224 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



Egg Plants. — A. E., Hornsey. — It is almost too late to say much about growing 

 this plant this year. The seeds should be sown in March, and brought along in a 

 nice heat until they begin to bloom, when you can take them into the greenhouse 

 for the remaining part of the season. Sow the seed in light soil, pot off' singly, or 

 two in a pot, as soon as they are large enough, and use a soil composed of two 

 parts loam and one rotten manure. Give plenty of water after the pots are filled, 

 with roots, and keep them well syringed to keep down the red-spider. The best 

 course will be to buy a few plants in small pots, and shift them into large pots at 

 once. 



Clianthus Dampiebi. — Ii. B. — This should be kept growing freely, for 

 check js hurtful to it, and likely to produce red-spider. It will be a heavy jol 

 turn them out of pots larger than those they are in already (six to the cast). 

 may overcome that difficulty by sinking the pots into the holes which the pla. 

 are to occupy, and then breaking the pots away. They will remain very well ovi 

 winter in the pots as they are ; and to keep them going give plenty of water, an 

 once a week a spoonful of Peruvian guano to each, spread over the surface of th 

 soil in the pot, and washed in with ordinary watering. 



Mixed Hepaticas. — A Perplexed, Amateur. — The best way to manage the 

 hepaticas, so as to get them sorted into colours, depends on how they have been 

 treated. From the time they ceased flowering, they ought to be in very fine sandy 

 soil, enriched with plenty of fine mulch from an old dung-bed, to make their growth 

 for next season. Then left alone till they begin to show bloom-buds early the next 

 year, when all the old leaves may be cut off, and the plants potted into shallow 

 seed-pans to bloom in the greenhouse ; such as are wanted for ribbon-work and 

 systematic planting to be allowed to show their colour, and to be carefully moved 

 immediately to the places they are to decorate. This plan ensures exactitude as to 

 colours, and, if properly performed, in no way interferes with the blooming or after- 

 growth of the plants. When crocuses get mixed, they may be served in the same 

 way, for they move with as complete balls as chrysanthemums. 



Showy Greenhouse Plants. — A Lady Amateur. — The best plants to make your 

 "greenhouse gay during the next few months" are scarlet Salvias, double Petunias, 

 Senecios, Crassuias, Abronias, Gesneras, Statice Holfordi and profusa, Brugmansias, 

 Erica pulchella, Zonal Geraniums, Asters, Balsams, Browallias, Clintonia pulchella, 

 and any showy annuals that were sown in June. Later in the season, pompone 

 Chrysanthemums will come in, and make the stages very gay. 



Drying Heath. — A Young Botanist. — First of all obtain some new blotting- 

 paper, and a couple of deal boards, eighteen inches square. Lay out the specimens 

 as flat as possible, and cut away side branches that are in the way. Place between 

 blotting-paper with a board above and below, and put on a moderate weight. At 

 the end of twelve hours, shift the specimens into other sheets of blotting-paper, 

 made dry and warm by holding them before the fire, and continue to change in the 

 same way till the specimens are dry. Plants dried quickly between thick folds of 

 warm blotting-paper, changed every few hours, keep their colour most perfectly ; 

 but the slower the process, the greater is the probability that the colour will be lost. 

 Blue flowers are the most likely to deteriorate : they usually change to a dirty 

 white. On the contrary, yellows hold in all their original brightness. 



Vinca major elegantissima. — A. _B. — This is one of the most beautiful of the 

 variegated periwinkles, and for a fancy edging very chaste and striking. It may 

 take the place of Golden-leaved geraniums in many cases, but to our eye it is very 

 distinct in its effect, and better adapted for large beds. It is unquestionably the 

 best hardy plant, with variegated foliage, for shady positions, in existence. 



Sawdust as Manure. — R. B. — Sawdust from some kinds of wood requires a 

 couple of years to rot; other kinds decay more quickly. It is of very little value 

 as a manure, but a good material to soak up house-sewage or the drainage from 

 stables and cowsheds. The appearance of mycelium among decaying wood appears 

 to be local ; in some districts such a thing is never seen, and wood rots into a peaty 

 sort of mould of great value to the gardener. In others, the smallest chip has a 

 network of white threads after a few weeks' exposure to damp, and any living roots 

 that may be near are pretty sure to suffer. Our advice is not to use sawdust among 

 fruit-trees at all. 



