drawing-room as long as it wall, to bring it back to a close cold j 
frame till October, and to winter it like the Golden Chain, 
would make a splendid thing of it; but we never could cure it, | 
and never did hear of one plant of it having ever yet been cured 
when once it went sadly. Some plants under fair treatment will 
go wrong; and when they do, force them hard for cut bloom, j 
and then throw them away: cuttings root a3 fast as Fuchsia 
cuttings.] 
THE PROTECTION OF SEEDS FROM BIRDS. 
Wees a garden is in proximity to cottages, stables, and stable- 
vards, the gardener is sure of being annoyed with those (then- 
termed) horrid little pests which are so destructive to his seed-beds 
—the Sparrow, Yellowhammer, Chaffinch, and many others of 
the numerous classes of small birds. Even in the most out-of- 
the-way gardens it has been found necessary to guard against 
their depredations. Some by covering the beds with small bushy 
sticks, small twine, or a scarecrow; while others entirely cover 
their beds with tiffany, garden-mats, or old fishing-nets. The 
latter certainly is the best for covering the beds, but not always 
at hand in sufficient quantities to suffice even for that kind of 
protection; but what I have tried this last summer I can safely 
vouch is a dead beat to any of the modes of protection that have 
been hitherto practised, and the time that it takes, as well as the 
cost, is very insignificant. Here a neighbouring gardener told 
me that he had tried almost everything it was possible for him to 
try ; but still, he said, the birds would have the seeds, and, what 
was most provoking, when he was within a few yards of them. 
Now, he says, they seem to be entirely outwitted, which he 
declared was quite a boon. Several of my brother gardeners 
around here with whom I am acquainted have tried the experi¬ 
ment, and with its results they seem highly delighted. 
All seeds, of course, do not require protecting in the ground 
when sown; but those that do, which are all the different kinds 
of the Cabbageworts, and many others besides, I protect in the 
following easy and simple manner. Whatever kind, or as many 
of the kinds as I am about to sow, I do as follows:—I get as 
many small flower-pot saucers as I have different kinds to sow; 
then write on them the names of the seeds, which I immediately 
place in them. Then I put a small quantity of red lead (which 
is easily obtained from any painter’s shop in the smallest 
quantity) into each of the saucers where I have before placed 
my seeds: then a few drops of water, when they are well 
stirred together, to be thoroughly besmeared over; then left 
until the next day to dry, when they will be in a fit state to sow. 
Every one must use his own judgment as to the quantity that is 
required, which must be determined by the amount of seed 
intended to be sowd. If the seed is good when managed in this 
way the bed has never to be sown the second time, which is 
too often the case when all the usual protection is practised. 
If the seeds lie on the top of the ground, and a whole 
host of those small birds alight together, they seem to have 
a dread of them; and just as much after germination, when the 
seed is what i3 termed breaking the ground. This may appear 
strange; but still it is a mode of protection that may be fully 
depended on.—A. J. Ashman. 
[This requires further experiments, we think, and it deserves 
them.— Eds.] 
BRITISH POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
A Meeting of the British Pomological Society was held on 
Thursday last at the Hanover Square Booms, London. Bobert 
Hogg, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair. 
The following gentlemen were elected ordinary members : — 
Daniel E. Scratton, Esq., the Priory, Prittlewell, Essex. 
Mr. Thomas Meekins, Little Farringdon, Leeplode. 
It was reported that Miss Burdett Coutts had placed the sum 
of £5 at the disposal of the Society, to be given as prizes to work¬ 
ing men for the grown fruit under glass without the aid of lire 
heat. It was stated that Miss Coutts’s object in offering these 
prizes is to encourage a taste for gardening pursuits, and the 
cultivation of fruit among the working classes. Mr. Rivers, of 
Sawbridgeworth, being present, stated that if any workingmen, 
desirous of competing for the prizes offered, erected glass struc¬ 
tures, he Avould be happy to supply them with trees to furnish 
them. 
Messrs. A. Henderson and Co., of Pine-Apple Place, offered 
two prizes of Three Guineas and Two Guineas, for the best and 
second best dishes of Snow's Muscat Hamburgh Grape, to be 
competed for in August, 1800. 
A bunch of a Seedling Grape was received from Mr. J. S. 
Haywood, Lower Wick, Worcester. The bunch was rather 
small; Mr. Haywood stating that it was the last on the Vine, 
and that the others had been much larger. The bunch was of 
medium size and loose. The berries are round, of an enormous 
size, some of them measuring three inches and three quarters 
in circumference. This variety is of the Blade Hamburgh 
race. The skin is thin, and, unlike that of the Lutch Hamburgh, 
is not astringent, nor does it adhere to the flesh. The flesh is 
tender, melting, and richly flavoured ; and each berry contained 
one seed. It w r as considered a Grape of great merit, both on 
account of its quality and size; but before pronouncing a definite 
judgment, the Meeting requested that it be submitted again 
another season, and, if possible, in company with examples of 
Champion Hamburgh. 
At this Meeting prizes of One Guinea and Half a Guinea 
were awarded for the best and second best dishes of Passe 
Colmar Pear. The first prize was taken by Mr. Parsons, of 
Welwyn; and the second by Mr. Judd, of Althorp Gardens. 
Prizes were also awarded for the best and second best dishes of 
any other sort; and the first was given to J. Moorman,Esq., of 
Boxhill, Sussex, for Marie Louise; and the second to Mr. 
Culverwell, of Thorpe Perrow, Bedale, also for Marie Louise. 
