THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, March 31, 1857. 
MANAGEMENT OF A YOUNG HOLLY HEDGE. 
“ Will you inform me of the proper treatment of Holly 
plants in order to make the hest and thickest hedge ? I 
have just planted a number of young and thriving plants in 
soil admirably suited to them, which has been trenched 
to a depth of from two to three feet. The plants are about 
eighteen inches high. Should they he left so, or should 
they he cut in close to the ground, in order to make them 
branch out and thicken, so as to form one of those beau¬ 
tiful^ and impenetrable hedges which I have often admired 
in Kent and in Somersetshire?’’— Herbert S. Hawkins. 
[The young Holly plants ought not to be cut for the first 
three years after planting. If they are planted as close as 
one foot apart they never require to be cut down like 
“ quick,” only to cut the longest of the side-shoots to a 
regular surface on both sides; hut if any of them should 
shoot up a long leader, much longer than the average of the 
rest, those should be cut back to that average about the end 
ot April or in July. The most important practice is to 
mulch a young Holly hedge for the first year or two, and to 
water the plants regularly through the summer.] 
PROPAGATION OF VARIEGATED ALYSSUM.— 
ESCHSCHOLTZIA AS AN EDGING. 
“ I propose having a bed of scarlet Geraniums with edging 
of variegated Alyssum. Will the latter flower from seed this 
year ? and should I sow it now where it is to stand, or would 
it be better to transplant the seedlings ? 
“Would an edging of Esclischoltzia (yellow) look well for 
another scarlet bed ? Will the following blow this year from 
seed just sown in heat? 1 . Commelina ccelestis. 2. Eccre- 
mocarpus. 3. Lophospermum scandens. 4. Salvia patens .”— 
Manchester. 
[Your question about the variegated Alyssum has been 
answered many times in these pages. The variegated kind 
does not seed, or if it does occasionally the seedlings from 
them will come as green as leeks. There is no way for 
having this kind true except from cuttings. 
The Eschscholtzia will make a splendid edging ; but you 
must allow it eighteen inches, or rather more, and it must 
be sown every season about this time. We have rarely 
missed an edging of this plant since 1842. If the old roots 
of Eschscholtzia are dug up carefully in the spring they 
would make the hest rock plants we have if they were built 
in the new rockwork as the work proceeded. The Commelina 
and Salvia patens will flower in the autumn from spring- 
sown seeds ; hut the other two must not he depended on to 
flower much, if at all the first season.] 
RANUNCULUSES EATEN BY SLUGS. 
“ I have a bed of Ranunculuses which were planted in 
November, and were very strongly manured. They came 
up about three weeks ago, and for some time looked very 
healthy indeed; but within the last week they have been 
almost entirely eaten up with worms. Would you be so 
good as to inform me what plan I am to adopt to save my 
plants ? I understand that sea sand and pounded sea shells 
mixed together and put closely round the plants are an 
excellent preventive against both worms and snails; but as 
these cannot he readily obtained by me I shall be obliged to 
resort to something else.”— Ranunculus. 
[The slugs and snails, not the worms, have done the 
mischief, and the only means of getting rid of them is by 
laying baits for them, and to destroy them when caught. 
Brewers’ grains laid in little heaps along their haunts are Mr. 
Barnes’ receipt for catching them, and it is one of the best. 
He goes out at night and collects them on these heaps. 
Others lay cabbage leaves, under which they take shelter. 
Others, again, dip the cabbage leaves in greasy water, and. 
say that is more enticing, and many go out to look for them 
after warm showers in the spring and early part of summer. 
We adopted this last method during a whole season, and 
caught thousands of the marauders, and we have not been 
troubled with them since. We have no faith in sea sand, 
447 \ 
nor in soot, which they dislike very much. You must kill 
slugs outright. It is of very little use to try to frighten 
them off your premises.] 
DISTINGUISHING ROOTS OF DAHLIAS. 
“ Will you inform an old subscriber whether there is any 
way by which he may be able to distinguish the dwarf 
Zelinda Dahlias from other taller kinds at this season, the 
roots having been accidentally mixed?”—R. H. C. 
[No; there are no means of distinguishing one Dahlia j 
root from another, or young plants either for some months. 
It will be the end of June before most of the Dahlias 
will show by their free growth that they are not dwarfs, like 
the Zelinda.] 
NOTES FROM PARIS. 
Among other improvements lately carried out in the- ' 
grounds of the Bois de Boulogne, an immense cascade has 
been formed in addition to the small ones which I formerly 
noticed. It was only very recently opened for the first time, 
and the effect is worthy of the magnificent lake and 
plantations in this part of the environs, which may be con- ! 
sidered the west end of the French capital. 
A number of fine aristocratic buildings are also rising 
along the routes leading to the lake, especially on each side, 
of the grand Avenue des Champs Ely sees. 
By-the-by, some people think that the fountains at 
Sydenham are not equal to those at Versailles, and yet we 
all know that it was the intention of Sir Joseph Paxton to 
make them not only equal, but superior to anything to be 
seen either at Versailles or elsewhere. As I have not been j 
at Sydenham since the Crystal Palace was finished I cannot 1 
form an opinion of the fountains; hut, judging from the 
illustrations which I have seen of them, I should say they 
were at least quite equal to those here in point of volume 
and force. The fountains at Versailles are pretty enough, 
that must he allowed; hut, with similar advantages, others 
could be still better, for I think the great secret of their J 
effect is the dark background of tall trees all round them. 
In an open garden, such as the grounds at Sydenham 
appear to be, their charm would be lost; but, because they 
rise in the midst of. a vast amphitheatre of foliage, they are 
to he seen to advantage. The fountains at Sydenham, how- 
ever, might be quite as fine in the course of a few years, 
and even much finer, without being strict imitations of those jj 
at Versailles, where everything is stiff and formal; hut ! 
then’ effect will depend as much on the arrangement of the |j 
ground and the grouping of the trees as on the power of 
the water-works. There is, in the grounds of the Tuilleries, j: 
a simple jet d'eau, which is quite as beautiful as any of the ; 
fountains at Versailles. It rises from the middle of the 
round basin near La Place de la Concorde, and, viewed from 
the terrace, when it is seen just in front of the fine old 
Chestnut trees, it has a particular charm. 
I do not think that the imitation of the stair fountains at 
St. Cloud is worthy of Paxton or Sydenham. Something 
more natural and much grander than that might have been 
formed. The mountain scenery of Wales or the Highlands 
would have furnished far better models. 
There is at Versailles a circle of fountains called the Colon¬ 
nade. The arrangement is, perhaps, unique in its way, and, on 
a larger scale, something of the same kind would always be 
pretty and agreeable on a warm day in summer. Here the 
jets are placed in the centre of elegant vase-like basins, \ 
and the water rises some five or six feet, and each fountain ! 
appears in a recess of foliage, which is formed by the trees f 
and bushes growing behind being evenly clipped all round and 1 
overhead. The fountains are separated from one another by ( 
two columns, one at the back, and another in front, and these ! 
columns form the supports of ornamental arches (in wood 
I suppose), covered with carvings, and mounted on the top 
with urns. In the centre of the whole is a fine group, 
apparently taken from the Rape of the Sabines, and raised | 
on a low, ornamental column or pedestal. At the back, and 
far above the fountains, the tall tree3 rise, and almost darken 
the place by their sombre shade. La Colonnade is very good 
