186 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 19, 1860. 
ever, is more rapid in its motion, and on reaching the edge of the 
plates it gradually receives and closes on the insect, having done 
which it slowly returns to its proper position in the centre of the 
disk. 
The Madrepore, although very voracious, is somewhat fas¬ 
tidious as to the quality and flavour of its food, and on swallow¬ 
ing a morsel and disapproving of the taste, will immediately 
reject it. 
Some living specimens of the branched Coral have been dredged 
off the Cornish coasts, and the west of Ireland, and pieces broken 
off the rocks by the violence of the waves, are occasionally picked 
up on the seashore.—W. 
(To be continued.) 
MANAGEMENT of CEEASTIUM TOMENTOSUM 
AS AN EDGING. . 
How ought Cerastium tomentosum to be trimmed ? I had 
borders of it to Scarlet Geranium-beds before the Crystal Palace 
was built, and was obliged to give it up, because it got such a 
ragged and broken appearance, and not thinking of clipping or 
trimming it, there seemed no remedy. Since reading your de¬ 
scription of the edgings at the Crystal Palace, I struck a great 
quantity of cuttings last summer, and made an edging to a 
ribbon border. It was planted last autumn ; but although I have 
had the tops cut, and all the flower-buds taken off, it has a loose, 
ragged, unsatisfactory appearance. How low ought it to be cut ? 
or, rather, how many joints ought to be left on each shoot?— 
c. w. 
(Cerastium tomentosum is the very tidiest plant on our planet- 
It has stood one generation and two-thirds of a second generation 
on rockwork, steep banks, and rooteries, without requiring one 
single help, but to be left alone entirely, and all the time it never 
had a leaf, or shoot, or bloom out of place. But when elevated 
to form the edges of the ribbons of more aristooratic arrange¬ 
ments, it went off its simplicity, took to airs of its own, and it 
must needs be waited upon and restrained. It must be lifted every 
year, late in April, and at no other time. The roots must be 
taken out as carefully as Couch Grass, the tops cut down to the 
second joint next to the roots, and only three or four joints of 
the roots to be retained for planting. The smallest pieces that 
can be made of these old roots make the best plants for the new 
lines, and the distance to plant them is according to the size of 
the pieces. Wo plant ours just three inches centre from centre, 
and we confine the edging to four inches wide at the surface of 
the ground, and three inches wide on the top with sheep-slioaring 
scissors. But the neatest way to have it, is from March-made 
cuttings planted two inches apart in the line, and kept to one 
inch in width the whole season. A finer line than Box itself.] 
DANDELION AND TEMPERANCE AS 
GUARDIANS OF HEATLH. 
Mr. Hardy’s admirable remarks under the above heading, are 
aptly illustrated by a quaint essay on temperance, translated by 
George Herbert, from the Italian of L. Cornarus. I enclose an 
extract which contains the pith of the essay.— Chaeles E. R. 
Robinson, Therjield Rectory. 
“ * * * When my friends saw me at the ago of eighty, 
and one strong and lusty, they had a great desire to know the 
way of my life, and how I came to be so. Wherefore, I will 
declare the causes which moved me to forsake intemperance and 
live a sober life, expressing also the means which I have used 
therein. I say, therefore, that the infirmities which did not only 
begin, but had already gone far in me, first caused me to leave 
intemperance, to which I was much addicted. Eor by it and my 
ill constitution (having a most cold and moist stomach), I fell 
into divers diseases—to wit, into the pains of the stomach, and 
often of the side, and the beginning of the gout, with almost a 
continual fever and thirst. 
“ From this ill-temper there remained little else to be expected 
of me than that, after many troubles and griefs, I should quickly 
come to an end ; whereas my life seemed as far from it by 
Nature as it was near it by intemperance. When, therefore, I 
was thus afflicted, from the thirty-fifth year of my age to the 
fortieth, having tried all meanB fruitlessly, the physicians told me 
that yet there was one help for me if I could constantly pursue it 
—to wit, a Bober and orderly life. They added, withal, that 
unless I speedily used that remedy, within a few months I should 
be driven to that exigent, that there would bo no help for me, 
but death shortly to be expected. Therefore, out of a hope of 
avoiding death and pain, I resolved to live a temperate life. 
“Whereupon being directed by them in the way I ought to 
hold, I understood that the food I was to use was such as 
belonged to sickly constitutions, and that in a small quantity. 
Upon this I so addicted myself to this course of life that I never 
went a foot out of the way, and I found within a few days that I 
was exceedingly helped ; and by continuance thereof, within less 
than one year (although it may seem to some incredible), I was 
perfectly cured of all my infirmities. 
“ Being now sound and well, I began lo consider the force of 
temperance, and to think thus with myself, if temperance had 
so much power as to bring mo health, how much more to pre¬ 
serve it. 
“ Therefore, trusting on experience, I forsook all those meats 
and drinks which I had found hurtful, and chose that wine 
which fitted my stomach and in such measure as easily might be 
digested, taking care never to rise with a full stomach. By this 
means those benefits still continue, because from the time I was 
made whole I never since departed from my settled course of 
sobriety.” 
FRUITS ADAPTED TO THE VARIOUS 
LOCALITIES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
(Continued from, page 170.) 
STRAWBERRIES. 
Princess Alice Maude (AliceMaude). —Fruit medium 
sized, ovate or conical, and frequently large and kidney¬ 
shaped. Seeds prominent or very slightly embedded. 
Skin scarlet, becoming dark crimson when ripe. Flesh 
scarlet throughout, tender, juicy, sweet, and with a rich, 
brisk flavour. 
Princess Royal of England ( Cuthill’s Princess 
Royal). —Fruit medium sized, roundish-ovate or conical, 
with a neck. Seeds deeply embedded. Skin deep scarlet, 
where exposed to the sun, and paler in the shade. Flesh 
pale red at the surface, -whitish, towards the core, very 
rich and highly flavoured. 
An abundant bearer, and an excellent variety for 
general cultivation. 
Prolific Hautbois ( Belle Rordelaise). —Fruit below 
medium size, conical. Seeds prominent. Skin light 
purple in the shade, and blackish-purple on the side next 
the sun. Flesh firm, sweet, and with the rich peculiar 
flavour of the Hautbois. 
Prolific Pine. See Roseberry. 
Rival Queen. See Omar Paslui. 
Rivers’ Eliza ( Seedling Eliza). —This is a seedling 
from Myatt’s Eliza, possessing all the character and 
flavour of that excellent variety, but is a more abundant 
bearer, and of a hardier constitution. 
Roseberry ( Aberdeen Seedling; Prolific Pine). —Fruit 
large, conical, and pointed. Seeds deeply embedded, with 
prominent ridges between them. Skin dark red, becom¬ 
ing blackish as it ripens. Flesh pale scarlet, firm, with 
an agreeable flavour. 
Royal Pine. See Swainstone's Seedling. 
Ruby —Fruit large, roundish, dark red. Flesh pale 
red, soft, and woolly, with a large core, and inferior 
flavour. 
Scarlet Pine. See Old Pine. 
Seedling Eliza. See Rivers’ Eliza. 
Sir Charles Napier.— Fruit very large, ovate, flat¬ 
tened, and wedge-shaped. Seeds not deeply embedded. 
Skin shining, of a fine bright pale scarlet colour. Fiesh 
white, firm and solid, briskly acid, and not highly 
flavoured. 
This is a fine handsome strawberry, well adapted for 
forcing and for early market purposes. The plant is 
remarkably tender, perhaps more so than any other 
variety. 
