378 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



have all the advantage of the sun to harden the wood. Of course vigorous growtli 

 is necessary to the production of good flowering shoots. This you will secure by 

 potting in three parts fibrous peat and one turfy loam, with a little sand, and 

 placing in the hothouse. In March cut back to three or five eyes, according to the 

 strength of the shoots. Perhaps the reason you don't succeed with Poinsetta pul- 

 cherrima is because just at the time it wants most attention you leave it to shift for 

 itself. Tliis plant requires to be grown liberally on, with undiminished heat and 

 moisture until it has flowered, when it may immediately go to rest by laying the 

 pot on its side, and keeping dry till Midsummer. Then cut down your plants, but 

 give them no water. When the new shoots are an inch long, shake out, and repot 

 in small pots in half leaf-mould, half peat, with a little sand. Shift on into larger 

 pots as they want it, and give them their final shift (using the same soil) the first 

 week in October. Keep up both heat and moisture until they flower. 



Feom the Editoeial Chaik.— Dear Friends, Headers of the Fi.OEAi, Woeld, I address you 

 lovingly from the awlul chair. It is an aged one, of the pattern which hears the cognomen of 

 " Wmdsor." It has a ricketty bael;, a flinty seat, it consists wholly of beechnood (or some other 

 wood) , is much worm-eaten, and like its occupant, some degrees the better for being somewhat m orn. 

 From this chair 1 have published many aUocutions without shaking the popular nerves, and per- 

 petrated many buUs without placing myself or any one else (except, mayhap, the printer) on the 

 horns of a dilemma. The Flobal VVokld now concludes the ninth year of its useful and elegant 

 existence. Oh, think what a flight of time is a lapse of nine years ! 'think of the total number of 

 our hearts' pulsations since the issue of Ko. 1 (1 mean No. 1 old series). Ah, the articles that 

 have been written and read, remembered or forgotten, since this httle venture budded in the cold 

 of January, 1858, and now blossoros in your presence in the warmth of December, 1866 ! Oh, 

 think of the letters from various of you I have read in all that time. Yes, and tldnk, too, of the 

 letters I haven't read, and, consequently, haven't answered, and that lie in heaps before, as I 

 twist and turn with fldgetty jerks upon the flinty seat of the awful chair. O chair, O chair, may 

 your timbers never be shivered till the work be done. And oh, dread Eeader, whose frown can 

 crush, and whose smile is so decidedly profitable, dread Keader, sometimes flattered as " gentle," 

 "discerning," "judicious," or '•' cnliiihtened," receive my confession uttered in penitence, and 

 bestow such punishment as is meet. I do not expect butcher's meat, nor would you meet me with 

 such measure as I mete to you, for at this season of the year 1 know your forgivingness, and I 

 address you as the "indulgent reader," who may have experienced the mental incapacity that 

 results Irom having a capacity for pills. This nejilect, dear friends, the neglect of hundreds of 

 your letters, the doctor wiU tell you (if you ask him) is not my fault, but my misfortune. I have 

 been physically out ot sorts, and yet have had all sorts of physic. I have been rushing about with 

 the hue of health on my cheek, and a nreadful faintness at my heart for three months past. 

 How many ailments have I had 'i About tive hundred and fort}', bcginningwith rheumatics and 

 ending with dyspepsia. The moment this number is printed I shall take a hoUday ; a few jriends 

 westward are already having ^the sunshine laid on, and several fat pigs are to have their necks 

 twisted to afford me a welcome, and I shall preler their meat to their music. I hope and expect 

 to return in time to be just to all our correspondents who have been of late so grievously 

 neglected. Forgive me tliis once, and I will do all I can to justify my next addressing you aa 

 "appreciative," " approbative," and "remunerative" readers, and may your aggregate shadow 

 never be less. 



On the 1st of January, 1867, will be published, price Sixpence, No. 13 of the new series 

 of the 



FI.OIIAI. WORLD, 



in which will appear for the first time, never to be repeated, a picture and description.^f the 

 most beautiful rockery ever teen in the Editor's garden at Stoke Newington, and a more beauti- 

 ful one is not likely to be seen ihere, for he doesn't intend to waste his money iu building another. 

 Also, a remarkable paper on herbaceous plants by The O'Shane; a complete, and perfect, and 

 delectable and convincing paper on the Auricula, by Mr. Walsh ; with many other, equally curious, 

 wonderlul, original, and divcrtive, the whole to conclude with a grand di-splay of fireworks, in 

 which many readers will discover replies to their queries that are at present concealed in the heap 

 that confronts the editorial chair, 'ihis address coiicludes in accordance with propriety prompted 

 by afi'ectiou, with a wish that all our Readers may experience 



S JWcrrg fi^fjriatmas 



AND 



m 3[|aBPB iSctu i|car. 



HARKILD, PKINIEB, LONDON. 



