370 THE FLOELA WORLD AND GaEDEN GUIDE. 



aquifoUa, with its grand masses of rich golden yellow flowers and 

 dark metallic foliage. 



I ought properly not to say anything ahout American plants, for 

 they scarcely come within the province of this paper, and they 

 deserve one to he devoted expressly to them, but I shall not be going 

 far wrong in saying a few words about them. The soil for these 

 should be peat alone, or loam and peat mixed. Some of the common 

 free-growing Azaleas and Ehododendrons will do very well in good 

 silky loam, full of the rootlets of the grass. Andromeda florihunda, 

 beautiful bell-shaped white flowers, and Erica Jierhacea carnea, are 

 particularly good for edging large beds of other shrubs, and are 

 worth growing independent of this qualification. The Ghent 

 Azaleas, in the various colours of huff^ orange, scarlet, rose, salmon, 

 and yellow, can be planted extensively without there being much 

 fear of having too many. And for two dozen good Ehododendrons 

 the following can be depended upon : — Alarm, Album elegans, 

 Atro-sanguineum, Amoenum, Barclayanum, Blandyanum, Brayanutn, 

 Blysianum, concessum, delicatissimmn, elegans, Etoile de Flanders, 

 Jaclc^onii, John Waterer, Lady Eleanor Catlicart, Mrs. John 

 Waterer, Mrs. Clutton, Onsloivianum, jjur^iireurn elegans, Bemhrandt, 

 roseum elegans, Schiller, Sidney Herbert, Snoioball. I have been 

 careful in selecting those that 1 know to be good, and such as can 

 be obtained at average rates, which I think will be of more service 

 than recommending new kinds that are beyond the reach of most 

 people, and perhaps little or no better than older kinds. 



A PEW GOOD WINTEE-PLOWEEING OECHIDS. 



ET Alf AMATEUR CULTIVATOE. 



fllN'CE I contributed my paper on Cool Orchids, I have 

 thought that a few notes on the best winter-flowering 

 kinds may be useful. The advantage of having an 

 orchid-house is not more forcibly illustrated at any 

 season than it is during the winter months. We do not 

 possibly get such a grand display of bloom as we do through April, 

 May, and June, but in neither of the other departments do we get 

 a more beautiful display of flowers than we do in this structure. I 

 know in the winter of nothing that afi'ords me a more delightful treat 

 than to spend a few hours in the comfortable warmth of the orchid- 

 house, where there is a fair collection of winter-flowering kinds. I 

 am so thoroughly fond of this class of plants, that it is a labour of 

 love to me to contribute a few hints now and then, that may perhaps 

 be serviceable to those who have not had such a long acquaintance- 

 ship with them as I have. 



We will suppose our winter to begin the 1st of November, and 

 end with Eebruary, and I will enumerate a few of the best that 

 flower through that season. The Angrcecums furnish us with severa 

 good winter bloomers ; they all last in good condition a long time 



