386 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Maech 20, 1860. 
easily separated by steeping in water. The finest layers are 
the inner, and the coarser are the outer ones.—The manu¬ 
facture of hast mats is nearly confined to Russia and Sweden. 
Not fewer than 3,500,000 are annually exported from Russia, 
and from 500,000 to 800,000 are annually imported into Britain. 
A few are made in Monmouthshire. Lime-tree bast is used 
in the south of Europe for making hats. The name bast-hat 
is, however, very often given to a hat made of Willow-wood 
planed off in thin ribbons, and plaited in the same manner as 
straw-hats. The inner baric of Gretvia didyma , a tree of the 
same natural order with the Lime-tree, is used for making ropes 
in the Himalaya Mountains.— (Chambers's Uncyclojpcedia.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Some Bedding Plants (A Subscriber). —1st. Gazania splendens is a 
free-growing plant, and spreads itself over the surface without pegging. 
It continues in bloom till the frost. Plant bought plants nine inches apart 
every way, and from your own propagation only at six inches plant from 
plant, that is how to calculate the number for a bed. It is more easy to 
keep in winter than bedding Calceolarias, and strikes as easily as Verbenas, 
and in the same way. Ours from late last-autumn cuttings, are now show¬ 
ing tiower-buds, but generally it is late in coming. 2nd. No bedding 
Geranium is more freS to bloom than Tom Thumb and Baron Liu gel, the 
latter is very dwarf and will possibly do well in your horrid soil. The leaf 
is a deep horseshoe, and the flowers have beautiful white bottoms or eyes. 
Dandy and Lobelia speciosa, half and half and well-managed, make the best 
pincushion-bed going. All the clay in your county, and all the muck in the 
parish, will not run Dandy too much to leaf, or cause it to produce a single 
blossom. It is grown for its variegated leaves and minimum habit. The 
Crystal Palace Trentham Scarlet is the best bloomer of the race of Tom 
Thumb ; but the old Trentham Scarlet is not one-half so good, and we are 
not aware that the Sydenham kind is to be had in the nurseries ; if it is, 
this will probably Ash it out. 3rd. The Purple Zclinda Dahlia will make 
a good bed pegged down where you say, and a much better bed if not pegged 
down at all; but in that way it must not have a scarlet Geranium or a 
yellow Calceolaria round it. Flower of the Day, Countess of Warwick, or 
Brilliant, is the only admissible kind round Zclinda, when Zclinda is 
round Brugmansia, double white. The Lobelia speciosa from cuttings now 
or from seeds, will bloom to October, or ought; but in poor sandy soil, 
and very hot summers, like the last, it does not hold on quite so long; 
seedlings, however, hold on longer. 4th. Bedding Geraniums, plunged 
in pots, require the same kind of poorer soil they are potted in for winter, 
and No. 32-pots are the rightsize. We have answered all your queries, 
because they are interesting at this season to many of our readers. 
Book on Vine-Culture ( A Subscriber). —Sanders “On the Vine,” if 
for cultivation under glass ; Hoare “ On the Grape Vine,” if for out-door 
cultivation. 
Early-blooming Annuals (F. N. N.). —The dwarf annuals—such as 
Gillia tricolor, Collinsia bicolor, and Saponaria Calabrica, if forced in 
very mild heat, and treated like young bedding Calceolarias, would be 
in bloom from the end of May, and last in bloom, according to the kinds, 
some six weeks, and some the whole season. You will find them all with 
their habits, sizes, colours, and time of blooming in former volumes. 
Dwarf annuals would not hurt a bed of any Boses much ; all the hurt 
would be sucking the goodness out of the soil, but two or three good 
waterings with liquid manure would soon make up the difference ; one of 
these waterings to be given just as the annuals were coming into blossom; 
a second when the bloom was over, and a third ten days later than that. 
Tobacco smoke will not hurt late or early Vines if it is no stronger than 
for smoking Boses and Geraniums 
Grafting Potato Tubers ( A Scotch Subscriber). —You misunderstand 
what you recommend. Uniting parts of two tubers would have no effect 
upon the stems either part produced. Those stems have roots of their 
own for producing sap for sustaining their growth and the growth of the 
tubers they form. The only mode of imparting the qualities of one variety 
of Potato to another is by impregnating the pistil of one with the pollen 
from the second, and sowing the seed thus fertilised. 
