THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE AND COUNTEY GENTLEMAN, May 11 1858. 
cause ? and what remedy should be applied ? Would salt, 
lime water, or soot, kill them P And could the other plants 
in the house be watered with anything which would destroy 
those worms, should they appear ? 
“ What treatment is best for the purple Lantana ? 
“ What soil is suited to the Clematis azurea , and Clematis 
montana , Sieboldii, See ”—A Subscriber, Ireland. 
[We hardly think that the Calceolarias turning yellow 
is entirely owing to the thread-like white worms, or maggots. 
We believe the presence of the latter is chielly owing to using 
j rank soil, or stuffing that soil with manure in an unsweetened 
state. Soil that has been in a stack for a twelvemonth is 
seldom troubled with such appearances of life, and neither 
is leaf mould, or very rotten dung that lias been well aired. 
1 f there is danger of any such occurrence again, the soil and 
manuring agent adopted should be well heated, in an oven, or 
by the side of a fire, and exposed in the open air afterwards. 
One reason why charred turf makes such excellent compost 
for pot plants, is the security thus obtained that all eggs and 
larval of insects and creeping things are destroyed. Very 
likely, however, the yellowness of the Calceolarias is more 
owing to an extra quantity of manure in the soil, deficient 
drainage, and an inability in the plant, in dull weather, to 
throw off the usual amount of perspiration. A closeness in 
the atmosphere, in dull weather, would also help to produce 
this appearance, as well as to bring hosts of green fly. As 
remedies for the worms, you must not use salt, but clear lime 
and soot water will most likely settle them, and do good to 
the plants likewise. Put a shovelful of lime into a forty or 
fifty gallon barrel, and two shovelsful of soot; work the latter 
into a paste first. In a day or two after filling with water, 
the liquid will be quite clear. If your plants are very yellow, 
use only half the quantity of lime and soot. At such strength 
no soft-wooded plants would be likely to be injured, but 
bettered by an application now and then. 
There are so many purple Lantanas , that we do not know 
which you mean. Most of them, to be kept as evergreens in 
winter, require a warm greenhouse. All of them will keep 
alive in a deciduous character, and rather dry in a temperature 
ranging from 40° to 45° in winter, and will begin to bud 
as the temperature rises in spring. Of course they would 
be safer at from 45° to 50°. As soon as the buds break, and 
have grown a couple of inches, is the best time to repot them, 
shaking away a portion of the old soil. For young plants, 
the compost should be equal parts of heath soil and sandy 
flbry loam. Keep closer after potting, and syringe over head 
frequently, until growth is freely proceeding, when more air 
and a freer exposure to sun should be given. When these little 
side-shoots have grown two or three inches in length, and are 
, slipped off close to the older stem with a sharp knife, and are 
inserted in sandy soil under a bellglass, and in a little bottom 
heat, they will generally make nice young plants in a fortnight. 
These young, and also the old plants, we presume, would 
grow and bloom, in most sheltered places, in the south of 
Ireland, out of doors, after the middle of June. If kept for 
in-door ornament, they would succeed well in a greenhouse; 
but, as the plants get old and large, they should be grown 
chiefly in strongish loam, to keep them stubby and short jointed. 
The Clematis montana will flourish in any common garden 
soil. Azurea and Sieboldii should, when young, have sandy 
loam and heath soil in about equal proportions. When 
established, common loam will suit them well. A little sandy 
leaf mould, or heath soil, gives such things a good starting : 
after that they can take care of themselves. Some wise folk 
just reverse this practice. A gardener lately killed all his glass 
Cauliflower plants, by watering them with a concentrated solu- 
j tion from stable cesspools. The plants might have stood it 
when they had leaves larger than modern parasols. “ Why, my 
good fellow, you might just as well have stuck a lump of the 
I richest fat pork into the mouth of a baby a day old ! ” “ Now, 
I dang it, what be you talking about ? I was thinking of that all 
1 the time ; it is just what nurse G. always does if she cannot get 
beef, or a lump of salmon, and her young uns always thrive. 
