r)48 THE GARDENER. [Dec. 



•which are made to radiate from the top of the centre stick, like 

 a chimney-sweep's brush. The trees do not look so stiff, and the 

 blooms are bristling outwards in a round head, like little standard trees. 

 Roses of the Tea section will have a sprinkling of bloom, and even the 

 Hybrid Perpetuals housed in October with the buds formed. Souvenir 

 de la Malmaison, old though it be, is most useful in this way ; also Madame 

 Bosanquet and Gloire de Dijon. Heliotrope, with a little forcing, will, 

 like Mignonette, be in in quantity, and never fails to be useful and 

 admired. Neapolitan Violets are, like the Tree Carnations and the 

 two last-named flowers, always in demand, and most appreciated in 

 December. The bulk of them will be in cold pits and frames, but a few 

 dozens are useful in pots for the conservatory, if the foliage be green 

 and crisp, and the plants bristling with flowers. They are best potted 

 up in October. This is a moisture-loving plant, and we never had it in 

 such fine condition as on the south coast, approaching the climate of 

 Nice and Mentone — big fat blooms on stalks as long as a black-lead 

 pencil. 



Forced flowers still remain, which come in easily in December ; and 

 first of all is the white Indian Azalea, which contrasts so well with the 

 scarlet Poinsettia. Hybrid Rhododendrons, especially Nobleanum, Per- 

 sian Lilacs, Deutzias, Jasmin um nudiflorum, Forsythia viridissima, 

 Spirea prunifolia, &c., all come in flower early in December with little 

 forcing, if the plants be well prepared. Roman Hyacinths with almost 

 no forcing, Dutch Hyacinths, Van Thol Tulips, and Narcissus also come 

 in easily if potted in time, and plunged deep in sawdust in the open 

 air in the full sun, care being taken not to over-force when taken under 

 glass, as that will retard them more efi'ectually than cold. A few Hoteia 

 Japonica and Lily of the Valley will come in about the end of the 

 month. 



We might still return and enumerate more plants of the various sec- 

 tions noticed which now occur to us, but enough are mentioned for the 

 floral illustration of the month. We mention only one more, Luculia 

 gratissima, a grand winter plant ; we have it against a back wall, also 

 as a tree planted out with Hydrangea-like leaves and blooms, and we 

 mean to try it out of doors against a wall. 



The Squire's Gardener. 



TRAN-SPLANTING OLD FRUIT-TREES. 



r>Y the time these remarks appear, transplanting operations will not be much 

 more than commenced in many places ; for though November is the most 

 favourable month for moving most kinds of fruit-trees, it brings so many duties 

 of its own that such work cannot always be proceeded with. 



"What we have got to say, therefore, on the above subject, may not be inap- 



