they are quite hot, rub them through a sieve or colander (the sieve is best); then, to every pound of pulp, put half a pound of loaf sugar; boil for half an hour: the cheese is then made. Bitter almonds blanched, the kernels of plumstones, or the juice of blackberries, may be used to flavour or colour it. It should be kept in saucers, and covered over with oil or brandy papers. It cuts quite firm-forms an excellent dish for dessert; is very good with boiled rice, hot or cold, and many other purposes which will, doubtless, suggest themselves to your readers; and will keep for many months if stored in a cool, dry place. TO PRESERVE EGGS.-The simplest, least troublesome, and certainly a very excellent plan, is to simply pack them in pans, with the broad end downwards, in salt-surrounding them entirely, and packing them row above row until the pan is quite full. A moderate-sized pan will hold, perhaps, one hundred. They will eat like quite fresh eggs for a week or ten days after packing them in the salt; and will keep good for twelve months, if necessary. I have kept all my eggs thus for years, and never had one spoilt in the keeping. Of course it is needless to say, the eggs must be kept in a quite dry place.-CANTIUM. ROSES (S.). The four standard roses that will suit your purpose are :-Baronne Prevost, pale rose; Dr. Mana, carmine; Mrs. Elliott, purple; and Geant des Batailles, brilliant crimson. Your six dwarfs may be Aubernon, bright red; Safrano, pale yellow; Fabvier, scarlet ; Souvenir de Malmaison, rosy flesh; Charles Souchet, purplish ; and Brennus, rosy crimson; and Laura Davoust, pink, changing to white. Gloire de Guerin. The two best climbers for your six-feet pillars are These will furnish you with fine roses from July until the frost destroys the flowers. SCORCHING (F. W. T.).—It is a hopeless task to give reasons for your plants scorching, or, as you term it, "scalding," without knowing the elevation, thickness, size of glass, &c., &c. You seem to think your your house is very lofty, and at a high angle. However, it might easily gardener does not give air early enough; most probably you are right, if be proved, by trying giving air early during one season. Internal as well as external temperature must be studied in giving air. best kept in the open air fully exposed. Peat soil is SCARLET GERANIUMS (Jane).-You have such as Tom Thumb from three months to three weeks old from the cuttings, in a spare room, and we do not think you have any reason to be alarmed, or to speak forebodingly of disappointment. See what Mr. Fish says, pages 7 and 8. You by keeping them near the light in fine weather, and from frost when it is may save them by keeping them rather dry in your spare room up stairs, severe. You may also save them in a loft, if there is a window in it, and you throw some material over them when frosty. You will also succeed perfectly with them in your cold frame, giving plenty of air when the weather is fine, and covering up when frosty; but you will not succeed with putting them in a dark cellar, though dry, except with a few of the first struck ones that were potted early, and early submitted to a starving system, to concentrate organisable matter in their little stems. In another season you may keep older plants there, if, as you say, the position because the stems will not be so succulent as when planted out in the open ground. When the latter is the case, both roots and stems should be pruned before lifting them, so as that the latter may be firmer in consequence. This has several times been lately referred to. And lastly, your small plants should stand within a foot or so of the glass in the frame, because that distance will not rob them of light; and if a sudden frost comes, the air between the glass and the plants will take some time to cool. If the pots are set on ashes, &c., they will require to be watered very seldom, but always give as much as will reach all the roots when you do water. POTATOES ON DRY SOLL.-After reading the first article in your number of last week, it occurs to me that possibly it may be interesting to you to know-not that I tried any experiments with my potatoes this year, for I was too much of an ignoramus in matters of husbandry to do so that I planted two long beds in my kitchen-garden, and somewhat is dry; and you will do this all the better if the plants are kept in pots, less than an acre of glebe (which had not been broken up within the memory of man) with early potatoes (the farmer of whom I procured the sets calls them Radicals); also another plot of less than half an acre with late potatoesthey were "Early Risers," and he recommended them as having found them freer from disease than other kinds. All three of these plots of ground are dry, having light soil; the latter plot is particularly dry and sandy; and among the whole of my potatoes my gardener tells me there were scarce a dozen diseased. This would appear to confirm the view taken by yourself and by Mr. Turner, of Neepsend, that the rot arises from excess of moisture. I should add, that my neighbours, whose land is lower than mine, and moister, nearer to "the moss as we call it in Cheshire, have suffered much this year in respect of their potato crops. While I am upon this subject, I may state a circumstance which puzzles me, viz., the exceeding partiality with which my potatoes were affected with scab. In some places the tubers were quite free from it for many yards together, and then came several yards of perfectly disfigured tubers. What is the cause of "scab?"