176 THE FLORIST. 



arrest vertical radiation, the temperature close by the walls would 

 scarcely fall more than a degree or two, if it did so much, during the 

 coldest nights, and to this no doubt I owe the preservation of the crops. 

 I shall be glad to know the results of others' experience, and Mr. Saul's 

 to wit, on this point, as it is worth noticing. 



In the kitchen garden much up-hill work has been experienced. 

 Spring raised Caulitlowers and Lettuces look blue and wiry, from the 

 want of those warm genial showers so essential to their growth ; for the 

 watering-pot is, after all, a poor substitute for rain. And what can be 

 advantageously done with watering with a north-easterly wind a few 

 degrees onl}'- above the freezing point ! which has actually been the 

 case more than once during the present month. All other vegetables 

 have suffered from the cold dry atmosphere in the same proportion. 



In the flower garden and pleasure ground the season has been 

 equally unpropitious, the planting of the flower garden having only just 

 commenced. To those who have been obliged to plant this spring no 

 small amount of care will be necessary for some time yet to ensure 

 their well doing, particularly with evergreens. With the latter class 

 the best way to counteract the effects of these drying winds on newly 

 planted evergreens, which otherwise would lose their moisture rapidly 

 from its influence, is to well syringe them over-head each evening, and 

 mulch the surface over the roots, to prevent evaporation, and save 

 incessant watering at the roots, which often does more harm than good. 



The exhibition season has fairly set in, and the display of plants 

 which have been exhibited has certainly surprised me. The freshness, 

 vigour, and abundance of bloom which characterise the whole of the 

 specimens I have seen show how completely English gardeners can 

 surmount the difficulties of an unfavourable climate, increased in no 

 ordinary degree by the peculiarities of the present season. 



G. F. 



PAULOVNIA IMPERIALIS. 



The Imperial Paulovnia is decidedly one of the most ornamental 

 deciduous trees we yet possess. It grows in its native country (Japan) 

 from forty to fifty feet high. Notwithstanding this, we have plants in 

 this country, extending from the middle to the south of England, twenty 

 feet high — and particularly in the south, where it attains a greater height, 

 growing spontaneously, producing in one season large robust shoots 

 three or four feet long, and at the same time bearing ample foliage. I 

 once observed (at a nursery in Sussex) a large healthy plant twenty-five 

 feet high, lifted from the situation in which it had been established 

 eight years, and removed to a gentleman's estate, there replanted, and 

 to his great satisfaction, the plant reflourished in a most luxuriant manner. 

 But in this part of England, as well as the midland localities, we find our 

 strongest plans with their terminal shoots nipped, and more or less 

 killed by the autumnal frost, or, what is worse, the biting north-east 

 winds of spring. Three years ago I beheld a plant coming nicely into 

 bloom, it had expanded three lilac-coloured, Gloxinia-liked flowers. 



