202 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 26, l‘G0. 
Geraniums ( IF. £?.).—Mr. Beaton says your Geranium was fortunate to 
escape being ever named ; so you can give it any new name you choose. 
Many thousands have been like it in that respect. lie says you made 
his teeth water with those turban Ranunculuses and hoop-petticoat 
Narcissuses. 
Dwarf Plants for a Rockery (E. D. S .).—The species of plants of 
dwarf habit suitable for rockwork are very numerous, and may be easily 
procured from any respectable nurseryman. They vary in price from Cd. 
to Is. each ; but if a good order is given they may be obtained from 4s. to 
Cs. per dozen kinds. The following will answer your purpose, selected out 
of great numbers, and all very hardy : — 
Ajuga reptans 
Phlox subulata 
Alyssum compactum 
P. rerna 
A. saxatile 
Polygonum vacciniifolium 
A. Podolicum 
Primula marginata 
Antcnnaria alpina 
P. calycina 
A. purpurea 
Saxifraga atro-purpurea 
Arabia alpina 
S. Andrewsii 
A. grandiflora 
S. ceratophylla 
A. lucida 
S. dentata 
A. lucida variegata 
S. elegans 
A. saxatilis 
S. liirta 
Arenaria longifolia 
S. oppositifolia 
A. verna 
S. palmata 
Aster alpina 
S. rosularis 
Aubrietia purpurea 
S. umbrosa 
Campanula muralis 
Sedum albicans 
C. pumila 
S. dasipkyllum 
C. pumila alba 
S. formosum 
Cerastium alpina 
S. roseum 
Cheiranthus Marshallii 
S. rupestris 
Cornus succisa 
S. trifoliatum 
Dianthus alpinus 
Sempervivum aracknoideum 
D. deltoides 
S. globiferum 
D. marginatus 
S. grandiflorum 
Epimedium pinnatum 
S. hirtum 
Gentiana acaulis 
S. montanum 
G. Bavarica 
S. sulphureum 
G. verna 
Silene acaulis 
Geranium Laucastriensis 
S. acaulis alba 
Gnaphalium dioicum 
S. alpestris 
G. marginatum 
S. quadridentata 
Gypsophila prostrata 
S. Schafftii 
Iberis sempervirens 
Thymus Azoricus 
I. Teucreana 
T. montanus 
Linum flavum 
T. micans 
Lotus corniculatus pleno 
T. tomentosus 
Mitella diphylla 
Veronica lactea 
Myosotis montana 
V. orientalis 
CEnothera prostrata 
Viola hirta 
Phlox frondosa 
V. palustris 
P. procumbens 
V. Pennsylvania 
P. setacea 
Clear Barley-water (Miss A r . r.) 
.—The following is a good recipe for 
making it:--One tea-spoonful of pearl barley, half the peal of a lemon, six 
lumps of sugar, and the smallest pinch of isingiass to one quart of boiling 
water. Set it by in a covered earthen vessel till cool. 
Cuttings—Sea-icale (31. C.) .—We know of no gardeners who sell cut¬ 
tings. The best directions for forcing Sea-kale are in “ Kitchen Gardening 
for the Many,” published at our office, price fourpence, and which you 
may have sent post free for five penny postage stamps. 
F.H.S. and F.L.S. (Labor ipse Vohtptus ).—To entitle any one to append 
these letters to his or her name he or she must be elected a Fellow of the 
Horticultural and Liumean Societies respectively, and must pay the requi¬ 
site fees either in a gross sum or annually. The ability to pay is the chief 
indispensable qualification of a Fellotv. 
Growing Balsams — Phlox Drummondi—Dianthus IIeddewigii, and 
Carnations (Novice ).—The following is the method the best growers of 
Balsams adopt: Sow the seeds in March, and as soon as the plants have fully 
expanded their seed-leaves, pot them singly into two-inch pots in a light 
rich soil. Repot again in three weeks, and follow that operation on suc¬ 
cessively, never allowing them to fill the pots with roots. Keep them in a 
moist heat of 70°, giving air daily to keep them low' and bushy. The last 
shift should not be less than into nine-inch pots; though, to make line 
large plants, it is necessary that the last potting should be into eleven-inch 
pots. Every time they are shifted the soil should be made richer, till, at 
the last potting, it consist of one-half cakey, well-rotted, and sweet cow- 
dung, and sandy, rough, turfy loam. They will then be strong plants, 
with stems two inches diameter, and branches in proportion. Compare 
this treatment with your own, and you will sec where you have failed. 
