1870.] THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 115 



Every border and plot in garden should now be squared off to size, 

 keeping an orderly appearance, and the hoe should be used on every 

 favourable opportunity, keeping every surface clean, as well as letting 

 air into the soil among crops. 



Auriculas, Pansies, Carnations, Pinks, and Picotees require clean 

 surfaces, and those growing in pots may require a shift into soil, well 

 examined for wireworm. Abundance of air and careful watering are 

 necessary. They require to be oftener looked over when the season 

 advances. Tender Annuals — such as Balsams and Cockscombs — may 

 be sown in heat, carefully potted in small pots, and allowed plenty of 

 light. Air must be given carefully on cold days. Bedding-plants 

 may be propagated as quickly as possible, hardening off gradually 

 those that are rooted. Be careful not to prune back such plants as 

 Aloysias, Fuchsias, &c, till they show what parts are dead and what 

 alive. Water gradually as growth advances, giving enough to reach all 

 the roots when watering is done. Roses may be pruned, cutting back 

 weakly growers to two or three " eyes ; " strong-growing kinds may be 

 thinned and cut back only moderately. Surface-dressing will help 

 free growth. M. T. 



SOMETHING ABOUT THE CHRYSAISTTHEMUM. 



At the end of last November I received a note from Mr J. James, gar- 

 dener to W. F. Watson, Esq., Isleworth, near London, asking me to 

 inspect a conservatory full of Chrysanthemums, the which, though 

 rather past their best, were yet in fine bloom, notwithstanding that 

 some of the largest flowers had begun to fade. I am bound to say 

 they were the very finest lot I ever looked upon, cultivated in 

 pots. A foretaste of what I might expect to see at Isleworth had 

 been presented at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, on 

 the 17th of November, on which occasion prizes were offered for 

 Chrysanthemums grown in pots, as well as cut blooms, and in both 

 instances Mr James entered the lists to do battle against the champion 

 growers of these flowers. In the class for six plants in pots, three 

 collections competed ; two of them were trained to wire skeletons in 

 the usual mode adopted, and were well grown, and pretty well covered 

 with flowers. Of the type, they were very creditable specimens of 

 pot-culture, but, as is usually the case, the flowers were small and thin, 

 though somewhat numerous. The six plants staged by Mr James 

 were of quite another style; they were grown in the natural form 

 taken by the Chrysanthemum — an upright stem, branching out from 

 1 to 2 feet from the ground, each having from eight to twelve branches, 



