108 



THE FLOKAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



will be likely to exhaust the plants, 

 a smart gale will sometimes cause the 

 leaves to flag as if they had not had 

 water for a week past. I will tell you 

 how to kill a collection of plants in 

 an hour, and the process will perhaps 

 serve to impress upon the mind the 

 necessity of avoiding whatever ap- 

 proaches to violent treatment in the 

 management of plants. You may 

 purchase from a hawker a few hy- 

 drangeas, pelargoniums, genistas, and 

 cinerarias, in full bloom. Place them 

 on the flagstones, where there is a 



brisk breeze and a bright sun. Then 

 drench them overhead three times 

 with cold water, from the rose of a 

 common watering-pot. In an hour's 

 time, they will be found in a drooping 

 and dying state, and no novice in 

 horticulture will be able to restore 

 them. They are, in fact, killed, 

 through the rapid transition from a 

 warm forcing-house to a fresh breeze 

 and sunshine, and the chill caused 

 by the dash of water upon them. — 

 Hibberd's Garden Oracle. 



NOTICES OE BOOKS. 



The Chrysanthemum : its History, Cul- 

 tivation, etc. By John Salteb, F.E.H.S. 

 Groombridge & Sons. — This beautiful 

 volume is a masterpiece of horticultural 

 liteiature, and will deservedly add to Mr. 

 Salter's well-earned fame as an improver 

 of the chrysanthemum, and one of its 

 ablest vindicators. No one so well fitted 

 to deal with this subject as he, for Mr. 

 Salter has sent out from his nursery more 

 good varieties than any other cultivator, 

 and for many years past has produced an 

 exhibition which cultivators find it not 

 only agreeable tut necessary to see, for at 

 these exhibitions the new varieties are seen 

 in flower for the first time. This volume 

 treats at length of the history of the chrys- 

 anthemum, and contains many historical 

 particulars never before 1 elated. The cul- 

 tural directions are plain and practical; 

 Mr. Salter has kept back nothing which 

 the amateur might espect or desire to 

 know, of all the various modes of treating 

 the flower for home decoration or exhibi- 

 tion. The volume is superbly produced, 

 the pictures are beautiful, and in their 

 truthfulness like life itself. 



Letters on the Utilization of London 

 Sewage, addressed to the Lord Mayor of 

 London. By Bakon Liebig. W. H. Coi- 

 lingridge. — This is an authorized edition ( 

 of Baron Liebig's letters to the Corporation I 



on the profitable appropriation of the Lon- 

 don sewage. The information it contains 

 on the effects and values of manures, and 

 on the effects of manures on soils and crops, 

 is of priceless value to all who are inte- 

 rested in the cultivation of the soil. Baron 

 Liebig estimates the value of Peruvian 

 guano to be £7 14s. per ton. The price 

 at which it is now selling is £13 10s. per 

 ton, nearly double its real value. The 

 London sewage he values at l - 84 of a 

 penny per ton, or a fraction overl^d. He 

 says, sewage ajmlied to poor sands is 

 ■wasted, but on arable loams it is of great 

 value ; but will need the help occasionally 

 of manures rich in phosphoiic acid, as it 

 contains proportionately less of that neces- 

 sity than is needful for a due preservation 

 of the fertility of the land. 



Flora Parvida, or Gleanings among 

 Favourite Floivers. W. Mackintosh. — 

 A beautiful little volume of extracts from 

 various authors on the uses, histories, and 

 associations of flowers. The extracts are 

 well chosen, though the editor appears to 

 have a somewhat limited range of literary 

 experiences, as the authors quoted are 

 comparatively few. It is beautifully 

 printed, and will no doubt be a favourite 

 with young people, and will do them 

 good. 



