170 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 14, 1858. 
the same objection, as is also the shingle gathered on the 
seacoast, or from rivers. This last is also more difficult 
to keep iirm in the ground. But, where a considerable 
space is to be paved, pebbles are the most suitable. 
Oak boarding, or plank, two or three inches thick, I 
once saw put down as edging to a kitchen garden of large 
size, where Box would not grow well. But even Oak is 
perishable, and expensive in the first instance; otherwise, 
its appearance (being painted) was very good. 
Ironwork, of various patterns, is often met with as 
edgings. But for very long lengths it becomes ex¬ 
pensive, and is better adapted for training small-growing 
plants on, than for being alone. But something better 
that way might bo designed by some skilful hand. 
Slate edgings are generally too thin to look well, and 
when thicker are expensive. An edging of this kind, 
however, or some other, is often used to keep turf within 
its proper bounds. But in this case it ought to be below 
the level of the turf, rather than above it, on account of 
the mowing. 
An old thick rope makes a capital fancy edging, by being 
fastened to some stakes, or other support. Raised a few 
inches above the ground, at intervals of half-a-yard or so, 
on stakes, to form a sort of festoon, it looks very pretty. 
Good hard kiln bricks certainly make the best and 
cheapest of all edgings, for shady places, or where a live 
edging is not wanted. We lay them here something like 
a furrow turned over with the plough, the fiat side of the 
brick and its edge both being at an angle of 45°, one edge 
being up. When carefully put down this way, they are 
often mistaken for prepared tiles ; and, being firm in the 
ground, resist the broom and all reasonable traffic. 
Curved lines may also be made as well as straight ones, 
and are alike available under trees and in the open 
ground, and they might have, if required, a live edging 
planted by the side of them. They certainly form the 
firmest and best of edgings, short of those more expensive 
articles, manufactured expressly for the purpose. 
Several other things will, doubtless, suggest themselves 
to the various parties coming in contact with them. But 
enough has been said to show that walk edgings may be 
formed in various ways; aud though such public walks 
as lead through the parks of London, and other populous 
places, be difficult to keep in proper outline, smaller and 
private places have no such excuse. Edging, therefore, 
of some kind or other, must be had; and the above list of 
plants, and other things used that way, will enable the 
amateur, or others, to select what will answer his pur- 
ose best. The list, though a long one, is yet capable of 
eing increased; and, doubtless, other localities furnish 
something or other altogether different: if so, the readers 
of The Cottage Gardener will, I am sure, be glad to 
learn what they are, and how they answer. 
J. Robson. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
DISEASED CUCUMBER PLANTS. ' 
“ I have twenty-four pots of Cucumber plants in the front of a 
stove, where I grow' Pines and Vines overhead. I potted them 
in September, in loam, bog, and chopped moss, and put them 
on this front shelf. I have cut a few very ordinary fruit of them. 
I water them ever}' other day, as I think they require it. The 
edges of the leaves seem to go off, as if frostbitten. I have got 
some loam all round (he inside of the pot, and about six inches 
of moss round the stems of the plants.”—A Thurston Sub¬ 
scriber. 
[We fear that you have got one form of Cucumber disease 
that is difficult to eradicate; the best means of doing so is, 
fresh soil, a moist, growing atmosphere, and plenty of fresh air. If 
it is not the disease, we should imagine that the mass of moss 
above the roots deceives you as to the state of moistme of the 
roots, which, at this season,—whilst they should not he dry, 
neither should they be soaked with moisture,—we would reinote 
most of the moss, and lay on pieces of fibry heath soil instead; 
A dry atmosphere, on a sunny day, will also cause the sides of the 
leaves to burn. Too high a temperatured moisture, rising from 
the pipes, will also scald them. We have seen such effects pro¬ 
duced from syringing pipes when very hot. Keeping up a high 
temperature, in dull weather, will make the leaves so tender, that 
the first hour’s bright sun will be apt to produce the result. 
See articles on Cucumbers for the last three volumes, and also 
from the commencement.] 
HOT-WATER PIPES, SHOULD THEY BE LEVEL? 
“ Will you please to inform me, if two rooms, one above the 
other, are heated with hot-water pipes,—the rooms being each, 
say, fifty feet long,—it is requisite for the efficient working of tho 
apparatus, that the flow-pipes should have a gradual rise, and 
the return ones a fall ? Or will it answer as well if they arc laid 
quite level ? Will more than one escape, for the confined air in 
each room, be needed?”—I. H. 
[We should prefer a couple of inches of rise; but the water 
will circulate very well on the level. One air-pipe in each will 
be sufficient, and best at the farthest and highest point. Tlio air* 
pipe in the lower room should stand higher than the water lit 
the upper room. A very small pipe will do, provided no dust, 
or insects, are allowed to choke it up.] 
SHOOTS OP INDIARUBBER PLANT DECAYING. 
“ Can you explain the reason why tho shoots of a fine India- 
rubber plant have fogged off, as you will see by the specimens 
enclosed ? I have had the plant ten years, from original cutting. 
It stands out all the summer, and is placed in the greenhouse in 
the winter. It was cut back this summer, whilst standing out, 
and moved into the greenhouse about the beginning of October, 
standing on the centre slab, about two feet from the roof.” 
—C. M. M. 
[We do not exactly know the cause of your young shoots de* 
caying, or fogging off, just below the large terminal bud ; but We 
have noticed it done under two different circumstances,—first, 
when, after growing very vigorously, and the young shoots sur¬ 
charged with juices, a sudden sharp frost seized the very tender 
part close to the point, and so ruptured the vessels, that the part 
became brown and black all through in a few days ; and secondly, 
when, after a plant was cut down hke yours, and growing freely 
out of doors, it was put in a sunny place in a greenhouse, exposed 
to a pow erful autumn sun, and water several times neglected. 
At first, the terminal bud merely hung its head, when the larger 
leaves hardly showed any distress ; but, several times repeated, 
the tender part at the point of the shoot, just behind the terminal 
bud, shrivelled up, and decayed ; and, consequently, new leaders 
had to be formed the next season from unstarted buds behind. 
Whether any, or both, of these causes operated on your plant, we 
could not say, without a knowledge of all the circumstances of 
treatment.] 
RULES RELATIVE TO GROWING 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS IN POTS. 
1 am sorry to see your statements vary so much,—as in one 
number of The Cottage Gardener (for November 16th), the 
opinion is given in favour of plants fit for exhibition, even if the 
roots get their noiu’ishment from over the pots, or below the 
pots; while in the number for November 30tli, such grown 
plants are recommended for disqualification. My own idea is, 
that the object of stating in the schedule of a society certain- 
sized pots, is, to show the cultivator’s skill in producing as large 
and well-grown plants in those pots as possible ; but, if his com¬ 
petitor understands that he can grow them over the pots, and 
below the pots, what chance does the one stand who confines 
himself strictly to the sized pot. I have had all the cliief autho¬ 
rities give their opinion, that if the roots of plants are not 
confined to the pots in which they are said to have been grown, 
that such plants cannot be legally called to have been grown in 
the pots, as part of them have been grown outside. The question 
is of very great importance, as, if not properly understood, it will 
be carried to very great extent with other plant s, as well as the 
