THE FLORIST. 69 



THE LADIES' PAGE. 



" Spring ! spring ! beautiful spring ! 

 Hitherward cometh, like hope on the wing ; 

 Pleasantly looketh on streamlet and flood, 

 Raiseth a chorus of joy in the wood ; 

 Toucheth the bud, and it bursts into bloom, 

 Biddeth the beautiful rise from the tomb ; 

 Blesseth the heart like a heavenly thing, — 

 Spring ! spring ! the beautiful spring ! " 



We quite agree with those writers who have eulogised March, not- 

 withstanding his boisterousness, and an occasional ill-natured prac- 

 tical joke played off by him on our pet flowers. With a little caution 

 in relation to tender productions, March will do us no harm, while 

 his approach will be hailed by the lover of nature, as bringing with 

 it all precious and hopeful things. " If March is a rude and some- 

 what boisterous month, possessing many of the characteristics of 

 winter, yet it awakens sensations perhaps more delicious than the 

 two following spring months, for it gives us the first announcement 

 and taste of spring ; and there is something in the freshness of the 

 soil, in the mossy bank, the balmy air, the voices of birds, the early 

 and delicious flowers, that we have seen and felt only in childhood 

 and in spring." All our readers will agree with Mr. Howitt in this 

 passage, except that this year " the taste of spring" has come much 

 earlier ; for at the time we now write, the 9th of February, the gar- 

 den is most delightfully gay with spring-flowers. On the first of 

 the month the Yellow Crocus was in full bloom, and now the purple 

 and white are ready to expand their petals on the first sunny day. 

 Aconites and Snowdrops are gone off; and if no severe weather inter- 

 vene, Hyacinths and early Tulips will be in flower before these lines 

 are in the hands of our readers. Happy are those amateurs who 

 have liberally furnished their garden with spring bulbs ! To them 

 the early months of the year will be as interesting as the most genial 

 and gorgeous days of summer. 



Flower-beds should be kept as light as possible, by frequent raking 

 of the soil on the surface ; this will conduce to neatness, and will 

 serve as a protection to advancing bulbs. We have gone over our 

 beds with a good sprinkling of leaf-mould and well-rotted manure, 

 reduced to a fine soil ; this will protect tender things in this forward 

 season, and may be done in March with advantage. When the soil 

 is pulverised, frost has less power over it ; it is also raised consider- 

 ably in altitude by being properly loosened, and thus acts as a defence. 

 When Crocuses, Snowdrops, and other early flowers have done flow- 

 ering, and the space they occupy is wanted for something else, bad 

 gardeners are in the habit of cutting off or pulling up the foliage, 

 leaving the bulbs underground destitute of lungs, by which to inhale 

 solar and other influences, and to perfect their growth. It must be 

 remembered, that as long as there are healthy leaves on any plant, 

 they are doing good service ; and therefore the foliage of bulbs should 

 be allowed to wither before the roots are disturbed. As this leaves 



