126 THE GARDENER. [March 



plants to an exposed situation is to harden and mature the crowns, 

 and to forward them into a flowering state, with the warm, genial, 

 autumn weather. Where such work is accomplished by professional 

 hands, the plants, after they are potted, might be plunged in an advan- 

 tageous situation at once — placing a frame temporarily over them — 

 where they could be shaded and nursed for a time, till they have 

 gained strength, and are hardened by degrees to stand the action of 

 the weather. The frame might then be removed for the summer, and 

 the details already laid down should be carried out with increased 

 assiduity, owing to the more exposed position of the plants. 



By the autumn, plants treated in this way will have formed broad 

 prominent crowns, surrounded with sturdy foliage, which will stand 

 our dark wintery weather vastly better than the more elongated and 

 softer leaves formed under a system of coddling. A cold frame should 

 be put over the plants as the days begin to grow short, and by housing 

 time the crowns will be bristling with buds about the size of pin 

 heads, which, if placed in a temperature of 50° to 55°, near the glass, 

 will soon expand, and a rich return will be in store for the cultivator. 

 The plants that are to be grown in pits or in beds will next occupy 

 attention : a spent hotbed answers very well for this purpose by put- 

 ting about 9 inches deep of rich compost over it, and planting out the 

 plants at about a foot apart, and treating them as directed for plants 

 in pots. These will also need protection early in autumn to bring 

 them into an early flowering condition. We now come to those that 

 are to be planted out in borders — and here, again, it will be unneces- 

 sary to repeat details. One thing, however, I would point out, — that 

 if there were more exposed situations selected for planting out Violets, 

 and if they were more generously treated at the root, and sprinkled 

 overhead with water on the evenings and mornings of hot days, people 

 would meet with greater success. The varieties we grow here are the 

 Czar, and a local variety which surpasses everything else for general 

 cultivation. W. Hinds. 



A GOSSIP OVER POTATOES. 



Mr Gray has been curiously misled with regard to the Potato Redbog 

 Early. He says, "Why named Red I am unable to say, as it is a 

 white." Redbog is the name of the place where it appears to have 

 originated. It is not nearly so good a Potato here as W T hite Don, 

 so it is not grown now. With regard to some of the other kinds 

 noted, I was rather surprised to find Porter's Excelsior so highly 

 spoken of; we have never had it fit to eat. Schoolmaster has 

 turned out a great cropper ; very handsome, but deficient in table 

 qualities. My opinion of its merits to take its place as a standard 

 sort is not high. Of the class which Blanchard represents, this past 



