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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 14, 1858. 381 
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the animal attacked often follows, I know but too well, from 
observation and experience ; and, since I have been convinced 
that there is good reason to suspect the thread ejectors of 
powers fatal to small animals, I have made it a rule to keep 
blanies and gobies, and, indeed, all lively creatures, in vessels 
Apart from the Sagartia. 
But see the result of this striking difference of constitution, 
ft forms the groundwork of a further division, and, after 
having separated those that cannot retract their tentacles from 
those that can retract them, a reason for further sub-division 
appears in connection with this emission of filaments. In 
common with other technologists, Mr. Gosse goes to the 
classics for a term by which to define this thread-emitting 
power of some of the Actiniae, and Herodotus furnishes the 
word Sagartia , the name of a powerful nomad tribe, who 
furnished eight thousand horses to Xerxes army.* These 
people were a sort of classical Thugs, expert in strangling 
Wayfarers ; and, detecting a like passion in certain of the sea 
flowers, Mr. Gosse makes use of their name as a distinguish¬ 
ing mark, for purposes of classification ; and hence we have a 
new division, under the generic term Sagartia , which includes 
a considerable number of the most popular of the sea Ane¬ 
mones. The other divisions of the adherent Actinias are 
founded on the structure of the tentacles, and the possession 
of warts on the stem of the column. About these latter dis¬ 
tinctions there is little dissension. The word Sagartia is the 
main cause of quarrel, but the emission of threads is so dis¬ 
tinct and striking a peculiarity, that, even by those who doubt 
their killing power, there ought to be no hesitation in adopt¬ 
ing it as a good index for purposes of classification.— Shirley 
Hibberd. 
{To be continued .) 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
PLANTING HARDY BULBS. 
“ I wish to plant my hardy bulbs in pots, and to sink the pots 
in the borders, or rather some pincushion-beds. I find the 
transplanting them in leaf soon after they have done flowering 
does not answer. Will you kindly tell me if I had better 
plant Hyacinths , Van Thols, and Narcissi , in deeper pots 
than the usual ones, and -what sizes I should require for one 
Hyacinth , two Van Thols , tw T o or four Narcissi , which 
numbers, I conclude, I can put into three respective pots ? 
“ My beds are edged with the Golden Stonecrop. Should I 
plant my Crocuses inside the Stonecrop , or between that and 
the edge of the bed ? Do all the different colours of Dutch 
Crocuses flower at the same time, as I have been dis¬ 
appointed by some Crocuses being out of flower before the 
others were in P 
“ What time of the year should I plant the Saffron 
Crocus ? ”— Kate. 
would assort them so as to bloom at one time, and one ought 
to mark the time of flowering of the old Crocuses at homo. 
Plant the Saffron Crocus from Midsummer to the first of 
August, not later.] 
VERBENAS TOO TALL. 
“ Minna would be obliged by advice on the subject of 
Verbenas growing too tall. Her garden in Lancashire has 
been a blaze of beauty this summer, particularly early in 
July, till the middle of August, when heavy rain came, and 
completely ruined the Verbenas. Her beds are mostly round, 
a yard across, and many of the Verbenas are two feet high ; 
and the garden note looks rubbishy, and far more autumnal 
than any round the neighbourhood. Does the fault rest with 
the soil, or the want of proper pegging down, or the number 
of plants in a bed (from fifteen to twenty), or in what ? ” 
[The ground was too rich, the beds too small, and the 
gardening too daring. Seven Verbenas would soon be too 
many for a circle a yard across. The plants should have been 
pegged down at first, and after that pruned and regulated 
every fortnight, so as to keep them low and thin. Yours is 
called “ the London plan,” where they get up a good show 
of them early, by planting very thick, and by letting well alone 
until Parliament is up, and all is up with the Verbenas at the 
same time.] 
INITIAL ORNAMENTS OF LEAVES AND 
FLOWERS. 
“ I have initials to make, of either flowers or leaves, for a 
ball-room. Which of the two do you consider would look best ? 
If of leaves, such as Box or evergreen Oak, what would look 
best for a ground colour ? If you recommend flowers, or the 
petals of flowers, what colour would be the best, and what 
ground colour for the flowers? I suppose the flowers or 
leaves must be stuck on with gum arabic. The board and 
initials will have to be done the first week in October.”— 
John Anderson. 
[A good deal depends on what the ball is intended to 
celebrate. The most beautiful way would be to make bold 
initials with chalk on dark green baize tacked on a board, 
and to fill the letters tastefully with Holly berries, gummed, 
or with some of the best crimson and orange berries of 
Thorns ( Cratcegus ). In October, Dahlias arc, or may be 
gone, else small scarlet, or whites, or bright pinks would 
ansAver; but no purple or lilac Dahlia will look well with 
lights. Michaelmas Daisies, or the flowers you choose, 
would be better than leaves. Dark green baize is the best 
ground, and there should be a border of leaves, in devices, at 
a distance from the letters.] 
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[All our best gardeners now prefer having their spring 
• bulbs in the free soil, not in pots. They say, if you do not 
turn out the balls,—when the bulbs are removed from the beds 
to ripen the leaves,—the growth is so checked as to ruin the 
bulbs in two or three years; and, if you turn out the balls 
entire, and plant them so, they will soon turn dust-dry after 
all your watering; and, if the balls are shook from the roots, 
what is the difference between them and carefully - lifted 
“ roots” from the free soil. We have done them both ways 
by the thousand, and with such numbers the free soil is far 
| the best Avay. But both ways are best till you come to the 
removal, in May, then both plans are equally bad and 
treacherous; but, with care and a sharp look out, the pot- 
system ought to be the best. Deep sizes of small and large 
No. 48-pots are the best pots to use, but common 48s will do,— 
one Hyacinth and one large Narcissus bulb to one large 
48-pot, and five Tulips , and Crocus , and Scilla, and such 
like small bulbs to the same ; but three bulbs only for a small 
48-size. 
Plant the Crocus inside the Stonecrop. Some Crocuses 
are out of bloom four weeks sooner than others. All in one 
bed or roAv should bloom at the same time. The dealers 
* Sagartia is marked 23 on the Eton Atlas, and the place and people 
are referred to in Clio, 125 ; Thalia, 93; Folyrania, 85. 
PLAGUE OF APHIDES. 
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“ On the 16th of July, 1847, there appeared in the neigh- ! 
bourhood of Bath, where I then resided, and, probably, in 
many other places besides, a species of aphis, and in such J 
myriads, that people journeying were obliged to wear a veil as 
a protection. On the following day the numbers increased, 
and for several days afterwards smaller quantities made their 
appearance. Towards the afternoon of each day they pitched 
upon the underside of various kinds of vegetation, but chiefly 
Parsnips, Dahlias, and Onions, the tops of which they killed, 
also dying themselves. If did not appear to me that they 
rose at all after they once pitched, but others were added to 
them. 
“ Now, I have not observed anything of the kind since the 
above date, till about the same time this year, when there 
appeared here (ten miles east of Bath), a similar, if not the 
same kind of aphis; but, as they did not appear in such 
numbers at one time, I did not observe the exact elate of their 
arrival, although they have been quite as destructive as in 1847. 
I had about five dozen Balsams, in as fine condition for making 
a good display by this time as any ambitious man or boy 
could desire ; but the aphis pitched on points of the shoots 
as thick as they could cluster, and, not having any glass to 
place them under, I was obliged to let them take their chance. 
