and thatched. Beet may be preserved until the storing season comes round again.

BROCOLI.-If too luxuriant, cut round the plants with a spade to shorten the strong roots, or take up the brocoli carefully at once, and remove it to some sheltered situation where it may with convenience be slightly protected when the frosts set in. If the latter plan be adopted, the ground thus cleared should have some manure wheeled on to it, and be thoroughly trenched up into good rough ridges or sloping banks, so that it may receive all the beneficial influences of the weather throughout the winter months.

CAULIFLOWERS.-Those who have the means should make a final planting out under hand-glasses about the 21st of October. Choose a good open quarter in preference to that of a fruit-tree border, where too many people are apt to place their hand-glass crops of cauliflower. Instead of doing so, choose an open quarter, and let the ground be well manured and trenched in at least two feet deep, if this has not been already done; work it well, and, after making the surface level, line it out neatly, so as to have the rows in line every way; let the rows be four feet apart from row to row, and the plants three feet apart in the row. Two feet wide paths and two feet wide beds will give four feet in the clear between the rows, and then if the wish be to give the work a little neater appearance, throw up a few crumbs from the paths, and make the edges true, and chop it out by line. The ground being ready, insert your plants four or five together under each glass, choosing some of the best and strongest from your nursery-beds; lift them up with a little care, so as not to hurt their fibrous roots more than can be helped. This being done, put on the glasses, and let them remain on for three or four days, after which give a little air by tilting the glasses up on the south side with a small flower-pot, or a half brick, for six or eight hours every day; and after this, any very fine warm days, the lights may be taken quite off about nine o'clock in the morning, and put on again at three in the after

noon.

KIDNEY BEANS.-The cottager during his dinnertime, of a nice fine day, should look after all his garden seeds, particularly now his scarlet runner and dwarf kidney beans. Before he pulls them up, or in doing so, he should collect all the ripest pods, and dry them off well before he stores them away, and when quite dry, without being taken out of the pods, they may be put in a little old hamper or box, and preserved in some dry place.

MUSHROOM BEDS should be looked to, to see that they are going on well. If the surface be found too cold, add a thicker covering, which will draw up the heat of the beds; and if the beds should be too hot, reduce the thickness of covering a little; the temperature should range from 50° to 55°.

CARROTS. The principal crops will now have become pretty generally fit for storing. Do not place too many together, as they are liable to ferment, and if the injurious effects of too close packing should not immediately become apparent, yet at the season when this vegetable is most in request with the good old English fare, the roots will be found partially decayed, woolly at the core and flavourless. Our praetice is to store them in narrow stacks; if in a dry shed, we put some dry sand amongst them; if in a close shed or cellar, we then put no sand, but place a little brushwood to prevent their getting too close together.

ENDIVE. This vegetable may be bleached so sim

ply, and in so many ways, that it should now be at once attended to, as white frost or damp weather is liable to injure the large or full-grown plants. Take up a quantity on a fine dry afternoon, and place them in a little dry sand; the floor of the fruit-room or cellar, or in some dry shed, any one of which situations are good for the bleaching of endive, with a very little trouble. Successions of late plants should still be planted on dry healthy borders or sloping banks, for a late spring supply.

HORSERADISH.-Trenching out should now be commenced on one side or end as the rows go. First have ready a good quantity of manure. If the soil is still, leaf-mould, road-grit, cinder-ashes, and charred materials are all excellent for trenching in. The ground should be again planted as the trenching proceeds. Our practice is to trench two feet deep, forking up the subsoil, and letting it remain loose, and trenching the ground into rough ridges at the foot or bottom of each row; at the very bottom of each row we place at one foot distance from each other the tops or crowns of the horseradish, and any crooked or inferior forked plants entire, ready for the next crop, as we find the stronger the plant the finer will be the next produce. By these means the rows are two feet apart, and the crowns or plants are not too deeply buried, as they, of course, are between the ridges, which are not levelled until the plants are making their appearance in the next spring or summer, and then they are gradually hoed or forked down amongst them.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES are not yet in full season, and are therefore best left in the ground until after Christmas, as the tubers will continue to swell until that time. The surface of the soil should then be protected with a thin coat of leaves or refuse of any kind, and their own stalks should be placed over this, to prevent its being scattered by the wind. Take up the bulbs as required.

