beg to state a few hints, for the information of those who have not seen it so used, although there is nothing new in the method I am now going to describe. The best plan of producing a whin hedge is to throw up an embankment 3 ft. above the surface of the ground. Having fixed the line of the embankment, mark off a ditch outside of that line, 6 ft. wide at top, to be dug out 18 in. deep, and sloping, from the outside of the ditch, to 1 ft. wide at the bottom of the embankment. I ought to have observed, that the fence I am describing is used as a boundary to plantations. The line of the fence and the width of the ditch being marked off, begin to form the face of the embankment on the surface, either of sod or of stone, but sod is mostly used when the situation is on pasture land, and the top spit from the ditch comes in for that use. As the face of the embankment advances in height, keep it well backed up with soil from the ditch, until it be 3 ft. above ground, and the ditch 18 in. deep. Then finish off the top of the embankment 12 or 15 in. broad, and give the back of the fence a slope of 4 or 5 ft. At about the middle of the slope, and on the top of the embankment, a drill is drawn about 1 in. deep, in which the seeds are sown moderately thin, and then covered. The seeds are generally sown about the latter end of April or beginning of May. The trouble and expense further required are in keeping it clear from weeds the first two years, and well cut, in order to have it thick and close at the bottom. This treatment being continued for four or five years, on a tolerable soil, an impenetrable fence will be reared, which will remain an effectual protection against cattle for many years. The whin is very hardy, and will grow in the most exposed situations, even on the sea-beach. Instead of the whin being a plague in the wilds of Wales, I can assure your correspondent, T. H., that it is not considered as such by the farmers in most of the counties in North Wales. The young whin of two or three years' growth is cut by them, and chopped up on blocks and benches with crosshatchets, made for the purpose; and many have been at the expense of erecting mills for grinding the shoots to pieces. In this state it is given to their horses throughout the winter months. It is sown in large quantities for this purpose; and, I believe, there are few who have been in the habit of feeding their horses with the whin, who would not estimate an acre of this plant of much more value than an acre of hay. In the days of Evelyn it seems to have been a favourite plant, not only for hedges, but for the fodder of cattle; indeed, in North Wales, it constitutes the principal provender for the horses, from November to April. March 2. 1829. I remain, Sir, &c. SPINOSA. ART. XI. An improved Mode of cultivating the Calceolària corymbòsa. By Mr. JAMES ROLLINS. Sir, THE plan on which I cultivate Calceolària corymbosa enables me to have it with from fourteen to eighteen stems, each bearing, on an average, thirty flowers. The cultivation of this plant is difficult, owing to its liability to damp off in the winter. To guard against this, as soon as my plants have done flowering, say about the end of June, I detach the side-shoots carefully, each with a joint, and immediately prick them into a pot prepared for their reception. The pot must be well drained by potsherds, and filled to within an inch of the top with finely sifted peat soil, over which is put one inch of finely sifted white sand. This is well watered, and allowed to settle before the cuttings are put in. The cuttings are dibbed into the sand with a pointed stick, closely, but not touching each other; they are then watered, and soon after covered with a bell-glass, which should be kept dry by being wiped every morning and evening, and by never watering till the sand becomes dry. In the course of a month, the cuttings will be fit to pot off into small pots, called, about Liverpool, 30s, in a soil composed of equal parts of rotten wood, earth, and light old hot-bed soil, well mixed. The plants are then set on a shady shelf in the green-house, where they have plenty of air, till about the end of October. At this time I remove them to the cool end of a stove, where, being kept moderately watered, they remain till the beginning of March, when they are again brought to their former situation in the green-house. As they increase in growth, the plants are repeatedly shifted into larger pots, till they are fixed in pots No. 12. The compost used in these shiftings is formed of three parts old hotbed soil, and one part rotten wood. Seedlings, raised from the seed sown as soon as it is ripe, are potted and treated in the same way as I do cuttings. Where there is no stove, the warmest end of a green-house will be found suitable for this plant, as it does not require a much higher temperature than about 50° of Fahr. I am, Sir, &c. JAMES ROLLINS. Dingle Bank, near Liverpool, June 24. ART. XII. On the Culture of the Hydrangea hortensis, as prac tised in the