ST. MATTHIAS was one of the seventy disciples; and when the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judas Iscariot occurred, he was chosen by lot (Acts i. 26) to be his successor to the apostleship. He was deputed to preach the Gospel in Cappadocia and Colchis; and returning thence to Jerusalem, about A.D. 62, he was seized in Galilee, and carried before the high priest, Ananias. By the command of this hierarch, he was first stoned, and then beheaded with an axe-the instrument of death usually represented in drawings intended to represent this apostle.

METEOROLOGY OF THE WEEK.-In the last twenty-three years, the average highest and lowest temperatures of the above seven days, at Chiswick, have been 47.2° and 34.3°, respectively. In the 161 days

INSECTS.-One of the most common pests of the grape is the Vine Scale (Coccus vitis). It preys upon the stems and branches of the grape vine, both in the open air and under glass. It seems to be the same species which also attacks, occasionally, the peach, nectarine, and plum. It is, says Mr. Curtis, a longish brown insect, which in old age assumes a blackish brown colour, and becomes hemispherical and wrinkled. The females are shield-like, being convex above, and flat, or concave below; they are furnished with six small legs, which, when the insect is old, become part of the substance of the body. On the under side of the insect is a sucker, with which it pierces the cuticle of the plants, and extraets their juices. Soon

of those years, rain occurred during 83, and 78 were fine. The highest point reached by the thermometer during the period was 62°, on the 27th, in 1846.

NATURAL PHENOMENA INDICATIVE OF WEATHER.-When birds of prey, such as the kite and raven, soar very high in the air, they indicate a long continuance of fine weather Candles and lamps, whether of oil or gas, burn less bright, both immediately before the arrival and during the continuance of wet weather; the flame crackles, and a fungous excrescence accumulates around the wick, oing to the combustion being less perfect than when the air is dry. Larks flying high, and continuing their song for a lengthened time, indicate prolonged fine weather.

after impregnation the female dies, and her body becomes a protection for the eggs, which are covered with long white wool, and sometimes completely envelop the shoots of the vines, or of plants, growing underneath them. The males are furnished with four wings, and are apterous. Their powers of propagation are immense; and, where they once become very numerous, they are exceedingly difficult to eradicate. This species belongs to the true genus Coccus, characterized by the female having a scale inseparable from her body. While young, both sexes are alike; but the male larvæ produce two-winged insects, with two tail threads. The females have no wings; and their dead bodies, beneath which the young are sheltered, appear as in the annexed woodcut.

Whilst the leaves are on the vine, if any species of scale appears on its stem and branches, the least offensive remedy is to paint over the whole with a strong solution of gum arabic or starch; allow it to remain on for a week, and then wash it off. But the most effectual remedy is to brush them over thoroughly twice, after an interval of a day, with spirit of turpentine. To prevent the recurrence of the plague, a very effective ode, in autumn, is to scrape away and burn all the rough bark, and then, with a rough brush, to paint over the stem and branches with a creamy mixture, composed of lb. of soft-soap, 1 lb. of sulphur, and oz. of black pepper, to four gallons of water; boil together for twenty minutes, and make it thick enough to adhere to the wood like paint. If it does not, thicken it with lime,

66

Ir is more than an ordinary hardship upon the seedsman and florist, that some of our contemporaries are scourging them for having voluminous catalogues, whilst every purchaser observes, What nice complete lists there are in Mr. A's catologue. In Mr. B's there are not half so many." We see no objection to these long lists, and we consider that that seedsman or florist is the most deserving of en

No. LXXIII, VOL. III.

couragement, who has the fullest and most complete catalogue. It would be very hard if it were otherwise, for the public differ in what they require, and are clamorous if they cannot obtain what they prefer.

Then, again, it is an unjust complaint that new varieties are unnecessarily multiplied, for one of the first questions put by an amateur is for "anything new;" and we should regret if it were otherwise, for

it is this desire for novelties which has raised the standard of the dealers in seeds and plants from being petty chapmen at stalls in Westminster Hall, and elsewhere, to the position they now hold among the best informed and most enterprising merchants of our times.

