30 



THE FLORAL AVOELD AND GARDEX GUIDE. 



coTfling to llic dircclions I gave in the 

 FLORATi Wo7£LD for 1851), p. 11, and they 

 are in tlie most lliriving condition. If" 

 kalmias will stand it, less delicate peat 

 plants certainly will, bnt the mixture must 

 be thoroughly rotted, quite sweet, friable, 

 and clean, else it becomes infested Avith 

 fungous threads, and the plants cither 

 languish or die outright. 



Passing over the Ecrbcrics, Chinese 

 privets, GriesHnia littoralis, Skimmia Ja- 

 ponica, and other plants suited to the for- 

 mation of American beds, let me direct 

 the attention of amatciu's to conifers, as 

 admirably adapted for the purpose, and 

 which may be dealt with in the botanical 

 fashion, and very interesting collections 

 got together in a small compass. Grown 

 in pots until they grow to too great a size, 

 they can be plunged anywhei'e in groups 

 to ornament beds and borders during tlio 

 winter; and when flo.-.Lrs are to take their 

 places, it is a simple matter to remove them 

 and form them into banks in other parts 

 of the garden, or if the place is too crowded 

 to allow of it, room must be had to plunge 

 them in the reserve ground till wanted 

 again. The sketch wliich accompanies 

 this article was taken from Mr. Ransome's 

 Jardinier when stocked with conifers. 

 The sorts I liave found effective for group- 

 ing in this way are Abies dcodara, a 

 beautiful centre-piece ; Abies Menziesii, 

 of no use singly, but to be \ised m sets of 

 two or three, with other sets intervening ; 

 Liboccdrus Cliilensis, the delicate silvery 

 leaved Thuia of Chili, Pinus insigne, which, 

 mifortunately, always turns brown after 

 severe frost, but is very distinct and strik- 

 ing as long as it keeps its colour ; Pinus 

 cembra, a very slow-growing species, ex- 

 quisitely beautiful, and capital to repeat 

 at intervals along a front line, or on tlie 

 outside edge of a circular bed ; Cejihalo- 

 taxus Fortuni, the liandsomest of all the 

 yews we have, and remotely resembling 

 ostrich phunes in its graceful half pendant 

 branches ; Abies rubra, Abies Orientalis, 

 the latter an extravagantly dense fir, which 

 literally kills its lower branches by the in- 

 termixture and crowding of its upper ones, 

 very dwarf; Juniperus Hispanica, excel- 

 lent in match pairs, the growth similar to 



Irish jcw, the foliage neat, dense, and 

 slightly silvery ; Juniperus Phcenicia, more 

 beautiful and more costly than the last 

 named ; AVcllingtonea gigantea, which is 

 a good conifer for pot culture if i-egidarly 

 pinched at the points of the shoots in the 

 growing season, to cause side breaks. I 

 have about forty others in my own garden 

 list, but must defer naming them till next 

 month, because my space is more than run 

 out. I can only add here, for the informa- 

 tion of those who are purchasing now, 

 that a mixture of turfy peat and yellow 

 loam, equal parts, is the best soil for 

 conifers in Y>ots. If peat is scarce use 

 half leaf-mould and half loam, the leaf to 

 be thorouglily rotted and quite sweet. 

 Not a particle of any animal manure 

 should find its way into the soil for conifers. 

 A sjjadeful of dung on the roots of a pine 

 or fir will generally prove suflieient to 

 cause disease, from which the tree may 

 perish ; and probably many of the losses 

 that have resulted from the mycelium of 

 fungi, might be traced to the admixture of 

 manures T\'ith the soil, at some period an- 

 tecedent to the planting. Pure loam, if 

 well pulverized, wiU serve veiy well for 

 the commoner kinds, but it should be 

 rather plentifully mixed with sand, and a 

 moderate quantity of small charcoal may 

 be added to render the whole light and 

 porous, and prevent souring. Plenty of 

 drainage, and pots no larger than the 

 roots can be got into without cramping, 

 are important points, as it is better to give 

 a shift a year after potting than to overpot 

 in the first instance. Most of my best 

 plants are in - twelve inch and fifteen 

 inch pots ; when they outgrow these 

 latter, they must be turned out, and 

 if you have no room for them as your 

 stock increases, you will have no difficulty 

 in finding purchasers if the trees are in 

 health, for they are then of just the right 

 size to produce what the nurserymen call 

 " immediate effect," and may be planted 

 out without the least risk as to their ulti- 

 mate success, which is not the case with 

 large trees taken up from the nurseries, 

 and of necessity injured at the roots by 

 the process. SiiiRiET Hibberd. 



WEATHER PEO GNOSTICS. 



Some of the signs of the weather mentioned 

 by Mr. Chambers, wliich are known here, 

 and found useful, it may be Avell to par- 

 ticularize, both because that gentleman 

 wishes for a verification of his, and because 



the few about to be described are eas/ly re- 

 membered. 



A ruddy sunset, or a neutral gray 

 colour of the whole sky in the evening, 

 presages fair weather. The same in the 



