THE opening of a new year is a loud call to all men, whether high or low, learned or unlearned, to consider their ways. We are all children of one Father, and His commands are addressed to us as such-there is no law for the rich but that which is also for the poor; and none can slip through its meshes, because he is small and of no account. The poor man may perhaps think that his low estate preserves him from many sins, and screens him from many temptations, and that the quiet, sheltering roof of his snug cottage, and the waving trees around it, shut out the world, and much of the dangers that surround the path of man. There is indeed, or might be, peace within the latticed window, and the rose-covered porch, and few may be the temptations that approach him through the narrow wicket that leads to his neat and comfortable home, as much his own as the lordly castle, or the palace of his sovereign; but his heart is cast in the same mould with the hearts of all men, and it is from within and not from without that peril comes. If the heart were sound, no outward attempt could move it; and where it is evil, we are never safe-not even in the lowliest walk of life, among the calm and beautiful things of the peaceful country, where few sounds reach us but the stroke of the spade, the lowing of herds, or the roar of the wintry wind.

Let the cottager remember this, for he may be comforting himself under a terrible mistake; and when he hears the startling midnight peal that marks the beginning of another year, he may listen quietly to its music, without considering the solemn warning it so loudly gives.

The cottager's "daily bread" comes as immediately from the hand of the Lord as the rich man's plenty. It is daily bread in the full meaning of the words as regards bodily food, for his loaf depends upon his labour; and if work fails or slackens, he has no store to fall back upon to supply his wants. He needs as deeply as his richest neighbour the daily blessing and the daily grace, for how can he tell what a day may bring forth to cut off his scanty earnings? How many poor, hard-working labourers have I seen, during the prevalence of severe frosts, unable to earn one shilling! and in other times when work was scarce, either removing with their families to the Union, or bringing upon themselves a debt for bread, that years perhaps could scarcely clear away! It is impossible to say that one class of persons is more dependent upon God than another, for He is able to bring ruin on the merchant, the landed proprietor, the tradesman, or the nobleman, "while the meat is yet in their mouths "in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, for all hold these possessions only by his will; but the peasant is no more safe than his betters; and the new year solemnly repeats those impressive words: "Consider your ways."

A striking instance of the gracious dealings of God with the pious "cottage gardener," occurred about two years ago; and as I was an eye-witness of the fact, I can state it fearlessly. An old man of very religious principles,—one who had for years loved and feared God, and knew "the truth as it is in Jesus," met with an accident of a frightful kind. He was assisting to take in a wheat rick, and went on the top of the load into the barn. By some unintentional want of care, a pitchfork that he had with him struck against the top of the barn, and by this means Isaac C- was thrown off the waggon with the fork, which struck deeply into his leg, and was obliged to be drawn out by manual force. The flow of blood that ensued was immense, and the poor man was carried home almost in an exhausted state to his agonized wife. The wound was so deep and severe, and the weakness from loss of blood so great, that his medical attendant at first entertained little hope of his recovery: but he lay quietly in his bed "in perfect peace," trusting in the Great Physician, who brought him signal deliverance. No fever followed, comparatively little pain was felt, and the lacerated flesh healed as soon as possible. Even the surgeon expressed surprise at the rapidity of the cure, but Isaac felt

no surprise at all. He blessed and magnified the Lord who had so remarkably preserved and male him whole, but he said, "the promise of the Lord was sure to all who trusted in Him, and why should he feel surprised, when His word came to pass?" He said he had endeavoured to walk with God for forty years, and during the whole of that time! he found that "mercy and goodness had followed" him; his trials and afflictions had been good for him, and he had been, as in this case, "delivered out of all." It was a beautiful sight to see this Christian lying in his humble but cleanly bed, rejoicing in the affliction, because he said it brought him into full and close experience of what his Bible taught him, and of the faithfulness of Christ. Many might have learned a wholesome and blessed lesson by his bedside, who were far beyond him in station and learning; for "the poor of this world, rich in faith," can set an example that monarchs would do well to follow. Isaac C- -'s cottage is very small, but brightly clean, and an air of cheerful peace seems to fill it. His wife is one of the very neatest, cleanest little creatures possible; and although they are both aged, and suffering from the natural decay of strength, they are full of contentment and thankfulness for all their blessings. He has never so fully recovered from his weakness as to be able to do regular work since; but he does what he can; and delights to "tackle the land," as he calls his little allotment, which is some distance from the village, but to which he devotes much of his time. He is a cottage gardener, and as such, his short and simple history addresses itself to many of my readers. His children are steady and respectable, and are comforts and supports, too, in his declining age. I often meet him in warm, sunny weather, resting on a bank, on his way to or from "the ground," and it is always refreshing to stay a few minutes and talk to him.