ROUTINE WORK-Keep all yellow and decayed leaves well cleared up from amongst your cabbages and coleworts. Watch for every opportunity of surfacestirring the soil, not only for the sake of keeping up a healthy appearance, but also to reduce the number of slugs, for which pests traps also should be set, as before recommended, with new brewer's grains or bran. When so collected, early in the evening, turn the slugs to useful account by killing them with quicklime, and digging them into the ground. lect now all kinds of leaves, as well as any vegetable refuse that cannot be turned to better account, and add them to the manure pit, throwing all drainage continually over it. When the full crop of leaves are down, and those of the oak, beech, and Spanish chesnut are obtainable, these may be collected on some fine day, and be stored away with great advantage for pig or cattle litter or beds.

Col

JAMES BARNES & W.

lages, far from the bustle and noise of towns, to judge of a nation's real prosperity-and England's villages tell us, on the whole, a cheering tale. Some look more dirty and neglected than others, bearing the stamp of that deadly snare, the beer-house; but these, I trust, are few compared with the number spread over England's surface. In almost every parish we find a village, or something like one-a clustering together of men—and I have scarcely ever seen one that does not possess some picturesque or interesting feature. There is always a church standing calmly by, as if to still "the madness of the people," and calling them continually to prayer and praise. What a solemn and beautiful sight is a simple primitive British church! We gaze with delight on a scene of nature only, where the eye ranges over earth, and water, and trees, and sky; all is so pure and good as if sin had not blighted it; yet, when a little column of smoke rises from among the trees, or we hear the deep bay of the watch dog, or the toll of the church clock, warning us from its hiding place of the flight of time, what an involuntary interest springs up at once in our hearts. There is a cottage! or a farm! or a nestling hamlet within those sheltering trees! and such simple sounds add many charms to the beauty of the landscape. There is in our hearts, implanted by God, a love for our "kind;" and although sin has caused man to be "a murderer from the beginning," and we "bite and devour one another," still, yet we should not be happy alone. Feeling this, let us strive, as opportunity offers, to do good unto all men;" and how much of the bitter of life may thus be done away.

66

I like to see a village interspersed with hedges of elder. It is a most valuable tree-so much so, that Boerhaave, the great Dutch physician, never passed one without raising his hat. Let us raise our hearts to God, who has caused so many plants to spring up around us that are good for food and medicine. The elder is a native of England, but grows in many parts of Europe also. It thrives in every kind of soil, on the banks of streams and ditches, and on old walls and ruins; thus marking the tender care of our heavenly Father in making so medicinal a tree hardy and adapted for every situation. Cottagers should encourage it, for it is good in every season and useful in every part. The leaves are excellent for sores and external inflammation. The flowers make an invaluable ointment for man and animals, and every farm-house should have an ample store. It is very simply made. Simmer equal quantities of the flowers and fresh lard in an earthen pan placed in a kettle of water over a moderate fire for four or five hours, then strain it through a sieve or cloth into small pots, but do not squeeze it, or a liquid will remain below the cold ointment and ooze through it. This once happened to myself, and although I pierced the ointment and poured out the liquid, it was not so firm or good as it would otherwise have been. Sprigs of the elder will make good ointment, if the flowers are required to remain for fruit, but it is not so fragrant. Elder flowers cut from the coarser stalks and carefully dried are excellent for disordered stomachs when made into tea and drank freely. This tea is also good for erysipelas and eruptions of the skin. The inner bark is fine in cases of dropsy, boiled in milk and water in the proportion of three handfuls to a quart, and simmered till it is reduced to a pint. Half a pint should be taken at night and in the morning, and repeated ever day. Elder-flower water is cooling to inflamed eyes and pleasant to the skin; its very scent is refreshing and reviving. And who

