THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



22i 



was no precedence of honours on citber 

 side ; the water left its congenial clay for 

 the inner surface of our uppers with great 

 willingness, and we took stock of the 

 95,000 bedding plants that have been put 

 out near Hyde Park gate, of the goodly 

 ash, and plane, and sycamoi'e trees on the 

 slope by the bridge that shows the way to 

 Kensington Palace, then went over the 

 propagating andnursery department there, 

 and finally surveyed the flowers in Ken- 

 sington Gardens, where they were not 

 half so good nor half so well planted as 

 those in Hyde Park. People who have 

 doubts about the possibility of growing 

 flowers in London must first go to the 

 Temple, and then to Hyde Park, and if 

 they do not learn thereby how to make 

 their small inclosures and parapets and 

 windows gay, they must blame themselves, 

 and not the smoke, the soil, or the laws of 

 vegetation. The perillas at Hyde Park 

 are the best I have seen anywhere this 

 season. They are as large as cauliflowers, 

 the foliage splendidly wrinkled and fantas- 

 tieally disposed, and their marvellously 



dark colour is tastefully set off by means 

 of variegated balm and calceolarias. There 

 is a narrow strip near Hyde Park Gate, 

 from which a lot of worthless shrubs were 

 removed some time since, to the indigna- 

 tion of certain members of Parliament and 

 the half-witted people who hunt up sub- 

 jects for letters to the Times. That piece 

 is now a flower-garden ; let the grumblers 

 see and believe that the removal of the 

 shrubs was only the sign that a horticul- 

 tural harlequin had begun to wave his 

 wand, to change the lilac scrubs into the 

 garden of flowery delight. In the private 

 garden at Kensington Palace there is a 

 line of variegated balm and Lord Raglan 

 verbena mixed, and that alone is worth 

 going to see. Next spring you shall see there 

 masses of Cheiranthus Marshalli and peren- 

 nial Iberis, shining like gold and silver, for 

 Mr. Broome's contribution has been pro- 

 pagated by the thousand, and the gar- 

 deners are determined to make the pai'ks 

 not only the lungs of London, but schools 

 of colour, and botanv, and good taste. 



S. H. 



KEEPING FEUIT. 



It is quite important to keep fruit well as 

 to grow it well; for, independent of the 

 advantage of maintaining a supply until 

 rhubarb and strawberries come in with the 

 opening of anew summer, the festivities of 

 the winter season, and of Christmas especi- 

 ally, make great inroads on the fruit-store, 

 and without a good fruit-store, those fes- 

 tivities must be either additionally expen- 

 sive or lack one at least of their prominent 

 attractions in the way of table decoration 

 and gustatory enjoyment. That fruit- 

 keeping is not reduced to definite rules so 

 as to be worthy of the name of an art, 

 much less to make pretensions to come 

 within the domain of science, is certain 

 from the variety of the methods adopted, 

 and the occasional failure of many or even 

 all of them . The seasons have much to do 

 with the preservation of fruit. After such 

 a permanent deluge as the present, fruits 

 of all kinds keep badly ; even the most 

 renowned winter apples are apt to turn to 

 pulp, and the little golden pippins that are 

 so prized at Christmas, are likely to be 

 past their best long before that season of 

 eating and drinking arrives. In the Floral 

 Wokld we have more than once recom- 

 mended a simple plan which has been long 

 followed in our own household and has 



proved the best of many which have been 

 submitted to the test of experience. We 

 have a number of glazed earthenware pans, 

 the measurement of which is sixteen inches 

 inside measure. These are all provided 

 with close-fitting lids, and at the top of 

 the house there is a broad platform assigned 

 to one lot ; and at the bottom of the house 

 in a cool, dry, underground cellar, which 

 has a thorough ventilation through it, i3 

 a rack-shelf running all round, where 

 another lot # is placed. These pans we use 

 only for apples and pears that are to be 

 kept as long as possible, and in them they 

 keep till far into the next spring if proper 

 precautions are taken in their manage- 

 ment. In either case they are safe from 

 frost. At the top of the house there is a 

 slight rise of temperature on a sunny day, 

 which is checked by means of a window 

 which opens over the platform, but any 

 serious rise is prevented by the distance of 

 the platform from the roof, which is twenty 

 feet above it, with a hollow loft inter- 

 vening. The fruit is put in the pans when 

 quite dry, with no sawdust or any other 

 material between them. Just as gathered, 

 without being rubbed, they are consigned 

 to these receptacles, and in storing them 

 every one that has the slightest speck is 

 L 2 



