FOREIGN NOTICES. 



335 



•stage of decrepitude had been exchanged by the 

 «'ii«l of tin.' flrsi six months for youthful vigour. 



In the si id and third seasons after the draining, 



the trees made shoots from 4 to 5 feet long. 



We have no doubl that the main cause of this 

 remarkable and sadden change was the elevation 

 of temperature consequent upon very deep drain- 

 age. Rain becomes heated by the surface soil, 

 arid rallies its temperature with it as far as it 

 sinks into the soil. The gain in this way is va- 

 riously estimated at from 10° to 15° in summer 

 ■ — an enormous gain, which places plants on a hot- 

 bed — for soil heated 10° above the ordinary tem- 

 perature is nothing else. Deep draining, there- 

 fore, not only offers considerable security against 

 the introduction of roots into the water channels, 

 but has the great and unsuspected advantage of 

 considerably raising the temperature of the earth 

 which is in contact with the drains, deep as they 

 may be, for water cannot soak rapidly into earth 

 without carrying warmth along with it. This is 

 now so well understood by men of intelligence 

 that it is superfluous to dwell upon it. — Lindley. 

 Hard. Chron. .... 



Notes upon Violets — Viola Odorata. — There 

 are few of our lady friends to whom a small 

 bouquet of sweet scented violets would not be de- 

 sirable in the chilly days of winter and the earlier 

 stormier periods of spring. A great gardening 

 author once stated, that if three flower-pots were 

 kept in a window during the winter, one of the 

 three should be devoted to the culture of violets. 

 Right well did he know how dear that little flower 

 was to the human heart! Years have rolled on, 

 and life, with its stern duties, has somewhat shaded 

 and blunted the little of romance and poetry with- 

 in us, and yet the sight of the diminutive simple 

 violet, when in a musing mood, has conjured up 

 associations that enabled us. as of yore, to traverse 

 the brake, and walk the dell, with companions — 

 many of whom are gone — all are scattered — while 

 their arch quizzing looks, and pealing voices, 

 when to a favourite fair one the first-found flowers 

 were stealthily and bashfully presented, are as 

 present to our mind as they were upon the occa- 

 sion when youth was young. And where resides 

 the charmt The heartsease (viola tricolor) is 

 not only frequently odoriferous, but it is often 

 strikingly beautiful, from the variety of its mark- 

 ings and the harmonious combination and contrast 

 of its colours; and yet, much as it is loved, and 

 sweet and musical as is its name, it holds not the 

 same place in our sympathies as the diminutive 

 violet, that has little to attract the eye ; but which, 

 like other objects, human as well as floral, would 

 pass unnoticed in the crowd were it not for the 

 beneficence they shed— the fragrance which they 

 yield. In this love of the violet — not merely from 

 its poetic associations, hut from its own usefulness 

 and fragrance — we are furnished with a demon- 

 stration, that however men may be tickled with 

 iy show, brilliant splendour, and pompous pa- 

 geantry, yet in their heart of hearts they conse- 



crate the highest place to retiring virtue — the un- 

 obtrusive generosity — to those " who do good by 

 stealth, and blush to find it.s fame." 



At one time virtue was made from the flowers 

 of the sweet violet. A blue solution of its petal 

 was, and i-, used i, v chemists as a test for acids 

 and alkalies: and even now the dried petals are 

 used as a laxative, and a mitigator of pain in the 

 case of children. When gathered with stalks and 

 placed in water they will keep fresh and give out 

 their perfume for a week ; but if the flowers are 

 dried in the shade, before they are too much ex- 

 expanded, they will retain their fragrance for 

 a very long time. I am not aware that this is 

 generally known: I found it out by accident. A 

 waiscoat had not bee:i worn for a twelvemonth — 

 when put on it. was quite fragrant with violets — 

 on close examination, a few withered flowers were 

 found in the pockets, which were quite odoriferous 

 then, though placed there fully twelve months be- 

 fore. We shall now glance at a few of the best 

 varieties. 



The Russian Blue Violet is as hardy as our com- 

 mon one, that cheers with its perfume our banks 

 and hedge-rows in spring. The flowers are much 

 the same in size and colour, but possess the ad- 

 vantage of blooming more profusely and earlier, 

 being generally in flower by the end of October. 

 They flower best in loamy soil well drained. In 

 light sandy soil they are apt to grow too much to 

 foliage. They are propagated by seed, but more 

 generally by offsets or runners, or by the dividing 

 of the old plants. The old crown and runners pro- 

 duced during the summer, will all bear blooms. 

 Sheltered with boughs, &c, at the foot of a wall, 

 paling, or hedge, or planted in a bed with a frame 

 set over them, and defended from frost, they will 

 bloom freely all the winter. By filling some pots 

 or boxes with young plants in September, they 

 will be fitted for the window, setting them outside 

 in open weather, and inside when frosty and stor- 

 my. A superior (or what is called a superior) 

 one is beiug advertised, which we have not yet 

 seen. 



The Double Blue is more compact in its growth; 

 it flourishes best in a deep loamy well drained soil. 

 In such circumstances the flower will be larger 

 and sweeter than upon lighter land. They pro- 

 duce their blooms from the old Crown, and also 

 from the runners formed in the early part of sum- 

 mer. They may remain, therefore, several years 

 upon the same ground, and little attention paid to 

 cutting or pruning them. The flowers, however, 

 will not be so fine as from plantations one or two 

 years old. They will (lower in pots, either for the 

 windows or greenhouse, and will be forwarded, if 

 planted under a glass case, with plenty of air, but 

 they will not stand mneli forcing, the flowers when 

 thus obtained neither being large nor rich in their 

 perfume. When grown in pots the soil should be 

 rich and loamy. The plants should be raised from 

 oil-sets planted out in April or May, kept fre 