does not relish a glass of warm elder wine on a cold frosty day? It is a harmless and acceptable offering to a friend, when more expensive hospitality cannot be indulged; and it is very excellent indeed even when drank cold. If a cottager's wife could contrive to make but a couple of bottles of this wine she would find it very useful in the cold severe nights of winter, if her husband returned home wet and shivering at a late hour. A cup of hot elder wine would warm and comfort him far more than the unwholesome beer sold to the poor, and which many of the labouring class rarely drink at home. Elder berries are destructive to poultry, and bees are said to dislike the tree. I have often seen bunches of the leaves hung upon the bough from which a swarm has been taken, to prevent their settling there again. There is a sort of fungus sometimes found growing on the trunk of the elder, the inside of which is black, and the outside inclining to white. This is said to be an excellent remedy for sore throats and quinsies, but I cannot discover the way in which it should be applied; very possibly it should be laid warm on the throat, but this I cannot venture to assert. The season for gathering the fruit is quite like a little vintage where it grows plentifully; and the black clusters look almost like wild grapes, bending down from the weight of the ripe berries. A hedge of elder might be planted in many gardens; and if the poor could earn a shilling or two by selling the flowers or fruit they would turn to good account. There is often a great lack of management among cottagers— a disinclination to try new plans, and neglect of many little sources of profit by which they might benefit. In some of our village walks" we may give our poorer neighbours a hint or two from personal observations that may be of use to them; although I well know how difficult it is to do anything when work is scarce and money comes slowly in. To be thrifty we must have something to economize with; yet in my own immediate neighbourhood I know that the poor do actually prefer shivering with cold, and picking up sticks, or stealing wood, to cutting turf from a common close to their own doors and storing it up for winter use. This is a striking proof of idleness and wilful negligence, and such instances make us sometimes feel vexed and hardhearted. Yet let us remember the "mote" and the beam," and gain from our daily observation a hint for our own use. Is there not a heavenly Friend seeking our welfare, and grieved because we hew out for ourselves "broken cisterns that can hold no water," when the "fountain of living waters," close to our lips, is forsaken? Do we not choose rather "to drink the waters of Sihor," or even to perish with thirst? Let us have pity for the ignorant and foolish, as God hath pity for us; and let every instance of human corruption around us strike and convict our own rebellious hearts.

66

NEW PLANTS WORTHY OF CULTIVATION.

WISTARIA SINENSIS var. alba.-This white variety was introduced from China by Mr. Fortune. Its blossoms are not so beautiful as those of the lilacflowered, but may have a pleasing effect when blended with the latter.Journ. Hort. Soc. iv. 221.

COLOGYNE ASPERATA (Rough Caelogyne).-Is the finest of the genus, a native of Borneo, bears spikes of noble, fleshy, pale cream-coloured blossoms, three inches in diameter. It requires to be grown in the stove. Journ. Hort. Soc., iv. 221.

FRECKLED MORMODES (Mormodes lentiginosa).This orchid is also a native of central America, and, like the preceding, introduced by Mrs. Lawrence. Its flowers have purplish stains on a yellow ground, and sprinkled all over with small dots. It blooms in April, and requires to be potted in loose turfy peat. In winter keep it rather dry, and in the dry stove; but in summer with the usual moisture and heat of the orchideous-house, and near the glass.— Bot. Mag. 4455.

PINNATE-LEAVED EPIMEDIUM (Epimedium pinnatum).—This “most lovely little hardy plant" is a native of shady woods in the mountains of Persia and the Caucasus. Its flowers are bright yellow, with a crimson spot at the base of each petal. It is increased by root division, and may be grown either in the border, or in a pot like other herbaceous alpines.-Ibid, 4456.

MIMULUS TRICOLOR (Tricoloured Monkey Flower). An annual brought by Mr. Hartweg from California. Prevailing colour of the flowers pink, but each lobe of the corolla is spotted with crimson at the base, and stained with yellow along the lower lip. appears to require the treatment bestowed hardy annuals.-Ibid, 222.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

upon

It half

TROUGH ON FLUE (T. D. P.).—You had better have a shallow pan of zinc made to fit the top of your flue, or a small portion of it, and this will be sufficient to keep the air of your pits moist. Do not sow your fuchsia seed until next March or April. See p. 20 of our last volume.

ARNOTT'S STOVE FOR GREENHOUSE (R. W. H.).—That described in our first volume, p. 280, would answer well for your greenhouse, 20 feet long and 12 feet wide. An iron stove, such as Walker's selffeeding stove, would answer your purpose, if the fuel was put on last thing at night in the winter, and you had a trough for water on the top. We should plant two climbing perpetual roses to train along your bridge, Felicite perpetuelle, creamy white, and Madame Plantier, deep rosy hue.

WINTERING FUCHSIAS (J. T., Aberdeen).—If you will refer to the Index of our last volume, you will there find references to all the information you require. For instance, at pp. 347 and 328. Leave off watering your cacti and keep them dry and cool, but free from frost

all the winter.