How good would it be for all cottage gardeners to walk in the steps of poor old Isaac C! How quietly they would then rest under those Almighty wings, ever ready to shelter them, and from whose mighty security no man upon earth can tear them! How harmlessly would the evils of life pass over them,-how complete would their enjoyment be, whatever might betide, and how dazzling would be the home awaiting them, when their cottages are crumbled into ruins, their gardens broken up into wild desolation, and "the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up!"

We are beginning another stage of our journey towards eternity, but we cannot tell how soon our chariot wheels may stop. Let us be watching against that hour, of which "knoweth no man;" for it may be "at hand" to every one of As the new year opens upon us, whether in youth or age, in poverty or plenty, in health or sickness, let us all, my cottage readers, "consider our ways!"

us.

SCARLET THORN, AND SCARLET
HORSE-CHESTNUT.

MR. RIVERS, of the Nurseries, Sawbridgeworth, has written to me two letters, from which the following are extracts:"Dec. 14, 1850.

"You have got us poor nurserymen into a mess, by calling the Double Pink Thorn the "Double Scarlet." There is no such thorn. There are, as you well know, only two double thorns, the Double White, which fades to a pale pink, and the Double Pink, most properly named, for it is always pink, and never red or scarlet. Pray, make this right, for already people order Double Scarlet Thorns, and will not believe there is no such thing, because you say there is. No honest man can label a thorn "Double Scarlet," for it would be a lying label.

66

'Again, the Scarlet Horse-chestnut is Esculus rubicunda

of Loudon, and of all of us; my specimen tree is 30 ft. high. It cannot, therefore, be called dwarf. I have never heard it called "Scarlet Pavia." This name is applied to Pavia rubra, and its variety P. humilis, both dwarf, and with deep crimson flowers. I have never seen either of them called Pavia rubicunda; this latter name always being attached to Esculus, your Scarlet Horse-chestnut, with large rugose leaves. The Pavias have all very smooth foliage. By the way, Pavia discolor makes a nice free flowering standard. "I have long wished to get standards of P. macrostachya, a great favourite of mine, but the buds have always failed. I think I have tried it at times for these twenty years, and have never succeeded in making it a standard by inarching." "Dec. 24, 1850.

"The four popular varieties of the Hawthorn ought to be named as follows:

"The Pink Thorn, or Hawthorn, formerly known as the Scarlet Thorn.

"The Crimson Thorn.

"The Double White Thorn.

"The Double Pink Thorn.

"There is not the least approach to scarlet in any of them. Neither ought the Esculus rubicunda to be called the Scarlet Horse-chestnut, but the Rosy Horse-chestnut. You see the old way was (but we must change such matters) to name a variety, not according to its actual form or colour, but according to what was wished for, or desired; thus, the first deviation from white in Hawthorn was called 'scarlet.' Too bad, was it not?"

At first, I thought Mr. R. put me down as a fast writer, who, wrote at random, and to meet that charge I prepared the following defence:-In the first letter, Mr. R. wrote Scarlet Horse-chestnut as we all do, being such a common word in the nurseries. In the second letter, he is not far from my translation of rubicunda. What he says about his beautiful specimen of Æsculus rubicunda is a feather in my cap, for it thus appears that under first-rate management this beautiful tree attains to a greater size than I, or any of the authorities stated, was aware of. Still I should not feel myself justified in calling it otherwise than as I have. Last summer I saw six plants of Queen Victoria geranium about five feet high, and fine bushy plants; but few would take me for a faithful authority, if I called the variety more than a dwarf; and so with this chestnut. I did not know that Pavia macrostachya was so obstinate as to refuse uniting by grafts or buds, and notwithstanding Mr. Rivers's great authority, I am not satisfied about letting it off from further trials. Will it take on any of the smaller Pavias? Unless it refuses to do that, we may be sure of it yet, by double working, or, perhaps, by inarching in August, after the flowers are over; there are many plants that will neither root nor take by grafting while preparing to flower, or when in a flowering state.

I know all the double thorns, and the red thorns well, and also the chestnuts, but would rather not trust to my own eyes when I am called in question. In The Gardeners' Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 5, Dr. Lindley writes of the true Double Scarlet Thorn, and of the single form of it-"the most brilliant of all the thorns, with bright crimson blossoms, and the double variety of it has also flowers nearly as intense." Dr. Lindley would not thus describe a pink thorn, and therefore the probability is that Mr. Rivers does not know the sort. Respecting the Scarlet Horse-chestnut, I learned that name also, and did not make it; but there is no such in existence. No one has ever yet seen a Scarlet Horse-chestnut. Here, too, I cannot trust to my own eyes. The first account of the Scarlet Horse-chestnut is in an old French periodical of more than forty years standing, called Herbier de l'Amateurs, or, as one might say, a French Cottage Gardener. There it is first called rubicunda, that is, glowing red, or as we say in the country, a jolly red face. The next account we have of it, is in a work published at Berlin, in 1822, called Dendrologische Flora, with a plate, No. 22. In 1825, it was figured in London, in a work called Dendrologia Britannica, plate 121. Here it got paler, and was called Carnea. Dr. Lindley also named it Carnea, in the Botanical Register, plate 1056. But the elder Decandolle adopted rubicunda, in his large Prodromus, vol i. p. 957, just five-and-twenty years ago. Don, in his Miller's Dictionary, did the same, vol. i., p. 652. Loudon followed the true name in all his Arboretums. A

