editor's table. 333 



and those same industrialists will curiously distinguish between the tortoise-shell from one 

 region of the sea and that from another. I should never end, were 1 to pursue this matter." 

 Let those illustrations suffice to show that living organisms are not only industrialists like 

 ourselves, and, in many cases, more skilful artists, but are also machines and apparatus 

 which, within certain wide limits, we can wield at will. 



Gkoupixg and Blending. — " There are few things," says a recent writer, " requiring more 

 careful consideration, prudent forethouglit, and a clearer perception of ultimate results, and 

 the grouping and blending of these with surrounding circumstances, than the fixing on sites 

 for gardens, mansions, and ornamental buildings. For want of a thorough appreciation 

 even of the minutise of detail, the greatest artists have sometimes committed great errors, 

 so great that the humblest man, without a hundredth part of their genius and intelligence, 

 cannot but perceive them. Hence we find gardens that cannot be supplied with water but 

 at an expense that sets adrift all the maxims of a severe economy ; and others, again, from 

 which early productions are expected, inclining to the north, and in a position where they 

 are sure to be visited by early autumn and late spring frosts. Hence, again, we find man- 

 sions at times from which the finest views of the surrounding scenery are excluded, as if on 

 purpose they should merely be seen from some sequestered corner of the demesne ; or we 

 find a beautiful lake, formed at great expense, but holding such a relative position to the 

 mansion that the residents there must ascend pretty well to the roof before they are cheered 

 with the expanse of its calm or rippling waters." 



FucusiA Treatment in Autumn. — Place your fuchsias where they will be safe from frost, 

 cutting off part of the weaker points of shoots, and keeping the roots dryish. About March, 

 or the end of February, prune back the shoots to short or long spurs, according as you want 

 your plants to grow upright in the bush, or wide at the bottom, in the pyramidal form. If 

 naked at bottom, unless you wish to make standards, you had better cut down altogether, 

 and get a fresh, strong shoot to start afresh with. Water a few days after pruning. When 

 the yoiing shoots are coming away freely, and from one to several inches in length, repot, 

 by getting rid of a good deal of the old soil, and replace in clean, similar-sized pots. If the 

 plants are young, they will want larger pots in about six weeks. Rich soil and manure- 

 waterings at times will then give you abundance of fine flowers. 



Answers to Correspondents. Seedling Evergreens. — " Inquirer," by reference to McMa- 

 hon's Gardening,v{\\\ find his advice diflfers from many others ; but there can be little doubt 

 he is right. He says : " The true method of treating seedling pines and firs, is freqiiently 

 during the summer months, as they advance in growth, to sift some loose earth over them 

 in the seed beds till it comes up to the seed leaves, by which the stems are protected, short- 

 ened without disturbing their roots or checking their growth ; it tends, also, to keep the 

 moisture confined to theeart]i,byi)reventing its too sudden evaporation, and the loose sifted 

 mould attracts the dews and imbibes the rains, when such fall, by which means the plants 

 are kept cool, moist, and in a constant growing state." By this treatment, much better 

 plants may be grown than by removing them from the seed beds too soon. 



Trimming Box-Edgings. — June is a proper time to trim box-edgings, but early in July will 

 still answer. Take advantage of the first moist weather that occurs after the middle of 

 June ; for if done in dry or parching weather, they are apt to turn foxy, and thus lose much 

 of their beauty. Neat cutting, even at top and on both sides, and two or three inches high, 

 and two broad, is sufficient. Higher than this and broader, they assume a clumsy apper 

 ance, and deprive the beds and borders of that apparent roundness so necessary to set 



