30 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 10, 1860. 
crisp and a little less resinous. It is made into circular discs 
from eighteen inches to two feet in diameter; and a hungry 
man, who is fond of it, can consume several square yards at a 
meal. 
Kitchen Arrangements. —The kitchen at Jerkin is justly 
celebrated. It is a large wooden hall, a log saloon, whose rich 
brown smoke-tinted timbers and blazing fire, where something 
is always frying, form a most enjoyable contrast with the bleak 
waste outside. Every tourist of sound taste prefers to do all 
his feeding in this kitchen, and leaves the fine room over the 
way to the inexperienced visitors. It is exceedingly difficult 
to leave off eating in s^ich a place, prepared as the appetite is by 
such an atmosphere, and incited continuously by the hostess, 
whose sole happiness evidently consists in feeding people. She 
oscillates perpetually between the fire and the guests, aided by 
a couple of sweet satellites, the most rosy-cheeked of kitchen- 
maids. Never a driver leaves the door, but the black bottle is 
brought from its lurking-place, and a toss of the head, a smack 
of the lips, and the Norwegian grasp of thanks follow. Even 
after this, two or three deep inspirations may be heard, showing 
further how the drinker appreciates the liquor by making the 
most of the vapour that still lingers in his throat. I felt strongly 
tempted to stay another day here ; but the midnight sun in the 
far north will not wait for me, so I resolutely pushed on; 
bidding a temporary farewell to my English friends, and a long 
one to the model hostess and her memorable kitchen. I had 
almost forgotten to mention the beautiful flowers that decorated 
that kitchen. Every window was filled with them, and all were 
in full blooming condition. They were not mere alpine plants 
from the f jeld outside, but bright southern exotics, that must 
have been brought here with considerable care and expense, 
and cannot be retained in such a climate without much attention. 
There were flowers at several of the other stations, hut not 
equal to these. My bill for dinner, bed, and breakfast amounted 
to two marks, or Is. 9tf. 
Derivation of Malt Beer, <fec.—Stoppings at Rise, a neat 
and rather smart station, I asked for some “61” (ale) with my 
supper, which was brought to me. It was a turbid liquid, of a 
reddish-green colour, and from its flavour appeared to be an 
infusion of hay, flavoured with a bitter decoction of Pine knots. 
Possibly it was the beverage made from the molte leer, a large 
red three-lobed berry, that grows wild upon the hills. The ale 
made from malt and hops, which is so commonly drunk on the 
other side of the f jeld, appears to be a modern innovation ; it 
is called Baiersk, the Norsk for Bavarian, and is remarkably 
good. Beer made from berries is as old as history, and I 
suspect that the beer of our own country was of this kind, 
before the process of malting was discovered, and that the name 
is derived from “beer,” a berry; probably the word malt is 
derived from molte; for the sweetened barley, being used as 
a substitute for the sweet tasting “ molte leer,” would naturally 
receive its name. Breakfasted on eggs and ham, which to-day 
I had “ steaked,” i. e., fried. The learned in words tell us that 
our word steak is derived from the German “stick,” a lump or 
slice ; that a beef steak therefore means a slice of beef. Nothing 
of the kind : a beef-steak originally means beef fried or broiled, 
or to be fried or broiled. The continual use of the verb to 
steak here forces this etymology upon one ; and the use of the 
word “ steak ” in the north-east parts of Scotland—where a slice 
of salmon, if broiled, is called a salmon-steak, but a similar 
slice boiled is no steak at all—confirms this view. Lax, the 
Norwegian and Danish name for salmon, is still used occasion¬ 
ally in that part of Scotland. The Norsk verb to boil is “ koge,” 
—anything boiled is “ kogt,” pronounced cooked ; the g being 
generally hard, like k. Scholars refer us to cuocere for the 
origin of our word. 
Boiling Eggs. —All tourists who venture beyond the limits 
of hotels, who are not utterly dependent on “ waiter, chamber¬ 
maid, and boots,” should learn as much as possible concerning 
the cooking of eggs ; they should know how to make omelets 
of eggs mixed with anything whatever, and more especially 
with cheese. They should be aware of the fact that albumen 
coagulates at a temperature of about 380°, or 32° below the 
boiling-point, and becomes tough when heated above that; and 
therefore that to boil eggs delicately, the best method is to put 
them in boiling water, and then set the saucepan by the side of 
the fire for seven or eight minutes, that the eggs maybe heated 
through to about 180°, and not to 212°. Eggs may be usually 
obtained where no other animal food is to be had, and they 
have the advantage of being reliably clean inside, even under 
the most ‘ unfavourable circumstances.— (JFMicons's Through 
flqncay with a Knapsack.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Cerastium tomentosum (./. Stnilhsoti). — We do not know what the 
plant is which you name, but Cerastium tomentosum will usually serve for 
an edging round any beelding plant. 
Ska-shore Planting (F. I. JZ.).—ln what part of the British Islands is 
the planting required! The Land’s End and the Orkneys would require 
very different trees. 
Potato Culture ( G. Montague). —Mustard in flower dug into the ground 
last year we think a sufficient manuring for your Potatoes. We never 
apply dung to them at planting-time ; nor do we ever grow the same crop 
on the same plot two years successively, yet we have seen good crops of 
Potatoes produced for four or five following years on the same ground. 
We never earth up Potatoes, as it retards their maturing. No experi¬ 
ments are yet recorded showing how to prevent the Potato murrain; deep 
earthing-up the plants certainly does not. 
Pronunciation or Bijou.— -“I fear Mr. Beaton’s article of March 27th, 
headed ‘Vauxhall Nursery—Messrs. Milne & Co.,’ is apt to lead be¬ 
ginners astray in the pronunciation of the word Bijou. By sounding the 
letter i like e, and j like z in azure, or s in pleasure, it would give the 
correct pronunciation.”—It. W. T. 
