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at

LIST OF FRUIT (S.).-We have classed your apples for you; least, such of them as we know. If you refer to other parts of our pages you will find rules for gathering and storing them. All your pears are dessert fruits; and we need say nothing about your cherries, peaches, nectarines, and apricots. The Winesour plum is best as a preserve. Dessert Apples.-Ribstone Pippin, Greave's Pippin, Devonshire (Dockers), Chester Pearmain, Lancashire Reinette, Blenheim Pippin (kitchen also), Scarlet Golden Pippin, and Chelstone Pippin. Kitchen Apples.-Hawthornden, Northern Greening, King of Pippins, Alexander, Cornish Crab, Keswick Codling, Nelson, Cockpit, Bath, Bedfordshire Foundling, Normanton Wonder, and Holland Pippin.

WINTERING OLD GERANIUMS AND FUCHSIAS (R. C. S.).—We think we have answered this question a dozen times, and shewn every possible way. Pray refer to our two or three last Numbers. You say, "I presume that the roots, if taken up, and well dried, and tied together, and hung up in a dry dark cellar, would live through the winter. We say yes, or anywhere else free from damp and frost.

SOFT-WOODED PLANTS (R. Hobley).--Your plants will do best on shelves in your cold pit, if you have head-room enough for them. SCARLET RHODODENDRON SEED (R. D., Ireland).-You have The scarlet rhododendron will ripen its seeds in been misinformed. every county of the dear old country; but it is too good to sell, or too scarce, for we seldom hear of it in the market, and cannot say where it can be bought.

CLEMATIS PROPAGATING (Tyro).-You ask for the best way of doing this, but, before we ean answer, you must say which of the very Some are raised from cuttings, and numerous species you mean. others from layers.

HOP PROPAGATING (Ibid.)-Hops are usually raised from shoots issuing from the bottom of the old plants. The shoots are covered, or layered, till they make roots. They may also be raised from seeds. They are, however, not within our province.

GLYCINE SINENSIS (Ibid.)-The leaves turning yellow shew that A very wet, or very poor soil, there is something wrong at the roots. Situated as you are, your magnolia will not need may be the cause. protection.

NAME OF BEGONIA (T. J.)-Although a cutting is sent by you, it is from a weak and stunted part of your plant, and has two leaves upon it. This is a long way from being a fair specimen to send to any one for the purpose of ascertaining its name, particularly when the family is a large one, as in this of the Begonia. A specimen in flower, and one that shows the whole character of the plant, is what we consider a fair specimen. We believe your plant to be the Begonia nitida. For your staircase window, Begonia discolor, or Evansiana of some authors, is the most hardy kind that we know of. parvifolia would stand for a considerable time in flower in the same window. All the begonias are properly stove plants, and delight in plenty of heat, notwithstanding some are tried to be grown in houses of all work, and sometimes in pits.

B.

season.

VINES IN GREENHOUSE (H. Taunton).-You had better keep a little fire at your greenhouse for the sake of your grapes, with plenty If the bunches are placed in thin of air, for the sake of the plants. muslin, or even paper bags, the damp rising from the flower pots will not be so likely to injure them; but then that would not assist their colouring, which, if so defective, we fear will not now be greatly bettered this season, as we should think the grapes must be ripe.

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HARDY CREEPERS FOR OUTSIDE A GREENHOUSE (T. W. T. Leeds). The Dolichos sinensis is hardly worth growing in a greenhouse, as the flower is a dingy red, and hardy enough for the open air, in most places. As luxuriant creepers, which you wish to train along the 25 feet in length rafters of a greenhouse, and hardy enough to be planted outside, without protection to the roots, we instance the following:-Dolichos lignosus, purple, the best of the family; Cobou scandens, large bell flower, greenish purple; Glycine sinensis, flowers carly and fine in a house; Bignonia grandiflora, orange; Jasminum revolutum, yellow; Passiflora coerulea, whitish blue; P. colrilli, variegated; P. coerulea racemosa, purple; P. alata coerulea, rose. These will all flourish in light sandy loam, with a But though the roots are not covered, the stems portion of peat. where they enter the house should be secured with small boxes set against them, filled with saw-dust, so that no frost or damp may touch them in winter. If the border was scattered with a few spruce branches in cold weather, it would be all in their favour. If the border was very much shaded," or badly drained, we should prefer growing them in pots in the house, if they could not be planted out, or substituting for the Bignonia and the two or three last Passifloras such plants as the Maurandya, Eccremocarpus and Lophospermum. GERANIUM CUTTINGS.-An Amateur will find his efforts much more successful now that he has a stove to his greenhouse. "The valuable geranium cuttings, in sand, under glass in the compost yard, not yet sufficiently rooted," will not be safe if left there during the winter, as, without great care, they would suffer both from cold and damp. Take them up carefully, and place them in sandy soil, around the edges of small pots, and make such an arrangement in transferring them to a good position in the greenhouse, that you can cover them for a time with a hand-glass, or an oiled paper box, and thus, while your greenhouse plants are luxuriating in the fresh air you will be giving them, your proteges of cuttings will be as secure from evaporating their juices as when they were snug in the compost heap. It would be advisable to take off the glass at night, to prevent them being drawn weak.

