224 THE GARDENER. [May 



Tree PiEony of nortliern China, not more often seen forced into bloom at 

 this season 1 Brought on gently in an intermediate temperature, they 

 are very fine in flower and distinct in leafage. Like Spira3a, Prunus, 

 Solomon's Seal, Lily of the Valley, Deutzia, and many other of our 

 finest spring-blooming greenhouse-plants, they may best be grown in the 

 open air for the greater part of the year. Just now their great rosy or 

 peach-stained flowers are very welcome, and many of them are deli- 

 cately fragrant. For cut-flowers and for drawing-room vases, half- 

 a-dozen great blooms go a long way, as the saying is, and they are 

 effective. 



The crimson-blossomed Pyrus (Cydonia) japonica is now covered 

 with its bright red buds, and I never saw it so profuse before — a result 

 due rather to a warm dry autumn than to the exceptionally severe 

 winter through which we have just passed. White, salmon, pink, 

 rose, and blush shaded varieties have been raised on the Continent, 

 but the old scarlet type remains the hardiest and most effective, — 

 the best, in fact, in every way. In most places its gorgeous flowers are 

 highly valued ; and wherever there is a bare place on a south or west 

 wall, one might *' go farther and fare worse " by not planting — well, 

 planting — this fine native of Japan. 



I am not one of those who believe that the young gardener of to-day is less 

 efiScient or less attentive to his studies than the young gardener of the past, 

 but one fact in the modern man is worth notice. I allude to his eagerness to 

 get under the shelter of a glass roof. " To be employed in the houses" is the 

 height of his ambition, and a good hardy- plant man can't well be obtained either 

 "for love or money.' Out of fifty replies to an advertisement for a young 

 journeyman gardener, forty-three manage to convey the idea, more or less 

 explicitly, that they want to be "under glass." Two say "indoor or out," 

 and with five others it remains an open question. A large proportion of these 

 replies — nearly forty, in fact—were in good bold handwriting, spelling correct, 

 and grammar also, on the whole, very good. Only one solitary reply out of 

 the whole fifty was really bad. Here it is : — 



"My Dere sur, — hif you want a gud mannhin the hose I wilcon fur apund a 

 weak as you sed in yure hadvartsmen that 18 shillgs pur weak wad be givn 

 I wad, like to hev a pund has I know my bussines as well as heny hed gardner 

 — yurs, &c,' 



"P.,S'. — write back return post has I may be wanted sumwere. " 



Comment upon this letter would be supeifluous. One or two others whose 

 writing was certainly irreproachable said they were "not particular" as to 

 wages, but would be contented to accei)t "from 30?. to 50s. per week." Three 

 would only come on condition that they should succeed to the " foreman's 

 place " if he left " during their time." One man could " play the organ," one 

 had been " used to a cow," and two of them could "sing in a quire." One 

 young gentleman, who wrote on fancy heavily-perfumed note-paper, enclosed 

 his carte-de-visite, and remarked that he had a " lovely tenor voice." I wrote 

 off to my friend Mr Mapleson at ouce on his behalf. Once or twice I regretted 



