THE FLORAE/ WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



59 



new morning of creation ;" and now, 

 especially at this season, do we witness 

 the evidences of creative power, as green 

 blades, that a touch of tlie hand would 

 crush, push their way through hard clods, 

 and even turn stones aside in tlieir eager- 

 ness to partake of the vivifying daylight. 

 Though the decay of nature and the strip- 

 ping of the branches that precedes the 

 •winter are as evident tokens of God's 

 remembrance of His promise, yet the re- 

 awaking in spring moi'e powerfully im- 

 presses upon us the constancy with which 

 the great wheel of the seasons turns upon 

 its mighty axis ; and if we can now lift 

 up our hearts iu fresh expressions of 

 thankfulness, this shall be to us a season 

 of refreshing from the presence of the 

 Lord. I know not what kindly, and 

 peaceful, and holy emotions might arise 

 within us, as if the very sunshine from 

 heaven had crept into our hearts, were we 

 but capable of comprehending the vast 

 plan in all its sublime simplicity, and also 

 feeling how we are overwhelmed with 

 benedictions by the Father of all mercies. 

 Amidst the contemplation of so much 

 that might move us to joy comes the 

 painful conviction, that we cannot, even 

 with the outpouring of tears, experience a 

 due sense of thankfulness, or requite the 

 Giver by sufEciently hearty praise to Him 

 and goodness to our fellow-creatures. But 

 He knoweth our frame, that we are dust ; 

 and, in pity for our weakness and incapa- 

 city, the blessings are heaped upon us, and 

 crowned by a still better promise of ever- 

 lasting rest in the society of a glorified 

 Saviour. If autumn whispers of the pangs 

 of death, and winter of the coldness of 

 the grave, spring teaches the lesson that 

 this life must be one of action and of 

 aspiration upwards, and foreshadows the 

 life to come, where is fulness of joy and 

 pleasures for evermore. 



Up to this present twenty-second of 

 February, we may say that winter has 

 kept away from us. With the exception 

 of the November frost, we have had a 

 continuance of mild, open weather for the 

 space of three months, lately interrupted 

 by some very welcome rains. The wonder 

 to every man who takes note of the 

 ■weather and the crops is, how we got so 

 fine a harvest and so abundant a pro- 

 duction of staple food commodities last 

 year, with a deficiency of rain amounting 

 to eight inches. We have had two dry 

 seasons in succession, that is, taking the 

 averages observed near London. The 

 average fall of rain in London is 24 inches. 

 In 1857, wo had but 20i ; in 1858, only 



15 2, which is less than fell in any pre- 

 vious year of this century. The result 

 is, that of the arrears of two seasons there 

 are twelve inches of rain owing us, and if 

 we have a wet spring let no one be 

 alarmed. My tanks were dry up to the 

 beginning of January, aud they are already 

 all but iull ; and trees planted last au- 

 tumn, and up to the end of January, have 

 had plenty of rain to put them in con- 

 dition to break well this spring. Gene- 

 rally speaking, most things are three weeks 

 in advance of their usual time of starting, 

 that is, in London. My peaches are all 

 b it open ; some of my bush-pears are 

 shaking the scales of their buds ; and 

 Jacqueminot aud Margottin roses have 

 been growing all winter, and the first 

 actually gave me two decent blooms, which 

 I plucked off a month ago for a friend 

 who came from a far country, and had 

 never seen an open-air rose in bloom at 

 such a season before. 



These facts should guide us in our 

 spring-work. I have not yet pruned a 

 single rose, except such as are newly 

 planted, and at once cut into good buds. 

 If a sharp frost comes on, when the wind 

 makes its seasonal shift to the north-east, 

 Boreas will spend his rage on the tops of 

 the shoots, and spare the plump buds 

 lower down the stems ; but to prune 

 them now would be to start those lower 

 buds, aud perhaps expose them to a nip- 

 ping frost; perhaps a frost with rain, 

 which is the most destructive of all sorts 

 of weather, and so lose all the early 

 blooms. 



Pi'eservative measures have not needed 

 any extra vigilance this season ; my potted 

 hyacinths stood out till the 1st of Feb- 

 ruary, and were then in prime condition 

 to push into bloom. On that day we 

 filled the front stage of a house with them, 

 and gentle warmth aud drenchings over- 

 head with tepid water have brought all the 

 earlier varieties into splendid bloom. When 

 writing about hyacinths in the autumn, I 

 spoke of a bed with rails for nets, in which 

 I kept them instead of in frames. This 

 plan of wintering I have found so useful, 

 that I would suggest its adoption by those 

 who are without glass, or whose pits and 

 houses are not equal to the extent of their 

 stock. Suppose we call tliis contrivance 

 a Preservative Bed — I know no better 

 name — and let the subjoined engraving 

 represent the one I have found so useful. 

 A four-feet bed is the most convenient, 

 and it may be of any length. Mine is 

 about twenty feet long, aud is beside the 

 potting-shed, sunk a foot below the level, 



