564 THE GARDENER. [Dec. 



growth is made during the summer, and not ripened in autumn. 

 Trench and manure soil which is to be planted with Strawberries in 

 spring. Mulch Raspberries heavily ; they like rich cool soil. Prune 

 them, leaving four or five of the best canes, which can be tied to 

 wires or stakes fixed lightly every four to six feet apart. Bending 

 them over and forming arches is a good system where stakes are difficult 

 to procure ; they are then easily netted. If frosty weather should set 

 in, the pruning and tying of trees may be left till weather is more suit- 

 able. See that no ties cut the bark : leave plenty of space to swell. 



M. T. 



ON HELLEBORES. 



Considerable interest — more, perhaps, than their intrinsic beauty 

 warrants — attaches to Christmas Roses. This is, no doubt, owing 

 largely to the fact that some of them, especially the Christmas Rose 

 proper, blooms at a time when little else in the shape of flowers is to 

 be met with out of doors to rival or compete with it in an estimate of 

 its decorative qualities. They are all, however, very interesting plants, 

 with very distinctive and characteristic features. The structure of the 

 flowers is a study in itself — a consideration of which reveals the 

 fact that the petals are the least conspicuous parts, and contribute 

 little or nothing to the effective qualities of the plant in an orna- 

 mental sense. There are eight or ten small tubular bodies arranged on 

 the inner base of the five large, green, white, or coloured sepals, which 

 appear to be the real petals, but are not. In the true Christmas Rose, 

 which has the largest flowers of any species known in gardens, this 

 peculiarity is very marked ; but in all the other species, the same 

 tubular structure of the petals obtains as an unfailing characteristic, 

 and is accompanied also by a nectariferous gland at the base of the 

 tube. 



The true Christmas Rose is the most ornamental of the genus, in so 

 far as the object depends on the flowers solely ; and in the present time, 

 when fashion demands such large and continuous supplies of cut flowers, 

 and of flowering plants in pots during the winter months, this humble 

 but beautiful plant is a valuable auxiliary, more especially where 

 forcing facilities are limited. The plant may be lifted from the open 

 ground for indoor decoration any time before the flowers expand, and 

 placed under cover of a hand-glass or cold frame to protect the blooms 

 from the damaging effects of the weather. When treated in this way, 

 or when grown in pots purposely, and protected from wet and frost 

 and snow, flowers of great purity and large size are obtained ; and the 

 large pure white petals, or rather sepals, being persistent, are particu- 

 larly valuable as cut flowers. There are several varieties of the true 

 Christmas Rose, the best of which is the one known as Helleborus 