At present we will restrict our observations to the numerous lists of Kitchen Garden Seeds now before us; and though in these lists there are under each vegetable particularized a long enumeration of varieties, there are very few, we may say almost none, that ought to be omitted. But though the omissions need be few, yet particulars relative to each variety should be much more full. We gave an example of the information we consider a seedsman's catalogue ought to contain, by giving (at page 194) a list of 41 peas, with the particular characteristics of each; and we are well pleased to see that since then the Gardeners' Chronicle has given a similar list, and added the additional useful information as to which varieties so closely resemble one another as to be considered synonymous.

If a seedsman's catalogue contained such guiding information as this, the more numerous this list of varieties the better; for the taste of purchasers varies, and the soils they cultivate will produce some varieties in perfection, whilst other varieties on the same soil are unproductive, or uncharacterized by their usual excellence. We will take the selection of peas made by our contemporary above quoted as an example. He recommends the Prince Albert, Auvergne, Bishop's New Long-Pod, Bedman's Imperial, Knight's Tall Marrow, and Fairbeard's Champion of England,-all good peas; but the three we have marked by italics will not succeed, except on a soil much more tenacious and richer than the others.

For a light, moderately fertile soil, such as characterizes the majority of gardens, we can recommend, from long experience, Prince Albert, for the crops to produce from the end of May to the middle of June; Ringwood Marrows, for those from the middle of June until August; and Knight's Dwarf Marrows for the remainder of the season. All tall-growing peas should be excluded from small gardens. Partly in the place of the Knight's Dwarf Marrows we mean to try Hair's Dwarf Green Mammoth Knights, which have a high character, but we cannot speak of them from our own experience.

Then again, as to skinless peas, those varieties which are eaten like kidney-beans, pods and seeds together. So much do tastes differ, that in France they are largely cultivated, and in England are scarcely known; yet if our readers will try them, and we recommend the Tamarind variety, we think they will grow some every year afterwards.

We will, next year, proceed with an enumeration of the various kitchen-garden varieties of vegetables which we prefer; and will conclude to-day with

a warning to the seedsman against selling, and to the purchaser against sowing, seed too old or imperfect from any other cause. No purchaser cares whether he pays a few pence more, so that he may be secured from this grievous disappointment; and every seedsman may so secure him by trying whether each sample of seed will germinate before he begins to distribute it across his counter.

It is quite impossible for seedsmen to be absolutely certain of keeping each variety quite pure, or "true to stock," for bees will bear farina from crop to crop, though separated by miles of intervening space; but seedsmen need not serve their customers as one we know did last year, by selling Short Horn Carrots for Altringhams, and Mangold Wurtzel seed for that of the Red Beet. Such conduct as this is unpardonable, and needs no comment.

THE FRUIT-GARDEN.

PRUNING, &c.-It will be remembered that, at page 106, we entered into the subject of pruning hardy fruit-trees, more especially as to those general principles which are, less or more, applicable to all. A promise was then made to carry out what remained of the subject at an early opportunity; with such, then, we proceed.

ROUGH ESPALIERS, OR DWARF STANDARDS. — The apple is to be found in this character in most English gardens; for the ornamental trellis, on which in some form we think all these ought to be produced, is too expensive at present to be within reach of every one. Still, there can be little doubt, that as the management of fruit-trees in general becomes better understood (and as our amateur cultivators in investigating and understanding first principles will set aside all rules, merely as such), that the trellis will ultimately almost entirely supersede the rough espalier. Higher modes of culture, based on sound information, will insure the production of crops with much greater certainty, and of a superior character; and thus the trellis will be made to repay the outlay of first construction, and also of coverings, which surely nobody will grudge after the expense of the trellis.

Our business now, however, must comence with the dwarf standards. The first thing we would point to here, is the tendency of such to outgrow the limits intended for them; hence we frequently see fine apple-trees cut down in what should be considered their prime, merely because from their spreading character they disarrange a plant which has for its object systematic neatness. We may here diverge so far from the course of our text as to say, that most of these over-growing trees may be saved, by submitting them to a very severe course of branchpruning, provided root-pruning is resorted to. Without the latter in a corresponding degree to the amount of pruning carried out with the branches, a profusion of wild and unfruitful spray will be the same result. We have known persons continue year after year to close-prune in this manner, and wondering the while that they cannot induce a bearing habit; little considering how they war against the necessary condition of fruitfulness, which is a highly elaborated state of sap.