1st. As the

GARDEN PLAN (J. A. M.).-The arrangement of a garden must ever depend upon the tastes and wishes of the proprietor, and, therefore, we can only allude to the matter in general terms. north and west borders are cropped with strawberries we would fill the east with the same, unless it would give you more than you require. By having the north border chiefly supplied with late kinds the fruit season would be longer prolonged; full directions for their treatment have already been given. 2nd. The espaliers should be brought into a little shape if they are to remain; if too far gone for training they may be left as dwarf standards, or turned in a circular manner round stakes. If there is only two feet from the trees to the walk little could be grown in such a border with advantage, unless perhaps a few violets, heartsease, or pinks, as they would not interfere with the trees. 3rd. Under the large space occupied by the large trees, and which we presume is next the house, if not very thick, we would collect all the potViolets, bulbs, and early low-growing spring herbs into one corner. plants, and heartsease, would also flourish in the open spots. Next to these trees we would have our flower-beds and fruit-garden, by collecting all the currants, gooseberries, raspberries, &c., which are scattered about in the borders, so that each part of the garden might convey a different but distinct impression-fruit and flowers in one place, vegetables in another. 4th. The common garden wheelbarrow, made of wood, the wheel shod with iron, is the best for general purposes.

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 25th, 1849.

is founded upon confirmed experience, and sustained by science, it is that of planting potatoes on light soils in November, and on more retentive soils not later than February.

One fact recently communicated to us by Mr. Weaver, gardener to the Warden of Winchester College, is so curious as to deserve a special narrative. He planted his potatoes, being of the varieties known as Forty-folds, Looker's Oxonians, Herefordshire Purples, and York Regents, during last November. He took up his crop early in August, and a larger, finer, or more healthy produce was never seen. At the time of taking them up, the stems of the Here fordshire Purples and of the Forty-folds were dead, but those of the Oxonions and Regents were partially green, being of larger and later growth. Brown spots and other symptoms of disease were on these stems, but they did not appear until the tubers were full grown. Not a single diseased tuber was among them when taken up, and they are now as sound as at first. As an experiment, Mr. Weaver left two rows of the York Regents in the soil until the beginning of October, at which time, digging them up, he found one half of the tubers diseased. Does not this testify that varieties which are quite ripened off in August and their stems dead, as in the case of the Purples and Forty-folds, are out of harm's way altogether? Secondly, does it not also offer the satisfactory informa tion that the disease is not immediately communicated to the tubers from the stems? for if it were the Regents taken up in August would have been tainted in some degree. All this is further evidenced by another curious fact. We have seen part of a crop of an early variety called Julys taken up in August quite sound, and part left in the ground until November. In the meantime, at the end of October, some of those taken up in August were planted, and these were sound and continued sound, producing a good crop in the year following, but those left where grown until November in soil precisely similar, and in the same garden, were many of them destroyed by the disease. Therefore, it seems that it is connexion with the diseased stems, and not merely being left in the wet soil, which occasions the murrain. In conclusion, let us impress upon our readers the golden rules of potato growing. 1. Grow none but those which ripen by August. 2. Plant whole, middlesized potatoes. 3. Plant on moderately light soil manured some months previously. 4. Apply no manure at the time of planting. 5. Plant now in light dry soils, but not until February in wet soils. 6. Preserve your seed potatoes between layers of earth until required. 7. Plant as you dig; that is, dig enough for one row, and then plant it with the dibble so as to avoid trampling on the ground. 8. Let the top of the sets be six inches below the surface. 9. Do not earth up the stems. 10. Do not cut down the stems. 11. Take up the crop as soon as the leaves

begin to look yellow in July or early August. 12. Store in a dry shed between layers of earth, sand, or coalashes.

THE FRUIT-GARDEN.

EARLY FORCING.-Before reverting to the subject of hardy fruits, we must take an opportunity, whilst space and time permit, of offering a little advice about early forcing the vine and the peach: for we find that several readers of THE COTTAGE GARDENER either already force them, or desire to commence doing so.