And sure, says I, if such food is good for young uns, why 
should not rich manurings be good for young Cauliflowers 
and other plants ? ” What moi’e could be said ? Many 
hundred plants are ruined by this mistaken fondness.— 
I E. Fish.] 
WINDOW GEEENHOUSE. 
“ I have a lobby window facing the south, which I am 
anxious to convert into some sort of small greenhouse, at a 
small expense, and I am anxious for your advice as to how I 
should proceed in the matter. The window is seven feet high, 
three feet and a half wide, and glazed nearly to the floor. 
I he window-sash is old, so I do not wish to use any part of it 
again, but I should be glad not to be obliged to pull away the 
casing of it. W hat I thought of doing, was to have a pro¬ 
jection of, say three feet from the wall of the house, the size 
and shape of the window, and to have it come in on the lobby 
about eighteen inches, and close the front with a glass door. 
Do you think that this would answer, or could you suggest a 
better plan ? How could I best support the floor of that 
part which projects ? ” 
[In a window so situated, seven feet by nearly three feet 
and a half, you could grow many greenhouse and window 
plants, without any alteration whatever, by just having a stage 
or table, or tables, in front of it. Placing no value on the 
window, your best plan would be to construct a bow window , 
and then you would have morning and afternoon sun, as well 
as mid-day sun. If you objected to the greater width which 
this would imply, but still would wish to go out three feet, 
then part of the sides at least might be of glass, and would 
cost little more than wood. This making your greenhouse, 
as it were, outside the window, would involve some trouble 
and expense, as you would have to fix two strong wooden 
studs, or sleepers, through the wall, to support the floor, and 
the (superstructure and these studs should also be braced with 
an iron rod. The nearest respectable carpenter, or bricklayer, 
would be able to advise you, and tell what the whole would 
cost. If you did so, and also brought the greenhouse into 
the lobby eighteen inches, it would be as well to have the 
floor of the little greenhouse on a level with the floor of the 
lobby. We presume you mean to have glass outside, and 
also a glass door, separating the little house from the lobby. 
The latter, for the sake of economy, might be dispensed with, 
and a curtain substituted, and that kept drawn when the 
plants were wanted to be looked at. We presume the lobby 
is heated, and then the plants in winter would have the ad¬ 
vantage. If not, they will be at the mercy of the weather, 
unless you heat it artificially. We have known such a place 
kept quite genial, by a gas-pipe passing two or three times 
round it, from a gas-burner, in a workiug-room below it. 
Such a little place might be rendered very interesting with 
creepers up the sides, a hanging basket in the centre at top, 
and a stage and shelves below.] 
LIQUID MANUKE FOE GEEENHOUSE PLANTS. 
“ There is a great deal said concerning the application of 
artificial manures, such as guano and sulphate, carbonate and 
nitrate of ammonia, to plants in a greenhouse. Will you 
write some directions upon this subject, stating the quantity 
of manure to be added to each gallon of water, and the benefit 
to be derived from the application ?”—A. C. 
[All artificial manures for pot plants should be used with 
great care. If used as the gardener used his Cauliflower, 
they had better be left alone. If Calceolarias, and Cinerarias, 
and Pelargoniums, are potted in sweet, flbry loam, and old, 
dried, sweetened cowdung forming about one-sixth of the 
compost at the last shifting, they will want but little arti¬ 
ficial manure to bloom strong, and rather true to their kinds. 
In neither of these cases should we give artificial liquid 
manure before the plant was placed in its blooming pot, and 
then only when the roots were catching hold of the sides of 
the pot. Then, Calceolarias and Cinerarias might be supplied 
with it, if the compost did not have much organic matter in 
it, as the larger the leaves, and the larger the stool, other things 
being equal, the more numerous and strong would be the 
flower-stems. Pelargoniums, on the other hand, should not 
have any manure waterings given until the bloom-buds are 
apparent, “ knotted for bloom ; 55 as, if given earlier, the be¬ 
nefit will go rather to fine foliage, instead of strong, robust 
flower-stems. For these three tribes, I would prefer using 
a sweet, sandy loam, with enough of dried leaf mould, 
sweetened, and not too much decomposed, or a little heath 
