U THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
say in your next number whether the treatment required to 
grow Cucumbers and Melons will be suitable for exotic 
Ferns and Lycopods?—I.” 
[Tbe heat and moisture, especially in the Cucumber end, 
will be all right for the Ferns and Lycopods. In summer 
they must not be too much shaded. In the Melon end they 
will also do very well; but if the atmosphere is kept long 
dry for the Melons when ripening, it may be r ather too dry 
for the Ferns; but a compromise maybe made by keeping 
the soil about them moist, and the plants a little more 
shaded. Of course, if neither Cucumbers nor Melons are 
grown in winter, the Ferns, &c., must have the necessary 
heat.] 
GROWING FRUIT FOR SALE. 
“ Can you encourage an amateur of very moderate moans 
to indulge in the cultivation of the finer fruits, with any 
hope of realising expenses by the sale of produce? I 
allude to Grapes, Peaches, Figs, Strawberries, and perhaps 
Pines, forced and otherwise. I bear-of salesmen at Man¬ 
chester and Liverpool who would take all I sent, but enter¬ 
tain a fear that the demand for such things must be highly 
precarious. It would be mortifying to find a house of Peaches, 
forced Strawberries, or Grapes, unsaleable at some moderate 
price, such as would repay cost of production. Again, there 
seems a mystery about the packing of such things for a dis¬ 
tant market, so as to reach with that bloom the loss of which 
would entirely spoil them. Where can the art be learnt, and 
where are tbe proper baskets, moss, paper, &c., to be pro¬ 
cured? You see I am hot upon the subject. I know of 
nothing to me so full of pleasure as the careful cultivation 
of these beauties, and shall be loth to abandon the idea of 
extending operations on the score of prudence. I contem¬ 
plate an expense of under €100 for a long range of orchard- 
house pits on Rivers' principle. I am favoured by tbe levels 
of my ground, and the existence already of a strong stone 
wall 150 feet long, and running east and west. I have 
nothing to do but to excavate very dry ground, and cover it 
with a glass roof. The heating apparatus will, perhaps, be 
the main expense. 
“ I have much theoretical and some practical knowledge 
of what I propose to undertake. I can grow fine Peaches on 
a south wall with most professional gardeners, but under glass 
have as yet attempted nothing.—A New Subscriber, near 
Wellingborough , Northamptonshire .” 
[We think that tbe conveyance alone of fruit to a distant, 
market would be a barrier to your speculation, and more 
especially as you are not quite conversant with details. The 
mode of packing, &c.,you would learn sooner and better than 
we could tell you in much space by going and stating your 
wants to a respectable fruiterer. Grapes are taken safest 
firmly tied down in a box with nothing over them, and the 
lid free of them; tbe bunches thus do not move. Peaches 
are often conveyed safely in boxes, wrapped separately in 
paper, and packed in bran or chaff - . For particular fruit we 
prefer having shallow boxes cut into squares, a hole for 
each fruit, the fruit placed in it after being enveloped in 
tissue paper, and packed then with wadding or dry, fine moss. 
Fine Strawberries we have packed separately in the same 
way, and they have gone great distances uninjured. Our 
general mode used to be to place them one layer deep in 
drawer-like boxes, with leaves above and below, and then 
several of these drawers fitted into one box. Those sent 
and exhibited in tbe windows in punnets are generally sent 
from short distances. We have no great reliance on 
fruiterers’ advertisements as to taking all you can send. We 
have been told so, and then, when we had plenty, a note 
would come that the weather was so bad that there were no 
parties, and they could not sell at any price. Fruiterers 
often want great quantities of fine fruit, and it is of great 
importance to them to know where to lay their hands on it 
when wanted; and here the fruit grower within a few miles 
of the fruit mart has a great advantage over you. Suppose 
he has a house of Peaches or of Grapes coming in, he offers 
them to the best bidder, and they purchase the whole at so 
much, or at so much per dozen or per pound, and have it 
when they like, subject to all casualties. 