In pruning rough espaliers, the age of the tree must be taken into consideration, together with its

form. If the tree be young, some close pruning may be necessary for a year or two, in order to induce sufficient shoots to complete the form of the tree, which, with most cultivators, is that of a bowl, or something after the manner of a well-blown tulip. With such trees it is necessary to keep the centre very thin, in order to permit sunlight to penetrate to the north side of the tree, without which the produce on that side will be inferior both in colour and flavour. In shortening young trees to cause them to furnish better wood, care should be taken to cut to one outside bud: this throws the terminal shoot, when developed, at a greater distance; and such buds generally shoot in a kind of curve, which is favourable to the completion of the form intended.

In all cases of pruning rough espaliers, it is best to thin out first all unnecessary shoots; the shortening back is the last operation. In thinning out, all cross shoots should be removed from the planting period, for it is folly to suffer them to remain until they commence bearing, and then to cut them away. In trees of some size and strength a great deal of young watery-looking spray is apt to be produced from the older branches; this should be pruned away, for it is in vain to expect to produce fruit spurs of any value in the interior of the tree by a "a spurring back" system; and, indeed, if such should be the case (although the produce might answer for boiling or baking purposes, yet it would not answer for the dessert), such trees should receive a little root-pruning immediately on the heels of this close-pruning. The production of so much side spray proves that there is a too powerful action of root for the extent of top. Such over-excited subjects may frequently be found in kitchen-gardens where high vegetable culture is carried on. The oft repeated and heavy manurings necessary for asparagus, celery, cauliflowers, &c., are rather too much for trees under a close-pruning system. It is rather difficult to state how far distant the reserved shoots should be; on an average, we should say, the main leaders of dessert apples should be about eight inches apart; kitchen apples may be somewhat closer. In determining distances, however, the size of the leaf and general habit of the tree should be taken into consideration. Nobody would think of carrying the leaders of a Ribston pippin at the same distance as the Old Nonpariel: the first has a capacious leaf, and is of a sprawling habit; the other grows nearly upright, and has a lanceolate leaf little larger than a willow.

As to shortening, this must depend on several circumstances; some based on principles, others on convenience or expediency. As an instance of the former, we would point to the propriety of a regular annual shortening-rather severe in amount during the first three years of the planting. If this course be not pursued, the consequence is, in the majority of cases, that one or two branches soon assume the character of leaders, and, in technical phraseology, "run away with the tree.' But by early shortening a host of spurs are developed at a low level-a point of much importance in a dwarfing system; added to which, this "knifing" has a tendency, if judiciously exercised, to equalize the strength, not, however, in an equal degree to summer-stopping; this is the most powerful agent in equalizing the strength, as we shall show by and by. As an instance of shortening for convenience or expediency, it may be stated, that it is not eligible in shortening to shorten two or more shoots side by side, exactly at the same height. In so doing, the terminal buds shoot near together,

and produce too severe an amount of shade; whereas, by taking care in shortening that the points of those contiguous to each other are of different heights, the foliage all through the tree is more equally divided. Where the ordinary espalier is made to assume the punch bowl figure, the points after shortening should rise in grades from the exterior, each successively higher than the one outside it.

TRAINED ESPALIERS.-These stand next in order; and, as the pruning season hastens to a close, we must say a few words about them. The shortening described as necessary with the rough espalier, in order to develop spurs, or the rudiments of spurs, is equaily necessary here during the first three or four years. Afterwards, we advise the tying-down system. Espaliers are trained in different ways; some perpendicularly, others on horizontal or table trellises. Some, also, in saddle form, as at her majesty's gardens at Frogmore. Whichever plan is adopted, the same principles must be attended to as with the rough espalier, or dwarf standard, modified occasionally by the end in view, viz., to clothe equally all parts of the trellis, and to cause the side buds to develop in an equal way.