Polish botanist, Schubert, called it rubicundum; and a German botanist, who seemingly got into Paris through the very centre of the multiplication table itself, and who, out of old iron, manufactures new names for old plants by the score, for the pages of Annales des Sciences Naturelles, calls it Watsomana, very likely, after the author of Dendrologia Britannica-derivations being fashionable just now-and I recollect the day when, if Dr. Lindley had found two trusty friends like Mr. Rivers and myself, he would have gone over to Boulogne to "meet" this German botanist, with a piece of old iron. But having missed that, let Mr. Rivers consult the above authorities, and if any of them called his tree a scarlet sort, or if the best of them did not range it below the medium size, I shall consent to be called a fast writer, not knowing what I am about. D. BEATON.

NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK CLAY.

TaE clay, or (as the Editor of THE COTTAGE GARDENER more properly calls it) the clay-marl, of Norfolk and Suffolk is used not only as a manure, but also as a building material; large bricks being made of it, and dried in the sun. These bricks are provincially called " lumps." Labour will be spared if the clay, which is to be used for this purpose, is cast before the winter; for then it will be in some measure crumbled by the frost. The work of making the lumps may be begun in the spring as soon as it is probable that there will be no more frosts severe enough to injure them. The first thing to be done is, of course, to temper the clay. This operation is performed in the following manner:-A quantity of straw is cut into lengths of eight or ten inches; some of this straw is spread on the ground, so as to form a bed two or three inches thick; this is done in order to prevent the soil from being mixed with the clay. On this bed of straw some clay is laid, and trodden by a horse, having been first sufficiently moistened. While this operation is going on, the clay is watered as often as is necessary, and some of the chopped straw is, from time to time, scattered upon its surface and trodden into it. I need hardly say that the use of the straw is to make the clay hang together, and to prevent the lumps from cracking as they dry. Eight or nine cart-loads of clay may be trodden at one time. In about two hours the clay will be sufficiently tempered; and the clay which formed the bed on which it was laid, will be found to be mixed with the mass.

The lumps are moulded in the same way as common bricks; but as no sand is used, the inside of the mould must be kept wet, that the clay may not stick to it. The length of the lumps is always eighteen inches, and their thickness six inches; but the width varies, being twelve, or nine, or six inches, according to the thickness of the wall that is to be built. Thus, if a fourteen-inch wall is to be built, lumps twelve inches thick must be used; for the inside and outside coatings, of which we shall speak presently, will add about two inches to the thickness of the wall.

When moulded, the lumps are laid, an inch or two inches apart, upon the ground to dry; as soon as they are stiff enough to handle, they are turned upon the other side, then successively upon each of the edges, and upon each of the ends. In about three weeks, if the weather be fine, they will be dry enough to be used for building; or, if not immediately wanted, to be formed into piles.

When these lumps are used in building, they are laid, not in or upon the ground, but upon an under-pinning of bricks, or, more frequently, of flint with brick quoins, and a course of bricks on the top; for flints are very abundant in this part of the country. The under-pinning should not be less than two feet high. The lumps are laid just as bricks are laid, except that they are all placed lengthways; the width of the lump being, as was before said, nearly equal to the thickness of the wall. They are laid, not in mortar, but in clay, tempered in the same manner as that of which the lumps are made; but no straw is mixed with the clay used for this purpose. Since, therefore, it cannot be trodden upon a bed of straw, the ground upon which it is tempered should be very firm.

After the building is roofed in, both the inside and the outside of the walls are coated with plaister, composed of equal parts of clay and a kind of marl, provincially called

"murgin;" this marl, as was said in a former notice, consists almost entirely of pulverized chalk. This mixture of clay and murgin, with the addition of cut barley straw, must be well tempered; it therefore ought to be trodden about four hours, and the stones and large pieces of chalk should be picked out of it, as well as from that in which the lumps are laid. Barley straw is used, because, being softer and more flexible than that of wheat or oats, it will yield more readily to the trowel; and, therefore, the surface of the plaister will be much smoother than it would be if any other kind of straw were used. Sometimes a second coating of fine mortar is used in the inside. The outer coating may be washed with white-wash made of lime. Before the coatings are laid on, the surface of the walls should be moistened. The spring and the autumn are the seasons most favourable for coating the outside of the walls; for if the plaister is frozen while wet, it will be defaced, or perhaps detached from the walls; and if it dries too quickly, it will crack. That part of the chimneys which is above the roof must be built with brick.

