THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 261 



there could be nothing better, and they are actually doing duty 

 prematurely. The same plants, indeed, may be used a dozen times 

 over in different combinations, and thus the space required to grow 

 them is not of necessity commensurate with the number and extent 

 of the changes made. 



Good cultivation is of great importance, and it must be confessed 

 that, to carry out the system thoroughly and grandly, demands more 

 cultural skill and management than amateurs, or, we will say, than 

 the majority of practical gardeners, possess. But it is nob always 

 necessary for the enjoyment of something to obtain the utmost 

 possible in quality and quantity of that something. Many of our 

 readers enjoy their gardens, though they know them to be less grand 

 and costly than some other gardens. And so in regard to the plung- 

 ing system, it may be adopted by the amateur without entailing 

 upon him any excess of either labour or expense, and as he becomes 

 accustomed to it, the scheme will expand in his hands, while 

 seemingly the work will become less. In other words, it will be 

 found comparatively cheap and easy when we are used to it, but 

 perhaps attended with a few difficulties at starting. As an example 

 of the way in which use makes things easy, we will refer to our 

 display of last spring. We had then growing in the open field a 

 large quantity of common yellow alyssum, white arabis, aud white 

 iberis. As work pressed hard, we could not spare the hands to pot 

 them, so they were taken up with care and at once planted in the 

 borders under the trees, that is to say " tucked in," and pressed firm 

 as a groundwork for the tuliiDS, and they never flagged even for an 

 hour, being of course frequently sprinkled with water to assist them. 

 "When taken up after flowering, they were showing abundance 

 of new roots, and they were at once transferred back to the open 

 field and planted carefully, and are now great healthy plants, ready 

 to flower finely next spring and undergo, if needful, a similar ordeal. 



The principal work resolves itself into a regular system of culti- 

 vating pot plants. We begin now by purchasing hyacinths, tulips, 

 and crocuses in quantity, giving preference to the cheapest sorts, as 

 a rule, and, at all events, avoiding such as are really expensive. 

 These are potted, in successional batches, in small pots, in soil 

 consisting of half to two-thirds good rotten manure. We pot also 

 lots of other bulbs, such as Scillas, Lachenalias, snowdrops, and 

 narcissi, and all of them have cool frame treatment at the utmost ; 

 but the majority are plunged as soon as potted in the reserve 

 ground, and are covered with not more than three inches of the 

 plunge material, and so remain without water and without care 

 until they are in bloom, and are transferred to their places for 

 display, after which they get more attention, simply because they 

 want it, which previously they did not. As these are removed, 

 dielytras, polyanthuses, wallflowers, stocks (from seed sown in July 

 and August), pausies, sweet Williams, and some pretty leafy things, 

 such as the variegated-leaved lily of the valley, etc., etc., take their 

 place. When these are past, geraniums and calceolarias are ready, 

 and long before these are shabby come the liliums, the variegated- 

 leaved willow-herb (loveliest of all plunging plants when starved in 



