2 THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



primroses, and that those of us who live till next spring will see 

 them shining out like eyes, or stars, or jewels, from the newly- 

 thickening herbage. To be sure ; and why, then, in these days 

 of haste and dullness, Avaste another line in any sort of gushing, but 

 go to the practical business at once, and let us see what are the 

 best of the spring flowers, and where and how we shall grow them ? 

 Now, I must tell you that I have before me a list of about three 

 hundred species and varieties of plants that flower in spring, and in 

 looking through it I am constrained to say it must have been pre- 

 pared by a man (or a monster) who clutched at names and was 

 ignorant of things. I might reproduce that list, and in so doing 

 perpetrate a dreadful wrong against all those readers who happened 

 to put faith in it. The author of the list enumerates crocuses so 

 many, that a man must be crocus mad and a downright croaker 

 who would take a moment's trouble to obtain any of them ; and 

 then, when we look into the list, we find a lot mentioned that are 

 really not to be obtained at all, and are not to be found even in 

 botanical gardens. So he goes on, to use an expression of the re- 

 nowned A. W., " making an ass of himself generally." In this 

 same list are nine species of Trillium s. Now it is true they are 

 charming plants ; but nine-tenths of simple people who should buy 

 and plant them would be sure to lose them, and that very remark 

 suggests the desirability of a paper on Trilliums shortly. The moral 

 of these remarks is, that mere lists are of no value at all ; people 

 want to know first of good things that may be obtained without 

 difficulty, and that may be grown anywhere. What they want after 

 that desire is satisfied does not much matter. Let us address our- 

 selves to the subject of spring flowers for everybody and every- 

 where. 



First, then, where are the spring flowers to be grown ? I have 

 just remarked on my great plantation of Polyanthuses. These are 

 grown for plunging. When they are just coming into flower they 

 are taken up, transferred to their proper places in the plunge beds, 

 tucked in comfortably with cocoa-nut fibre, kept regularly watered, 

 and as soon as they begin to look shabby, or we are tired of them, 

 they are taken back and planted properly, and that is all the culti- 

 vation they get. They increase by two methods : the bed where 

 they remain all the summer becomes quite weedy with little seed- 

 ling plants, which, when the flowering plants are removed, are 

 transplanted to a nursery quarter, and the old plants occasionally 

 require to be divided, because of their rapid increase in size. Now 

 and then, in looking over them, I find a few of the true florists* 

 type ; these are at once labelled, and at the first opportunity are 

 potted, and have the attention due to florists' flowers. Some of our 

 laced varieties raised in this chance w^ay are first-rate, and have 

 taken a due share of exhibition honours. Now, what is to prevent 

 you, my friend, from having your display of Polyanthuses in the 

 same vray, without interfering at all with the summer bedding 

 plants ? All you want is a bit of reserve ground quite open, and 

 the soil nicely prepared by means of spade and manure. So again 

 we have large stocks of 'the yellow Alyssum, the common white 