The first requisite is to see that all necessary pruning is accomplished; this should precede every other operation. We need scarcely observe that neither vines nor peaches are eligible for early forcing, unless their leaves are cast; indeed, to commence now, the leaves should have been cast some five or six weeks. Early pruning is a matter of considerable importance, both on account of economising the strength of the tree, and also, in the case of the vine, to prevent bleeding, which is apt to occur when the pruning is deferred.

There can be little doubt that, from the moment the leaves are cast, nature commences efforts to restore what we may term suspended animation; it being probable that, about that period, the trees contain as little of the ascending sap as at any other period. However, we say this with deference, and do not offer it as a settled axiom in vegetable physiology, but as an opinion which we conceive to be strengthened by long observation. Be this as it may, the sap begins to rise many weeks before any particular distension or swelling of the buds takes place, and in so doing reaches to the terminal points of the tree; in late pruning, therefore, it is obvious that a waste of energies takes place, parts containing the revivifying liquid being in that case cut away as waste, and which never need have drawn on the resources of the root.

Our space is too limited to lay down complete pruning maxims, but we may offer a little advice in our course. In the case of the vine, some spur prune, and others prune on the long rod system. We care little which, inasmuch as the mere system of pruning has not much to do with the qualities of the grapes. To be sure, the long rod system will give larger bunches, and, we think, berries also; but this has reference principally to exhibition matters. Spur pruning, however, has been on the increase during the last five years; and with regard to those who grow plants and other matters beneath their vines, spur pruning becomes almost indispensable. We would advise, as a general maxim, that all pruning of the vine be as severe as possible; that is to say, let every shoot be shortened back as close as likely-looking plump buds can be found. This will, in general, be to within a couple or three eyes of the base of the shoot. By such means only can the vine be kept within bounds and under system; for, were a mere lax mode of pruning pursued, the house would speedily become filled with a vast amount of old shoots, which would at least create shade, and impede the necessary operations: they do more, according to the late Clement Hoare; they draw on the system of the vine in some degree, and there can be little doubt that Mr. Hoare was correct in this assumption. What we have here observed as bearing on pruning has nothing to do with the strict "long rod" system, nor with rigid "spur pruning." In the first, a regular

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succession of strong young shoots is provided from the very first; and these, after producing a crop, are cut away to make room for succeeding bearers, which are produced in a regular scries by the mode of pruning established. In the spur system a single stem is carried up beneath the rafter, and from this stem, by a judicious shortening (by means of the knife each season), are produced a series of side shoots at determinate distances; and from these side shoots, or rather from the base of them by spur praning, spring the buds which produce the bunches. So, then, our amateur friends who are young gardeners will see that "spurring back," or spur pruning," is a mere technical phrase in gardening parlance, signifying the pruning back to those insignificant looking embryo buds, which in the case of the vine always seem to cluster about the base of the young shoots, as if they anticipated the ruthlesss hand of the pruner; and that such pruning is diamnetically opposed to the "long rod system," which has for its aim larger bunches: these, it is assumed, are produced from those bold looking eyes or buds which are found seated in the axils of the larger leaves, on the large young shoots. At some future period we will return to a review of the rival systeins; for the present we must work at our subject according to our text.

In peach pruning the case stands very different: here the fruit is produced almost entirely from the sides of the last year's shoots, which at once produce a blossom in the very first act of development. Other circunstances conspire to render the pruning of the peach or nectarine very different from that of the vine, of which more by-and-by. A judicions thinning out is the first matter with the peach, and finally a shortening of the points of reserved shoots. We here readily admit, that where a proper course of summer's management has been pursued, little thinning will be necessary; but we must suppose that they have received but ordinary treatment under such circumstances, then there will be a superfluous amount of young shoots, and a selection has to be made. We have before explained the operation of the true bearing wood, the over luxuriant wood, and the decaying wood; or, at least, in the latter case, those shoots which are premoniicy of decay. Oar readers must therefore refer to back articles on the peach, for space will not admit of our frequently repeating details.