Greenhouse Azaleas (An Old Subscriber). — Camellias, greenhouse 
Azaleas, and ltoses, with very few exceptions, when classed for effect as 
you ask for, may be said to possess only two colours—white and red. All 
the reds, and their shades of crimson and purple form “ a good contrast ” 
with all the whites, and their light shades, and for this reason, that all 
white flowers contrast well with flowers of all other colours in-doors and 
out. Why a white flower contrasts with any other flower is because the 
white throws more light on the other, as it were, and so makes it more 
telling to the eye than it otherwise would be. We borrow the following 
list of greenhouse Azaleas from the first volume of the “Illustrated 
Bouquet,” as the best that has yet appeared, but for details you must 
refer to that work :—Admiration, Beauty of Europe, Bride, Cedo Nulli, 
Chelsoni, Crispiflora, Delecta, Dukeof Wellington, Due de Brabant, Etoile 
de Gand, Eulalie (Van Geert), Gladstanesii formosa, Glory of Sunning 
Hill, Gem, Holdfordiana, Illustris alba, Iveryana, Juliana, Leopold I., 
Louis Margottin, Louis Napoleon, Madame Miellez, Model, Modesta, Per¬ 
fects elegans, Perryana, Petunimfiora, Princess Bathilde Van Dessau, 
Roi Leopold, Reine des Panaches, Rosea elegans, Rosy Circle, Sir Charles 
Napier, Stanleyana, Variegata 3uperba, and Herzog Adolph Van Nassau. 
For the list of Camellias refer to our number published March 27th. For 
Rhododendrons see what Mr. Appleby says to-day. 
A Cast of Flower Pots (M. A.E.). —The number constituting a cast 
depends upon the size. Of 2’s there are two to the cast, of 4’s there are 
four, and so up to “ thumbs ” or 80’s, of which there are eighty to the 
“ cast.” 
Spergela pilifera, subulata, anu saginoides (T. M. It .).—Both your 
plants are Spcrgula subulata. The difference between the latter and 
pilifera cannot be made out without flowers; but on light ground we 
prefer our native Scotch Spergula saginoides to both of them—that is, to 
pilifera and subulata. S.pilifera seems the best for heavy clay land, and 
the Scotch, the English, ar.d the Italian form of the same plant, do equally 
well on good common soil, and the three have been industriously sold under 
the newer name of pilifera. S. subulata is a native in almost every parish 
in England and Scotland; but saginoides is mostly in Scotland, and pilifera 
has been found wild only in Corsica. They are three forms of the same 
plant. The practical proof to decide between pilifera and the British kind, 
is to put a tuft of each under a hand-light, or a bell-glass, or cold, close 
frame. The new growth of pilifera stands upright as a dart, that of the 
other creeps along the ground. A child can thus prove them. Mr. Beaton 
says, if your plant is really Saxifraga oppositifolia, “ a bonny tufty kind 
o’plant, wi’ a wee purple kind o’ flower, just send him as mony o’ them 
as you can, and you will muckle oblige him indeed.”—D. B. 
Variegated Holly (Ilex). — We never advise private parties to bud or 
graft variegated Hollies, because they can buy them for less money 
than they can rear them. They will graft any day from March to 
August, and bud as long as the bark will run in summer ; but then it will 
be twelve or fifteen years before they can be up to the style of a front 
row in a shrubbery. ’ The be3t row of variegated Hollies we know' are now 
on sale at 20s. the plant, each averaging twelve ieet high, and three feet 
through, and they are just forty-live years old, and the finest we have ever ; 
seen at that age. 
Purple Nosegay Geranium (IF. IF.).—The Purple Nosegay is the same 
as the Fothergillii of Sweet’s “ Geraniacese,” and of The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener. It is also the same as the Purplish Pink of The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, and of most lady artists who use it, aud the Pink Nosegay of 
country cousins, and Green's Seedling of olden times, and of the Pine 
Apple Place Nursery, under the two last proprietors before the present 
owners, but they, and most of the London firms, sell it under all these 
names. It is the one which had been talked of so much last year at the 
Crystal Palace, from a large corner bed of it in the angle of one of the 
walks leading up to the Rose Mount, and the one of which Mr. Eyles in¬ 
tended to plant there this season twelve or fourteen large beds. The 
colour, however, is neither pur-ple nor pink, but a mixture of both. In 
shading, Lady Middleton has used it as the third degree, or darkest shade 
of pink, for the last twenty years. 
Houses covered with Tiffany. —Mr. Standish has favoured us with the 
following reply to the inquiry of An Old Subscriber :—“The tiffany will 
be quite protection enough for the early-flowering Rhododendrons; in 
proof of which I have now' in bloom a fine specimen of R. fulgens (one of 
the Sikkim kinds) which has been under the tiffany only all the winter ; 
and although the frost lately has been severe, and the weather changeable, 
still it has bloomed perfectly. There is no doubt that tiffany will suit 
Camellias better than almost anything else, and will be quite protection 
enough for them, as well as for Azaleas, and a great many other half- 
hardy plants. What is more, it protects them from hoar frost. In fact, from 
my experience of it, I am putting up enough to cover an acre.”— John 
Standish, Nurseries, Bagshot. 
Rhododendrons (J. IF.).—Mr. Beaton declines answering any questions 1 
not sent first to the Editors, as has been repeatedly requested. 
Names of Plants (J. O. G., Thurso ).—Your plant is the Cineraria 
amelloides, t]ie Blue-flowered Cineraria or Cape Aster. (M, B.). —Your 1 
shrub is Garrya elliptioa. It is propagated by layers. 
