237 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Jakuabt 11, 1859. 
TRADE LIST RECEIVED. 
A Catalogue of Select Vegetable, Flower, and Agricultural 
Seeds, for 1S59 (by William Cutbush and Son, Highgate near 
London), contains a clioico selection of these articles, and such 
as Mr. Cutbush can personally recommend. 
“LAWSON’S GARDENERS’ KALENDAR.”* 
This welcome broadsheet continues to make its appearance 
with the almanacks. It is this season illustrated with a view of 
the conservatory at Killikee, and, besides the usual information 
contained in almanacks, it contains very much that is altogether 
different from what has appeared in former years. We have this 
season a list of all the foreign moneys, weights, and measures, 
and some admirable instructions in meteorology, a subject in 
which the gardener is particularly interested, and that with 
which gardeners generally are, perhaps, least acquainted. The 
“ Kalendar” is admirably got up, and will prove, not only an 
useful, but an ornamental appendage wherever it is introduced. 
WEATHER IN 1858, AT TROWBRIDGE, WILTS. 
As some of your readers may wish to compare notes with 
others in a different locality, I have made an attempt to give an 
'idea of the temperature during the past year. I doubt whether 
you, or your readers, may be able to make out anything satis¬ 
factory. Nevertheless, I thought I would send it, such as it is, 
hoping that you, or some one else, would point out some more 
intelligible method for the present year 
Amount of 
rain that 
fell in each 
month. 
Number of 
days that 
rain or 
snow fell. 
Self-regist 
nig-hest 
temperat. 
during the 
month. 
Thermom . 
Lowest 
temperat. 
during the 
month. 
1 
Frosty 
nights in 
each 
month. 
1858. 
Inches. 
Day. 
Night. 
January. 
0.40 
9 
53° 
20° 
16 
February. 
0.81 
10 
51 
20 
19 
March. 
0.75 
13 
65 
16 
15 
April . 
1.18 
14 
71 
26 
o 
May . 
1.92 
15 
80 
34 
— 
June . 
'0.96 
6 
89 
48 
— 
July . 
2.08 
11 
83 
43 
— 
August . 
1.61 
8 
84 
42 
— 
September ... 
2.50 
12 
74 
39 
— 
October . 
3.0 
14 
63 
29 
3 
November .. 
1.60 
10 
52 
20 
17 
December ... 
2.70 
16 
50 
27 
5 
Total.... 
19.51 
138 
75 
The columns of the amount of rain, the number of days 
that rain fell, and the number of frosty nights, you will, per¬ 
haps, understand. But the other two I will just say, that it 
means the highest point the thermometer reached during the 
month, in the day and in the shade, and the lowest point during 
the night. The past year has been unusually dry, as will be 
seen—only 19£ inches for the whole year. June was the hottest 
month. I see, by reckoning up the degrees for May, June, and 
July, they stand thus— 
Day. 
Night. 
May . 
• a 
. 1976 
1349 
June 
• • • 
. 2299 
1617 
July . . 
• 
. 2193 
1616 
So that June, although a day less, was considerably warmer than 
either. August approached very near to June, by day, but not 
so warm by night, as either June or July. The hottest day was 
the 15th of June, and the succeeding night the thermometer 
remained at 65°. The coldest -night was the 10th of March. 
November was very severe—from the 18th to the 25th we had 
50° frost; the 23rd and 24th were 12° each, which sealed the fate 
of all flowers, except a bed of Pompones, which were in pots. 
Those in the borders were done brown. December was the most 
uniform temperature throughout the year. The day temperature 
ranged within 10°, with one exception. 
Although we have had a very dry season, flowers have done 
remarkably well. The bloom has not been so profuse as in 
• Peter Lawson and Son, George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh, and 27, Great 
George Street, London. 
some past seasons; but they held out well, and showed to ad¬ 
vantage, there being no rain to injure the blossom. 
Last year, 1 took up about a dozen roots of the yellow Calceo¬ 
laria, with a good ball to them, and kept them in pots and a 
calico-covered pit till planting-out time. I then put them into-a 
bed, which they just tilled, and they were better than any I ever 
had. Not the least portion died off, as they very often do, if 
not altogether. Others that I had—both autumn and spring- 
struck cuttings—have gone off like those of other people. 
I have this season taken up all the best in growth, and 
placed them in the same pit, covering the balls with coal ashes, 
instead of putting them in pots, just to try the experiment. 