WINTERING PLANTS IN A FRAME (G. Jones and C. P., Brixton). -You can keep your plants in a frame plunged in coal ashes; admit air every mild dry day, and keep the glass and sides thickly covered with straw and mats during frost and at night. Do not move your heartsease cuttings until early in the spring, as they are only just struck.

WASTE WATER FROM A STEAM ENGINE (Carolus).—This would do excellently for making liquid manure with, and would recompense you for your outlay. There is no mode of distributing it but by hand, or by an open gutter of various lengths, to trenches made between the rows of your crops. Do not apply it until growing time in the spring arrives. Watering your potatoes will not answer; never put manure to them; grow them on ground which has been manured for other crops. Never mind your autumn-planted crops being deficient in quantity; "they are sound," you say, which is better than a great bulk diseased.

CUPHEA PLATYCENTRA (J. S. L.). This is the name of your flower. It will not live in the open border through the winter. Pot it immediately. See what is said at p. 147 of our last volume, and at p. 24 of our last number.

NATURAL PHENOMENA (Verax).-You say that our daily statements of these, such as "birch leaves yellow," &c., are "not founded on fact." Now, if you will keep memoranda of how many days we are wrong, that is, how many days later or earlier each event occurs than is stated in our Calendar, you will be doing a useful work. We only profess to give the average time at which each occurs, and we will tell you to-day, in an editorial, how much these events may serve as guides for the gardener.

WINTERING CALCEOLARIAS (J. W. R.).—We shall say more about these soon, but in the meantime observe for your guidance that the great enemy to calceolarias in winter is damp, when grown in pits and frames without the means of dry heat. Where a dry heat can be occasionally given, there is no difficulty in keeping them over the winter. In a frame or pit, the plants should stand higher in the pot to escape the damp; it is an easy matter to sink them when shifting in the spring and every opportunity should be taken to let a stream of air amongst them. The subject will be fully treated on in a succeeding number.

PEACH-HOUSE CONVERTED INTO A GREENHOUSE (Carrig Cathol). -So far as you have given a description of the upright peach-house, which you have transferred into a greenhouse, we see nothing to prevent it answering extremely well but for one thing-the omission of a

stove. Instead of being fearful of having too much heat in winter, because the sun strikes powerfully upon the upright glass, we should be more concerned about not having enough when there was no sun at all. The muffling of the glass with glue and whiting might be requisite in spring, but would be of little use in winter if you wished the plants to grow. If, however, you merely wish to keep deciduous plants alive until the spring, then the process might be useful, as tending to promote an uniform temperature. The canvass blind to which you refer would be useful in spring and summer for keeping out heat, and in winter for keeping out cold; but for the latter purpose you would require, in addition, wooden covers, straw hurdles, or mats, to cover the glass with in cold nights. You would, after all, keep the roses and fuchsias in such a house with more difficulty than you would preserve the former in a cold pit, or even plunged out of doors, with the tops nearly covered with moss or fern; and the latter if merely kept from the frost in a cool shed. The reason of this is, that the house being fully exposed to the south, the plants will be excited in mild sunny weather, only to be nipped when it is very cold and frosty. Without artificial heat, therefore, we do not consider your house so good, for mere protection, as a pit or close shed; though, as it is, it would answer admirably for growing plants after March. Having put up a stage, we would strongly urge the possession of the means of heating, and then you may have anything you choose that will thrive under greenhouse temperature. The Cloth of Gold, or any of the tea-scented, roses, would do very well on the wall above the highest shelf of the stage, provided the sashes move to give it plenty of air in summer; and the Cobea scandens, the Passiflora cærulea, and Jasminum revolutum, would stand the winter without heat. With heat, the Mandevilla suaveolens and the Tecoma Jasminoides would answer very well, and both are very beautiful. If, without covers for the glass frames, you set the plants on the stage, keep them almost dry during the winter; the less they grow the better. In cold weather, however, we should prefer setting them all on the floor of the house, and then, if not very large, you can throw mats over them. By this means we frequently keep many things in a glass house without heat; but then they don't have much the appearance of greenhouse plants during winter.