-REV. D. A. B- W Rectory. [The scab in potato tubers seems to be an hereditary disease; for it never affects some varieties. We think it is oftenest found in soils containing an excess of oxide of iron.ED. C. G.] 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.” THE COTTAGE GARDENER'S Dictionary (G. F. P.).—You will see by an advertisement that the first number is published; and a number will appear every Thursday until completed. When you obtain your copy, which you can through any bookseller, you will understand what care is required in preparing it. ROCKERY (R. A. L., Devonshire).—You say your rockery has been lately finished; and wish to know whether it would be advisable to let it remain without planting until spring, or if any plants are to be inserted now, and what kinds? All dwarf shrubs suitable for rock-work may, with great propriety, be planted in open weather now; such, for instance, as Cotoneaster microphylla, Dwarf Cistuses, Dwarf Rhododendrons, Daphne Cneorum, Epigea repens, Dwarf Genistas, and hardy Heaths, if your soil is, or can be made, peaty. Some of the evergreen rock-plants may also be planted, especially the Saxifrages. Gold and Silver fish will live in your pond, though a still one. They will require a protection from frost, by covering a portion of the water with some rails, and spruce-fir branches or a matting of reeds. They will exist and increase without feeding; but it is very amusing and pleasing to feed them, though not absolutely necessary. Gold fish will travel by railroad in water, in a vessel to which air is admitted. They will die in an air-tight vessel. TOM THUMB GERANIUMS (An Amateur).-1st. These you have struck in the soil of an old hot-bed, sheltered with glass, and a mat at night, but giving plenty of air, and you wish to know if they can be kept there, as they are so healthy, by banking round the frame with ashes and decayed manure, or whether they should be potted and taken to the greenhouse? Either way will do if you give the requisite attention. The cuttings would have done quite as well in the open air as under the glass. If your bed is raised considerably above the surface ground, there will be less danger of damping. You will succeed better with ashes alone round the frame, or ashes and earth; avoid the decaying manure if possible. If the plants are very thick, you had better thin them and put them in the greenhouse. If you have plenty of small pots, you might pot them all-taking them up with small balls-and transfer them to the frame again, which would check their luxuriance, and they would be ready to be moved anywhere in spring. We almost fear that, in the rich soil of the hot-bed, they will grow too freely. However, we are trying a great many ourselves, by leaving them in the border where they were struck; but they are not so forward as yours. Preserving old geraniums and verbenas that were bedded out has often been referred to (see preceding correspondent); and verbenas are best kept by securing small cuttings before they are cut down by frost, and preserving them in a cold frame or greenhouse, or window. LATE-SOWN CArrots (Ibid).—These should be allowed to grow a little longer if you wish to have them large. These roots are taken up not so much to escape frost, as to escape from being disfigured and eaten by worms, &c. HER MAJESTY's Gardens at FROGMORE (A Gardener).—We cannot say whether these are open to gardeners generally, and at any time. Mr. Ingram is well known for his urbanity and kindness. SOLANDRA GRANDIFLORA (Ibid).—This has never flowered with you, though kept in sandy loam, and also dry from May to October. We should give it a little peat and leaf-mould, and, instead of keeping it dry, we would grow it vigorously during the summer, and then let it have a season of comparative dryness and coolness; and if in the process the leaves fall, that will not prevent its flowering afterwards. VARIOUS (Arthur Loftus).-Azaleas-These inserted in pots of sand, and placed in a moderate hotbed in July, should have been rooting. Have you not given too much air? Did you place a bell-glass over the pot? Was not the wood rather hard? if so, they will be longer in striking; and as they are healthy perhaps they will do so still. A nice sweet bottom heat, and a bell-glass over them, would soon lead to success or failure. Your shrubby Calceolarias inserted at the same time were inserted too early for autumn and too late for spring propagation. In autumn they strike best when kept cool; in spring, after the plants begin growing, cuttings from them strike best in a gentle heat; we seldom lose a cutting at either season. You would have been more successful close to a wall with a north aspect than in a frame with peat, but the subject will be alluded man. to. Anagallis-Seeds of this you may procure from any respectable seedsSome better kinds do not seed freely, and are therefore propagated by cuttings. Mr. Beaton recommends the white Campanula carpatica for bedding, and we wish we had it, as we have no doubt it will be beautiful, if at all as good as the blue. For a taller bed nothing beats the double Feverfew: we have had it in dense masses, each flower being from the size of a shilling to nearly that of half-a-crown. There is also the little white Campanula pumila for a dwarf bed, and the Lobelia erinus albus for the same; also the Enothera Taraxacifolia for a thick low bed; and then, for early work, what is more beautiful than the white evergreen For Greenhouse Candy-tuft, or even the annual white Candy-tuft? plants, cheap and of easy culture, to cut blooms from in winter, see Mr. Fish's article on cool greenhouses, and you will be farther attended to. BRUNSVIGIA (A Learner).