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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



covered, so that the bud stands up very 

 firm ; waste no time ; as soon as the 

 pot is filled, so that the leaves just 

 touch all over, give a good sprinkling of 

 ■water just on the bell-glass, and go on 

 again. The tops of the shoots may be 

 put in quite close together as cuttings, 

 with the two lowest leaves removed, and 

 the wood cut clean under a joint. Put 

 them in Pascall's pots, put on the bell- 

 glasses and very few will fail, but they 

 will be a little mi fly, and must be watered 

 after potting off in the greenhouse. Same 

 with the eyes, which start in the same way 

 as grape vine eyes, only grapevineeyes have 

 no leaves to help them. Pot them singly 

 into thumbs as soon as th°y begin to put 

 out white roots from the callus, or you may 

 even pot them as soon as the callus has 

 become definite and firm. Shift none 

 from the first potting till the roots begin 

 to peep out through the crocks, and not 

 even then, if the season is far gone, 

 unless you can give them a shelf in a warm 



house. It is best to winter tnese also in a 

 greenhouse. They make beautiful plants, 

 and can be grown to any shape or any 

 size of which the variety is capable. The 

 last lot I struck from eyes in this way 

 were put in an old frame on a great heap 

 of waste torn and moss, full iu the sun. 

 A mat was kept over all day and removed 

 at sunset. A week afterwards, the light 

 was tilted to give a little air, and they 

 came wonderful quick and strong, the fern 

 being like a hot-bed. Out of two and 

 twenty pans covered with bell-glasses, all 

 succeeded but one, and that one the ants 

 got into and filled the bell-glass with the 

 debris of their mining operations, burying 

 the buds six inches deep. In a cool pro- 

 pagatiug-house, this sort of work comes 

 in delightfully at this season of the year, 

 and those who have a tiffany-house have 

 all they need, or a Waltonian case, to be 

 used as a cold frame under the front 

 stage of the greenhouse. 



Shielei' Hibbeed. 



SPEEGULA PILIEEEA. 



How is it we hear so little of this horti- 

 cultural wonder, this imitation of swan's- 

 down in bright and lasting verdure? Are 

 the folks who have grown it thus far afraid 

 to speak ? If it has proved a dead failure 

 anywhere why do we not hear of the cir- 

 cumstances ? And where it is a proved 

 success why do not the possessors of the 

 swan's-down flooring let us know, that we 

 may take heart and go on planting it as 

 an item of garden luxury ? I am so 

 thoroughly satisfied with the growth of 

 my piece this spring that I begin for the 

 first time in my life to regard grass turf 

 as a second or third-rate excellency ; and 

 whatever I have said against the Spergula 

 I here unsay, and am prepared for its 

 vindication. The most that I have said 

 against it, perhaps, was a word as to its 

 colour at the turn of the season, when it 

 did look yellow, and sour, and shabby. 

 But what a winter for a plant that had 

 been severely tried from the first, and not 

 so well dealt with as it might have been 

 had I known what I now know respecting 

 it. Not long since, at the kind invitation 

 of Mr. Mongredien, I saw the original 

 lawn at Forest Hill, and learnt from Mr. 

 Summers, " Spergula Summers," the ra- 

 tionale of treatment. There is nothing in 

 the way of garden elegancies to beat that 

 piece of Spergula lawn ; to talk of Turkey 



carpets is to use a poor figure ; no carpet 

 was ever made by man that took the foot- 

 fall so softly, gently, soothingly as that, 

 for the foot sinks into it with a springy, 

 elastic feeling without touching the soil at 

 all, for the plant is matted into a thick 

 felt, layer upon layer of successive seasonal 

 growths, and I can imagine no comparison 

 to it but a palliasse of swan's-down. 



To obtain such a surfacing must be a 

 work of time, and it is not to be expected 

 that a plant of this kind should show forth 

 all its merits until some few years, had 

 elapsed from the date of its being sub- 

 mitted to the public. This sample lawn 

 is on a stubborn clay, on a steep slope, 

 faces the north, and gives its glorious 

 verdure and softness to a spot where grass 

 turf would probably grow coarse and cause 

 a vast deal of trouble to keep it decent. 

 I did wrong in the first instance to use a 

 lot of prime hyacinth compost for my 

 circle ; the clay which we have here for 

 a subsoil would have been the very thing 

 for it. Then I did wrong to complain of 

 its colour in the first winter from seedling 

 plants, because, being thin and far apart, 

 the water lodged between them, the frost 

 made ice of the water and punished the 

 plaut unduly because it was not thick 

 enough to comfort itself. These spring 

 rains, however, have get the piece growing 



