THE COTTAG-E GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September, 4, I860. 347 
remembered as the scene where Shakespeare imagines red and 
white Roses were first assumed for party emblems. Richard 
Plantagenet gathers a white Bose, the Earl of Somerset a red 
one; they quarrel, and Warwick speaks to Plantagenet, 
“ In signal of my love to tliee, 
Against proud Somerset and William Poole, 
Will I upon thy party wear this Rose : 
And here I prophesy, this brawl to-day, 
Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden, 
Shall send, between the red Rose and the white, 
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.” 
The original gardens at Gray’s Inn were planned by Chan¬ 
cellor Bacon. Pearce informs us ; — “ In the 40 Eliz,, at a 
pension of the bench, the summe of £7 15s. 4 d. was allowed to 
Mr. Bacon for planting Elm trees here. Next year, more young 
Elms were ordered for the long walk, at the discretion of Mr. 
Bacon and Mr. Wilbraham, the charge for which was £60 6s. 8d. 
Mr. Bacon built a small summer-house on the terrace, where he 
probably mused upon the subjects of those great works which 
have rendered his name immortal.” A Catalpa tree may be seen 
here, raised from a slip of one planted by Lord Bacon. The 
Elm walk was a fashionable promenade in Charles II.’s days, as 
we are informed by Pepys in his diary. Many of the noble trees 
were cut down some twenty years ago to make room for a block 
of chambers—a desecration justly complained of at the time. 
Most of the ancient City halls and mansions had gardens, Lime- 
tree walks, fountains, summer-houses, and grottoes. Grocers’ 
Hall had, in 1427, a spacious garden, “ with hedgerows and a 
bowling-alley.” Merchant Taylors’ Hall had spacious pleasure- 
grounds, with a “ terrace and summer banqueting-house.” 
Salters’ Hall was built in what was once the garden of the Priors 
of Tortington ; and Ironmongers’ Hall had an enclosure, much 
valued for “ Vines and Roses, and knots of Rosemary.” Sir Paul 
Pindar had a grand ornamental garden in Bishopsgate Street—it 
reached almost to Finsbury Square. Milton, who delighted so 
much in garden-houses , had a pleasant dwelling, surrounded 
by trees and flowers, in Aldersgate Street, where many of the 
aristocracy then resided; for the instant you stepped without 
the City walls fields and country scenes became a part of your 
prospect.—( City Press.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Transplanting Hardy Fruit Trees (IF. M. G.). —You may begin to 
transplant as soon as the leaves begin to fall. This you will fiild to take 
place about the middle or end of October. The remark applies to all the 
fruits you mention ; and if the transplanting is done carefully, so as not 
to destroy any more fibres than is absolutely necessary, "you have a 
reasonable prospect of some frmt next season. 
(“■Gardenia radicans Culture (A. L. M.).— The best treatment for 
Gardenia radicans, is to grow it in sandy peat and a little loam, rather 
underpotted. Give it all the light and air you can now, and what water 
at the roots it needs, and frequent syringings overhead early in an after¬ 
noon before shutting up the house or pit in which it is growing. If stand¬ 
ing out of doors see that the place is warm, and that no worms are allowed 
to enter the pot. In winter, house in a warm greenhouse. In March or 
April, remove the plant to a nice sweet hotbed, temperature averaging 
from 60° to 65°; bottom heat 70° to 80°; place the plant on the bed for a 
week, then plunge the pot halfway for another week, and then place it 
deeper still. The sweet vapours from the decomposing material cause the 
buds to swell freely, and the leaves to assume a very green healthy appear¬ 
ance. As soon as the buds begin to swell to opening, remove the plants 
to a drier house to bloom in, but where the temperature is not much lower 
at first. Plants kept dryish and rather cool in winter, will come into bloom 
when excited with a little more heat, whether from fires early in the season 
or from the sun in May, June, and onwards; but there is no mode by 
which the plants can be forwarded that beats the fermenting-bed, with 
water pipes if convenient for top heat. The comparative rest in autumn 
and winter, is necessary for fine early blooming. The reason why dis¬ 
appointment so often happens when a nice little flowering plant is pur¬ 
chased, is just because the purchaser does not know, or does not think of 
the high temperature, and the moistish atmosphere, the plant most likely 
received before it came into his hands, and it is allowed to stand outside a 
window, or in a corner anywhere when done flowering, until the growing 
principle even has received a check, which it would take a season to get 
over. 