PLUMS (J. H., Liscard).-You ask whether you may plant plums and autumn-plant potatoes in a heavy clay, manuring with night soil? You may plant plums, but refer to our back numbers for advice as to clay eysoil. They must be planted nearly or quite on the ground level. Read about soils and subsoils in a recent number, and see what we say about the improvement of the staple. We recommend autumnplanting of potatoes on 'sound soils and done with discretion, but in land like yours we would have a winter fallow, and keep the potatoe sets in earth until February. Do not use night soil, nor any other manure, as the land is an old apple orchard.

FERN MANURE FOR VINES (T. W.).-Vines like good manure; fern does not make such rich compost as straw. We should, nevertheless, not fear to use it. The prime secret of vine growing does not, however, lie in the manure; it is in thorough drainage, and securing, by ameliorating processes, a proper mechanical texture in the soil. Look to our articles on the improvement of staple, also Mr. Fish in an article a few weeks since.

GOOSEBERRIES AND CURRANTS (J. Wilson).-Your currant and gooseberry bushes should be nearly six feet apart. The Red and White Dutch currant, and for black the Black Naples. As your ground is so limited, plant well-known bearers in the gooseberry way such as the Old Crown Bob, the Aston seedling (alias Warrington), the Whitesmith, &c. &c. Do not part with your apple trees without due consideration, especially if they are thriving. If you will have pyramidal currants, you must start them with a strong stake; but why pyramidal? We could train them punch-bowl fashion, and take as little room as your pyramids.

WINTERING CUTTINGS (J. Stewart).-Your cuttings struck this season of fuchsias, petunias, alonsoas, verbenums, and other soft wooded plants, or from any tender plant, cannot be kept over the winter without light, moisture, and as much heat as will save them from frost "Smithy ashes," or, as we say in England, ashes from a blacksmith's forge, is a good thing to plunge such pots in down to the rim, in a box that would fit a window sill. If you keep the frost from them that way they will do. Cuphea platycentra, if an old plant, will live out the winter plunged in sand or light earth like fuchsias. The Lechenaultia formosa will require a good window in a room where a fire is kept.

HEATHS (John Paul).-Your memory is not at fault. Mr. Beaton did promise a chapter on potting heaths, and you shall have one long before heaths will need potting. In the meantime, do not syringe them till after the middle of next May; and if the mildew threatens you, put the infested plants aside from your stock and dust them lightly with sulphur. McNab's treatise is, perhaps, out of print; the price of it was about 2s 6d. "Large shifts" is only safe with good gardeners. Heaths in No. 4 or No. 2 pots will not require shifts but once in four or five years. A list of the best heaths will be given early in the spring.

SEEDLING PANSIES (A. A. Clericus).-These are better kept in the pots where you have raised them, to be planted out next February. CONTRASTS OF SCARLET AND BLUE (Ibid).—Nemophila insignis, to contrast with scarlet verbenas, should not be sown till the last week in April, and then the contrast will only hold good for six weeks -say from midsummer to the end of July. If you could make a bed of the blue Campanula carpatica next April, it would last to the end of September; and though not so gay as the nemophila, is more useful. Verbenas, for a scarlet bed next summer, should be got by cuttings last September or next February, and be protected from frost, and planted out about the middle of May.

SEEDLING CARNATIONS (Ibid)-Planted out early in the autumn, will stand the frost, in your exposed situation, without protection. SCARLET GERANIUMS (W. Goodman).—In taking Messrs. Fraser, of Lea Bridge-road, as your model, you have done well. Unless your beds are very rich on a damp bottom, scarlet geraniums will flower in

them better out of pots. It is only the florists' pelargoniums that are bedded in their pots, to curb their free habit of growth. Messrs. Fraser grow their plants generally better than others, and having them in pots they are more convenient for their orders.

MANETTI ROSE (Oxoniensis).—Mr. Rivers, of the Sawbridgeworth Nursery, Herts, introduced the Manetti rose from Italy a few years since, and it has turned out as a stock all that was expected. Apply to him for the information you require. We will answer about your Tigridia pavonia next week. Your treatment is very judicious.