We must row take a leap, and take it for granted that the trees are actually proned; what then must be done? It so happens, that both the vine and the peach, as well as the nectarine, are liable to the depredations of insects, as well as those destructive fungi, which are not the less formidable on account of their anomalons and insignificant appearance. Many are the enemies of these trees, Lut we at present must grapple with the common peach aphis, the red spider, the mealy bug, and the mildew fingi. Some of these depredators innst be attacked when the trees are in the growing state; nevertheless, all good coltivators take preventive measures when the trees are at rest, by dressing the wood all over, both vine and peach, with a mixture which will go far towards an utter extermination both of insects and their eggs, and will, at the same time, by adhering long to the trees, prove of a repulsive character. We may here venture to recommend what we have for years used with success; it is for vines, as follows:-Provide a clay paint, that is to say clay beat up in water until a thick mud, or of the consistence of thick paint. Get another vessel, and beat up four ounces of soft-soap in a gallon of warm water, add to this four or five

handsful of flowers of sulphur, which also beat tho roughly up, and finally add as much of the clay paint as will give a body to the whole, say about one-third of a gallon.

For peaches use the same mixture, excepting the amount of soft-soap; we only use two ounces to the gallon for these trees. The mixture may be applied with an ordinary painter's brush, taking care to fill every crevice with it; our practice is to go over twice, this ensures the searching of every portion of the wood. We deem it expedient to apply white lead to every cut of the knife, both in the peach and the vine; in the former it serves to keep out moisture, of which the peach is very impatient, in the latter it prevents the possibility of bleeding which sometimes occurs, and is very prejudicial to the vine. It ought to be here observed, that most good cultivators strip away all loose or loosening old bark from the vine. We are no advocates for such a skinning alive as we have before now been witness to, believing that the coarser bark acts with a controlling power, preventing a too sudden increase or decline in the temperature of the fluids within the stem. Still, what is already loose may fairly be stripped away for the sake of the chance offered of reaching the very dens of the insect tribe.

Having now" said our say" on pruning and dressing for the present, a little must be stated about "ootmanagement, or, in other words. the management of the borders. If vines are to be forced of which the roots are unluckily in outside borders, the first thing to be done is to cover the border with some loose and dry material, which will at once arrest the departore of the remaining ground heat, and also throw off rains; the latter is a most important affair. We do not think it advisable to apply hot fermenting material previously to the actual forcing period; nevertheless, if a slight fermentation took place in the covering, it would scarcely be objectionable. Care should be taken to make the surface steep and smooth, in order to facilitate the passing away of waters. It is by far the best security to provide a tarpaulin: these are cheap enough, and we do think that every border would be better covered with one from the middle of September until April or May. We will say more about this utility shortly.

For inside borders a derent practice must be pu:saed; here no fermenting material is rceded. A sort of huskiness is apt to engender on the surface of these, which is averse to a wholesomeness of atmosphere, and this should be removed, and a top-dressing of proper compost applied. Inside borders should be suffered to go nearly dry after the fruit is gathered, and if such is the case, a watering becomes necessary, using tepid manure-water, and going over the border at twice, suffering a day to pass between the two applications. Then must follow the compost most proper to facilitate rooting, and to coax the fibres to the surface; and after this, or practice is to coat over the surface with such short litter or droppings as are used for mushroom beds, as these continue porous longer than decomposed manuves.

These preparations accomplished, forcing may commence; the first stage of which for a week or two is little more than excluding frost, and changing the atmosphere in the house from a dry one to that gently moist character of air which is known to promote the germination of the bud in early spring. To this end the syringe must be in frequent requisition, using it night and morning. Before our amateur friends get their vines and peaches into bud we will recur to this subject. R. ERTINGTON.

THE FLOWER-GARDEN. ABOUT the end of June and at the close of October, I annually make notes of all the best plants for flower-beds as they appear at those seasons, those mouths being the boundaries, as it were, of our flower-gardening for the season. Having had a few leisure days, in the absence of the family, between the 20th and 27th of last October, I made my memoranda for this autumn during that period, and, in all probability, some of my notes and observations on them will be of use to others, and thus I shall kill two birds with one stone-a harmless sport. The frost up to the close of my notes on the 27th ult. had only blackened a few of the leaves of the Heliotropes, with hardly any damage to their flowers, but the heavy rains which fell at the beginning of the month hastened the destruction of some of the flowerbeds sooner than is generally the case, for when we escape the early frosts, as we generally do on this dry and high situation, the flower-gardens look nearly as well in October as at any other season, and arouse much more interest then than earlier, when country drives and rides are more enjoyable. I shall have no room to-day to explain the meaning of such names as I may have to mention, but I shall do so some other time. The book names, however, are the only ones which are safe to use in ordering the plants or the seeds from the nurseries.