—This, which has been out all summer, you may take up from the border; keep it dry, and secure from frost during winter, and either pot it and grow it in the house, or transfer it to the border next spring, securing it from frost by planting it deep enough, and covering it before the heat of summer. HYBRID PERPETUAL ROSES FOR FORCING (Ibid).-Prune now, and the buds will be better swelled. Top dress when you like, but do not pot until your plants have flowered. Put the plants in the house whenever you like; you will succeed best if you do not commence forcing until after the new year. See an article by Mr. Fish lately. Force gradually at first, beginning with 45°. VINES IN A GREENHOUSE (Arthur Loftus).-Owing to various reasons, we seldom can answer correspondents in the first number after their writing to us, from the necessity of having the work in a forward state. The second number from the time of writing is, in general, the earliest that "Will can be relied on for an answer, and frequently it must be longer. the vines injure my flowers?" No, not in winter or spring, nor yet in summer if only planted thinly, and plenty of air given, so as to suit the plants more than the vines. If vines and their fruit are made the chief objects during summer and autumn, then you must keep your house closed, and remove your common greenhouse plants out of doors, and "The best method of supply their places with tender annuals, &c. training vines over plants?" In single rods up the rafter; this rod to be cut-back the first season within a short distance of the bottom, and the spurring system of pruning in future resorted to. The best kinds where little artificial heat is used are White Muscadine and Black Hamburgh. Good-sized vines may be planted; and if roots were proportioned to tops they would bear sooner; but in general nice strong healthy plants in pots, raised from single buds this spring, will answer best. Plant now, disentangling the roots, in a nice drained border, or wait until next spring, starting the plants in the house before planting out in May. VINE ROOTS DECAYED (T. E., Leicester).-Never mind what you are told about." the drainage being ample," those roots sent to us were rotted by stagnant moisture; and you explain the source of the mischief at once by saying-" the roots are confined, as it were, in a cistern, by a brick wall." If you cannot get the roots out of that cistern-as by getting them on to the surface in a station, or by breaking down the walls-that vine's roots will continue to rot. LOBELIA ERINUS GRANDIFLORUS (Flora Montague).-This is of very dwarf habit, about eight inches high-colour of the flowers blue. It is a greenhouse perennial, but does well planted out in summer along the front of borders. Other questions next week. PICKLING TOMATOS (E. K. V.)-You pickle yours too ripe, probably. When mature, but not quite ripe, cut them off, leaving a small piece of stalk attached; wipe them dry with a soft cloth; put them into a jar, and cover the whole with cold vinegar; fasten down close, and in three weeks they will be fit for use. By this means you retain most of the flavour of the Tomato. When fattening poultry, if barley or oats are used, it is useful to soak the food; otherwise, it is immaterial. FLOWER-POTS (An Amateur).-When a flower-pot is described as a 60, or 40, and so on, nothing more is meant than that the manufacturer sells them in quantities containing that number-he calls it a cast, and there are 60, 40, and so on, to the cast. It has nothing to do with the price. You can get your evergreens at the nearest nurseryman's. You cannot CHRYSANTHEMUMS BLIND (W. M.).-You are not singular in having many of your Chrysanthemum-shoots without blooms. remedy it now. The cause, probably, was that you cut down the stems too soon last autumn, before the plant had finished elaborating the sap necessary for this year's growth. The most deficient part of Chrysanthemum-growing is the want of judgment shown in treating the plants after they have finished blooming. MULCH (Rev. D. A. B.).-No fear of your not being able to obtain this! It is the gardener's term for long, half-decayed stable litter. We verily believe it is in common dictionaries! Your other questions next week. AUTUMN-SOWN ANNUALS (Elise).