Clay buildings are very durable, provided the tops of the walls are protected from the wet; they are also very dry and warm. Most of the cottages, and some very respectable farm houses, together with barns, stables, and other outbuildings are thus constructed of clay; and they are very neat indeed. Where the house is built with other materials, the out-buildings are usually of clay.

The advantage of clay lumps over brick is their cheapness. The whole cost of a wall built of clay, is about one-fourth that of one built of brick and mortar.

In districts in which the clay of the eastern counties is not found, I think that some other descriptions of marl, or brick-earth, might be used for the same purpose.

Bricks very like those here described were in use at a very early period, certainly more than three thousand years ago. In the book of Exodus, we read that Pharaoh reduced the Israelites to slavery, and compelled them to make bricks. At length, with the design of rendering their drudgery more severe, and of setting them a task which they could not possibly perform, he ordered that straw should no more be given them, but obliged them to gather straw or stubble themselves, at the same time requiring them to make every day as many bricks as they had been used to make, when they were supplied with straw. Some of the readers of THE COTTAGE GARDENER may perhaps wonder, as I remember I once did, how it was that bricks could not be made without These brieks were like clay lumps, evidently made of some kind of tenacious earth, and not burned, but dried in the sun, and therefore could not be properly made with out a mixture of straw. It is probable that such bricks were extensively used in Egypt; for if durable buildings can be constructed with lumps or sun-dried bricks in the rainy climate of England, they are plainly still more suitable to the climate of Egypt, where rain is almost unknown.

straw.

I hope I may be here allowed to remark, that some are perplexed with passages which they meet with in the Bible, because they do not consider that the events recorded in Scripture took place in remote ages, and in countries the climate, and productions, and customs, and manners of which were very different from those of our own country. Of this we have an instance in the circumstance just referred to; for though bricks very similar to those which the Israelites were compelled to make in Egypt are very commonly made in Norfolk and Suffolk, and perhaps in some other parts of the United Kingdom, yet I think it not improbable that this notice may meet the eyes of some who have never seen or heard of a sun-dried brick or clay lump, and therefore cannot conceive that there is a description of brick that cannot be made without straw. It is admitted that a knowledge of such things is by no means essential to a right understanding and a cordial reception of the great truths of revelation, yet we think that no kind of knowledge is quite useless which tends in any way to throw light upon the Holy Scriptures. I will venture to add another remark, which I hope will not be deemed out of its place in THE COTTAGE GARDENER. There is another kind of knowledge which is most essential, and for want of which, we fear that the Scriptures are a sealed book to many who are "expert in all customs and questions which were among the Jews" and other ancient people: this knowledge God alone

can give, and we trust He will give it to all who pray for it; and the most unlearned reader of the Scriptures, even the most unlearned hearer, though unable to read a word, will, if he obtains it, be made "wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." REV. E. SIMONS.

THE PLAN OF MY FLOWER-GARDEN.

As you lately expressed a wish for patterns of flower beds, I send you a plan of a grass garden, which, though probably nothing new, yet certainly has a very pretty and gay effect from the drawing-room windows, and is much admired for being so constantly gay, at so very little trouble or expense of labour beyond that of keeping it neat. It has often struck me, that there are two serious objections to the modern "bedding-out" system: first, that it involves much labour and consequent expense; and secondly that in the interregnum, or "transition state," the beds are often dull and flowerless, and one's privacy and comfort often disturbed by workmen in the pleasure ground, and untidiness before the windows. I have been my own head-gardener for the last twenty years, despite of almost constant ill-health (during which time this pursuit has been my greatest recreation), and I think I may say, that I have succeeded in keeping my garden constantly gay, without the aid of a greenhouse, at a very small expense of labour, by the following arrangement:—