WINTERING YELLOW CISTUSES AND CHINA ROSES (Flora).— There are several yellow cistuses very beautiful plants; they often live out the winter in dry sheltered situations; but we should be loath to trust any of them to the rigours of a hard winter unprotected. Some dry leaves, litter, or coal-ashes, spread round them to the depth of four inches, and a dry mat, or a bundle of dry fern or straw placed over them in hard frost, are far better than transplanting them into pots so late as this. Turn your "monthly roses "out of the pots into the bed, and if they are not quite young they will take no harm; but, to be safe, place a few dry leaves round and amongst them, merely to break the force of cold frosty winds.

VAN THOL TULIPS, &c. (Consols).-Plant your Van Thol tulips two inches deep in the front row of your bed or border now; place the yellow ones behind them, and nine inches from them, and the Tournesol in the middle. The Van Thol is red and white, the Yellow is just yellow, and the Tournesol red and orange. They will flower next April. Your "leaky greenhouse" is a bad place for soft-wooded plants, but you must try them in it. You can keep old petunius if they are now established in pots, not otherwise. The penstemons will live out of doors, unless your soil is very wet and the winter very hard. The Ageratum is a greenhouse, or frame, or half-hardy plant, but is very easy to move into pots at any time; and if you take it up carefully, it will probably flower all the winter even in the leaky

house.

MANDEVILLA SUAVEOLENS (M. E. L.).-It is four feet high, has not flowered, and is in a border under a south wall, where it was planted in June, and you ask whether it should be allowed to remain? It is more safe to take it up this season, being so young; pot it, and let it lose its leaves by keeping it half dry in the greenhouse. Cut it down close early in March, and plant it out next May; after that you may keep it out in winter, with a good dry covering in frosty weather. BOTTOM HEAT BY HOT WATER PIPES (T. F.). In the plan you refer to as described in our first volume, the whole of the bottom of the pit must be covered. Perforated iron will do for the covering instead of slate, but will require more support, and will only last for a short time. Cucumbers can be grown well in such a structure. We cannot tell what sized pipe you will require for your pit, unless informed of the purposes for which you intend it.

BEGONIA (Ibid).-The common old begonia is very easily grown, but yours, the leaves of which are continually falling and the plant shrinking, must be one of the stove species, and unless we know which we cannot advise you safely.

EARWIGS IN GREENHOUSE (W. D. P.).-Place some dry hay in very small pots, and set them about on their sides in secret corners; the earwigs will enter them for the day, when you may destroy them. PRUNING VARIOUS PLANTS (Ibid).-Do not cut down your Maurandya Barclayana, Lithospermum Hendersonii, and Cobæa scandens, but prune their side branches only to two joints now, and reduce the top or leading shoot a little. Passiflora Herberti and incarnata flower, on the current year's growth, cut in their side shoots now to the last bud nearest the old wood. Clematis azurea grandiflora cut down to a strong prominent bud next February. How low down depends on its age and size. Amaryllis longifolia and Lilium japonicum, which have not flowered, must both be allowed to get dry now; then pot the Lilium, and the Amaryllis next May when in full growth.

PLANTING (Glan Mor).-Have this all performed before Christmas. We cannot recommend any work upon forest planting; they are all at variance, and most of them fallacious guides. We cannot advise you as to the trees to plant, unless we knew whether your object is beauty or profit.

It

DATURA (Ibid),-You ask for information relative to this plant. The datura is a strong soft-wooded greenhouse plant, which flowers annually in the autumn on the young wood made the same season ; therefore it should be close pruned any time in winter or spring. is a thirsty plant while growing, but if an old plant, may be kept quite dry while at rest, or during winter. We believe Mr. Beaton will treat of it as a flower-garden plant. It is always best to water at the top of the pot; one requires good experience to trust to watering by "feeders."

SOIL FOR BULBS (Mrs. Vibgyor).-A query respecting "all kinds of bulbs" is a wide question, but of course you mean all kinds of common hardy spring-flowering bulbs, Nine-tenths of these will do well in the soil we recommended for hyacinths. Double anemones of sorts would prefer a stronger soil, however. We shall always be glad to hear from you and assist you after the frank avowal of your address: we like frank people above all others.

TROPOOLUM AZUREUM (E. B. S.).-We believe this may be treated after the way Mr. Beaton recommended for T. tricolorum, but we were so disappointed with the plant on its first appearance that we resolved never to grow it, and we have not seen a good specimen of it at any of the London exhibitions. You need not hesitate to treat all the bulbous Tropœolums in that way.