Repot your plants directly in the rich compost, give the same heat and 
plenty of water, and you will soon see your plants improve. Your Phlox 
Drummondi, you say, isshanky. That is owing, first, to being in too high 
temperature, aud next to being cramped for pot-room. Place it in a 
cooler habitation, give plenty of air, and repot as soon as the roots reach 
the sides of the pots. This plant does best in the open air. Dianthus 
Chinensis Heddewigii is also quite hardy in the summer; but, if wished to 
be grown for decorating the greenhouse-stage, place the plants whilst 
young on a shelf in the greenhouse, and repot as soon and often as they 
require it. A single well-grown plant requires for its last shift a nine-inch 
pot. Carnations .—You have made a mistake in potting them so lightly 
that the soil has sunk so much below the rim of the pot. It is to he feared 
that if you lift them out in order to till up the pots, that they will receive 
a severe check. However, try to do so with part of your stock, and surface 
the others with fresh, rich, light compost, giving a" rather short supply of 
water for a week or two, to enable the roots to rise up into the new com¬ 
post. As you have made this mistake this year, take care to pot more 
firmly the next. 
Rhubarb Wine (A Rector ).—In our fourth volume there are many 
communications relative to British-wine making, but none surpass in 
“practice with science” those of Mr. Levett, Surgeon, 'Wells, Somerset. 
The following is extracted from one of his communications We will 
suppose the quantity to be made to be 10 gallons. This is a very con¬ 
venient quantity for beginners, although it should be borne in min'd that 
the larger the quantity made, the more easily and perfectly w ill fermen¬ 
tation be carried on. The articles necessary are :—First, a tub capacious 
enough to hold rather more than this quantity ; a common washing-tub 
will answer the purpose. Secondly, a 9-gallon cask and a 2-gallon stone 
jar, both scrupulously clean, or a foreign and disagreeable flavour may be 
imparted to the wine. Thirdly, a convenient wooden-mallet to bruise the 
Rhubarb-stalks. Fourthly, some kind of screw-press, to press out the 
juice from the bruised stalks; a common linen-press might easily be 
adapted for use. I generally borrow a “ tincture press ” from my druggist 
for the purpose. Fifthly, a vial bottle fastened to a stick, so that a small 
portion of the wine may be conveniently dipped from the bung-hole, in 
order to ascertain, from time to time, the progress of the fermentation. 
Sixthly, although this may be dispensed with, although necessary when 
accuracy is desired—a saccharometer. Now for the recipe :— 
Take of Rhubarb-stalks (unpealed) . 60 pounds. 
„ loaf sugar. 30 „ 
„ red argol (powdered). 4 ounces. 
„ water, a sufficient quantity. 
The Rhubarb-stalks should be bruised one by one with the mallet against 
the side or bottom of the tub. Four or five gallons of cold water should 
then be poured upon them, in which they should be allowed to macerate 
for twelve or sixteen hours. The stalks should now be put into the press, 
and all their juice pressed out. This, with the liquor in which they were 
macerated, together with the sugar and the argol, should be mixed in the 
tub, and the quantity made up to 10.J gallons by the addition of cold water. 
(It would save trouble in measuring, if a mark were previously placed in 
the tub, to indicate when this quantity was contained in it.) This mixture 
is the artificial ‘must.’ The tub should non' be covered with a blanket, 
and placed in a temperature of from 55° to 60°. Here it may remain, being 
occasionally stirred, for two or three days, according to the symptoms of 
fermentation it may show; it should then be poured off, straining it 
through flannel into the cask, which should be filled to the bung-hole, and 
placed across the tub, in order that the scum and yeast which will bo 
thrown off may be caught and removed. The superabundant must, which 
will be 1$ gallon, must be poured into the jar, in order that as the fer¬ 
mentation in the cask proceeds, and the liquor diminishes, there may be a 
supply in readiness to fill up the cask, which must always be kept full or 
nearly so. In about a fortnight the bung may, most probably, be put 
loosely in, and in another week firmly fixed, and the cask placed in the 
cellar; but this, of course, depends upon the state of the wine. If the 
sweetness has disappeared, or nearly so,—or if, on the saccharometer being 
placed in it, the index marks a specific gravity of about 40,—the wine has 
fermented far enough for cellaring ; if it has not reached this point, the 
wine should be well stirred, and the temperature kept up to promote 
further fermentation. In a month or six weeks after cellaring, it may bo 
fined and drawn off into a clean cask, or the same properly cleaned, and, 
if necessary, sulphured to stop further fermentation, before the wine is 
retu’ned. The cask may now be finally stopped close, and if an efferves¬ 
cent wine be desired, allowed to remain until March, when it should be 
bottled ; the corks wired, and the bottles laid down. But if a still wine, 
like hock, be desired, another year in the wood, or even more, will be ad¬ 
vantageous. The only difficulty about this process is to find out the 
precise period at which the fermentation has reached the desired point. 