Around every bed, at about three inches from the grass, there is a complete and thick border of crocuses, of all colours mixed; the yellow begin in February, and the purple and white continue till April, closing over the yellow as they wither, and as the beds interlace each other, nothing can be more gay or beautiful than this bloom with a number of different hepaticas and early heaths in the beds. At about six inches within the crocus hedge, and eight inches from each other, are planted double tulips (chiefly Rex ruborum and double yellow); like the crocuses, surrounding every bed, and being like them, only disturbed every three or four years, they form thick clumps, with several flowers on each. Between each of these tulip plants, or clumps, and in the same line, are plants of anemones or hyacinths. These are to succeed the crocuses, and form, with a little help from purple primroses, &c., my April bloom. It is not quite so brilliant as my March and May bloom, but still is gay. As these fade, the tulip bloom in May comes on and as these close over the fading anemones and hyacinths between them, they seem to form a perfect hedge of mingled scarlet and gold, round every bed of which the effect may really be termed gorgeous. There are, of course, within the beds a few May flowers to combine with them; and I consider this the most brilliant time. As these fade, all the June fibrous rooted plants, beginning with early blue lupines, double purple, and double white rockets, peach-leaved campanulas (blue and white, double and single), with small purple Siberian larkspurs, scarlet lychnes, and all those beautiful, but now much neglected "border flowers" come into beauty; then roses of all colours, white lilies, &c., with annuals and stocks planted or sown near the edges, so as to grow over the vacant space left by the bulbous root borders; then, the autumnal low growing phloxes, lobelias, and even in the more distant beds dahlias, with annuals and hardy calceolarias, last till the frost sets in; and one feels that neatness is now all that can be sought for, till spring restores gaiety and beauty once more.

I cannot admire those masses of colours now so much the fashion, unless the flowers themselves are handsome individually. A bed of geraniums is always beautiful; but there is something so non-interesting in a bed of white, or yellow, or lilac candytufts, compared to the beautiful mixture of our border flowers of all colours, that it seems to me as if so much yellow or white cloth laid on the grass would answer as well. I ought to mention, that in my walled-garden I have formed beds of ranunculusses, double anemones, auriculas, and other florists' flowers; and these, too, I think I manage to keep more constantly gay than is usual; but I have trespassed too long on your time.

AN INVALID LADY GARDENER.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of THE COTTAGE GARDENER. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and expense. All communications should be addressed "To the Editor of

The Cottage Gardener, 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London." ICEBERGS (G. Porcher).—Mr. Beaton has sent to us a letter which, totally regardless of the above notice, you have sent to him, and in which you ask whether the article on Icebergs, with his signature attached, was written by him; because, as you are pleased to allege, of the frequent false statements made in the public prints. Now, if you had reflected for one moment, you would have seen that you were asking, in other words, whether the Editor of THE COTTAGE GARDENER had committed forgery for the purpose of swindling the public. Comment upon this is needless; and we will only add, that in future all private letters sent to the writers in this paper will be burnt and unnoticed.

COTTAGE GARDENERS' DICTIONARY (Ibid).—It is too much to ask us to define terms, which every one who knows anything of Botany has at his fingers' ends. Every Natural Order (Nat. Ord.) is a group of plants more or less resembling each other, and after one of which the Order is named; thus, Mimosads is the Natural Order of which Mimosa is a prominent member, and (Fabaceae) is the name usually given in botanical works for the same Natural Order. 23-Polygamia 1-Monæcia are the class and order in the Linnæan system, the numbers aiding the memory as to their position in that system. These particulars apply to ACACIA, but will serve as explanatory of all the others.

CABOOL, PLANTS FOR.-In our answer about Cabool seeds Clitoria ternata is put as an annual, which it is not; we ought to have said treated as an annual, which is by far the best way to manage it in a warm country. A friend, who so used both that and the Marvel of Peru, at the Natal River, told us how well they did.

BURYING BEES (Cornubiensis).-Our correspondent says, "An Old Bee-keeper," who kindly cautions your readers against being led astray by the quotation from the Hereford Times in page 339 of THE COTTAGE GARDENER, relative to the entombment of bees, has certainly arrived at a wrong conclusion. That communication appeared originally in The Gardeners' Chronicle for 1841, pp. 717, 785, bearing the signature "Yeoman; " in reference to whom Dr. Lindley assured his readers, that although his correspondent chose to preserve an incognito, he was in all respects trustworthy.

EXCRESCENCE ON PEACH-TWIG (A Junior).—The regularly arranged rows of a bead-like band round the enclosed twig, are the eggs of the Lackey Moth, of which you will find a drawing and description, as well as of these eggs, at page 207 of our first volume.

ROSES (June, Ireland).-Yes, we allude to young wood only; but if we were on the spot we should probably order whole shoots to be removed, without reference to the age. Strong hybrid Chinas, and others of that free style of growth, must often be dealt with that way, and some of their young shoots left much longer than we advise in a general way. French pruning is not applicable for our climate in all cases. When shoots, young or old, small or large, in a rose or any other bush, get too crowded, the only safe rule is to cut out some of them quite close to the older wood. Pray repeat the question about the pear-trees, and say the age, kind of growth, and the nature of the subsoil.

