1869.] FLORIST FLOWERS. 259 



experience had taught us that one well-ripened rod is worth more, 

 as far as the production of good fruit was concerned, than ten that 

 are not. Judging from certain shrugs of the shoulders and grimaces, 

 we rather suspect that our advice was not followed, and that the good 

 Dutchman sticks to quantity, in preference to quality, still. 



A third and very common error is the allowing all the bunches 

 that set to hang on the Vines too long before they are thinned off, 

 and too long a time to elapse before the berries are thinned in the 

 bunches. The former is a great waste of the vital strength of the 

 Vine. Therefore, as soon as the Grapes are set, reduce the bunches 

 at once to the required number ; then set about thinning the berries 

 in the bunches, beginning with the Hamburgs and free setters first. 

 Bunches can never be properly thinned when the berries are so large 

 that the scissors can scarcely be got in amongst them without damaging 

 those berries that are to form the bunches. As a rule, we believe the 

 berries in the bunches are more frequently over than under thinned. 

 Nothing looks worse than to see a bunch of Grapes much over-thinned, 

 and its shoulders tied out with strings till it resembles nothing so 

 much as some of Punch's caricatures of "the Russian eagle;" and 

 when cut and laid on a dessert-dish, it would be a misnomer to call it 

 a hunch of Grapes. 



Still another error is that of allowing the Vines to make an excess of 

 lateral growth beyond the bunches, till they present a tangled mass of 

 growth, and then on a given day to set to work and cut away all this 

 overgrowth at once, forgetting that by this means great injury must 

 be done to the young roots of the Vine, and a shock given to its 

 general system. The proper method is to pinch such laterals beyond 

 the first leaf at least once a-week during the season of rapid growth. 



W. Thomson. 



FLORIST FLOWERS. 



Continued from page 188. 



ANTIRRHINUMS. 



Section I. — Beauty, Clipper, Carnation, Eclat, Harlequin, Hendersonii, Leopard, 

 Petrel, Prince Alfred, Rob Roy, Striata perfecta, Stella. 



Section II. — Beda, Cherub, Magii, Marquis, Mrs M'Donald, Nox, Royal Albert, 

 Sunbeam, Spark, The Lady, The Prince, Victoria, War Eagle. 



PENTSTEMONS. 



Section I. — A. Smith, Candidate, George Sand, John Pow, Lady Hay, Lion, 

 Laprevote, Mazeppa, Mons. Allison, Mutual, Regalia, Pauline Dinmont, Rev. J. 

 H. Tait. 



s 