-These are best sown where they are to remain. The long-fruited Evening Primrose (Enothera macrocarpa) is about twelve inches high; sown this year it blooms the next. Campanula carpatica is about six inches high, and takes the same time before it blooms. Lobelia ramosa may be sown in the open ground. You are quite wrong in thinking that questioning us is any annoyance; our aim is to be useful, and answering questions is one of the modes of being useful. PANSY SEEDLINGS (A Subscriber, Edinburgh).—Your Pansy is large, but coarse, and petals plaited; colour striking, bright yellow, fringed broadly with purple. A good border variety, but will not do for exhibi tion unless the petals next year are not plaited. (F. L.).-Your bloom (not being packed in damp moss) was dried up, therefore, we can say nothing about the form; but we could make out a golden thread edging round the lower petal, which is unique and pretty. Let us see a bloom next year. PLUMBAGO CAPENSIS (-).-This Cape of Good Hope Leadwort answers perfectly to your description. It is a very pretty greenhouse evergreen, with blue flowers; introduced in 1818. DORKING FOWLS.-Any person having genuine five-toed Dorking fowls to sell may write by post, addressed to R. T. Y., Post-office, Throgmorton-street, London. MANY QUERIES (W. W. B.).-A roller-blind would be as effectual to prevent radiation from your greenhouse as would mats. In severe weather it is very advantageous to have a similar protection to the sides as well as top. Rose cuttings may be struck now in your warm greenhouse, but they may be struck much more easily in the spring. Your sewage mixed with earth instead of water (the latter being scarce with you and expensive) would answer nearly as well in rainy weather, but certainly not at other times. It is impossible to say how much mould you should use, since we neither know the strength of your sewage nor the plants you intend to apply it to. Your brocoli not heading is caused by the badness of the variety or the poverty of your soil. You may cut away the roots of your fruit-trees striking into the clay subsoil, and yet they will bear next year, if the roots spreading near the surface are not too much disturbed. We are glad that J. B.'s greenhouse has set you to work, and that you have built one (12 x 6 x 9) for £7. STRAWBERRIES (P. A. M.).—Our correspondent (referring to Cobbett's English Gardener, page 247) wishes to know where he can obtain the Cisalpine or Napoleon strawberry, or its seed, there mentioned. We suspect it is only the Red Alpine under another name. All the back numbers of THE COTTAGE GARDENER may be obtained at twopence each, at No. 2, Amen Corner. You shall hear shortly about vines in pots. CLUB-ROOT IN CABBAGE-WORTS (Gaidheal).-This disease you say attacks your seedlings in the seed-bed, though your garden is new, and no cabbage-worts have been yet twice on the same plot. This often happens in light soils, the surface of which the fly can easily penetrate to deposit her eggs. Spread soot thinly over the surface of your seed-bed. The Cottage Gardeners' Dictionary is not stamped for free transmission by post, but a penny postage stamp would frank it. PONY WITH IRRITATED SKIN (Cravensis).—Give him three balls at intervals of a week, composed each of powdered nitre, 2 drachms; sulphur, 2 drachms; black antimony, 1 drachm; aloes, I drachm; powdered ginger, 2 drachms. Treacle enough to form into a ball. Rub your cow's swollen hock with a mixture of mustard flour, 4 ounces; liquor ammoniæ, 2 ounces; and water enough to make it as thick as cream. WEST INDIAN CLIMBER (Beta).—This would require to be cultivated in a stove, where it might be sown immediately; but be assured it will not repay you for your trouble. GAS AMMONIACAL LIQUOR (J. L.).-This, after being fixed with oil of vitriol, will keep until spring in an open tank; but rain should be excluded. Other question next week. STOVES HEATED BY SMALL LIMEKILNS (A Cymro Glan).-Our correspondent says, that in Ireland hothouses have been heated with great success by small lime-kilns, and would be glad of information on the subject. We are incredulous of the alleged fact; but even if the experiment has been tried we shall be obliged by any of our Irish readers sending us particulars. NAMES OF PLANTS (A Lover of Flowers from Childhood.)—Yours is Gazania uniflora, a greenhouse under-shrub, but may be bedded out in the summer. (R. W.).-Your plant is one of those odd-looking thickleaved Crassulas. It should be grown in sandy loam, with a good portion of old mortar or brick-rubbish mixed with it, and well drained. Cuttings root readily in the same soil, if laid to dry in the sun for two or three days previous to planting them. Your species is the Crassula obliqua-a greenhouse plant. Crassula falcata, or, as it is now usually called, Rochea falcata, is a much more desirable species, being one of the most beautiful of greenhouse plants, and requiring the same treatment in every respect. ICE-HOUSE (Clericus).-The mode by which we intend to advise ice to be kept involves no brickwork. Mr. Beaton will be in time with full explanation about it. FLOWER-BEDS (J. S., Dudley).