sky. Some wiseacre has suggested, that by going to the coal mines with plenty of sashes, 

 we could grow grapes, and other forced fruits, with comparatively no expense of fuel. Why not 

 grow them where they are to be sold, close to a market, by using this waste matter, within 

 the reach of everybody who has steam-works near him ? The suggestion is most important. 

 I am now treating for the waste steam of a neighbor, to be brought under ground 800 feet. 



Philadelphus. 



The Dioscorea. — The following is an extract of a letter to the Committee of Patents from 

 W. D. Brackenridge, late public gardener in Washington, and fonnerly of the U. S. Explor- 

 ing Expedition, residing at present at Govanstown, near Baltimore, Maryland : " The two 

 small tubers of Dioscorea batatas which you gave me last spring, I started in a hotbed, and 

 planted them out about the middle of May, in a deep, yellow, loamy soil. About the middle 

 of November I dug the roots, and found two of them over two feet in length, and four inches 

 in circumference. Next season I intend to plant these roots and the small tubers propagated 

 from the leaves, and allow them to remain in the ground during next winter, as I think, in 

 a second year, they will attain a large size, after protecting them from frost by covering with 

 straw or leaves." So says the Country Gentleman. Mr. H. A. Dreer, of this city, has received 

 a supply of this plant from France, of his own importation. 



Grafting. — Dr. Lindley lately delivered a lecture on grafting before the Horticultural 

 Society of London; the following are the conclusions arrived at: 1. A scion will always 

 form a perfect and permanent union with its stock, if both are from the same individual. 

 2. A scion will generally form a perfect and permanent union with its stock, if one is a mere 

 variety of the other. 3. A durable, but not pennanent union, may be effected when one 

 species of a genus is worked on another species. 4. No union, either durable or perma- 

 nent, can be expected when stock and scion are widely different. 5. Bad workmanship will 

 render any kind of grafting perishable. Grafted plants, then, are not necessarily worse 

 than seedlings. 



Auctions. — Wife. " Well, now, as sure as Fm alive, husband, you've been to auction and 

 brought a pack of cinnamon roses home, and I have had a man digging half a day to get 

 the pests out of my garden. Do throw them right into the street." — Husband. " Why here's 

 the list. Viburnum opulics, and the Symphora racemosa, and the Philadelphus coronarius, and 

 Syringa vulgaris, and Fm sure — " — Wife. " Pshaw ! You've paid away your money for a 

 pretty parcel of Latin names. I don't care what you call them, but they are nothing but 

 our old-fashioned syringas and lilacs, and snowballs, and waxberries." Alas, out of thirty 

 dollars' worth, the poor wife got a few new plants that she might have purchased of an 

 honest florist for two dollars. We are now in the vernal season of auctions. 



The Weather m England. — We have had the coldest winter, in England, during 1855, 

 since 1784, the years 1795 and 1814 not excepted, and great injury has been done. 



W. S. Aston, near Liverpool. 



\n\m\\\m\ ^ndtim. 



Pennsylvania Horticitltural Society. — The stated meeting of this Society was held at Concert Hall, on 

 Tuesday evptiin?, March 18, 1856, Gen. Patterson, President, in the chair. Premiums were awarded by the 

 Commitlcc ou Plants aud Klowers. 



Azalea, S peri men riant — for.the best, and for the second best, to John Pollock, gr. to James Dundas. Azaleas 

 — fur I he bust six to Thos. Robertson, gr. to B. A. Falniestocl< ; for the second best to Kobert Buist. Cotkc- 

 tion (if liffh'e Plant.l — for the best to Tho.s. Robertson ; for the second best to Chas. Sutlierland, gr. to John 

 Ansp;irli, diillection of six Plnnti — for tlie best to J. J. Habcrnielil, gr. to John Lambert. Specimen Plant — 

 for till' best, the Choroznaa varinin. to Isaac Collins, gr. to (Jen. Patterson ; for the second best to Joliu Pollock. 

 Neio Plants — two dollars to Robert Buist, two dollars to Mark Hill, aud one dollar each to John Pollock and 

 Thos. Robertson. T(Me Design — for the best to B. Higgius, gr. to D. R. King. Basket— (ov the best to J. J. 

 Haborniehl, and for the second best to B. Higgins. Sowjuets — for the best pair to J. J. Habermehl, and for the 

 second best to B. Higgins. 



Special Premiums. — Five dollars for a fine display of Hyacinths, in vases, to Peter Raabe ; four dollars to 



John Pollock, for a collection of a dozen of Roses ; live dollars to Robert Buist, for a fine seedling Camellia : two 



dollars, for a collection of twelve Plants, to Mark Hill ; two dollars, for a flue collection of Cinerarias, to James 



Thomas, gr. to J. D. Whethani ; one dollar, for a collection of stocks, to the same; and one dollar, for a collection 



" u'rarias, to J. J. Habermehl. 



the Committee on Fruits. Pears — for the best twelve specimens, the Easter Bcurr6, to John Chambers, 