Be it understood, however, that we do not place our main reliance on these side developments after the fourth year. We would, as before observed, reserve annually all the best of the short jointed and early ripened young shoots, and tie them down alongside the main branches, cutting them away again if they should in future years assume a barren appearance. Much care is necessary during the first three years of the trained espalier; to furnish the trellis in an equal way, a sharp look-out must be kept in order to coax the shoots into the desired places. If the trees continue rather spare, and do not furnish well, a top dressing, and even liquid manure may be resorted to, during the growing season, and the knife applied in order to force a more liberal development of shoots.

WALL, OR FENCE TREES.-We find that our space will narrowly permit us to offer a few general remarks. In pruning Peaches and Nectarines, much depends on the care bestowed on them at the previous sum, mer's disbudding. Where trees are attended to as they ought to be in summer, which is not the case in one garden out of twenty, there will be little work for the knife at the winter's pruning Some thinning out, nevertheless, will be necessary; and in shortening back the young wood, the only true guide is the maturity of the wood. Mature shoots are higher coloured and shorter jointed; the buds, moreover, are much fuller. Let as much of the points be shortened as will remove that portion which appears unripe: such is readily distinguished, and in general constitutes about one-fourth of the shoot. Apricots merely require the foreright snags to be cut back to spur eyes; little thinning is necessary, and little shortening of the leaders. Any likely-looking young shoots may be tied down on the branches, as advised for pears. Plums on walls or fences require very similar management, in regard of pruning, to the apricot. To cut away foreright snags, to thin out where crowded, and to tie down useful spray, is all that can be done. Shortening is entirely dispensed with on principle, with those in a bearing state. Young trees, however, require as much shortening as will enable them to fill the space allotted to them. Cherries require, perhaps, less knife-work than most other fruits. After producing shoots enough to fill the wall or fence, little is needed, especially with the larger kinds. The

THE FLOWER-GARDEN. PROPAGATION.-In continuation of this subject, which at one stage of our progress was a source of great mystery, and, I may say, of great difficulty too, to the whole race of our best gardeners, florists, and nurserymen. Yes, the most expert propagator in London or Paris was once as ignorant of how to strike, or root, a cutting of any kind of plant as is the humble cottager who is now, for the first time, resolving in his mind to make an actual experiment this very spring on some shoots which he believes may be spared from the only plant he possesses, and which he probably would never have dreamed of buying at all, had it not been that good fortune had thrown a number or two of THE COTTAGE Gardener in his way, and which he took up "promiscuously" to read, because he happened to have had nothing better to do at the time. Hundreds, with no more experience than this worthy cottager, I am persuaded, will follow me word by word, and sentence after sentence, with such a degree of interest as few can understand who have not yet struck their first pot of cuttings. How careful, therefore. ought I to note down every particular; and, after all, I shall probably miss some things that ought to be explained or hinted at. Be that as it may, I would strongly advise young beginners, who may have already failed to root any kind of cuttings, or have had only a partial success, to write forthwith and let us hear, in as few words as possible, what they want more particularly to know about their cuttings, and say also what kind of accommodation they have for performing the operation. Nothing will be easier, or more pleasant, than to answer such letters just now, as we are all over head and ears in this very work, and shall continue so for the next six weeks; so that, between one way and another, every reader of THE COTTAGE GARDENER ought to learn how to grow his own cuttings this

season.

The money which any one, having but a small flower-garden, might save by thus learning to grow cuttings effectually would soon buy a year's volume of this work-to say nothing of the pleasure of doing the thing properly.

We left off last week at making cuttings of verbenas: the pots were all ready; and now we shall plant the cuttings, some of which are cut close under a joint, and some lower down. We must, therefore, part the two kinds, and put each into a separate pot, as they would not be all rooted at the same time; and it is always a great disadvantage when this happens where they have been close forced, because those which root first would spindle up too much before the others were rooted. For this reason, also, it is not a good plan to take any cuttings from old stems or shoots that were made last autumn-not but that they would root, but they would be too long about it. Young tops, or green side pieces, that have grown since the new year are best-not only of verbenas, but of all the soft plants, such as petunias, anagallis, American groundsel, and the like. As these cuttings are being made, lay them on a piece of brown paper, or in a flower saucer, or on something that is quite clean, as if dust, or dirt, or sand, gets among them it will be troublesome to wash it off; and if potted in a messy state they will never do much good. The first row

of cuttings is planted round the sides of the pots, as close to the rim as possible, and as close to each other as that their leaves are not in contact with each other; and when a cutting happens to have the leaves rather large, we place them edgeways-if you know what that is: we mean, one row of leaves pointing to the centre of the pot, and the other row towards the outside of the pot. This is a great economy of room, as the cuttings that way may stand as close together as if they had no leaves at all. For very young beginners, I would advise to have only this one outside row in a small pot; but after a little experience the whole surface of the pot may be planted in circles or rings-only, the leaves must be kept free from each other, as where two of them lap together the wet hangs there too long, and will damp them in one night; and damp is very infectious, and would soon spread over a whole potful of cuttings.

