THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



95 



than 50 clegs. — to be gradually increased ; and 

 the secret of setting the fruit well is to keep 

 them close and -warm from the moment they 

 begin to bloom, till the berries are actually 

 formed, when moisture, and a gradually in- 

 creased heat to 70 degs. may be used, with air 

 at all seasonable opportunities. Of course, a 

 great deal will then depend on the kinds of 

 grapes grown, and, if with other plants, on their 

 particular constitution. With general green- 

 house collections, we should never break vines 

 very early, but it would be even better to 

 wait till they showed signs of breaking naturally, 

 as the forward state of other plants at that 

 time would allow of an increase of 10 or 16 degs. 

 of temperature. — The calceolaria will have early 

 attention in our pages. The placing of the 

 calico under the sash is to allow thatched hurdles 

 to be slid on and off all the winter, without 

 damage to the frames. As soon as severe irosts 

 are over, the frames are easily reversed, and 

 when we used such frames, that was the way we 

 managed them. Now, however, that glass is 

 so cheap, we would nut ourselves give room 

 for a single square yard of any substitute. 

 Plants fob. a Cool Greenhouse. — /. R. says, " I 

 am often absent from home, and my greenhouse 

 is rather neglected, and generally no lire lighted 

 unlets frosty, the thermometer often falling to 

 oj degs., but never lower. I, therefore, want 

 plants that will stand this low temperature, and 

 be none the worse. I grow Azaleas, Camellias, 

 Plumbago Capensis, Tacsonias, Fuchsias, Gera- 

 niums, dec, very well, but want others tor variety, 

 particularly in April." — If the management of a 

 collection in a house which never descends 

 below 35 degs., is judicious, selections may be 

 made almost at random, from catalogues of 

 greenhouse plants, and the taste of the grower, 

 not the temperature of the house, may determine 

 the nature of the stock. The family of Ericas 

 alone would furnish flowers for every month in 

 the year, and there are none better adapted for 

 such a cool house. Even Choi ■ ozemtis, which we 

 generally consider to require a temperature 

 averaging 50 degs. all the winter, would do if 

 kept nearly dry, and that is the turning point 

 of the whole affair, for a temperature of 40 degs., 

 which we take to be the winter average of the 

 house, will keep any greenhouse, and many stove 

 plants, and to have something to look at all the 

 year round, there are hundreds of really choice 

 things that would grow all the winter at that 

 average. We should not hesitate to trust 

 Boronias and Hoveas in such a house, provided 

 the alternations of temperature were not sudden ; 

 and the list given at page 23 may be selected 

 from according to your taste, excepting only 

 Adenandra, Epacris, Pultenrea, Gompholobium, 

 and Thunbergias ; for early blooming, you should 

 have Orobus vermis, Bossiwa buxifolia, cordi- 

 J'ulia, and ovata, Cytisus atleeana, and proli- 

 ferus, Coronilla emerus, Crotaluria argentea 

 (subject to green-fly), Daviesia ungulata, Urevil- 

 lea acuminata, Indigofera uustrulis, alopecu- 

 roides, and amcenti. Anemones, Dielytras, 

 Doronicums, Erithroniums, and things of that 

 class are far lrom despicable to make a spring 

 show in a cool greenhouse, The following are ad- 

 mirable for suspension : Hibbertia grossulari- 

 folcea, Rliodochiton volubile, Maurandia Bar- 

 clayana, JEschynanthus, Abronias, Hedera 

 cullisii, Davallia penla/jhylla, and Adianatum 

 setulosum. A description of new and last 

 year's fuchsias would take the whole space of 

 a number. Yours is the Lady Fern, Moore's 

 five-shilling Hand-book is an admirable work. 

 Send a little parcel of the roots offered to 

 5, Paternoster-row, carriage not paid. 

 Hoot-stumps, &c. — Vega. — To use roots on a 

 lawn, it would be best to combine them with 



mounds of rock, well covered with ivy, to w 

 evergreen shrubs, and such trailers as the major 

 periwinkle, Abronia, convolvulus, &0. They are 

 also useful about rockeries, and, if the hollows are 

 filled with sandy peat and leaf mould, ferns will 

 grow in them to perfection. Indeed, a picturesque 

 fernery is nothing without plenty of well-planted 

 roots. In "Rustic Adornments" jou will 

 find very ample instructions for the uses of roots 

 and rocks as garden ornaments.— Cuttings of 

 Dielytra may be struck under a hand-glass all 

 the summer, and at this present season in a 

 moist heat in a propagating house. They root 

 quickly in any light sandy soil. Though we 

 never wanted plants from cuttings, having plenty 

 by division of roots, we have struck them ail 

 sorts of ways for experiment sake, and find that 

 young shoots, nipped off clean and trimmed of 

 the lower leaves, root readily, if shaded and kept 

 moist, in ten to fourteen days. You may have 

 hundreds of plants if you wish it, by striking 

 them in a shady border, from the middle of 

 May to the end of August. Any of the seeds- 

 men who advertise in the Floral Woeld will 

 supply you with either seed or plants of the 

 Pampas grass, safe by post, but it is against our 

 rules to specify dealers. 

 Planting Rhubarb, &q.—Aii Ignorant Gardener 

 — Your gardening friends may be a little preju- 

 dicedtfco their own ways of doing things, but 

 you may profit by their advices, nevertheless. 

 Practical men differ as to their methods, and 

 yet arrive at very similar results ; the grand 

 thing is to know the principle on which an opera- 

 tion is to be conducted. If you are bent on 

 planting potatoes early, stick to your text, and 

 if you plant them properly, you need not fear 

 the consequences. But if your lriends give you 

 a reason for deviating from an established rule, 

 you may then judge of the value of the advice. 

 Some years ago we astonished the most noted 

 cultivator in a certain district, by trenching up 

 the second spit of yellow loam on a piece for 

 potatoes, and planting the crop on the first of 

 February. But we had the crop up a mouth 

 before the astonished veteran, and they weighed 

 at the rate of one-third more than the piece on 

 which he prided himself as the perfection of 

 culture. Nevertheless gardeners are, generally 

 speaking, an intelligent and thinking class; 

 those who hold to the rules of their forefathers 

 are the few not the many. 

 Those who truth and wisdom heed, 

 May gather knowledge iroin a weed. 



Ornamental Foliage Plants.— A Practical Gar- 

 dener. — Mr. John Salter, of the Versailles Nur- 

 sery, Hammersmith, has an extensive collection 

 of hardy plants, with variegated foliage. His 

 new catalogue, contains a selection of Wl distinct 

 varieties of the highest merit. The subject will 

 receive our earliest attention, for we are great 

 admirers of this class of plants, and have long en- 

 joyed the pleasure of their cultivation. We thank 

 our correspondent, " a Practical Gardener," for 

 his kind encomium on the Floral World ; he 

 says— "I congratulate you upon the taste and 

 judgment displayed in the first three numbers of 

 the Floral World, and shall, I trust, continue to 

 peruse its pages for a long time to come, with 

 the same interest and gratification." 



Skeleton Leaves.— Adah wishes to know how 

 to prepare these beautiful objects ; will some 

 correspondent help her ; tor we know but little 

 of the art. When preparing holly and other 

 such leaves for the microscope, we have mace- 

 rated in distilled water, with a drop or two of 

 muriatic acid added to hasten the destruction 

 of the soft parts, and then bleached with sul- 

 phur. We have lately seen some admirable 

 examples very tastefully mounted under glasr 



