been at least amused that the reporter should find so little else of interest to himself as to 

 be obliged to say : — 



" Among the audience, we noticed the Rev. Drs. Chapin and Osgood ; also, Rev. Mr. 

 Roach, of the Allen Street Methodist Episcopal Church, who has lately settled in this city, 

 and has the reputation, among the members of that church, of being as polished an orator 

 as the other two distinguished divines." 



We congratulate the Rev. Mr. Roach upon his reputation, but the bathos is nevertheless 

 peculiarly racy, equalling anything on record in horticultural reports. 



Pears. — We are indebted to Mr. Carpenter (nurseryman at New Rochelle, N. Y.) for a 

 box of Church and Huntingdon Pears. The first is the best, and a valuable fruit ; it is 

 firm and buttery, and may be safely recommended. It is small this year, and we are assured 

 that, in good seasons, it is double the present size. The Huntingdon has a more peculiar 

 flavor, but is second to the Church, which, with the Ontario, are now fairly introduced. The 

 Parsonage Pear we do not esteem as highly as the others. 



Plants for Hanging Baskets, and Stove Climbers, etc. — A correspondent says that the 

 Messrs. Henderson, near London, grow extensively the following plants, in hanging baskets : 

 " Hanging baskets were first introduced here, I believe, and now they find it a regular branch 

 of business. All the ^Eschynanths they grow that way now ; also Thyrsacanthus rutilans, 

 Hoya bella, Cactus, or Epiphyllum truncatum Russellianum, and the crosses from them ; 

 Russellia juncea, which blooms in these baskets or basket-like pans, with holes in the sides 

 and bottom, better than in pots. Campanula garganica, they force in the stove, in these 

 baskets, where it rambles like a climber ; and when it comes into bloom, it is removed to a 

 cool house, where you would hardly know it ; and so with numerous kinds down to Aaron's 

 Beard, the Saxifraga sarmentosa. 



" The best six stove plants for hanging baskets (their own selection), are iEschynanthus 

 splendens, Hoya bella, Impatiens repens, Isolepis gracilis (also in the greenhouse, and out 

 of doors in summer), Margravia dubia (with uncommonly fine foliage), and Torenia Asiatica. 



"The best twelve stove climbers : AUamanda Aubletii (yellow) ; Clerodendrum splendens 

 and speciosissimum (two or three kinds of splendens are not worth growing) ; Combretum 

 purpureum ; Dipladenia acuminata, crassinoda, and splendens ; Hexacentris Mysorensis, 

 Hoya imperialis, Ipomaea Horsfalliae, Passiflora princeps, or racemosa, P. Decaisnea, and 

 Stephanotis floribunda." 



The writer continues : " The newest thing in this nursery is from an original idea — a rare 

 thing in gardening — a tliirty-paned propagating house, forty feet by thirty-five feet, which 

 will be in three divisions, the tanks for bottom heat being the novelty. They are to be 

 eighteen inches deep, with two flow and one return-pipe in each, and will be heated with 

 Thomson's new retort boiler. The new idea for bottom heat is an improvement on all other 

 modes of hot-water bottom heating. It is this : After the three pipes are proved in each 

 tank, that tank is to be filled on the principle of the filter, first with big stones in the bottom, 

 or say as large as ducks' eggs, then another layer of stones not so big ; after that, a layer 

 of very rough gravel, and another layer of gravel not so rough, and so on till the top is of 

 the finest sand ; then a foot of water is let in, and the pipes will heat the mass to 80O, more 

 or less ; and, when once that heat is got, a few hours' firing, daily, will keep it up, and a 

 constant moist bottom heat is as certain as from a dung bed. Three inches of clean sand 

 will keep down the vapor, and be the best way of bottom heating and plunging, and, in the 

 autumn, the water will be withdrawn by turning a cock ; and then a dry bottom heat is 



ured for the winter, the mass of stones and gravel retaining the heat for days and days 



little cost. This is a vast improvement on the old way of throwing in steam among 