A dibber, or planting stick, may be made of any piece of hard wood, and in shape like a skewer, but the point need not be quite sharp, and the length anything from four to six inches; but the length and size of the point must vary according to the length and thickness of the cuttings, I have seen a “ set” of cutting dibbers made very beautiful out of bone, and out of boxwood, and polished; and I have seen thousands of cuttings planted with a common pencil. These small cuttings must never be planted more than half an inch deep; and anything less than that will do, provided you get them a firm hold. The more shallow they are planted the faster they will root; and the more loose the compost is under them the better for the young roots, as they can grow away in it more freely. I have been disappointed once or twice by a good plantsman from a nursery, who could strike heaths, and any kind of hard-wooded plant, but he could not get on any how with such simple things as these soft cuttings. Sometimes he would lose one-third out of a pot, while one in a hundred ought to be considered bad luck. The reason for this was, that he adopted the nursery way of pressing down the soil and sand very hard, both before he watered the pots and after; indeed, he would ram the compost as if he was loading a gun. All this is necessary to be done when the cutting pots are intended for hardwooded cuttings, which take a month or two to root; for unless such precautions are taken, it is found in practice that air will enter the sand, and ripen or harden these cuttings to such a degree that they would never root at all. But for soft flower-garden cuttings the compost and sand can hardly be too loose. If the cuttings can be made to stand upright until they are settled by the first gentle watering, it will be better for them; and when they do root, this loose compost will allow the young tender roots to spread rapidly through it; therefore, it is best to use it that way.

There is another erroneous practice with respect to cuttings, founded on a misconception of a physiological law, which may be briefly stated thus. The more leaves a cutting is able to carry, or is artificially made to carry, the sooner it will root, because such leaves are the agents by which roots are formed, generally speaking; but there are many instances in which cuttings will form roots in the absence of any leaves; for instance, cuttings of roses without leaves, if put in last November, will be rooted, and that to a considerable length before young leaves are formed late in the spring. In such instances, the cuttings were charged with ripe sap by the leaves of last autumn, and from this sap they are enabled to form roots after the leaves are gone; but these are excep

tional cases. The great majority of cuttings require all the leaves that can be made to act, not, however, all the leaves that we may choose to leave on them, for here is the error which I want to explain. Physiology, or the law which governs vegetable life, says, that the more leaves you allow on a cutting the sooner it will root; and when we act to the letter of this law, we destroy cuttings by the thousand every season. Now this is very curious; we know the law is perfectly right, and yet if we square our practice with it in every instance, we know, or at least ought to know, that our success cannot be complete. To explain how this is, it will be necessary to understand that in following out implicitly this first law, we often violate another law, which is fully as binding. When a cutting is made according to the first law, that is, with all its leaves untouched, except one or two at the bottom, which must be removed, in order to leave a free space to be inserted in the cutting-pot, we ought to secure it from the influence of the atmosphere, by placing a bell-glass over it to exclude all air from it, except what is confined with it under the glass. Now, we know that thousands of plants will not strike roots, unless the cuttings from them are thus secured from the action of the air; and we know, too, that the more leaves such cuttings have on the faster they will root, just as physiology said. Let us now suppose that we have no bell-glasses to guard such cuttings from the air; the next best substitute is a hand-glass, or in the case of a single pot of cuttings, we can place it inside a larger pot, and if this second pot is deep enough to allow of the top part of the cuttings in the little pot to be an inch or more below the rim, we can place a square of glass over the mouth of the larger pot, and if the rim of the outer pot is so even, that the piece of glass touches it all the way round, we have a contrivance fully as good as a handglass, but neither of them so perfect as the bell-glass, as more or less air will necessarily find its way to the cuttings. Still, nine-tenths of all the kinds yet tried will root this way, without depriving them of any their leaves. With this experience, gardeners have become so bold as to put their cutting-pots in a close hotbed frame at first, and more than one-half of their cuttings root freely enough that way; but some refused to do so, and such, instead of pricking up their ears-or rather their leaves-in this genial, moist, hot air, the greater part of them flagged down on the pots in a day or two. How was this to be accounted for? All their leaves were left on just as physiology had demanded; there was plenty of heat and sufficient moisture; the sun did not reach them; indeed it could not, for to guard against such accidents as a mat being blown off on a sunny day, the outside of the glass was smeared over with lime-paint, made with warm water, soft-soap, and fine lime, so that the sun could not possibly be the cause of these leaves drooping. What could it be then? Such cuttings were never wont to go off that way when we used to have all the stock put under close glasses. Why they did so I shall explain presently, when I tell of how some amateurs, who had an ear for scientific laws, without the necessary knowledge of how best to apply them, had lost whole crops of their every-day cuttings, by implicitly following out the doctrine of "the more leaves the more roots." They had no better contrivance than the front stage of a small greenhouse to root their cuttings, and they had no hand or bellglasses to put over them; and at that time they did not learn that nice contrivance of placing cutting-pots inside larger ones, and covering them up with a piece of glass, although, now-a-days, every cottager finds