At the present time they are all right.—T he Doctor’s Bor. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Melon* (Rosa). — The Bromham Hall and Beechwood are good va¬ 
rieties. _ The Egyptian is an excellent kind for small families, being of less 
size. You will see an enumeration of good Cucumbers in another- page. 
The time for sowing depends upon the time you require the fruit. liefer 
to any work ou their culture. Buy our “Garden Manual,” which gives 
every information on such routine points. 
Holly Cuttings (A Novice). —Novices will never do any good in attempt¬ 
ing to get Hollies from cuttings, as long as they are novices. The very 
highest degree of skill in propagation is necessary—essentially necessary, 
to enable anybody to root one Holly cutting out of 500. But the time and 
mode are these. The whole month of September is the time; the cuttings 
must be the young tops of that season, cut to where they are just one-half 
ripe, and no more or less; they are trimmed of their bottom leaves nearly 
two inches, and then put in like Heath cuttings, very firmly, in pure white 
sand, and sandy loam below, on a border in a north aspect. They are then 
covered with a close handglass, and attended to with water, airing, clear¬ 
ing, and keeping tidy, j ust like Heath cuttings. In twelvemonths they 
root, and ill twenty-four months they may be removed from the striking- 
place, and in three or four more years they are fit to plant out for good ; 
but they are very small. About ten years after putting in the cuttings, 
they are nice, portable plants, for all garden purposes. 
Aphides on Mandeyillea (R. <?.).—See an article on “Little Matters,” 
lately. If the Mandevillea suaveolens was so covered with aphis, one 
washing would not destroy them. There would be young- ones, and eggs 
innumerable, beyond your reach. You had better smoke the house with 
tobacco, taking care that the smoke is presented in a cool state. Very 
likely you may require to do this two or three times, whereas, if the first 
aphis seen had been attended to, you might have saved nearly all the 
trouble. You may safely prune back the Mandevillea to within a hud or 
two of the base of the shoots made this season ; and if the roots and stem 
are right, the young growth will come away strong in March and April. 
Name of Orchid {M. it 1 Mori and). —If you send a single bloom in damp 
moss, and in a box, so that the post-office stamp does not crush it, we 
shall, probably, be able to tell its name. We are inquiring- about some 
one to suit you. 
Stoking Apples (F. J). A.).—All fruit keeps indifferently everywhere 
this year; but your room is too warm, we should say. You gathered 
your fruit in the right state. Mr. Errington wrote very fully, recently, 
upon fruit and l'ruit-rooms. 
Bar and Slide Hives (T. W. IF.).— The gentleman you mention no 
longer belongs to our staff. We are trying the hives, and shall be able to 
give some information this year. 
Achimeneb (Kate Karney).— You will find full particulars, as to culture, 
&c., in the last volume, which you surely could not have seen, and in many 
volumes beside. There is no Pydeas, but there is a tallish section of 
Achimenes, called Tydcea. In your circumstances, you should get all the 
bulbs at rest before November, and start them in March or April, as you 
have heat. You cannot keep them growing in greenhouses in winter. 
Examine your plants, and if they have fair tubers, let them dry up. If 
the tubers are spongey and small, let the plants alone until you can com¬ 
mand bottom heat; then cut them over, and start afresh, without re¬ 
potting. 
Names of Plants (A Subscriber). —Your specimens are very diminutive. 
You might have sent a tip of a shoot, with its leaves and flowers, instead 
of a single leaf or solitary flower, which are not enough for us to be certain 
in determining the species. We believe No. 1 is Daphne Dauphinii, one 
of the best of the Daphnes for training upon the open wall, or as a pot 
plant for the conservatory. No. 2 is Cacalia articulate, an old greenhouse 
plant, which is often called the Candle Plant. (G. P.). —Your Ferns are 
—1. Phlabodium sporadocarpum, often called P. glaucum. 2. Athyrium 
filix-faemina. ;3. Lastrasa elongate of some botanists, Tephrodium ef 
others; and it has been called As indium clongatum. 4. Pteris serrulate. 
The leaf sent with the above is from the Erythrina crista-galli, an orna¬ 
mental stove plant. 
THE POULTRY SMMSWLE. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
January 13th, 19th, and 20th. Chesterfield and Scarbdale. Secs., 
W. M. Hewitt, and J. Charlesworth. Entries close January 4th. 
January 20th and 21st, 1859. Liverpool. 
February 3rd and 4th, 1859. Preston anu North Lancashire. 
Secs. It. Teebay, and H. Oakey. 
February 9th and 10th, 1859. Ulverstone. Ser., Thns. Itobinson, 