Destroying Crickets (A Subscriber). —Try ground Nux vomica mixed 
up with oatmeal and as much fat or grease as will make it into little pills, 
which lay in their runs. You need not fear from the expansion of the 
pipes, they will expand as much as they need, but at the end of the 
ehamber you may require to plaster occasionally. Crickets are difficult 
to keep out when resolved to be in. 
Various ( Yram ).—Prune Erica mediterranea, and such kinds, freely in 
May, or early in June. You may use the knife, and even in extreme 
cases, the shears freely. That will give time for the young shoots to ripen 
well before winter. The Fern is Adiantum capillus Veneris , the true 
Maiden Hair. It is native in many English localities. Your Cyclamens 
have nothing the matter with them, we think. Pot and water as they 
grow. We hardly understand your query. If there is a bunch of bulb¬ 
like tubers divide and put a tuber in each pot. A single tuber can hardly 
be nine inches in diameter (circumference?); but whatever the size of the 
individual tuber, we should be much against dividing it at all. The larger 
the tuber, other things being equal, the finer will be the mass of bloom. 
The exchanges you mention cannot be permitted. 
MyOPORUVI PARYIFOLIUM, and Leptospermum baccatum ( A . J., Bath ').— 
These two old-fashioned plants are still worth caring for, as they bloom 
profusely in winter and early spring. Had the inquiry been made earlier 
so that the answer could have been given early in August, instead of 
early in September, we should have advised turning the plants out of the 
pots, disengaging the roots round the ball, so as to allow some of the soil 
to fall, and then shift them into well-drained pots a size larger, keep in 
the shade for a fortnight, and syringe the tops during a hot day, instead 
of water-logging the soil; remove into the sun by degrees, and house by 
the middle of October. The soil we would use is sandy loam, with about 
one-sixth part of leaf mould and heath soil. Even now, were we sure of a 
fine autumn, we would do as indicated above; making the shift, however, 
smaller than in the above case, by removing less of the old soil, though 
gently disengaging the roots a little with the points of the fingers, or a 
j fine-pointed stick. In either case it is advisable that the plants receive 
no bright sun for a few days after they arc potted, and be fully exposed for 
several weeks before housing time. The reason for the first care is, that 
the roots after being disturbed will not supply the same amount of eva¬ 
poration, &e., from the foliage, as they did oefore; and the second reason 
is, that the young shoots should be well matured before housing, as upon 
them the little flowers are most plentifully produced. Another thing,— 
watering thoroughly such pot-bound plants before potting should also be 
attended to. IVe saw a plant of the first that was a favourite with its 
owner, died last winter. It would flag and look sickly, notwithstanding 
due watering, &c., but when thrown to the rubbish-heap it was found 
that the mass of the ball was thoroughly dried up, though the soil sur¬ 
rounding it was wet enough. If we thought that the autumn remaining 
were to be as cloudy and rainy as the last six weeks have been, we would 
I advise removing carefully a portion of the surface soil, thoroughly cleaning 
and scrubbing the outside of the pots, and fresh surfacing with a compost 
similar to that mentioned, only a little richer. The plants will most likely 
produce their little flowers all the more plentifully, and then they might 
be shifted next season, in May or June, and kept in the house a few weeks 
afterwards, before being placed in a sheltered place out of doors. 
Sir J. Paxton’s Agent (P. Hunter ).—The houses were not advertised in 
our columns. We do not know the address. 
