76 THE TLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



them all to a cool greenhouse or orchard-house, or glass shed — to 

 any place, in fact:, where they will have real' shelter, plenty of light 

 and air, and be sufficiently far apart not to kill each other by crowd- 

 ing. They will require very little water, but some they must have ; 

 they must not go dust-dry. So also they must have all the ventila- 

 tors open every day, except during frost, and then they may be kept 

 rather close, for our object is to avoid giving any kind of check. If 

 the winter is mild, the greater part of them will begin to flower at 

 Christmas, but in any case they must remain in their snug quarters, 

 and have no aid from artificial heat until they flower. When the 

 flowers are full out, that lot of plants will be a fine sight. But if 

 the weather is mild at the time, they may all be taken out and 

 plunged in a bed under the drawing-room window, or be grouped in 

 clumps on the gravel, and none who care at all for flow^ers will con- 

 sider the trouble too much by which such a sight was procured. In 

 the event of severe frost, those plunged may take their chance ; the 

 worst that can happen to them will be the destruction of their 

 flowers ; but any placed on the gravel, or with the pots exposed to 

 frost, must be housed, or plunged to the rim, or their roots will be 

 injured, and the trees may die the next spring. 



All the Frivets are patient of smoke, but no one would plant 

 the common privet except for the purpose of a fence, or to occupy 

 positions where nothing else would grow. Yet the common privet 

 is not to be despised. When it gets old, and flowers freely, it is a 

 fine object, and there is this to be said of it — it is the tree for a 

 forlorn hope. When the case is so bad that neither hollies, aucubas, 

 nor box-trees will stand it, try common privet ; better that than 

 nothing, though truly when it has to grow under great trees, or in 

 other very bad positions, it has a very lean and wobegone aspect. 

 ISTevertheless, it is a hard tree to kill, and it may oftentimes do duty 

 in the suburban garden, and save the proprietor many losses and 

 vexations. Its near allies, the Chinese privet, Ligustrum hwidumj 

 and the Japanese privet, L. Japonicum, are among the most beautiful 

 evergreens in our gardens, but they are not trees for smoky towns ; 

 they require a pure air, and are for the fortunate suburbanite who 

 sees from his windows meadows and corn-fields, and is called to 

 breakfast by the thrush and the skylark. At three miles from St. 

 Paul's, and thence outwards, plant these two privets, and never 

 prune them till they grow too great for the place ; they will never 

 fail, winter or summer, to give a cheerful air to the scenes they 

 occupy. S. H. 



The Tropical end op the Cbystai. Pala.ce has been rebuilt, and was first 

 used a fortnight since for the annual bird show. 



The Alexandka Palace and Pajik at Muswell Hill are fast approaching com- 

 pletion, and are likely to be opened in June next, on which occasion there will be a 

 flower show on a gi-aud scale. 



Messrs. Cutbush and Sons' Exhibition of Hyacinths, Early Tulips, and other 

 forced spring flowers, w ill take place this year at the Gardens of the Royal Botanic 

 Society, Regent's Park, commencing on the 21st of March, and continuing to the 

 28th. Tickets are to be obtained at the gardens only j the price is 2o. 6d. each. 