Killing Moths and Butterflies (.1. J . Ashman). —Bruise thoroughly 
with a hammer some common Laurel leaves, put plenty of them into a 
wide-mouthed glass jar, over them put enough cotton wool to keep them 
firmly at the bottom of the jar, and have it tightly closed by a bung. There 
must be space enough between the cotton and the bung to insert the 
largest moth or butterfly, which is instantly killed by the prussic acid 
fumes when imprisoned in that space, and put into a dark place. Fresh 
leaves are required occasionally. Birds’ eggs do not lose their colour 
unless exposed to a very strong light, and then not till after some ye,ars. 
Window Gardf.ning Manual (II. Howard).— Our “ Window Garden¬ 
ing,” as you remark, gives no illustrations as to tastiness in boxes, or 
vases, for window plants, for if it did, the expense would have been greatly 
increased and its circulation greatly lessened, amongst classes we were 
anxious should be conversant with its contents. The work contains 
directions for growing, and recommends arranging in such boxes and vases 
to hide the appearance of the pots, uud in order that the plants may 
appear in a more natural condition. We are ‘sure that had we given a 
dozen or a score of designs, hardly one would have been adopted* Every 
lady and gentleman would prefer going to their own tradesmen and telling 
them what they should like; and most likely if we had given a dozen 
designs for a hanging-basket, you would tbave been off and telling your 
wire-worker that you would rather have one in the same style as those of 
the Crystal Palace. In all such matters, in rooms, the great thing is to 
have the sides and bottom waterproof, so as to prevent making a mess on 
the floor, and means for draining off any superabundant water when desir¬ 
able. These secured, we care not a bit whether your basket or vase consists 
of terra cotta, china, painted zinc, galvanised iron, or zinc or lead inside, 
with the outside resembling an elegant basket of wood or Willow, or any¬ 
thing according to the style of the room in which it is placed. Few people 
require to go many miles before they can see plenty of such specimens 
of art in windows, and as public ornaments, and aboolc full of designs coulcB 
only present you with similar hints that you could mould and fashion to* 
your own circumstances. Even hanging-baskets in rooms, however open 
the outside may be, should have a close vessel inside, so that no water 
may drip. If in them and the vases there is a hole at the bottom, means 
must be taken to catch the water in a vessel concealed under the pedestal, 
&c. 
Motion of the Sap.— The plant Elcliies (Cottage Gardener, page 
372) inquires after, is Anacharis alsinastrum, the notorious “Water 
Weed.” It is as good as Yalisneria under the microscope, and was in¬ 
troduced about 1842 (?). Certainly first seen in that year by Dr. G. John¬ 
stone.— Shirley IIibberd. 
Pears for the North (A Subscriber). —“In an inclement northern 
county,” the situation, as well as the aspect, must be very favourable to 
enable you to ripen either the Bcurre Ranee or the Chaumontel. We 
recommend you to have in their place the Marie Louise and Thompson’’s. 
Mowing Machines ( Herbert S. JIpwkins) .—We believe Shanks’ and 
Green’s machines to be equally good ; they are both highly recommended 
by first-rate gardeners who have used them, and in our opinion it matters 
little which you have. 
