iSyi.] PLANTS FOR ROOM DECORATION. 511 



forming edgings round baskets and vases of larger plants. They stand a 

 deal of rough treatment in this way without being injured. They thrive 

 best either planted out in summer or plunged in their pots. If planted 

 out, choose a free open soil, forking in a dressing of rotten leaf-soil 

 before planting. In this they grow freely and set plenty of berries. 

 Great care is required in lifting them in autumn, for if many of the 

 roots are broken they are apt to drop their berries. When potted, place 

 them in a close frame for a few days, sprinkle them frequently over- 

 head, and they will not suffer. A. H. 

 Thoresby Gardens. 



HARDY AND HALF - HARDY PLANTS FOR TABLE 

 AND ROOM DECORATION. 



Lily of the Valley — Convallaria majalis. — I know no more beautiful and fragrant 

 hardy plant for blooming indoors or for cut flowers than this. The handsome 

 leaves of tenderest green, and the chaste sweet flowers arching elegantly on their 

 stalks, present a union of charms rarely beheld in one plant — a fact which the 

 flower-loving public appear duly to appreciate. For to say nothing of the estima- 

 tion in which it is held for button-hole and other bouquets, and other purposes to 

 which it is applied in the cut state, the thousands of pots forced annually in nursery 

 and florists' gardens about towns, to sweeten and enliven sitting-rooms, sufficiently 

 evince the admiration bestowed upon it. A very large proportion of this supply ir 

 imported annually from Holland. The Dutch have sent us in the few bygone years 

 sufficient to have stocked hundreds of acres to overflowing, but we are no richer in 

 Lily of the Valley for it : imported stock is not even equal to the demand the present 

 season, and the home-grown supply is not plentiful : nor is it so well favoured as the 

 foreign. And what becomes of it all, the thousands of pots of home-grown and 

 imported together, that find ready customers in winter and spring ? la private gar- 

 dens, where much of it is forced, the gardener knows well the value of the old plants, 

 and would as soon think of destroying anything else that is deemed worth keeping 

 as of throwing them on the rubbish -heap, A year's nursing and extra good culti- 

 vation will put forced Lily of the Valley in condition for forcing again ; and no 

 doubt nurserymen and florists w^ould be glad to get back their old plants from 

 their customers in such a state as that there would be a reasonable chance of 

 recovering their lost stamina. As it is, however, they never return. They become 

 the property of the police, falling into their hands by the way of the dust-bin and 

 the agency of Polly the housemaid. This is a poor fate for a thing of beauty that 

 is yet capable of being made beautiful as ever ; for the same care and skill that 

 developed its charms before are able to revive them again in due time. Our 

 present subject is one of perennial duration, and is, moreover, hardy and endur- 

 ing to the utmost. It will even survive the dust-box, if quickly reclaimed while 

 yet a little life remains ; but it loves generous treatment, and well repays it. The 

 imported Dutch clumps and crowns give flowers superior to our home-grown 

 ones ; it is even held to be a distinct variety, difl'ering from ours in being more 

 robust and luxuriant. It does not, however, retain this peculiarity, but quickly 

 degenerates when subject to the conditions of our commonplace treatment. Any 

 superiority it shows under forcing is due, I think, rather to the better climate and 

 soil of Holland, and the special treatment given it by the Dutch. We should not 



