THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



17 



seed in its place, and that lawn is now 

 perfection. We have seen attempts made 

 ■with daisy rakes, the use of super- 

 phosphate of lime, and other manners 

 and methods, and upon the whole there 

 were about as many failures as successes. 

 The fact is, it all depends on how the 

 work is done. We set a lad to work 

 every spring to t.ake up the plant by the 

 roots, wherever a daisy makes its ap- 

 pearance, and all he has to do is to look 

 about him for the white flowers, and 

 •work accordingly. To get rid of daisies 

 is a merely mechanical operation ; but 

 as it is seldom done effectually, because 

 the daisies tire people out, we nmst fall 

 back on an infallible method of extir- 

 pation, whicli may appear formidable, 

 but is really very simple, and easily ac- 

 complished. Get a labourer to strip off 

 the whole of the turf and stack it up as 

 material for potting ; then let him dig 

 the ground over and lay on a surfacing 

 of tine soil to make good the thickness 

 removed with the turf. This to be done 

 now, and the ground left rough. In 

 March liave the ground levelled, rolled 

 fine, and sown tJiick with a mixture of 

 finest lawn grasses, as described in the 

 Flokal Would, vol. i., page 60. If the 

 seed is good there will be a close, fine turf 

 the same season. If any difficulty about 

 getting the seed good and properly 

 mixed for the purpose, send to Messrs. 

 Sutton, of Reading, for it. Tell them 

 the extent of the lawn and the nature 

 of the soil, and you will have a lawn fit 

 for a lady's foot. 



Rose Solfaterre. — C, Monhstown. — This 

 is a vigorous-growing noisette, producing 

 an abundance of its fine yellow flowers 

 in a warm position. As a standard, it 

 should be grown strong, and have an- 

 nual dressings of manure, and the pru- 

 ning should consist in simply shortening 

 in all extra long straggling shoots, and 

 cutting clean away any that are mis- 

 placed. If we found this rose to bloom 

 poorly in any particular spot, we should 

 give up growing it as a standard, and 

 give it a place on' a hot wall. In any 

 case, the position for it should be shel- 

 tered and warm. Perhaps the regular 

 use of quicklime sprinkled among the 

 plants may assist in preserving your 

 larkspurs against slugs. 



Febn Shade. — I have an ordinary glass, 

 twelve inches wide, with shade to fit, in 

 which I h.ave been trying to grow the 

 maiden-hair fern, Adiantum caplllus 

 veneris; but it makes no growth, and I 

 begin to think it is not the right kind of 

 fern for this sort of case. Will you tell 



me of some ferns suitable, and how many 

 I ought to put in, the best soil for them, 

 and whether I should keep the case in a 

 room with a fire? May I purchase and 

 plant the ferns now ? My case looks very 

 ugly, with a shade two feet high and a 

 fern inside two inches high. I have 

 Lycopodium round it, but it grows coarse. 

 I am much obliged for the advice about 

 my peach-trees in last number. Do you 

 advise nailing and pruning now. — La~ 

 vender Hill. [Undoubtedly you want 

 something more imposing than maiden- 

 hair for a shade two feet high. Our 

 recent papers on ferns will, we should 

 think, suggest many you would like 

 to grow. We could recommend hun- 

 dreds for that purpose, but we must, 

 of course, only name a few. Well, then, 

 we should advise you to place in the 

 centre a plant of Fhlehodmm sporodo- 

 carpum, which is a strong-growing poly- 

 pody with noble glaucous fronds; or, 

 instead of this, use Ptcris Jithellata var. 

 crispn, a fern with light lively green 

 fronds. For a few smaller ferns, take 

 Lomaria antarctica, Doodia caudata, and 

 Ilumata psdata. If you want anything 

 more to fill up, put in inch pieces of 

 iSelaginella apodu. The soil to be turfy 

 loam and turfy peat, equal parts chopped 

 up together to the size of walnuts with 

 all the dust, and one-fourth part of 

 silver-sand added. You may plant at 

 once. The ordinary warmth of a sit- 

 ting-room will do for all these, but the 

 more warmth the better, so you can 

 place the fern-case wherever it may be 

 most convenient and agreeable. Peach- 

 trees newly planted may be pruned and 

 nailed at once. In cold, exposed dis- 

 tricts, we advise unnailing till the be- 

 ginning of March, in order to keep the 

 trees quiet. If you want to grow 

 Adiantum capillus veneris, get a nine- 

 inch Pascall's fern-pot and glass from 

 Messrs. Hooper & Co., Covent Garden. 

 Fill it half full of broken flower-pots, 

 then fill up with lumps of peat and 

 chopped moss, and on the top of the 

 soil lay a nnmber of pieces of any tott 

 stone; even hearthstone will do if there 

 is any difficulty about getting a bit of 

 soft sandstone to break up. In this plane 

 the fern and it will soon begin to creep 

 over the little blocks of stone and take a 

 new lease of its life. Keep it warm and 

 damp, and give air when the rODm is 

 cool, and when there is no dust flying' 

 Desfonxania ^pinosa,- — I have had a 

 plant of this four years, and it has 

 never flowered. Is it hardy enough to 

 be put out in the open ground in this 



