418 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
•wall in South Derbyshire; hut scores of evergreens can he 
trained against a wall, though they are not climbers. About 
Bath the Cotonea.ster microphylla is so trained against houses, 
and makes the richest “ evergreen climber” we have, and 
the hardiest; and Magnolia grand,[flora is the best of the 
three for a wall. Our Felicite Perpetuelle Rose is now quite 
green, and has been all this winter, and also our Benoncule, 
and both might be used to cover walls, together with Noisette 
Roses while the evergreens were young.] 
ANNUALS FOR MASSING. 
«Will you kindly say what sorts of annuals, as regards 
harmony in colours and otherwise, best suit for massing in 
a bed of a pretty large size, in a flower garden where there 
will be three or four such beds of annuals, and a good many 
beds of the usual kinds of bedding-out plants ?”—A Constant 
Reader. 
[Yellow is the prevailing colour of the very few annuals 
which are fit for massing. There are two shades of yellow 
in African Marigolds, the best yellow annual for the centre 
of a large bed like yours, and there are three shades of 
yellow and brown in the French Marigolds ; but the exact 
tint can never be depended on for a mass unless the kinds 
are kept from cuttings—a difficult thing; therefore common 
French Marigolds are not well suited for masses, in which 
clear, clean colours are the chief beauty ; but there is a very 
dwarf yellow kind of French Marigold to edge a bed with, 
or for filling small beds; but in large masses this land is in¬ 
tolerable, although it comes true from seed. The best 
yellow annual for a mass of the second degree, or middle 
height, is Tagetes tenuifolia, a botanical Marigold; and the 
best yellow annual of the third degree, or lowest, is Sanvi- 
talia procuinbens. All the Marigolds tell best in single 
masses by themselves; but the African would make a very good 
centre to a band of three or four feet wide of Sanvitalia. 
None of the Coreopsises do for beds by themselves, because 
they do not last out the season. Drummondii is the best of 
them, and the longest that will keep in flower; also the 
best style of yellow bed. Its clear, clean, large flowers 
are far before Sanvitalia, which has the best style for 
a bed in other respects. There is no scarlet, or purple, or 
crimson annual for a large bed; nor a white one—only pink, 
blue, and yellow, Saponaria Calabrica being the pink, and 
one of the very best bedding plants where it does well; but 
it should be a very large bed—a circle four to five feet 
across is quite large enough. The next best pink, or near 
to pink, is Viscaria oculata, two sorts, one eighteen inches to 
two feet high, and a dwarf kind of it nine or ten inches high. 
They last over two months, more or less, according to the 
season, soil, and time of sowing. Blue is the last and the 
best for very large beds, tall Lupins in the centre, Cruifc- 
shankii for the very centre, Hartwegii round it, pubescens 
round that, then a few Cornflowers and branching Larkspurs, 
with Chinese Larkspurs or Lupinus nanus round the outside. 
But a very good large bed might be made of blue Lupins for 
the centre, three rows of African Marigold to make one band 
round the Lupins; to sow this band with Coreopsis Drum¬ 
mondii, to bloom before the Marigolds; and the front with 
Sanvitalia procumbens, eighteen inches wide, next to the 
grass or gravel. A row of white Virginian Stock, sown four 
inches from the grass, would do till the Sanvitalia crept 
over it by the end of August.] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Citrouille. —Docs this differ from the common Pumpkin? If it 
does the Rev. T. Fox, jun., Shillingstone, Blandford, Dorset, would be 
glad to purchase seed if he knew where to apply. 
Lime Trees (Arthur Du Cane). —They are not prejudicial to the 
health of the neighbourhood where they grow, nor did we before hear 
of such a suggestion. 
Situation for Greenhouse (Rebecca).— 1 There can be no doubt 
that A, as marked in your plan, is the best situation for the greenhouse; 
and it might be rendered a very ornamental object when looked upon 
from the house. If to have the greenhouse adjoining the house is a 
paramount object, then D is the only situation permissible, and that is 
bad enough. The west end of the house would be better. 