Climbers for a Greenhouse (J. C.). —We presume the little pits in the 
border are well drained, and divided one from the other. In the large 
space, five feet and a half, on one side of the doorway next the mansion, 
we would incline to grow and train Habrothamnus elegans, as it flowers 
almost continuously. If a rich dark foliage would be most attractive, then 
we would cover the space with Acacia armata. In the spring months 
wreaths of gold flowers would contrast beautifully with the dark green 
foliage. If you have young ladies in your establishment we would prefer 
a strong plant of the double white Camellia, for in such a place the buds 
would continue to open the most of the winter. Loam and heath soil 
will grow either well. The small space on the other side of the door¬ 
way we would devote to Mandevilla suaveolens, taking it up the end 
of the house and along a wire eighteen inches below the central ridge- 
board. 3, Dolichos liynosus, producing in great abundance small, purple, 
Pea-blossomed flowers; grown in fibry loam and a little peat. 4, Jas- 
minum revolutum, yellow; or Jasminum gracile, white. 5, Brachysema 
latifolia ; chiefly heath soil fibry, and a little fibry loam, and about a sixth 
part of silver sand and bits of charcoal. 6, Kenncdya Marryattas, scarlet; 
chiefly peat and fibry loam. 7, Solly a linearis, blue ; chiefly fibry loam 
with a little peat. 8, Lapageriarosea; or, if deemed too difficult, Kennedya 
coccinea, scarlet. We have not put in any Passion Flowers, as being too 
rampant for such a place. The following might be grown in pots the first 
year or so, to give a character to the rafters, before the established plants 
come up. Pink, white, and purple Maurandva, Cobcea scandens, Lopho- 
spermum spectabile and Ilendersonii, Passiflora alata ccerulea and Col- 
villii; and such Tropocolums as pentaphyllum, or even peregrinum. In 
planting the climbers that are to be permanent, it would be well to keep 
their stems from the pipes by means of a piece of wood three or four inches 
wide. We presume you have arranged for air. If you mean to have 
tallish plants in the centre they might stand on the floor. If you thought 
of having a stage in the centre you have made your side-stages rather too 
wide—sixteen inches. To make the most of the room in such a house 
would have been to take a walk down the middle—say 3 feet, and have a 
platform of 3.j feet on each side, which would take up the ten feet of width. 
To secure elegance and as much convenience as possible, the best mode 
would have been to have had a shelf 9 or 12 inches round the three sides, a 
walk of 2i feet all round, and a platform of 3 feet or 3 feet 6 inches in the 
centre. As the side-stages are fixed we would take a walk of 26 inches all 
round ; and that will leave you room for a three-feet stage, or rather 
sparred table in the centre. We need not remind you that many things 
may be kept under that, or rather these stages in winter ; and that the 
sides next or close to the walk might be ornamented with edgings of 
Lycopods and the smallest Ferns. 
Gisiiurst Compound—Netting Fruit Trees (Moore).— For destroying 
the green fly you used Gishurst Compound too strong ; instead of half a 
pound, use two ounces to the gallon, and repeat the application at in¬ 
tervals of two or three days. Garden-nets are as good as fishing-nets for 
sheltering blossoms, but they are no better ; and you will have seen what 
Mr. Fish said last week about the various modes of protecting blossoms. 
Sifting Fibry Loam (IT. B.). —For small plants you may safely and 
profitably riddle your soil. We presume that the vegetable matter is 
decayed. If not, it would be well to place the turf over a furnace, or in 
an oven to destroy grass, &c., and expose it to the air for a day or so 
before using. For very small pots you might use even a finer sieve—a 
half or three quarters of an inch, and the rougher riddlings might be 
placed, a part of them over the drainage. With these precautions you 
will find the plants will find no fault, quite the reverse with the new soil. 
Wooden Tank (L. R. Lucas). —Wc know of none; and if wc did, tho 
carriage would be expensive. 
Vinery Border (iV. B.). —We do not think you could plant anything 
else in such a border with advantage, except the Vines. If you did plant 
anything, the plants would require to have a separate little pit or hole 
for themselves, separated from the Vines by a brick wall, or slate, or some¬ 
thing of that kind. Wc do not know where your border is—whether 
front or back of your house. If the house is a lean-to, and the border at the 
back, two or three Camellias would be best to turn out. But either at 
back or front we should prefer pots placed on the border; or, better still, 
a shelf or stage of that width raised above it, on which you could set what 
plants you most fancied—such as Primulas and bulbs for winter; Cinerarias 
in spring; Calceolarias to follow the Geraniums, Fuchsias, Chrysan¬ 
themums, Camellias, &c. 
Stove in a Greenhouse (A Constant Subscriber).— You will have seen 
frequent accounts by Mr. Fish and others, how well these stoves do for 
such a purpose, with ordinary caie, provided they have a well-secured 
chimney out of the house. No matter what the fuel is, all that have no 
smoke-pipe are ruinous for plants at all tender. You will want a fair¬ 
sized one for such a house, 20 feet bv 20 feet, and 10 feet high, and we 
presume span-roofed. We forget the sizes of the Joyce’s stoves, but the 
one we once had was small. Any other stove, such as you see in shops and 
halls, would answer your purpose. It is always expensive to alter an 
article intended for one purpose to suit another. Stoves in general are 
made with the smoke-funnel. Joyce’s is not so formed. 
