ATRIL. 



89 



have dropped their flowers, the Chrysanthemums come in, and are 

 ranged in pots in a gay and gaudy line through the house, and re- 

 moved when out of flower. When the time arrives for the general 

 taking-in of the inhabitants of the greenhouse, which I always delay 

 as long as severe frost or heavy and continued rain will permit, the 

 back border is covered with rough slabs of wood placed a few inches 

 apart, and on these are placed all the larger plants, till the whole is 

 covered and concealed from the eye by a cheerful range of bright 

 verdure, the smaller border on the other side having a neat painted 

 trellis, and raised to a level with the glass on light iron supporters, 

 and on this the smaller plants are placed. 



The Camellias begin to flower at Christmas, and continue for a 

 long time, interspersed with the early- flowering Rhododendrons, of 

 which two or three specimens of Nobleanum and Cooper's elegans are 

 now (January) in full flower. These, with Acacias and Epacrises, keep 

 up a gay appearance till the Azaleas (Indica) come out, at which time 

 my greenhouse is in its chief splendour ; and by the time they are 

 over, the garden is in full vernal beauty, and the inmates of the green- 

 house are left to complete and mature their growth till the time of 

 their removal out of doors. I have given you these domestic details, 

 as they may be called, not that there is any thing extraordinary or 

 particularly instructive in them ; but there is to me something pleasant 

 in comparing fancies and pursuits, and I have a great deal to say in 

 recommendation of mine, if you think it would amuse your readers to 

 hear it. 



Mediterraneus. 



[All will be delighted, we are sure. — Ed.] 



MR. M'GLASHAN'S TREE-LIFTER. 



A trial of this ingenious contrivance, both on a large and small 

 scale, was very successfully made in the garden of the Horticultural 

 Society, a short time ago, in presence of H.R.H. Prince Albert, many 

 gentlemen, and practical gardeners. 



The object of the inventor of the apparatus (says the Gardener s 

 Chronicle, from which the annexed woodcut is borrowed) was to lift 

 plants from three to sixty feet high, without disturbing their roots, 

 or throwing them out of the perpendicular, and to carry them when 

 lifted to any other place, still retaining their earth and their ori- 

 ginal position. The principle of the contrivance will be understood 

 from the accompanying figure of a small apparatus. Conceive the plant 

 in this case to be surrounded by a stout rectangular iron frame a, 

 which is placed upon the ground. Then let the spades bbbbe pressed 

 nearly perpendicularly into the soil within the iron frame. Next 

 suppose an extension-rod, cc, to be so applied to the handles of the 

 opposite spades as to drive them outwards by the leverage at c act- 

 ing upon the fulcrum, a; the result will be that the ball of earth 



NEW SERIES, VOL. III. NO. XXVIII. I 