GROWING BULBS IN MOSS (C. J., Peckham).-The double Roman narcissus can be so grown. Hyacinths ought to be just covered with moss, and no more; you may even leave the very tops a little bare. People say ours are "nestled" when they see them. Let the superfluous water escape from hyacinths, and all other plants in pots, by

all means.

the border over the roots of your fig-tree. We would rather turf the border, or keep it covered in summer with some weak-growing annuals, such as the Nemophyllas, Virginian Stock, Venus' Lookingglass, &c.; but if you must plant evergreens, use the very strongest, in order to destroy the fig at once-laurels, hollies, or laurustinus, will do that. If you prefer a slower process, plant some evergreen Berberis over it; they are very handsome, and you can keep them low by cutting down the centre shoots in May after they are done flowering.

MANURE (A. T. B.).—Spent tanner's bark mixed with rotten dung is an excellent compost for some plants, and would kill others. You must ask this question again in a definite shape, and name the plants to which you intend to apply it. You only said “to any plants."

SOIL FOR BULBS (Ibid).-The scilla and the hyacinth will do equally well in the same soil, but ixias do better in peat earth. The different cuttings you name will do equally well under the same treatment, but you must not let them get quite dry. Mr. Beaton has said that all half-hardy plants may be saved in the ground over the winter, treated as he recommends, if they are worth so much trouble. Low plants at the bottom of a pit, four or five feet from the glass, will not live to see May-day. Place a stage of some sort in it, to bring them near the glass. Two thicknesses of matting will not keep out frost from a pit, but a foot of dry straw over one mat will, if the sides are equally safe. Auriculas, carnations, and Indian pinks, are better under glass, certainly, than covered up in the open border.

FIBRES OF PEAT (Ibid).-This does equally well, if not better, for potting purposes if you pack it close down upon the drainage.

GARDENER'S APPRENTICESHIP (Carolus, Stratford).-You offer to give 10 or £20 for a three years' apprenticeship to any gentleman's gardener who would be willing to allow you 8s a week. You had better apply to some head gardener. We know that some of the best nurserymen refuse to be bound to any one for three years, and consider a young man wastes his time to come into a nursery until he has served under a gentleman's gardener.

SHELTER FOR GERANIUM CUTTINGS (A. L.).—Your glazed structure will do for this purpose, but it must be well protected with straw, &c, to keep out frost. We have said all that it is possible to say upon this subject to various correspondents, and in our weekly essays. We wish our readers would refer to our indexes. Your use of sheets of gutta percha for sheltering flowers is good. You will see a form very like yours at p. 220 of our last volume.

MUMMY WHEAT (E. G. H. Kinsoll).—Our correspondent wishes to know where he can obtain a few grains of this wheat, depicted in "The Illustrated London News" of last September 22nd. IMPROVING SANDY SOIL (Cogitatus).-You cannot do better than put on the whole of your clayey compost at once. Do not mix your cow-dung with it now, but keep this until cropping time in the spring. We should put on the compost, trench the ground, and ridge it up for the winter's frosts to crumble down the clay, and help to mix it thoroughly. You can remove your four-year-old asparagus plants about April, injuring the roots as little as possible. All that you need do in making the bed to receive them is to trench it two feet deep, and mix with the soil throughout as much of the richest manure that you can procure.

ROUGH GLASS (G.'H. H.).—This, in the roof of your greenhouse or hothouse, will not impede the ripening of the grapes. If it is one-tenth of an inch thick it will defy hailstones, and answer your purpose in other respects.

GUERNSEY LILY (G. G.).—Any very light soil will do for this, but see what we say at p. 12. Your bees were not stupified; saltpetre does not act upon bees as does tobacco or fungus when burnt. This was the only cause of your bees fighting after being united.

PLANTING POTATOES (W. E. I.).-We cannot be more explicit than we have been. Plant in November in a soil that has been manured for the previous crop, and do not add mauure either at the time of planting the potatoes or at any time afterwards. Plant early ripening kinds only.

NAMES OF APPLES (M. R.).—We do not know the Beausberry Pippin. The Bayfordbury Pippin is the same as the Golden Pippin, which we all know is a yellow, roundish, small fruit. Heywood's Pippin is unknown to us by this name.

MOVING PRIVET (4. S. W.). --Your privet hedge, though six feet high, may be moved with a good chance of success if done in Noveniber; great care being taken to injure the roots but little, and if, by stakes and rails pressing the plants on each side, they are kept from wind-waving until well rooted next year.

