THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 143 



But they do not quite pick out all the middle of the flower, but leave 

 a little bit just in the centre, so that if the judges happen to turn the 

 florets back they may see that it has a proper centre, whereas if they 

 turned them further back they would see a great bare place. Now 

 this kind of thing I maintain is both unfair and unjust. But many 

 of the seedlings palmed off upon the public are grown in this way. 

 If seedlings were grown and shown fairly, not half those which are 

 made so much fuss about would be regarded at all with favour by 

 the public. 



Crocks. — "When striking cuttings, I always do entirely without 

 crocks, which makes them very much handier in turning out. I 

 do not say that my system is so much superior to the crock 

 method, but it is certainly cleaner and more tidy. I take an 

 ordinary thumb-pot and place it upside-down in the pot in which the 

 cuttings are to be placed, then fill up with compost and put in the 

 cuttings. Place the pots in a little heat, and you find them grow 

 faster than when crocks are used. The reason I suppose to be this, 

 that the hole of the large pot being quite free, the thumb-pot inside 

 gets full of warm air, and so brings them on faster. 



Yeiimin. — Now then for the plan for defying earwigs, cater- 

 pillars, and all other vermin, from injuring your flowers. As soon 

 as the buds begin to expand, get a muslin bag about six inches each 

 way ; draw it round the stalk just underneath the bud, not too tight, 

 but just so that it will move up and down easily, and then place the 

 shade over it. As the bloom opens, the bag will give to it, so that 

 when the flower is fully blown you would be surprised how beauti- 

 fully clean it is, and entirely free from anything which can blemish 

 it. After the bag is put over the bud, you may leave it in perfect 

 security that no caterpillar will come and gnaw out the heart of your 

 pet, and thus in one night upset all the labour of the season. I use 

 these bags very extensively, often having as many as 200 of them 

 on fifty plants, which gives them a very strange appearance. In 

 training or growing for bloom, take one off one side and one off the 

 other alternately. It is not by any means advisable to grow very 

 large flowers, as the florets come very much better on the smaller 

 ones. Some persons leave only one bloom on the end of the stem, 

 which comes enormously large, but does not correspond with the 

 others, nor yet come so good in form. 



Shadikg. — Placing a shade close over the flower is also very 

 bad, as it frequently makes them quite a different colour from what 

 they ought to be, by depriving them of light. Place your shade as 

 far from the top of your flower as possible, so that you protect them 

 from sunshine and rain ; and you will find that the hardier you make 

 your flowers the better they will be. 



Taking up.— After they have done blooming, cut them down ; 

 then take up the tubers, and put them in a nice warm dry place. I 

 generally put mine by the side of a flue, where they get properly 

 dried. About three weeks' rest is sufiicient, when they may be got 

 to work again. As soon as they are dry, plant them again, and 

 don't give them much rest, as they do better without it. 



Peopeeties. — In laying the flower, the florets should be arranged 