—Instead of having the groups of pointed beds at cross corners, they would answer better to be both next the house; the other two with the square sides being so much larger, would come in for the farthest side from the house, to be planted with the tallest plants you have. In the centre group of beds, you must reverse the beds 1 and 2 for 5 and 6, as you can never see the scarlet Verbena, No. 1, or blue Lobelia ramosa, No. 2, over the heads of the blue Salvias in No. 6, unless the ground is much out of level. The rest seem very well indeed; 9-8 and 8-7 on the left hand is a different arrangement from any we have seen; very rich; we should, however, be afraid the balance of colour would there be too strong; but we do not know the Calceolaria you call red in bed 7. LONDON: Printed by HARRY WOOLDRIDGE, Winchester High-street, in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by WILLIAM SOMERVILLE ORE, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of Christ Church, City of London.-November 7th, 1850. On the 10th of November, 1724, RICHARD BRADLEY, a Fellow of the Royal Society, was elected Professor of Botany at Cambridge. We have sought, but hitherto in vain, for particulars of his early history. It is not improbable that he may have been educated for the medical profession, inasmuch as that he attempted to lecture on the Materia Medica, and to the cullers of simples have the Royal Society ever had a favourable inclination. That he should have been admitted to the Professorship at Cambridge, however, evinces extreme carelessness and culpable credulity on the part of the appointing authorities, even supposing one of his successors', Professor Martyn's, statement of the event to be the whole truth. "He was chosen to that office," says this respectable authority, "by means of a pretended verbal recommendation from Dr. Sherard to Dr. Bentley, and pompous assurances that he could procure the University a public Botanic Garden by his own private purse and personal interest." Verbal recommendations and pompous assurances would not prevail now in obtaining this responsible appointment; and in the case of Mr. Bradley they were soon found to have been totally deceptive. His inability to read Botanical lectures was immediately apparent; and his entire ignorance of the learned languages rendered him the more ridiculous in one of the prime seats of classical learning. "It may seem strange to assert," says Professor Martyn, "that the translator of Xenophon's Economicks did not understand Greek; it is, however, true. Mr. Bradley's being then a popular name, he was paid by the booksellers for permitting them to insert it in the title page." His incapacity as a Professor of Botany at length became so notorious, that the father of Professor Martyn, a sketch of whom appears in our last volume (p. 119), was appointed his substitute. Mr. Bradley refused to submit to the degradation, and attempted to deliver lectures on the Materia Medica in Cambridge, at the Bull Inn. This was in 1729; and his conduct continued so offensive that the University took steps for his removal, but death saved him from the public disgrace, and the authorities from the painful necessity. He died in the course of the year 1732, between which year and his first appearance as a writer in 1713 more than thirty portly volumes flowed from his pen. If his other virtues had equalled his industry he would not have been elevated upon a black pedestal in the Temple of Fame. It may be that the contempt necessarily visited upon him urged him to seek forgetfulness by plunging deeper into the dissipated habits in which he had indulged; but this, without in any form being admissable as his excuse, serves to warn us from that course of sin which once entered upon offers no solace but by hurrying further into guilt. When we look upon the array of his works, and find in them that acuteness of observation and superiority of attainment which are especially their characteristics, and then reflect that his end was ignominious, and that even the place of his grave is unknown, we feel in full force the justice of this conclusion-The fruits of his only excellency remain, whilst all traces of their otherwise vicious author have perished. But very brief notices of some of his publications must now suffice. His History of Succulent Plants, commenced in 1716, is a work of meritstill useful for its plates, referred to by Linnæus; his New Improvement of Planting and Gardening, Philosophical and Practical, contains a mass of information that must have been highly useful to have widely imparted, and is the more curious from containing a new invention useful for designing garden plots, which invention was only improved in the kaleidoscope by Dr. Brewster a few years since. His Monthly Register of New Experiments and Observations in Husbandry and Gardening, published in 1722, contains many valuable communications from the best practical men of the day, not the least curious of which is "an account of transplanting trees of any bigness in the summer season." His Dictionarium Botanicum, "for the use of the curious in husbandry and gardening," appeared in 1728, and was the first Botanical Dictionary published in England. His Gentleman and Gardener's Kalendar was at the time, 1718, the best directory of work to be done in every month, and in every part of the garden, that had then been prepared. We must here stop from even cataloguing his publications, and to analyze their contents would be useless, even if we could effect it within our allotted space. It would be useless because, if