Potsdam Gardens. By M. G. A. FINTELMANN. Sir, THE finest hydrangeas which I saw in my late tour in Britain and Ireland, were in the Moncrief Garden, Perthshire; but still they were not so fine as we grow them here. The soil we prefer is what we call moor-erde, neither morass nor bog, but perhaps peat; because, in England, you apply the term peat to very different soils. This soil is found where rotted leaves and branches have lain for a century in a shady valley, and formed there a moist place with black earth, something like what you would call a bog, and on which the native plants, for the greater part, cannot grow want of light. When this earth is collected, turned over, dried, and reduced to powder, the colour is of a bluish black, the consistence soft, spongy, and loose; rather wet, but not very much so. When we cannot get this soil, we take the mould formed by the rotted peat or turf used here as fuel. for Cuttings of the last year's shoots are put in the ground early in the season and shaded, and they very soon strike root. In the month of September we take them up, and pot them in small pots. The following spring we shift them into larger ones, and cut them down to two or three eyes. They flower in the following July, with a bunch or corymb for every bud that is left. Every future spring, the preceding year's branches are shortened to two eyes; and when the plants become too large for pots, they are taken out and separated. It is almost unnecessary to observe that, in the growing season, the pots are kept moist, and in the shade; but it may be proper to state that the most experienced practitioners prefer the shade of trees to the shade of a wall, a hedge, or a building; from which, I think, we may conclude that the leaves of the hydrangea consume a good deal of carbonic acid. To render the flowers of the hydrangea blue, we have no fixed plan; nor, after all that has been said on the subject, do I believe the cause of the change known. We now and then find a soil which, by accident, effects this; and this soil, I have always observed, contains a good deal of oxide of iron. We have here a large hydrangea growing in this soil, in the open ground, which is protected during winter with a wooden box. In 1823 it was 5 ft. high, and 28 ft. in circumference, and bore 453 flowers. It has since died. The size to which we frequently find the corymbs of flowers in pots attain is 14 in. in diameter. Pfaueninsel, Potsdam, Feb. 22. 1829. I am, Sir, &c. G. A. FINTELMANN. ART. XIII. Description of a Flower-Stand, designed and constructed for the Honourable Mrs. Fox of St. Anne's Hill. Communicated by Mr. H. TUCKER, Gardener to Mrs. Fox. ART. XIV. On the Culture of the Sweet Potato (Convólvulus Batatas), as practised in the Neighbourhood of New York. By B. W. STRONG, Esq. Communicated by Messrs. G. Thorburn and Son, Nurserymen, New York. Sir, We subjoin a few remarks on the cultivation of this plant, as communicated to us by a friend on Long Island, B. W. Strong, Esq., a gentleman who is unwearied in his exertions to improve the quality of the vegetables cultivated for the New York market. "Good crops of sweet potatoes may be raised in the neighbourhood of New York, by a little attention to the nature of the plants. Sweet potatoes are produced from the joints of the vine, and not from the old potato. To make them fruitful these joints must be covered with earth, and the potato forms there. Towards the end of April, make a hotbed of horse manure, about 18 in. thick; on the manure put 3 in. of earth; on this earth plant the seed potatoes 3 in. apart, and cover them 4 in. deep with earth; when the sprouts they send up are 3 in. above the ground, draw them out with the hand, and transplant them (as you would cabbage plants) in soft, warm, rich ground, in rows 4 ft. apart, and put the plants about 1 ft. apart in the rows; keep them clear of weeds until the vines begin to cover the ground, after which their leafy nature will enable them to smother all weeds. If the hotbed be made early in April, the early sprouts will be ready for transplanting by the 10th of May; the bed will continue to throw up a second and third succession of sprouts, all of which will afford good potatoes, if planted out any time before the end of June. A hotbed 5 ft. square, with a half peck of seed potatoes, produced last season a succession of sprouts which yielded 15 bushels of sweet potatoes." The way the slips are preserved through the winter, and which are procured by planting late (as is done for small onions to set out for an early crop), is thus:- They are taken up in the autumn before severe frosts, and, as we have been told by some of our Carolina friends, placed in a pit dug in front of the kitchen hearth, and very carefully buried in sand made perfectly dry. We cannot see why, with a little attention, the sweet potato should not be grown with success in the south of England. At all events, we think the experiment worth making, and should they not succeed to perfection, they would no doubt T 2 |