Garden Plan ( A Subscriber). —Yours is a very pretty garden, with¬ 
out pretension j but who knows which are the most suitable flowers for 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, March 17, 1857. 
a stranger? If the garden was ours we should have a row of old plants 
of Punch, a scarlet Geranium in front of the centre bed all round the 
evergreens, and a row of Calceolaria rugosa close to them, and next the 
grass. 1 and 4 we should have in different kinds of scarlet Geraniums 
mixed, not in rings ; 2 and 6 we would have in three shades of yellow, 
all Calceolarias—yellow, nearly yellow, as Shanklet/ana, and yellow 
brown ; and 3 and 5 would contain a collection of the very best varie¬ 
gated Geraniums, edged with deep blue Lobelias ; but, most probably, 
all that you will learn by this is a sad disappointment. Tastes differ. 
Motion of Sap (An Inquirer), —It begins to move in the stem and 
branches first. 
Filtering Rain Water (E. Talbot ).—If you will procure through 
your bookseller our 13th number, price 4d., you will have the description 
and drawings of a very simple mode of purifying the rain water from 
your roof. It is a plan still satisfactorily in use. 
THE POOLTBY CHRONICLE. 
MR. HEWITT AND HIS CALUMNIATORS. 
“You have so completely judged the case of Mr. Hewitt 
and myself, in disregard of my assertions, for authority for 
which I have referred to witnesses at least as credible and 
respectable as any upon whose testimony you have formed 
your conclusions, that I regret that I cannot address you as 
other than a partisan, and therefore beg to state that I con¬ 
sider your extracting from my correspondence such portions 
as you considered advantageous to his cause, and suppressing 
others containing my indignant refutation of counter im¬ 
putations of complicity, to be an unwarrantable proceeding. 
“ Had you given me an opportunity of satisfying you that 
the charge was made against Mr. Hewitt by Mrs. Sharp I 
could have done so; and, painful as it is to contradict a 
lady, I am obliged to state that a more unprincipled denial 
never was given, for I assure you that this loquacious lady, 
proud of the audacity of her charge, was a perfect lionne at 
the Prescot Show, repeating her statement from time to time 
during the afternoon with wonderful fluency. Indeed, even 
so lately as the Preston Show, she gave the same version to 
a noble exhibitor in my hearing. It is, therefore, as ridiculous 
for her to disown it as for Mr. Hewitt to say that he did not 
hear it, as I have asked my informants within the last few 
days, and am assured I have not been led into error. 
“ My opinion of Mr. Hewitt I am unable to alter, and it is 
this : if his sympathies be not with Mr. Chune, and he does 
not know this exhibitor’s fowls when he sees them in show¬ 
rooms, so improper have been his awards that he is incapable 
of judging Hamburgh fowls, and, therefore, ought not to 
assume the responsibility of the many classes comprised in 
a first-class exhibition. I am obliged to him, however, for 
his tenderness to my ‘ personal degradation,’ and therefore 
beg you to assure him that I do not feel it. 
“ It is too much for a * self-convicted and down-fallen 
adversary,’ as Mr. Hewitt is pleased to call me, to expect 
that you will insert his letter; but, if inconvenient to do so, 
oblige him by not using your editorial scissors to it, and 
ever believe him, 
“ Your grateful Servant, 
“ William C. Worrall.” 
[We are not partisans of Mr. Hewitt, hut we are partisans 
of justice and truth. If Mr. Hewitt could he shown to be a 
partner in the ownership of any birds to which he awarded 
prizes, we should condemn him as unreservedly as we con¬ 
demn those who brought against him the charge, without 
stopping to inquire whether there was any real foundation 
for that charge. The evidence produced to sustain it has 
not only not sustained it, hut has proved that there was uo 
ground for the accusation. It matters not, so far as Mr. 
Hewitt is concerned, whether Mrs. Sharp ever said what she 
is alleged to have said. If she did say so she now denies it, 
and thereby confesses there was no truth in what she said. 
We must decline any controversy with Mr. Worrall. He 
knows as well as we do that the passages we omitted in his 
letters were totally irrelevant to the charge against Mr. 
Hewitt. We have the means of showing the letters to any¬ 
one who may feel curious to pee them entire, and have no 
objection to so doing. They will only serve to demonstrate 
still more forcibly that Mr. Worrall has not acted tempe¬ 
rately, or wisely, or justly ; and no unbiassed person will give 
any other judgment than that. It would be more manly for 
Mr. Worrall to acknowledge he had been misled than to 
