1876.] 



AND HOBTIGULTURIST. 



265 



son as they can be with safety from frost. As 

 the plants come into flower, all the best ones 

 should be marked and kept for stock for the fol- 

 lowing year. After a good strain has been ob- 

 tained we never resort to seedlings again, except 

 for new varieties, but divide the old plants about 

 the latter part of May, and plant in a frame, and 

 shade until the first of October, when they may 

 be potted and left in the frame until established, 

 after which move them to a cool house for 

 winter. They do well in a house with Camellias, 

 and plants of a like nature. 



When large specimens are desired, cut the old 

 leaves off around the bottom of the plants, turn 

 them out of the pots, and cut off the lower half 

 of the old ball, re-pot into pots one or two sizes 

 larger, sinking the plants so as to cover the old 

 stems. 



When treated in this way, or by dividing as 

 above, they will flower finely throughout the 

 whole winter and early spring. Pot in sandy 

 loam, with leaf mold or well-rotted stable ma- 

 nure, and avoid giving too much water during 

 the short, dull days in winter. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Bouquets of the Philadelphia Belles. — The 

 correspondents of the different papers, writing 

 from the Centennial Exhibition, ought to find 

 enough of facts to write about without serving 

 up fiction as truth. We have seen in leading 

 English papers some astounding narratives — all 

 news to us at home. In the horticultural line 

 the following is one of these specimens. It is 

 strange that a man cannot see when he is hoaxed. 

 It all comes from people writing of what they 

 hear, instead of working up what they actually 

 see. 



" Wfe have also recently learned that in some 

 towns of the State, Philadelphia for example, the 

 number of bouquets carried by a lady at a ball is 

 considered to be indicative of the number of her 

 actual admirers of the other sex. A lady with- 

 out a bouquet confesses herself without an ad- 

 mirer sufficiently interested in her to have given 

 her even a simple flower. On the other hand, 

 if a lady has several admirers and each has sent 

 her a bouquet, she appears with the whole num- 

 ber. No donor is more favored than another. 



to say the least, inconvenient to the lady and 

 her partners. We have heard of a lady who 

 appeared at a ball with ten huge bunches of flow- 

 ers, some of which she had to trust to her part- 

 ner, ■ while she carried the remainder herself. 

 We are told that " the whole of them would have 

 filled a wheelbarrow, and the effect was awkward 

 in the extreme." This is easily to be believed. 



" The carrying of the bouquets is like the bear- 

 ing by the Indian brave of the scalps of those he 

 has killed — a token of victory. It is a fashion 

 that we think is hardly likely to be imported 

 from America by our belles who visit the exhibi- 

 tion." 



Violets for Winter Blooming. — We have at 

 present, says a correspondent of the " Garden," a 

 row of Czar Violet, in patches about 400 feet long, 

 at the bottom of a south wall. These flower 

 freely and long in Spring and early Summer. 

 The runners are chopped off with with a spade 

 several times during the season to keep the 

 shoots vigorous, which get a good size in a single 

 season, and about November and onwards we 

 take up a number of patches at a time, pot them 

 in eight-inch pots, and put them into the Viner- 

 ies or Peach-houses, or anywhere convenient, 

 where there is a gentle heat. Thus treated, 

 flowers quickly make their appearance, large 

 and sweetly scented ; and, though the plants do 

 not continue to bloom for a very long time, we 

 have plenty of them to fall back upon, and, 

 therefore, introduce another batch. 



Cut Flowers.— The Gardener's Chronicle says : 

 «' We read in the London papers of whole con- 

 gregations carrying large bouquets of flowers to 

 church on some particular occasion, and in the 

 country parishes in Scotland spinsters may be 

 seen carrying Lad's Love to church, along with 

 some sweet-smelling showy flower to scent the 

 white cambric handkerchief, neatly folded on or 

 around the gilt-edged Bible; for the holiday 

 dress alone, without the adornment of the flow- 

 ers would be reckoned wanting in the finishing 

 stroke. Bridals requife flowers. The Orange 

 blossom, whether natural or artificial, is always 

 given away with the bride, whatever else may be 

 her dowry In the theatre the successful actress 

 gets applauded, not only with shouts and clap- 

 ping of hands, but with a very shower of bou- 

 quets as she gracefully retires. The decorations 

 of the dinner-table owe much to flowers tastefully 



This may give rise to a sense of equality, and of disposed, and the drawing-rooms, dressing-rooms, 

 levelling of the claims of the admirers, but it is, I and ante-chambers in the best fannly mansions 