Seedling Petunia (J). Fergusson). —A most charming flower for pot 
culture, and probably for beds, and the next, in fancy looks, after Madame 
Henry Jacotot, of the “ Illustrated Bouquet.” Such flowers tell their tale 
of distant ages, when their petals were not all joined together as they are 
now, and hi the divisions of the petals. This flower is striped up from the 
bottom with five bands of rich purple. The rest of the flower being white, 
or nearly so, with a dark purple bottom. Our Calistegia pubescens simplex 
is marked with five light bands hi the way of this Petunia. 
Circular Greenhouse.— M. TV. wishes to know where the circular 
portable greenhouse mentioned in Mrs. Loudon’s ‘‘Ladies’ Companion to 
the Flower Garden,” seventh edition, 1858, p. 146, fig. 31, can be procured. 
Gloxinias from Leaves ( M. G. C.). —You are quite right in the course 
you are pursuing with the Gloxinia leaves. Keep on the glasses till you 
find roots have been emitted into the sand and buds have formed. You 
must send a better specimen of the plant you wish to have named, as we 
cannot make anything of the small portion you enclosed. 
Cypripedium spectabile (J. M. Heathbank). —The leaf you have sent 
is rather shorter and broader than the leaves of the true Cypripedium 
spectabile. You say the colour of the flower is claret and white. The 
flowers of C. spectabile are purple and white; but there are many va¬ 
rieties, and yours may be one of them—perhaps a new one. The species 
is figured in Curtis’s “ Botanical Magazine.” If you can procure a sight 
of that figure you will see at once whether yours is the true “ Simon 
Pure.” There are many shades of claret—namely, red claret, purple 
claret, and brown claretso your plant may be right. How any one can 
speculate, as you say they do, that it is a stove plant, we cannot imagine. 
Surely the plants of North America, where the winters are many degrees 
colder than ours, must be hardy enough to bear our comparatively-speaking 
mild winters. However, had we such a rare and beautiful plant, we should 
certainly shelter it in a cold pit or frame ; not so much to protect it from 
frost, as from heavy rain, and snow, and sudden changes. You ask how 
it should be propagated. See w-hat Mr. Appleby says in No. 622, page 330, 
of The Cottage Gardener. It is not difficult to increase when the plants 
have several crowns and are well rooted. 
Exhibiting at a Floral Fete (<?. S., a Regular Subscriber).—Do you 
mean that one person exhibited two articles in one class, contrary to the 
rules of the Show, and that to do so he exhibited one of the articles in some 
other person’s name ? If so, he acted fraudulently. 
Geranium Countess of Bandon (E. Shepstone). —The colour a delicate 
pink, and trusses large, but the petals were all shed. Geranium trusses in 
bloom will not travel. 
Double Petunia (D. Times).—This flower, mentioned by us last week* 
is named by Mr. Jones Bride. 
Woodlice [Glenflesk ).—Your walls are probably old and full of cavities. 
Have these filled with cement; stir up the soil at the base of the wall, and 
sprinkle it with guano, or water it with gas ammoniacal liquor ; put short 
lengths of dry Bean stalks near the wall—the woodlice conceal themselves 
in them, and are easily blown out. 
Melons and Cucumbers (A. B. G .).—You cannot do better than grow 
the Becchwood and Trentham Hybrid Melons, and the Manchester Improved 
and Carter’s Champion Cucumbers. 
Orange Gin or Orange Brandy.—' '‘Mrs. Dorking'’ sends the follow- 
ag recipe-—One gallon of the best gin or pale brandy to a pint and 
, half of Seville Orange juice and 2 lbs. of fine loaf sugar, the peel of 
welve Seville Oranges, and the juice and peel of two Lemons, also the 
ieel of three sweet Oranges rubbed off upon an extra quarter of a pound 
f loaf sugar. Let the whole stand three days closely covered down m 
crock Stir it round three or four times a-day ; then pass it through 
iellv-hag until it is quite clear ; then bottle it off. It requires generally 
o go through the bag three times, when it is very, very clear. This receipt 
s most excellent, and the compound pronounced very fine by all good 
adges Another correspondent (If. C.), says:—“To I quart of best 