FLOWER-GARDEN (Invalid Lady Gardener).-Your beds are of the very best forms, and very well arranged, with the exception of the second one from the house in the middle, between the house and basket. Instead of that, we would repeat a couple of the nine-feet beds beyond the basket; if smaller, that would not signify. The uniformity of the whole garden would be preserved with a good selection of plants; and by keeping the tallest in the large corner beds, you might make a very good picture of this garden. But in the absence of lists or any guide we can go no farther.

TOOLS (Sigma).-All the tools that a half-acre allotment holder requires, are a good spade; two broad hoes, nine and seven inches; two small hand-hoes, four and three inches; a couple of strong round-toothed iron rakes; a strong wooden rake; a Dutch hoe; a strong potato fork; a hay fork; a garden line; a wheelbarrow, or two; and a small wooden roller. The plough has no business here. "Half-acre men" should show-which they well can-that the spade pays better. A small donkey cart would be readily planned by a country wheelwright. The main thing is, to get the land in good tilth by thorough working when dry. Without this all is uphill work; and it is thus that more powerful implements become necessary. Lucerne is sown at the rate of about twelve pounds per acre. Rye about two bushels. We will discuss the cow question in our February allotment paper.

BEE-HOUSES (W. F. G.).—Your plan for a bee-house is a very good one; the asphalt felt would be objectionable. Paint the whole outside with stone colour; either green, lead colour, or white, are not so well; and be sure to have height sufficient for two supers upon each stock, which will very frequently be required; and if of glass, they must be covered, notwithstanding their being enclosed in a house. The holes you mention will afford sufficient ventilation, except in the height of the honey-gathering season, and at swarming time, when the doors must be open, or the roof raised, as well as the whole front being shaded by matting or canvass.

PLAN RETURNED (G. S― B.).-We have no recollection of your plan out of the multitude we have to inspect. We certainly have it not in our possession. Wewill inquire about figs in pots. We saw some rowing

in Mr. Rivers's greenhouses, at Sawbridgeworth, and our remembrance is that they occupied about four square feet. He keeps them dwarf, like

small currant bushes.

soil is "a good loam," we have no difficulty in answering your question.

GRASS SEEDS FOR A LAWN (Mrs. Edwardes).—As you tell us that your

For an acre, you will require 6 lbs. of Cynosurus cristatus (Crested Dog'stail), 3 lbs. Festuca duriuscula (Hardish Fescue), 2 lbs. Festuca tenuifolia (Narrow-leaved F.), 20lbs. Lolium perenne tenue (Slender perennial Rye grass), 12 lb. Poa nemoralis (Wood Meadow grass), 1 lb. P. nemoralis sempervirens (Evergreen do.), 1 lb. Poa trivialis (Common Meadow grass), 7 lbs. Trifolium repens (White clover), and 2 lbs. T. minus (Small Yellow clover). An Amateur will please to take this as an answer, if his soil is similar; if it is not, he must state its character. CROP AFTER POTATOES (Causidicus).—As your light land in Norfolk was manured for the potatoes (hence one cause of their being virulently diseased), you need not do more than give it another slight dressing of manure, and sow barley early in the spring, as you wish for a uniform crop. It ought to produce a good crop if sown early.

MISTLETOE SEEDS (G.).-You will find a very full account of how these should be sown in our 29th number, page 22.

MINOR QUESTIONS (An Inquirer).-Messrs. Knight and Perry will send you lists, if you apply in the mode you mention. The true Forgetme-not does not grow by the side of ponds. You have some one of the half-aquatic species of Veronica, and these will not flourish in dry garden soil. Your Morello cherry-trees are blighted annually. Blight is too indefinite a term. Do you mean they are attacked by insects, and if so, of what kind? The caterpillars attacking your Brocoli were probably those described at page 207 of the present volume.

NAME OF PLANT (Sancho).-Yours is the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger). Thanks for your hints.

one.

BEGONIA COCCINEA (An Inquirer).—The leaf is a full sized healthy You have acted right in every respect; only we would not have given it such an amount of rotten dung. It will not interfere with the luxuriance; only it may render it longer before it flowers. You have nine shoots 14 inches long. They are likely to bloom in a month or two, and all the readier if you kept it rather dry and cool for a month-say in a temperature from 45° to 50°-and then put it in a temperature 10° higher, and give water. Do not think of shifting it; but if it does not flower, as you may have grown it too luxuriantly, do not cut it down, but shift it in April, or thereabouts, and grow it on all the summer, when you will have a specimen that for abundance of bloom will be worth going to see at this time next year. See articles on Begonia, by Messrs. Fish and Appleby.

CINERARIA LEAVES CURLING (F. W. T.).-The removing them from a closeish damp frame to an open dry greenhouse is the cause. They like a moist atmosphere. Give a sufficiency of water, and syringe the shelves and foliage for some time at least. See an article to-day by Mr. Fish.