we except some experiments which he instituted to prove the circulation of the sap and the sexuality of plants, they contain little but what our more perfect knowledge has superseded. His works, however, especially the historical portions, may yet be read with pleasure. They abound with information collected from books and men of practical intelligence, with whom he maintained an extensive correspondence. Little as is the original information of which he was the author, yet he must be regarded as one of the best friends of our horticulture. The theoretical and scientific views which he had of vegetation and practical gardening-views which he laboured to illustrate with experiments and knowledge obtained from the experienced-contributed greatly to direct the attention both of amateurs and gardeners into the true path-"science with practice"-for acquiring a correct knowledge of the art. His works ran through many editions, and had a very wide circulation; they coincided most opportunely with the increasing love of gardening, and the consequent rapidly increasing introduction of exotics, and it is certain that they helped to improve their cultivation. It is to be regretted that our gratitude is not due to one less despicable. METEOROLOGY OF THE WEEK.-At Chiswick, during the last twentythree years, the average highest and lowest temperatures of these days has been 49.2° and 35.9° respectively. The extreme cold observed during the time was 15°, on the 16th in 1841. There were 80 days on which rain fell, and 81 were fine. INSECTS Occasionally are destructive and annoying only in consequence of their number. This is especially the case with the family of the Thrips. We might bear without much irritation a visit from one or two of the Thrips Physapus-that minute black fly which causes us such intolerable titillation when it alights upon our face in sultry weather; but we all know that, like the ghosts in Macbeth, "another and another" yet succeeds, until "we'll bear no more." These, however, though intensely irritating to mortal flesh, are not injurious to the gardener; but the same harmlessness does not characterise the Thrips-Thrips Adonidum-for it is one of the worst pests that can gain a footing in our stoves and greenhouses. Our drawing represents this insect highly magnified, while the short line upon the scroll intimates its natural length. 賽 The larvae and pupae are yellowish-white, and the perfect insect is of a dull deep black, with the point, and sometimes the whole of the abdomen, of a rust colour; the wings are dirty white; the horns and legs yellowish, the extremity of the former black. It attacks plants by piercing the under side of the leaves; and one often sees, at the tip of the tail, a globule of blackish fluid, which it soon deposits, and by innumerable spots of this glutinous matter the pores of the leaves are stopped up, and large portions of the surface become blotched. During March the fullgrown larvæ and pupae, which are as large as the perfect insect, are found in groups, feeding on the under side of the leaves; and at this time the recently-hatched but perfect insect either lies close under the ribs, or roves about in search of a mate (Curtis.) Flowers of sulphur have been recommended as destructive of this plague, but we believe that Scotch snuff, applied by means of a dredging box (perhaps Brown's Fumigator would answer), is as effectual an application as any. Prevention, however, is better than cure; and if the plants are kept healthy by due ventilation, and of moisture both in the air and soil, this insect may be usually banished. employed, in the sucking-in of all food not in a gaseous state, for M. Duhamel observed that that portion of a soil was soonest exhausted in which the greatest number of the extremities of the roots were assembled.— (Physique des Arbres, vol. iii. p. 276.) Ir is long since we paused from our observations on the science of gardening, but we will now resume (from vol.iii. p. 330) our remarks relative to the roots of plants. We have seen that plants search after and acquire food by the agency of their roots; and the extremities of these appear to be the chief, if not the only parts | M.M. Sennebier and Carradori found that if roots of No. CXI., VOL V. the carrot, scorzonera, and radish are placed in water, some with only their extremities immersed, and others with their entire surfaces plunged in, except the extremities, the former imbibe the water rapidly, and the plants continue vegetating; but the others imbibe no percep tible quantity, and speedily wither. It suggests also the reason why the gardener, in applying water or manure to trees or shrubs, does so at a distance from their stems. A good rule for ascertaining the proper distance for such applications, seems to be to make them beneath the circumference of the head of the tree; for, as M. De Candolle observed, there is usually a relation between that and the length of the roots, so that the rain falling upon the foilage is poured off most abundantly at the distance most desirable for reaching the extremities of the roots. This explains why the fibrous points of roots are usually annually renewed, and the caudex (or main limb of the root) extended in length: by these