1876.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



45 



LiLiis OF THE *VALLEY, are the most charming 

 of forced flowers. To be very successful with 

 them, they should be grown a year in boxes be- 

 fore being forced. 



BouvARDiA JASMINIFLORA is becoming popular 

 in London for cut flowers. It is not as florifer- 

 ous as our popular Vreelandii or Davisonii, but 

 has the advantage of fragrance. 



Names of ferns. — L. Puffer, Mass. — Your fern 

 is Aspidium falcatum. The fern from our corres- 

 pondent at Guelph, Canada, is Cheilanthes pilosa. 



Violet Victoria Regina. — We have from Mr. 

 Chitty a bunch of flowers of this excellent violet. 

 It is strong stemmed, large and sweet. 



Geramium, Happy Thought, also from Mr. 

 Chitty. The deep edge of green around the cen- 

 tral white portion makes it one of the most dis- 

 tinct and pretty of the variegated kinds. 



Olea fkagrajss. — It will be seen by the follow- 

 ing from the Journal of Horticulture, that this 

 very sweet and poi^ular plant can be grafted on 

 the privet : 



" Olea fragrans is flowering in the Economic 



house, at Kew, and possesses a perfume of the 

 most delicious description. The flowers are 

 small and of a pale yellow color, but grow many 

 together in numerous clusters. They are used 

 in China for scenting teas. That called pekoe is 

 a green tea much prized for the scent imparted 

 to it by these flowers. The species is well worth 

 growing in conservatories for its perfume. It is 

 easily grown and succeeds on its own roots, but 

 is perhaps hardier grafted on privet. A plant so 

 grafted has withstood the last two or three win- 

 ters against a wall." 



QUERIES. 



Diseased Geranium Leaves. — F. R. & Son, Den- 

 ver, Colorado. — The leaves sent are not afl"ected 

 by red spider, but by mildew. Syringe them 

 well w^ith warm soap-suds, and then sprinkle 

 them with sulphur. Sometimes this trouble 

 comes from having the roots colder than the 

 atmosphere. Wlien plants are growing the roots 

 should be at least as warm as the leaves and 

 branches. 



RUIT AND HeGETABLE ipARDENING. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



In managing the vegetable garden the highest, 

 excellence should be aimed at. This is the chief 

 source of pleasure in a garden. If one can take 

 no pleasure in his garden, — if the watching of the 

 beautiful processes of nature in furnishing him 

 food — and the many lessons they teach him, 

 which he in a thousand ways can so pleasurably 

 and profitably apply, have no charms and attrac- 

 tions for him, he had better give up gardening ; 

 for assuredly, in most cases, — even to 99 in 100 

 instances, — the market gardener will bring the 

 vegetables to his own door cheaper than he can 

 grow them. Amateur gardening should prima- 

 rily be pursued for the lessons it teaches, and the 

 pleasure it aff"ords ; when it ceases to do this it 

 should be abandoned. 



In the Middle States the work for February 

 will, for the most part, consist of preparations 



for future operations, and particularly for deal- 

 ing with the manure question. All those kinds 

 that are grown for their leaves or stems require 

 an abundance of nitrogenous manures ; and it 

 is useless to attempt vegetable gardening without 

 it. To this class belong Cabbage, Lettuce, 

 Spinach, etc. The other class, which is grown 

 principally for its seeds or pods (as Beans, Peas, 

 etc.), does not require much manure of this char- 

 acter ; in fact they are injured by it. It causes 

 too great a growth of stem and leaf, and the 

 earliness — a great aim in vegetable growing — is 

 injuriously affected. Mineral manures, as wood 

 ashes, bone-dust, etc., are much better for them. 

 For vegetables requring rich stable manure, it 

 is better that they have it well rotted and de- 

 cayed. Nothing has yet been found so well 

 fitted for the purpose as old hot-bed dung : 

 though to the smell no trace of " ammonia " re- 

 mains in it. 



One of our most interesting parts of a vegeta- 