There are, it is true, sellers on commission in Covent, 
Garden, and, we presume, in large places like Liverpool, 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— October 7, 185fi. 
who sell at what it will bring; but here, again, perishable 
things just bring prices according to their demand. When 
thus sold we can recollect, when the quoted price of Straw¬ 
berries was about 2s. (Id. per ouuce, getting about that 
money one day, getting lid. a few days after, and a few days 
later, again, getting 2s. 
Perhaps some of our coadjutors will be able to give better 
information. Meanwhile, we would take the liberty of ad¬ 
vising you to state your case to Mr. Ferguson, of Stowe, who 
so often favours us with his ideas in these pages, as one hav¬ 
ing considerable experience with tbe fruit market, and one 
not so far distant from Wellingborough.] 
HYBRID PERPETUAL GERANIUMS. 
“ Mr. Beaton would very much oblige very many persons 
in this neighbourhood by giving us a list of Hybrid Per¬ 
petual Geraniums, or Nosegay Geraniums, as he calls them. 
—John Grant." 
[Hybrid Perpetual Geraniums are greenhouse Geraniums, 
so called to distinguish them from the Fancies and from 
the Pelargoniums, which are only summer-flowering kinds, 
and there are long lists of them in every volume of The 
Cottage Gardener, beginning with Ladg Mary Fox and 
ending with Shrubland Pet. Sir Joseph Paxton, knowing 
how fond ladies in great families are of this class of Gera¬ 
niums for beds and mixed borders, or for forcing and cut 
flowers, offered prizes for them, in order to “ improve them;” 
that is, improve them in growth, colour, and numbers, not 
by making circular flowers, for which ladies have no sym¬ 
pathy. He, the honourable member of Coventry, with equal 
zeal and good taste, wants to “improve” the Nosegay Gera¬ 
niums, or the section of FothcrgiUii, for the ladies, who are 
more fond of them than of all other Geraniums put together; 
but Mr. Beaton intends to send us some notes about 
them.] 
KILLING SORREL JN A LAWN. 
“I took a new place, and found the lawn composed of 
pieces of turf taken from the road-side full of weeds, and 
smothered with Sorrel. It was taken up Inst autumn, and fresh 
mould and fresh turf laid down, in hopes of doing away with 
the Sorrel; but it has again appeared, and threatens to spread 
over the lawn as badly as ever. Our soil is very dry and 
light. Can you advise any means by which to get rid of the 
Sorrel?— An Old Subscriber.” 
[When this lawn was unturfed last autumn, the dry 
bottom ought to have been trenched not less than eighteen 
inches deep; then the fresh soil, one inch deep, would have 
done laid on the top, and the new turf on the top of all. If 
the turf was from a common, we should pronounce the lawn 
one of the very best. As it is, no human power will get rid 
of that troublesome Sorrel without some such operation.] 
CULTURE OE TRITONIA AUREA. 
“ Could you inform me how to treat Tritonia aurea after 
it has done blooming ? For what price per packet can 
I get ColUnsia bicolor alba seed, and where ?— An Old 
Subscriber.” 
[Treat the Tritonia just as you would a Tulip or a Hyacinth 
after flowering. Let it ripen the leaves slowly, and then 
go dry altogether, and rest for the winter. The bulbs will 
keep safer in the dry balls, but if you want the pots, the 
balls will do as well without them, and will keep anywhere, 
like Potatoes, and with the same protection from frost. In 
March or April break tbe balls, clean the bulbs, and plant 
them in fresh peat with a little loam to it. They will grow, 
at first, like Ixias, and will take but little water ; after that, 
like the Gladioluses, they will require quantities of water 
and cold-frame culture. Confined air is death and destruc- | 
tion to them. Collinsia bicolor alba is to be had only from | 
the seedsmen, who will, no doubt, advertise the price.] 
