1873.] HINTS FOR AMATEURS. 107 



as to keep up a proper balance and free production of tlie long annual 

 shoots which are found so useful when cut for dressing rooms and 

 vases. 



A. Drummomlii makes a very handsome specimen when well 

 grown. There are several varieties, some of which are not worth 

 growing. They vary, as most plants do, somewhat from seed ; and it 

 is the more desirable in such a case to raise the stock from cuttings 

 either of the root or branch ; and the latter, it should be known, are 

 not so difficult to manage as in some other species. Unlike the 

 previously-mentioned species, the flowers of this are oblong; and it is 

 chiefly in their relative length that the varieties differ, though there is 

 also more straggling and loose growth, accompanied with the inferiority 

 of the flowers alluded to, which renders it impossible to form the plants 

 into handsome dense-blooming specimens. 



A. rotundlfolla. — A very handsome species, of very dwarf and 

 compact growth, flowering profusely, with the flowers globose and 

 orange-yellow. This, with A. armata and A. hispidissima, are among 

 the best for small collections or small houses, neither of them being 

 very rampant in growth, nor difficult to keep in health in circum- 

 scribed limits. 



A. sjyedahilis is of rather large growth, with handsome glaucous 

 pinnate foliage ; and when it acquires a little age, it is one of the most 

 profuse flowering of the family. 



A. cclasirifoUa, like the last, is a strong grower, but with the leaves 

 or phyllodia simple — not pinnate, as in it — and the flowers large. 



A. dealbata, grandis, and lophanilia, are species remarkable for the 

 graceful character of their leaves, which are beautifully pinnate, and in 

 the two former glaucous, but in the latter green. They are only 

 adapted for large houses, as they quickly outgrow the space in small 

 ones. W. S. 



HINTS FOB AMATEURS.— MAHCH. 



All arrears among fruit-trees should be brought forward — better to do it 

 late than that it should be neglected. This applies to fruit-tree planting, 

 — better to do it yet than that a season should be lost : finish all tying, 

 cleaning, mulching, tfec, as early as possible. Grafting may now have 

 attention: this operation is simply fitting one shoot into another, allow- 

 ing the barks to fit exactly, at least one side, but better if both 

 are evenly fitted. ]\Iake cuttings of bush fruit as formerly advised. 

 Protect blossoms of fruit-trees, using netting or spruce branches ; air 

 and light should not be excluded. Uncover Fig-trees by degrees, and 

 when exposed entirely, let the shoots which can be spared be cut out, 