of

that the simplest of all means to root his cuttings on his window-sill;-no, their cuttings were almost in a draught, and not a dozen out of scores of the very commonest kinds could they get to root. All the leaves would flag, and the more water they got to help up their drooping heads the sooner the bottoms of the cuttings damped or rooted off; and when the water was withheld, the leaves soon dried up altogether. In short, the whole thing was a perfect mystery and very disheartening. I have known, and do know at the present moment, some good gardeners in many respects, who, yet, are not very successful propagators, just because they are too much learned in the law of vegetable physiology, just like those amateurs alluded to. To cut off a leaf from a cutting, or to cut any of those leaves left on through the middle, is with them rank heresy; no matter how their cuttings can be accommodated afterwards, leaves they must have in abundance to begin with.

The explanation of all this is indeed very simple and easy to understand. We all know that a leaf under the free action of light and air " pumps up" the sap into itself in order to be digested; and if the supply is cut off from below, as in the case of a detached cutting, the leaf has still the power of "pumping" or drawing to itself the juices of the cutting from any and all parts of it, whether above or below it. But when the light is excluded from the leaf, or partially so, and is, besides, confined from the air by-say a bell-glass, this power is suspended; there is no air to carry off the necessary evaporation from its surface, and there it stands fully distented by the last watering, or the damp air around it; and so it remains till roots are formed through its agency. In a close hotbed, this action of the leaf can only be partially suspended, because more air is allowed access to it. Then, to balance against this partial action, a few of the leaves on a cutting are removed; but the cuttings on the greenhouse stage had both light and air in abundance, and the large volume of leaf surface, with hardly any check on its action, soon "pumped" the body of the cutting quite dry, and so proved its destruction. Whereas, if this surface was much re duced, it would take longer time to dry up the juice of the cutting, and in the meantime roots might have been formed to save it. D. BEATON.

GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW
GARDENING.

GIVING AWAY PLANTS OR CUTTINGS: PROPAGATING BY CUTTINGS.-Many of our friends will now be thinking of increasing their stock of their favourite plants, either for their own gratification or to enable them to fulfill promises, and make presents to their friends and acquaintances. I often in these matters bring before my mind's eye a worthy old teacher, who, when describing the Latin synonymes signifying a gift or present, used to tell us, with something like a spice of sarcasm, that one word implied that selfish kind of present, for which the donor expected to be repaid by an equivalent, and something more; while the other word implied a free gift, for which no return whatever was expected; and here the good man's eyes used to brighten, his voice to rise, and his full chest to heave with the benevolence of his nature. This latter definition of a present is that by which we must be actuated, if we would derive pleasure from giving and imparting satisfaction to the receiver. And this principle must not only be felt, but seen, otherwise men with large hearts may seem to a stranger to have very little