112 TOE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



coating of gutta percba solution over their surface. It is perfectly 

 transparent, and is said to improve the appearance of pictures. By 

 coatinfr both sides of important documents, they can be kept water- 

 proof and preserved perfectly." -Page 83, No. 325. At p. 308, 

 tarlatan brusbed over with boiled oil is said to keep out dust. Why 

 not make a sort of dome the size of the flower-stand, and about 

 three inches higher than the plants, like the skeleton of a dish cover, 

 and strain tarlatan or tlie parchment-like foreign post paper — I 

 think called "vellum made " — over it, and cover all inside and out 

 with a slight glaze of gutta percha ? There could be no great 

 difficulty in doing it, and tbe expense must be a mere trifle, as it 

 would last a long time. Before covering, a handle might be made 

 at the top, of cord, overcast button-hole fashion, to make it firm. 



I fancy something of this kind might be made to answer ; as 

 also for newly-planted things out of doors. Canvas, if it can be 

 protected from damp, will last much longer. Perhaps some of your 

 readers might be induced to take up the idea, and give us the advan- 

 tage of experience ? This is just the time flower-stands and baskets 

 of this kind could be so easily established in large towns, primroses, 

 daisies, and violets being plentiful and cheap. 



Before I close this, may I be allowed to harp again — just a little 

 — on the merits of the Goethe plant as a room decoration and every- 

 day friend ? I have now a good-tempered little dear that has 

 struggled bravely on all this winter in a thumb pot and bad soil, 

 having lived a life of great privation for some months. It was 

 bruised and broken off last autumn by the cat, then half drowned 

 for some weeks in water, where it was neglected till within an inch 

 of its little life, then stufted into a bad soil in a'^thumb-pot, which it 

 hates ; since which time it has once or twice been nearly baked to 

 death on the stove ; and now, in spite of everything, though thick 

 and white with dust, it is struggling out a fair little leaf, and has 

 the crisp sturdy bearing of a plant that means to thrive in the world. 

 An oxlip brought in to fill up one of the spaces left vacant by some 

 tulips, though paid far more attention, took to the sulks long ago, 

 and finally jerked off" its flower-beds, and went out on strike. These 

 neighbours remind me of the nursery rhyme : — 



" Coo, coo-o-o, says the Dove. 

 What shall I do 

 To maintain my two-o ? 

 Thwit, Thwit, says the Wren, 

 I've got teriy 

 And I'm bringing them up like gentltmen." 



' ' PaorESSoii Bentley delivered a lecture on the properties and uses of the Euca- 

 lyptus globulus and other species, in the Museum in the gardens of tbe Koyal 

 Boitmic Society, Regent's Park, on the 14th ult. For the information of those 

 who are desirous of hecoming acquainted with this tree, which is said to have the 

 virtue of purifying the air of miasmatic districts, we take this opportunity of 

 saying that specimens may be seen in the conservatory of the Royal Botanic 

 Society, and in the conservatory of the Royal Horticultural Society, at South 

 U^ensington. 