The best and gayest bed now is furnished by an annual with small orange-yellow flowers, related to the marigolds, and called Tagetes tenuifolia or pinnata. I had it also from Germany and from Russia by the name of signata. It is one of those few plants which grow as regularly on all sides as to look as if just turned out of a mould. It grows to nearly two feet high, and does best in poor soil, and will transplant easily at any stage of its growth; therefore, it may be sown in the reserve ground any time in April, to be transplanted into the flower-bed early in June, after a bed of Clarkia, or other annual, and comes into bloom about the beginning of July, and is the last to yield to the frost. Every one who possesses three flower-beds should grow this annual; a goodsized bed may be had of it from three pennyworth of seeds. I never before saw the Heliotropes so fine at this late period of the year; they, of all other plants, make the best neutral beds, that is, plants without any decided colour, and which, if placed near others, will neither add to nor mar their effects. Isotoma axillaris is all in good bloom. It is the next best neutral colour we have for beds; the tint is neither blue, gray, nor slate colour, but a shade between the three. It seeds freely, and, if sown in March in a slight hot-bed, will flower the same season; but it flowers better from cuttings made in August, as in rich or damp soils seedlings grow too much into leaf. Chaenostoma polyantha is still in bloom, but is only a trumpery low weed, with flowers not unlike those of the Virginian stock, and it only blooms by fits and starts; one week you would take it to be a gay little thing, and next week you will not see a bloom on a whole bed of it. It makes a variety, however, in the front of a mixed border, where we do not expect to see every plant in bloom at the same time. Cupheas are now, and have been since the middle of July, in full blossom, and although they are not very striking for brilliancy, their elegant manner of growth, and the long time they keep in bloom, render them useful in the flower-garden. Cuphea strigilosa and miniata planted in equal quantities, and edged with C. platycentra, is the most effective way of using them, but

each of them would form a nice bed. Of all the plants I know, C. strigilosa is the best to plant near bees. A bed of it is alive from morning to night with several species of bees and with wasps, working so industriously as to leave no time for quarrellinga good example, which ought to be followed by writers on gardening and other matters. The Dahlias are now splendid, the fancy ones particularly. Since they have done growing, the stripes, and spots, and shades, are better defined than earlier in the season. This class ought certainly to be grown in lighter and poorer soil than the old tribe. The very dwarf ones among them will also form beautiful flower-beds if planted in circles or rows of one sort or colour, and so that the next blends with it in colour. Mr. W. Savage (p. 64) wishes to hear my opinion on leaving these dahlias in the ground during the winter, probably before he saw what I said on the subject in the previous number. I have seen the plan turn out as I stated, but it might answer better on poorer soil, or every alternate season, and so do away with renewing the soil for them so often. At any rate, one thing I am sure of, and that is, that the readers of these pages will agree with me in wishing to hear more of his experiments, and those of others like him who think for themselves. Sanvitalia procumbens is generally as late as the tagetes, but the heavy rains at the beginning of the month finished it before its time. Daisy-shaped flowers, like this sanvitalia, are always more injured by rains than others. The sanvitalia is as useful as the tagetes, and, like it, is always in neat trim. It is also yellow, with a dark centre to the flower, and rises to a foot or so, and may be treated in all respects like the tagetes. Saponaria calabrica is always a lovely thing, a great favourite with the ladies, who say "it looks so much like lace-work;" it also lasts till the end of October, and, visit it when you will, you shall never find a leaf or flower of it out of place, but a perfect model of symmetry in all its parts; and the whole surface is so studded with little starry pink flowers, that you can hardly see the leaves. It is an annual, and rises about eighteen inches high, looks best in circular beds not more than four feet across. It should be sown on a warm sunny border about the middle of March, and will transplant without a murmur any time before the May annuals are over; and if I had to make a choice bed for a bride, this is the very plant I would make use of.

There is another annual now in full trim, not so gay as those already mentioned, but one of the most useful things a gardener can lay his hands on, as it will transplant any day throughout the season without flagging a leaf; and a bed in full blossom may be made up with it while the family are at breakfast. It is a Dwarf yellow single marigold, raised a few years since on the continent; and another recommendation of it is that it does not emit that disagreeable scent peculiar to the common marigolds. It barely reaches a foot high, and they call it fragrans, or sweet-scented-an absurd name; but as they say a good horse is never of a bad colour, we may put up with silly names for useful plants; but the worst of it is the difficulty of asking for it at the seed shops; the book name of all the marigolds is Tagetes, and this one is Tagetes fragrans; but I have known three blunders made last season about the name, therefore I would advise that the "dwarf scentless marigold or fragrans" should be asked for. Zauchsneria Californica looks as if it would flower on till Christmas. It is one of the most useful new bedding plants we have had for years, and yet it is not so gay as I expected