THE FLORAL WOELD AND aAEDEN GUIDE. (33 



moisture-loving plants in pots. These pots were placed in long stone troughs ; the 

 troughs were furnished with pipes for entrance and exit of water, and by turning a 

 tap the pots were at once submerged to the rim or to any height desired, 

 and by a similar act at the other end the trough was emptied. This same process 

 might be adopted where many clioice plants are grown for botanical purposes only 

 without reference to their habit, and simply to reduce the labour of watering to a 

 minimum. We are not in favour of plunging deeply any amphibious plant : two or 

 three inches will be better than plunging to the rim. Some of our bog-growing 

 ferns, as Athyrium f. f. and Usmunda regalis, may be grown to perfection in large 

 pots plunged one or two inches deep onlj-, witli frequent syringing overhead and a 

 moderate degree of shade. 



Red Spider. — R. B. — Red spider is recognized by the leaves presenting a 

 peculiar mottled appearance on the iipper surface from tlie exhaustion of tlie chloro- 

 phyll, which at once betrays its presence. Up to the present period the application 

 oi Sulphur is the only means of repelling the injurious eifects. Tiie proper course is 

 not to burn tlie sulphur, but simply to volatilize it through the medium of a warm 

 damp atmosphere. Tlie best preventive is liberal cultivation. 



Fruit Tbee.s near a Pond — A. P. — We are not surprised to hear that fruit 

 trees planted beside a pond which is filled with warm water grow well and bloom 

 abundantly, but produce no fruit. The vapour from the adjoining mass of warm 

 water probably retards the ripening of the wood, by keeping the leaves in activity 

 to an unreasonably late period in autumn. But supposing the wood does ripen, then 

 when the trees are in blossom, warm vapours rising about and amongst them must 

 be fatal to their setting for fruit as they should do. No doubt it' they did set 

 properly, the fruit would be unusually fine ; but that is impossible, for pollen 

 cannot be effectually distributed, unless the air is very dry. These trees twenty 

 years planted beside a pond for gold fish, which is filled with warm water, may 

 serve as an illustration of the theory of fertilization of fruit trees generally. Why do 

 we cease to syringe vines when in bloom? Why do we allow the spring breezes to 

 circulate freely in our orchard houses? and why, if the weather is muggy and 

 moist during the blooming of fruit trees, is there a general failure in the fruir crops? 

 The same answer may be given to each of these questions. The pollen requires a 

 dry air for its distribution, and in a moist air it is retained in its cells until the 

 pistils have passed that stage of their development at which the deposit of pollen on 

 them would cause fertility. It may liappen also that your trees have sent their 

 roots down into a lower stratum of soil, into which the Avarm water from the pond 

 has found its way by infiltration. But we think the vapour during the season 

 of blossoming quite sufficient to account for their barrenness. We should like to 

 see camellias, rhododendrons, and kalmias tried in those borders, to know what 

 effect the warm vapour would have upon them. 



Mushrooms without Sp.vwn. — In the November number of the Flor.\l World, 

 at page 257, on the subject of Mushrooms in Pasture Land, you say that good stable 

 manure spread out in a mass two feet deep, and covered with aljout four inches of 

 good loam any time in the spring, and left alone in any shady place out of doors, 

 will be sure to produce fine mushrooms from about the end of June to the end of 

 September. Should the manure be put on at once, or may it be put on as it can be 

 procured ? and should the loam be put on directly the two feet of manure has been 

 laid on the ground ? — J. W. [The manure had best be kept under cover until 

 there is sufficient. If spread about rather loosely in a shed or outhouse, it would 

 be all the better. When sufficient has accumulated, the bed may be made and 

 covered with loam, and left to take care of itself. If the bed can be covered with a 

 frame or some boards, and be regularly watered, it will produce earlier and more 

 plentifully. We grow abundance of fine mushrooms by this method by beds made 

 up in May. 



M. C. W. — From the present time to the middle of April will be the best time 

 to move a large Magnolia grandiflora. A south-east aspect will suit it ; generally 

 speaking, soutli-west is better to escape the east winds that prevail in March and 

 April. In the replanting have the roots carefully filled in witli turfy peat chopped 

 to the size of the fist, or with good leaf-mould. It is a difficult subject to move 

 when large, owing to the fleshy nature of the roots. 



Hardy Hekbaceou.s Plants for Exhibition. — Amateur. — We can easily 

 enough enumerate half-a-dozen kinds to show in July, and another half-dozen to 

 show in September. But as you are in earnest, you do not want to be shut up to 