The saccharometer will show this correctly. About 35, as marked on the 
scale of Thompson’s saccharometer, would indicate proper attenuation for 
wine intended to be effervescent; if it is to be still and tlry, it may be 
lower—25 to 30. But the taste may be educated so as to form an approxi¬ 
mation to truth ; as long as sw'eetncss exists to any extent, the fermenta¬ 
tion is incomplete ; and after eating a small piece of crust, most persons 
may readily detect the presence of too much sugar in the wine; in this 
case the wine should be shaken or stirred, that the wine may ‘ feed,’ as it 
is termed, on the lees; fining, on the contrary, will check fermentation; 
and when it has gone far enough, sulphurous-acid gas stops it, as in the 
process of * sulphuring,’ which may be readily done by burning a few 
sulphur matches within the bung-hole, the cask being inverted. Fining is 
generally performed by means of isinglass previously dissolved, or partly 
so, in a little of the wine. About a drachm of isinglass so dissolved and 
poured into the bung-hole, the upper part of the wine being stirred at the 
same time, will probably be found sufficient. Thompson’s saccharometer 
cost £3 3s. ; but a friend has informed me, that a simple gla-.s one, quite 
sufficient for our purpose, may be procured for a few shillings. I will 
make inquiries respecting this, as, no doubt, to insure accuracy, a sae- 
eharomter is necessary, and the cost is an obstacle to its general use. As 
a rule it may be observed, that the finer the sugar, the more alcohol is 
produced from it. It may be noted, that as the Rhubarb juice will iron 
mould linen, care should be taken when the stalks are bruised. I will 
append a copy oi some rough notes taken by myself of the different stages 
of manufacture of Rhubarb wine; they may serve as pegs whereupon to 
hang more extensive observations ; and, in conclusion, 1 beg to say, that 
if any part of the foregoing directions be less clear than might be, I shall 
he happy to explain more in detail any little point; and I shall be gratified 
if what I have said should induce some of your readers to try the manu¬ 
facture of this wine upon correct principles; and I am certain that they 
will find themselves amply repaid for the trouble and expense, in having, 
as a result, genuine, wholesome wine, instead of the compound of vinegar 
and sugar usually denominated 1 home-made wine.’ ~ 
“ Notes.— 1840. 10J gallons, as receipt. Made, May29th. Butin cask 
June 2nd. Stopped, Jone 16th. Cellared, June 23rd; saccharometer 45’ 
Racked and fined, August 3rd. October 25th, racked and sulphured" 
saccharometer 37. Bottled, January 25th, 1841. This wine turned out 
very good,—not to be distinguished from champagne. 
“ 1842. Rhubarb, 90 pounds. Sugar, 50 pounds. Argol, 8 ounces- 
quantity, 17 gallons. June 12th, made. June 19th, put in casks (a 
9-gallon and a G-gallon) ;—fermentation commenced the 17th. June 26th 
stopped. July 4th, cellared ; saccharometer 43. August 15th, racked. ’ 
“1843. March 17th, 9-gallon cask tested with saccharometer showed 34°- 
6-gallon showed 40°. Bottled 9-gallon cask. Stirred G-gallon. May 13th’ 
fined 6-gallon and sulphured; saccharometer 33. 1 ' 
“ 1844. March—bottled. 
“ 1850. A good still wine.” 
Gardening Works (II. IF.).—The prices of the works advertised in our 
list require ltf. or 2d., according to the size, to be added that they may be 