PLANTS NOT DOING WELL (J. B. H.).-There is no doubt but you will succeed, even in Liverpool. Your hopes are well founded; for we never knew an instance of a man that was ashamed, not frightened, at a failure, but who was destined ultimately to succeed. Your fresh, damp, new flue, with a temperature raised from it of nearly 60° in a frosty night, was sufficient of itself to produce some of the appearances you mention, and, besides, it was at least 15° too high for every plant you mention, except the Pentas and the Gesnera zebrina. Your second error, therefore, was putting plants in the same house that required different temperatures. To preserve your Pentus, place it at the warmest part of your house; if the leaves of the Gesnera are still beautiful you may place it beside the Pentas; but as soon as it gets unsightly put it beneath the stage, and give no water until it begins to grow again in March or April, when you may pot it, and it will bloom nicely towards the autumn, but your house will be too cold in winter. Before your flue gets nicely set and dried be satisfied with 40° in a cold night, and then you may let the heat rise 5° or 7° afterwards, with an allowance of 10° or 15° for sunshine.

MELIANTHUS MAJOR (J. W. G.).—This is an old plant, peculiar for being found almost solely at the Cape of Good Hope and Nepaul. It is a strong-growing tree-like shrub, with beautifully cut milky-green leaves; the flowers are produced in large bunches, but are not very striking. It likes sandy loam with a little peat. It will require much room in your greenhouse to grow it in perfection. It has stood and thriven well against a wall, with a slight protection in winter. In Devonshire it endures the winter in the open border.

DERIVATIONS (A Clergyman).—In the same spirit which dictated your criticisms are those criticisms received; and the Editor begs to return you more than common thanks. Will you further oblige him, in strict confidence, with your address, as he wishes much to write to you pri vately.

SPANISH COCK (J. N-, 33). -Our correspondent wishes to know where he can obtain one of the pure breed. Payne's Cottage Hive is the best for you; if you write to J. H. Payne, Esq., Bury St. Edmunds, he will supply you probably.

LONDON: Printed by HARRY WOOLDRIDGE, Winchester High-street, in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; aud Published by WILLIAM SOMERVILLE ORR, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of Christ Church, City of London.-January 9th, 1851.

"RETIRED from business, I find my best recreation and exercise in my garden," is the opening sentence of a letter now before us, and that sentence expresses the experience of a large section of every class of mankind, from the remotest age to the present time. When Alexander the Great inquired of a Sidonian prince how he had endured the poverty which compelled him to labour for existence in his garden, the prince replied, "May heaven enable me to bear my prosperity as well! I then had no cares, for my own hands supplied all my wants;" and when Domitian was solicited to resume imperial power, he replied that, if the tempter could see the cabbages he had planted with his own hands no urgency would be used to induce him to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power. If from the man who pants for rural pleasures exempt from the state drudgery of the crown we pass to the man of the desk and the workshop, we find them both yearning for the same "garden of delights;" and in the array of flower-pots on the window-sills of city attics we hail an evidence of the triumph of the good spirit within, which makes us "all gardeners" to the fullest extent of our opportunities; and emphatically do we reply to a certain querist-" It is not too much to say that the mind which can, with genuine taste, occupy itself with gardening must have preserved some portion of youthful purity, and must have escaped, during its passage through the active world, its deeper contaminations."

We have taken a wide bound from the emperor to the artisan, but every reader knows that each intermediate class is characterised by a love of gardening, and that the evidence is to be found in all degrees of residence, from a Brixton villa to Chatsworth. No fairer example could be selected to illustrate our universal gardenership than SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE, one of the wisest of politicians, and one of the most accomplished of horticulturists. "This negociator," said the Abbé Raynal, perhaps the most celebrated his country ever produced, appears to have been capable of effecting whatever he undertook:" and no other panegyric need be added than this-"His chief maxim in politics was always to speak the truth; and his sense of honour, that it was the only maxim worthy of an honest man." He was the son of Sir John Temple, and born in 1628 at London. He commenced his education under his maternal uncle, the learned Dr. Hammond, continued his studies at Bishop Stortford school, and concluded them under Dr. Cudworth at Emanuel College, Cambridge. From the University he proceeded abroad, and at the Restoration was chosen a member of the Irish Parliament. In 1665 he went on a secret mission to Munster, was employed afterwards in forming the triple alliance between Sweden, Holland, and this country, and became resident minister at the Hague, in which capacity he promoted the union between the Prince of Orange and Princess Mary. In 1679 he became Secretary of State, but in the following year retired from office to his country seat, Sheen in Surrey, where he was repeatedly visited by his sovereigns, Charles II., James II., and William III. He died in 1699, on the 27th of January. His works have been published in 2 vols. folio, and 4 vols. 8vo. In the first volume of them is contained his essay entitled, The Garden of Epicurus; or of Gardening in the Year 1685.