means they each year shoot forth into a fresh soil, always changing their direction to where most food is to be obtained. If the extremity of a root is cut off, it ceases to increase in length, but enlarges its circle of extension by lateral shoots. The distance to which the roots of a plant extend is much greater than is usually imagined; and one reason of the stunted growth of plants in a poor soil is, that the sap collected and elaborated by them has to be expended in the extension of the roots, which have to be larger in proportion as the pasturage near home is scanty. An acorn accidentally deposited on a wall produced a young oak; but this made no progress until its root had descended the whole height of the wall, and had penetrated the soil at its base. It is by their extremities, then, that roots imbibe food; but the orifices of these are so minute, that they can only admit such as is in a state of solution. Carbon, reduced to an impalpable powder, being insoluble in water, though offered to the roots of several plants, mingled with that fluid, has never been observed to be absorbed by them; yet it is one of their chief constituents, and is readily absorbed in any combination which renders it fluid. Roots then must obtain from a soil nourishment to plants in a gaseous or liquid state: we may next, therefore, consider what constituents of soils are capable of being presented in such forms. Water can be the only solvent employed; indeed, so essential is this liquid itself, that no plant can exist where it is entirely absent; and, on the other hand, many will exist with their roots in vessels containing nothing but distilled water. Plants with a broad surface of leaves as mint, beans, &c., we have always found increase in carbonaceous matter, whilst thus vegetating; but onions, hyacinths, &c., with small surfaces of foliage, we, as invariably, have found to decrease in solid matters. The first, at all times, obtain nourishment by decomposing the carbonic acid gas of the atmosphere: the latter do so in a much smaller proportion: hence the reason why the latter are so much more impoverishing crops than the former, inasmuch as that they acquire nearly all their solid matter by means of their roots. These observations explain the conflicting statements of Saussure and Hassenfratz on this point: the former experimented with broad-leaved plants; the latter on such as have small foliage. The first maintained that plants increase in solid content when their roots are supplied with water only; the latter denied the fact. WE took occasion more than once lately to urge upon our readers the importance of gas refuse as a fertilizer. It may usually be had at a rate so reasonable as to be almost the cheapest of manures, and we are therefore extremely pleased to receive from a correspondent at Crewe, in Cheshire, the following evidence confirmatory of our own: this letter is dated October 29th, 1850: specting Mr. Payne's Cottage Hives, I intimated that I was "A short time ago, having occasion to make inquiry retrying an experiment with gas lime for a crop of wheat, promising to give you the result. In deep, poor siliceous soils we have traced the roots of trees from twelve to fourteen feet perpendicular without reaching their termination. Those of the Canada thistle, seven feet; common fern, eight feet; wheat, thirty inches; oats, twenty-four inches; potatoes, eighteen inches; onions, twenty inches; carrots, parsnips, and beet, two feet. The distance to which roots will travel, and their tenacity of life, render them often very obnoxious to the gardener. Thus the common couch grass (Triticum repens) is the most troublesome of weeds, for every fragment of its far-spreading roots will vegetate; and the sweet-scented coltsfoot and lemon mint are not less to be avoided, for the same cause renders them ex. loam; and for the last twenty years has been cropped with "The land is three rods under half a statute acre; light tremely difficult of extirpation, and they never can be one half potatoes, the other portion Swede turnips and kept within moderate bounds. Yet these creeping rooted mangold wurtzel, slightly manured; the following year plants are not to be condemned without exception; for last year was very poor, the soil being quite worn out. I put wheat, and so on in succession. The crop of potatoes, &c., whoever has grounds under his care bordering upon the on this half acre 30 cwt. of gas lime, fresh from the purifiers sea-shore, the sands of which are troublesomely light and of the gas works, so strong in ammoniacal salts, that the men shifting, may have them effectually bound down by the land, declaring, they had never met with so strong a had frequently to desist both in loading and spreading it on inoculating them with slips of the root of these grasses, smelling bottle. With one six-inch furrow I turned the gas Elymus arenarius, Carex arenaria, and Arundo arenaria. lime under, then sowed the wheat, passing over a light harThe roots of plants, unless frozen, are constantly im-row; my neighbours affirming that every grain would be destroyed!! The plant soon made its appearance, continued bibing nourishment, and even developing parts; for if strong all the winter, and a most luxuriant dark-green the roots of trees planted during the winter be examined through the summer; running too much into the straw to after an interval of a few weeks, they will be found to permit its standing against strong wind and rain. have emitted fresh radicles. 