134 



THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE, 



London Scenes and Loxdon Peo- 

 ple, by "Aleph," is the title of a new 

 work, by a contributor to the City Press, 

 on the curiosities of London city. It is 

 the most entertaining topographical work 

 ■we have ever yet met with, and is in great 

 part the result of personal observations and 

 experiences, the author being an old liahitui; 

 of the Cjty. The chapters on the City 



trees, the Guildhall pigeons, and other 

 touches of rurality that still linger in the 

 heart of London, are most admirably 

 written, and the book, as a whole, is rich 

 in anecdote, description, and criticism, illus- 

 trative of the relations of town and coun- 

 try, as brought together in the capital of 

 the empire. 



THE GAEDEN GUIDE EOE MAY. 



KiTCHKN Garden. — The ground will be 

 now, for the most part, covered, and every- 

 thing in full growth. The hoe must never 

 be idle; weeds grow faster than the crops, 

 and exhaust the soil rapidly, and, if al- 

 lowed to seed, make the mischief worse. 

 Next to keeping down weeds, the most 

 important operation is that of watering. 

 Plants lately put out should not be drenched 

 to excess, or the chill will check them more 

 than a drought would, and it is better to 

 trust to moderate watering and shade com- 

 bined, than to keep the soil soddened about 

 plants that have barely taken root. Cucum- 

 bers, gourds, tomatoes, and capsicums may 

 be put out ; the soil should be rich ; and, 

 for tomatoes, a sunny aspect must be 

 chosen. Manure-water should be freely 

 used to all crops in full growth, and espe- 

 ciall}' to strawberries, but there should be 

 two or three waterings with plain water to 

 one with liquid manure. Suw beet, early 

 horn carrots, scarlet runners, and French 

 beans, turnips, lettuces, radishes, cabbages, 

 spinach, endive, cauliflower, and peas and 

 beans. All salad plants should have a 

 shady position, or they may run to 

 seed. In sowing peas and beans, it 

 is best to depend on the earliest sorts, 

 at this time of year, as they are soon 

 off the grormd, but Knight's Marrow and 

 Bedman's Imperial are g od peas to sow- 

 now for late supply. Dress asparagus and 

 seakale beds with one pound of salt to every 

 square yard, and give asparagus beds strong 

 doses of liquid manure from horsedung. 



Flower Gakden. — Newly-made lawns 

 require a little special care at this season. 

 If tlie grass is thin it must not be mown 

 and swept in the usual way, for the roots 

 of young grass suffer from the effects of a 

 hot sun when there is not a close bottom 

 to preserve moisture. It is a good plan to 

 mow early, and leave the mowings till the 

 evening, then sweep and clear up, and the 

 grass will have twenty-four hours from the 



morning before the sun comes on it again, 

 or, reckoning from the day before the 

 mowing, thirty-six hours, which will ma- 

 terially assist in promoting a thickening of 

 the bottom. Where walks look dingy, a 

 turning with a fork and a good rolling is 

 often as effectual a reviver as a supply of 

 new gravel, but if the old gravel is of 

 trifling depth or a bad coloitr, a new coating 

 will complete the beauty of the garden, and 

 give it a necessary finish. Carnations, 

 picotees, and pinks may now be propagated 

 by pipings on the north side of a fence, or 

 in pots, half filled with sandy loam. The 

 old plan of striking them iu heat and in 

 exciting composts is quite exploded as a 

 fallacy. Eanunculuses will want water 

 frequently ; they cannot endure drought, 

 and beds of valuable kinds must be placed 

 in the same way as tulips, with netting or 

 canvas. Pansies strike readily from short 

 side-shoots ; the old hollow stems will 

 strike also, but never make good plants ; 

 the new" growth is that to be depended on. 

 Dahlias not staked . should be attended to 

 forthwith ; indeed, the stakes should be 

 put in at the time of planting, so as to 

 avoid damage to the roots when thej' have 

 begun to grow. Perennials should be sown 

 for next season's blooming, so as to get 

 strong plants. Sow thin in nursery beds, 

 and prick out the plants in rows as soon as 

 they make rough leaves. If left crowded 

 together they grow spindled, and never 

 make strong plants. 



Gbeenhouse. — To prolong the beauty 

 of the plants in flower, put up a shading of 

 tiffany or Daythorn's hexagon net ; the 

 latter will also be useful to exclude bees 

 and wasps, for flowers on which bees have 

 settled perish sooner than those they have 

 no access to, owing to their disturbing the 

 pollen, and causing a formation of seed- 

 pods. A method of prolonging the bloom 

 of flowers, and, in the ojjiuion of some, 

 increasing their beauty, is, to get some dis- 