LIST OF FAIRS (R. F. W.).-You will find a very full one in the Farmers' Almanack.

NAMES OF PLANTS (M. S.).—No. 1. Tecoma capensis. 2. Coronilla glauca. 3. Some kind of Stapelia. 4. Crassula, but what variety cannot say, nor could any one from such miserable specimens. 5. Ixora alba. (Crucifera).-Yours is Knight's Improved Wrinkled pea. We will keep your other wishes in mind. (J. J.)—We cannot make out from the twigs enclosed the name of your shrub or tree. It seems to be of the lime tribe. Does it grow in a pot or border? What kind of blossom does it bear? What is its native country? Merely sending leaves is usually like asking one to tell the name of a ship's captain from seeing a chip of its mast.

LONDON: Printed by HARRY WOOLDRIDGE, 147, Strand, in the Parish of Saint Mary-le-Strand; and Winchester High-street, in the Parish of St. Mary Kalendar; and Published by WILLIAM SOMERVILLE ORR, at the Office, 147, Strand, in the Parish of Saint Mary-le-Strand, London.-October 18th, 1849.

CRISPIN AND CRISPIANUS were brothers, born at Rome, and beheaded at Soissons by its governor, Rictionarius, when he found that they had travelled thither to propagate Christianity. There is a Kentish tradition that they were buried near Lydd, in that county, and a heap of stones on the beach there, near a place called Stones End, is shewn as the monument of their interment. Following the example of Paul, and others of the apostles, they adopted a trade, that they might not be burdensome to their flocks. The two brothers learned the art of shoe-making, and hence became its patron saint. An old romance relates that an exiled prince named Crispin also became a shoemaker for subsistence, and that thence the trade became known as the gentle craft-the French term gentil having reference to nobleness of birth.

forefathers expected that it would invariably rain on this day, and our present meteorological calendars demonstrate that the expectation was not altogether groundless.

METEOROLOGY OF THE WEEK.-The average highest temperature during the above seven days, from observations made during the last 22 years, is 54.2°, and the average lowest temperature 38.4°. The highest temperature observed during the period was on the 30th of October, 1833, and the lowest on the 28th in 1836, when the thermometer fell to 23°. It rained more or less on 73 days of the 154, and the greatest quantity of rain falling on any one of the days was 1.06 inch. We must guard our readers from concluding that in districts where the greatest amount of rain in inches falls that there the climate is most damp, and it would be an equally erroneous conclusion for any one to think that where there are the greatest number of rainy days that there the amount of rain is largest: the contrary is usually the fact. At this period it is very usual for long successions of heavy rains to fall, and consequently for the most violent floods on record to occur. The greatest flood of the middle ages, during which the Severn overflowed, was at this time of October in the year 1483. many years after it was always mentioned as "the year of the great waters."

For

NATURAL PHENOMENA INDICATIVE OF WEATHER. -Butterflies appearing early sometimes are the forerunners of fine weather. Moths also intimate the continuance of fine weather if they are numerous during the evening. Calms often precede violent gales, and the calmest and clearest mornings sometimes are followed by a blowing showery day. Thus, too, there are a few degrees of latitude to the north of the equator which seamen endeavour to avoid, for though they are proverbially known as "The Calms," yet it is the region of the most violent thunder storms. Candles often prognosticate truly the occurrence of foul weather by flaring, snapping, burning unsteadily, and having their wicks loaded with what are often called "fun" all which phenomena are guses, explicable upon chemical principles. The combustion or burning of the tallow is more perfect when the air is dry and warm than when it is moist and cold.

R. 0.19

INSECTS.-Flying about mallows, lavatera, and hollyhocks, may now be seen occasionally, for it is rather a rare insect, the large Mallow moth, Larentia cervinaria of some naturalists, and Geometra cervinaria and G. clavaria of others. It measures nearly two inches across its expanded fore-wings. These are reddish brown, banded with dark brown, and these bands edged with white, as shewn in our drawing. The hind-wings are pale brown, with bands of darker brown, and edged by a white line. This moth lays its eggs on the plants we have mentioned, but chiefly on the two first named. The caterpillars are found in June and July; they are dull green coloured, with darker lines of the same down its sides, and dots of white across.