6 "I have now thrashed and measured an excellent sample of twenty measures of wheat (88 quarts each), from less than half a statute acre; I say nothing of the light grain, which indeed was trifling; the straw, very long, weighing 25 cwt. "Had not fully one half of the crop been laid by the wind, I should have thrashed out 25 measures, equal to 50 measures of wheat to the acre. The general produce in this part of Cheshire after potatoes, Swede turnips, and fallows, does not exceed, on the average, twenty measures of wheat to the acre, which is considered a good crop. "The farmers can procure gas lime from the gas works here at sixpence per two horse-load; but they say it is of no value, all the strength being taken out at the gas works. What stupidity! It is impossible to convince them that, by passing the gas through the lime it is loaded with all those valuable fertilizing salts set forth in your very able publication on The use of Gas Lime and Ammoniacal Liquor. This pamphlet I have distributed to all the large farmers in this neighbourhood, but it is of little use; you cannot beat down their stubborn prejudice. “In the spring of next year, I propose to try gas lime for onions, carrots, and parsnips." Of the result of these experiments we shall be glad to be informed. NEW PLANTS. THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. BOX-LEAVED IRON-WOOD (Metrosideros buxifolia). – Botanical Magazine, t. 4515.-Native name, Aki, but called by the settlers Lignum vitæ. An evergreen greenhouse shrub, not unlike box in general appearance. It was introduced into this country before 1848, from the forests of Wangaroa, in New Zealand. It flowered in August at the Kew Gardens. Branches hoary; leaves almost stalkless, in four rows, ovate but almost round, slightly turned back at the edge, leathery, dark glossy green above, slightly hoary beneath; flowers with small white petals, and very long white filaments, with yellow anthers, almost stalkless, springing from between the leaves and stem at the tops of the branches. It belongs to the Natural Order Myrtleblooms (Myrtaceae), and to the 12-Icosandria, 1—Monogynia of Linnæus. It is propagated from cuttings of the ripened shoots planted in sand under a bell-glass; and plants thus raised flower whilst of small growth. It prefers a soil of equal parts loam, peat, and sand. It is a handsome shrub, but gives no idea of the striking beauty, while in flower, of its congeners, such as Metrosideros tomentosa (Downyleaved Ironwood), which flowered last season in the Kew Gardens. Nor does it equal most of the old Beaufortias, Melaleucas, and others belonging to the same group. BENTH'S NASTURTIUM OF INDIAN CRESS (Tropaolum plant is a native of Bolivia, and flowers in the spring. from tubers. Natural VELVETY SPIDER-WORT (Tradescantia velutina).—Ann de Gand, v. 185.-Introduced from Guatimala by M. Warczewitz, of Berlin. Requires a cool stove. Tuberousrooted herbaceous perennial. Stems branching, downy; leaves stalkless, clasping the stem at one end-oval, terminating in a point at the other; flowers numerous at the end of the stems, in umbels, with petals and filaments violet, but anthers yellow. Blooms in November. It may be propagated by suckers, and prefers a soil of equal parts sandy peat and loam. Natural Order, Spider-worts (Commelineæ); 6-Hexandria, 1—Monogynia of Lin næus. VERMILLION-COLOURED CUPHEA (Cuphea cinnabarina). Flore des Serres, t. 527. This is a new species of one of the most useful genera of all our greenhouse plants, and, like its relative, C. platycentra, will probably prove half-hardy. It was introduced in 1848 by M. Van Houtte, from Guatimala. It is a low shrub with slightly hairy branches; leares opposite, willow-shaped; flowers pale red, calyx tipped and ribbed with green. A variety-the Dark blood-coloured (atro-sanguinea)—— has the petals purplish crimson. It requires the same culture as the C. platycentra, now so common. Natural Order, Loosestrifes (Lythracea); 11-Dodecandria, 1— Monogynia of Linnæus. THE FRUIT-GARDEN. FORCING VINES IN POTS.-Several inquiries having been made concerning this matter, and the season for commencement being at hand, or nearly so, we must beg to offer a little advice to the uninformed. The circumstances under which such forcing is carried out by various persons are so different, that it is rather difficult to generalise them; we must, however, attempt to do so, and to confine ourselves to those elementary principles which, under every mode, must receive the utmost attention, in order to command success. It scarcely need be observed, that the first and, indeed, only secure step towards success, is to have good strong plants, with well-ripened wood; without this, all will, indeed, be up-hill work. This is pre-supposing a good course of culture in the previous year, amongst the items of which may be mentioned, as of the greatest import, a thorough exposure of a liberal amount of foliage to the light. Such it is-acting, of course, in concert with a |