162 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



the season where the trees have been unusually luxurious. It is only 

 from well-ripened wood that we can expect crops next year, and every 

 attention should be given to get well-placed shoots as thoroughly ripened 

 as possible with whatever sunshine may be vouchsafed to us during 

 August and September. The dwarf bushes now in fashion are better 

 able to resist such un genial influences than the old-fashioned orchard- 

 trees, and simply lifting them in October will do much to cheek over- 

 luxuriance and compel them to complete rest, so that they will be better 

 able to endure whatever trials the next winter and spring may have in 

 store for them. In plant-houses of all kinds it will be well, if the present 

 ungenial weather continues, to use a little extra fire-heat. Cold and 

 damp are the parents of mildew, extravasations of sap, morbid growths, 

 disease, and weakness. Plants in houses that have been shaded with 

 tiffany are in many cases the worse for it, and soft- wooded plants are get- 

 ting into that gross condition which renders them all the more difficult to 

 manage during winter. Before this is printed, the weather may be equal 

 to the averages of the season, and these hints be of no importance what- 

 ever. But it does seem that the season, which began disastrously, will 

 end in gloom and disappointment. We cannot alter the weather, but we 

 may turn aside from ordinary routine, and adapt the means at our com- 

 mand, so as in some measure to counteract the evils that threaten us. In 

 horticulture, we are happily unacquainted with red-tape and circumlocu- 

 tion ; let the practitioners of the art now do their utmost to secure the 

 safety of the subjects under their care, and avert as far as possible the 

 threats of disease and famine. 



In compliance with oft-repeated requests, we publish on another page a 

 set of rules for the guidance of those who are engaged in the formation of 

 horticultural societies. We have selected those of the newly-formed and 

 flourishing society of Sydenham, because we know that in their prepara- 

 tion the utmost care was taken by Mr. W. Thompson, one of the 

 honorary secretaries, who collated them from the rules of a number of 

 old established societies in order that no good feature should be omitted. 

 These rules were adopted by the society at the meeting held on the evening 

 of the 7th of June, previous to the delivery of Mr. Hibberd's lecture on the 

 cultivation of the rose, having been previously read and considered in 

 committee, and at successive meetings of the members. Some of our 

 friends, who write from distant places, will not need so extensive a con- 

 stitution as the one here provided, and many will let the museum and 

 library clauses pass as superfluous. We are not altogether sure that a 

 museum can everywhere be got up satisfactorily, but we do feel sure that 

 every society should have a lending library of horticultural works, as one of 

 the leading advantages of membership, and to sustain the interest of the as- 

 sociation during the season when flower-shows are impossible and flowers 

 out of fashion. Of course complete sets of the Floral Would should be 

 first thought of in setting up a library. We openly adopt the old motto — 

 " Nothing like leather." 