This essay is devoted chiefly to inculcate that taste for formal design in gardening which was the prevailing one of his time. When we compare it with the plan given by Lord Bacon in a preceding age for a similar construction, we find but this difference-that if both plans were reduced to practise, Sir William's would be rather the most mathematical and undeviatingly formal. Sir William Temple's beau ideal of a garden is that of a flat or gently sloping plot of an oblong shape, stretching away from the front of the house, the descent from which to it was from a terrace running the whole length of the house, by means of a flight of steps. Such a garden, he says, existed at Moor Park, in Hertfordshire, formed by the celebrated Lucy, Countess of Bedford, one of the chief wits of her time. It was on the slope of a hill, with two terraces, rising one over the other, and united by a magnificent flight of steps. A parterre, wilderness, highly ornamented fountains, statues, alcoves, and cloisters, were its prominent parts and ornaments. When he descends to more practical speculations he is seldom in error, among which we may specify his observations upon planting peaches in the north of Britain, which experience has demonstrated to be correct, although Switzer seems to doubt the possibility above 100 miles from London. Sir William improved his knowledge of gardening during his stay at the Hague. He introduced several new fruits, especially of grapes. His name still attaches to a variety of the nectarine; and every one knows the Moor Park Apricot. He had a garden at his seat at Sheen in Surrey, now occupied by Dr. Pinckney, to the good cultivation of which Evelyn bears this testimony :-"The most remarkable things are his orangery and gardens, where the wall-fruit trees are most exquisitely nailed and trained." Nothing can demonstrate more fully the delight Sir William took in gardening than this direction in his will-"I desire my body may be interred at Westminster Abbey, near those two dear pledges (his wife and daughter) gone before me, but with as much privacy and as small expense as my executors shall find convenient; and I desire and appoint that my heart may be interred six feet underground, on the south-east side of the stone dial in my little garden at Moor Park." Sir W. Temple affords another instance of the ruling passion unweakened even in death. Nor was this an unphilosophical clinging to that which it is impossible to retain; but rather a grateful feeling common to our nature. In his garden he had spent the calmest hours of a well-spent life, and where his heart had been most peaceful he wished its dust to mingle. He survived all his children, and the present Lord Palmerston is his heirmale; but two grand-daughters were alive at his death, one of whom married Nicholas Bacon, Esq., then proprietor of Shrubland Park, in Suffolk.

METEOROLOGY OF THE WEEK.-At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest temperatures of these days are 420 and 31.7°, respectively. The greatest heat, 60°, was on the 19th in 1828; and the lowest, 41° below zero, or 36° below the freezing point of water, on the 19th in 1838. On 75 days rain fell, and 93 days were fine.

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We have now cheap glass, cheap timber, and cheap | bricks; it is, therefore, time to endeavour to neutralize the uncertainty of our seasons by glazed structures; for these, without the least addition of artificial heat, will give us the climate, in average seasons, of the south-west of France." Thus writes Mr. Rivers in his pamphlet, entitled The Orchard House; or the Cultivation of Fruit Trees in Pots under Glass; and we need not tell the readers of our pages that we have been labouring strenuously in the same good field, and we claim preeminence over Mr. Rivers in the ratio of seventeen to five; since we have shown how a glazed structure for such purposes can be erected for five pounds, whereas Mr. Rivers's orchard house costs seventeen. However, the latter is done by workmen, whilst ours must be erected chiefly by the amateur's own hands.

In whichever way erected, every one having a garden, and fond of gardening, should have such a structure; for the increase of pleasure and profit which are secured by it is inconceivable by those little cultivators who have No. CXX., VOL. V.

never had the aid of such a structure. Not only does it enable them to protect through the winter hundreds of plants which, without such shelter, they could not have to brighten and to vary the brightness of their borders in summer, but it enables them, if they grow fruit in pots according to Mr. Rivers's plan, to defy the spring frosts, those fatal assailants of our fruit blossoms, and to be sure of an early, though not abundant crop, with all that additional zest proceeding from the thought—“These my skill promoted and my care preserved."

Mr. Rivers thus details the erection of one of his orchard houses:

I will suppose that an orchard house thirty feet long is required. A ground plan, thirty feet long and twelve feet wide, must be marked out, ten posts or studs of good yellow deal, four inches by three, and nine feet in length, or if larch poles sixteen inches in girth can be procured, they are quite equal in durability; these latter must be cut in two, and the flat sides placed ontwards; these posts or studs, whether larch or deal, must be fixed two feet in the ground firmly, and the ground ends must be charred two feet four inches from the bottom, which adds much to their durability: it