THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 159 



lotteaux, Liervalli, Madame Marin Saison, Mons. Linden, Mons. W, Bull. Six 

 1'entstemons : Arthur Mc Hardy, Black Knight, Lady Boswell, Starts fead Rival, 

 Miss Carnegie, George Sand. Six Antirrhinums : Admiral, George Gordon. 

 Leopard, Striped Unique, The Rival, Yelloio Gem. The above selections 

 include a few of those that are now in course of distribution for the first time. 



Calceolarias.— G. Simpson. — "We cannot say whether they will die off this 

 summer as they did last, and as they have too frequently done in past years. 

 But we can say this, that in several experiments with calceolarias at Stoke 

 Newington, those planted in soil consisting of about three parts out of four of rotten 

 hotbed dung, n-me died, and the growth and bloom were the astonishment of many 

 practicals who saw them. 



Geraniums fok Planting after Bulbs. — W. W. — All you need do is to 

 shift the plants into six-inch pots, and plunge them out of doors till wanted. Then 

 you can turn them out without any check, and in full bloom. So in autumn you 

 need not take up your plants till the end of October, and you have then good time 

 to plant the tulips. Suppose you were to have some kind of cheap frame-work for 

 inclosing those beds, and then fill them with potted plants for the summer, on the 

 plunging system. That system proves to be about a hundred times more grand 

 than any system of planting out, and it has but one defect, and that is, that it uses 

 an enormous quantity of plants, but that is an advantage to those who grow 

 plants in quantities. But you have only to give your bedders an extra fortnight's 

 growing. 



Destroying Wireworm. — Robert Wilkinson. — Yours is a bad case, but not at 

 all uncommon where a grass-field has been lately converted into a garden. Culti- 

 vation will eradicate the pest in time, as every time the land is dug the birds will 

 make a feast of the vermin, and the use of lime and salt on the land when newly 

 dug tip will contribute to thin them. For the present, we can recommend a good 

 plan to save the crops that are coming forward. Sow carrots in short rows in all 

 the beds occupied with lettuces, onions, and other things that they usually destroy. 

 As long as they can find th .ir way to a feed o{ carrots, they will desert everything 

 else, just as slugs and snails will quit everything else for lettuces. Sow the 

 carruts now rather thick, at intervals of about two yards across every four-feet 

 bed, and as soon as they acquire the thickness of a quill begin to draw them 

 where thickest, and you will catch many' of the vermin. But you must allow a 

 fair share of roots to remain, and you will have a crop of carrots in the end iu 

 spite of the worms. Next year sow onions and carrots, lettuces and carrots, 

 etc., in alternate rows in the same beds ; it is too laty, we presume, to advise this 

 course now. 



F. C. — You have nothing to fear, although it would be a decided advantage 

 if the trees could be pruned earlier in the season ; but it would not be safe to 

 prune them before the sap is in active circulation. 



A New Beginner. — Of course, if the plants had not been well hardened off 

 by exposure to the air previous to their removal from the frame, they would suffer. 



Mushroom Culture. — Mrs. Smith. — There are many ways of growing mush- 

 rooms ; some of the most careless ways are sometimes very succassful, some of the 

 most careful ways are sometimes failures. In the end the careful man will be 

 the winner ; and theiefore, tnough the b:-st ways fail sometimes, we recommend the 

 following, which we consider the best: — Collect short manure from the stable duily, 

 and lay it in a heap in a dry shed. So long as it rises to only a gentle heat leave 

 it alone, and keep adding to it ; but if there is any tendency to a strong heat, 

 spread it out; leave it spread a day or two, and make it up again in smaller heaps. 

 If it gets thoroughly hot, it will be in great part spoiled. When you have enough 

 for the bed, mix w ith it a fourth part of good turfy loam ; if the loam is stiff, use 

 only a sixth part to the whole bulk. Lay it all up in a heap to ferment, and when the 

 heat rises to 80° or 90°, take it to the mushroom house, and make up the bed 18 to 

 24 inches deep. It will soon heat again, but not fiercely. When the temperature 

 of the bed is declining from its first heating, and is at about 90' (80' to 100 J will 

 do as well), bore holes with a rammer about a foot apart, and put into each a piece 

 of spawn the size of a walnut. Fill up the holes with some of the same stuff the bed 

 is made of, then spread two or three inches of good strong loam all over the 

 bed, and at once beat the whole firm. It is one of the most important of all the 

 points in mushroom-growing to make the bed as firm as a rock at the right 



