J^loi al J\htes. 285 



will always be a nuisance. Among the many things that dealers abroad praise 

 " within an inch of their lives " it is gratifying to find now and then one that meets 

 the expectations these descriptions have excited. One case of this kind is the 



Double Crimson Thorn. — This, if I mistake not, was sent out by Wm. Paul. At all 

 events, I procured one five years ago of EUwanger & Barry, who are sure to have all 

 novelties of this kind. This is the first year it has consented to bloom. And isn't 

 it a beauty! Imagine a handsome shrub eight feet high, and covered from top to 

 bottom with clusters of miniature roses the size of a split pea, and you will have an 

 idea of it. Nothing can be more charmingly beautiful. It is worth waiting for not 

 only five years but twenty-five years. You see, a few years more or less nsake but 

 little difference to us old fellows if we get a good thing at last, and this Double 

 Crimson Thorn is most emphatically a good thing. I am sorry they called it 

 " crimson," as it is not, but a most charming full rose color. How I wish you could 

 print in colors. — Am. Agriculturist. 



Hotein (Spit-tea) rjaponiot. 



This, although hardy, is an excellent plant for forcing. Its lively green foliage 

 and charming white flowers make it extremely useful in all kinds of ways, and the 

 demand for bouijuet work, as well as for furnishing pur[)0ses, is very great. It is 

 easily grown, and no establishment should be without it. — J he Garden. 



Orcli ids. 



Mr. Robert Warner writes the Gardener's Chronicle that the surest way to kill 

 orchids is for the gardener to try some such careless methods as these: 



I. Treat them in a manner entirely difierent from that which is found suitable to 

 all other plants. Thus, for example : 



I. Keep them always growing. 2. Keep them always in great heat. 3. Keep 

 them always saturated with moisture. 4. Keep the young shoots always wet. 

 5. Keep them always hotter by night than by day. 



II. Knock out as rnany leading buds as possible when potting or blocking. 



III. Let thrips, scale and aphis suck out their juices and eat their leaves. 



IV. Let wood lice, cockroaches and other vermin eat away their roots. 



V. Be careful to place any especially fine and strong plant where it will have fre- 

 quent drippings of ice-cold water from the roof. Should it live under this regime, 

 crack a pane of glass and let it have a constant drip of cold water falling on, or a 

 current of cold air blowing over it. 



l<\>lia</e I'liinis. 



A great mistake is made by many in the arrangement of the garden, in not giving 

 sufficient attention to foliage plants. A bed of flowers may be ever so rich, and the 

 display of colors may be dazzling, but if there is no frame-work of living creen, the 

 efl'ect on the eye is rather painful than otherwise. The fault of many gardens is, too 

 much glare. Masses of brilliant flowers — red, yellow, white and scarlet — are grouped 

 together, until the garden is all aflame with radiant colors, and its very gorgeousness 

 is oppressive. 



How refreshing it is to the eye to have here and there a clump of rich, dark green 

 foliage to rest on ! While the gaudy hues of the flowers have a tendency to aggra- 

 vate the heat of the summer day, the living green of the foliage is suggestive of cool, 

 refreshing shade. In every flower gar len there should be borders of emerald turf as 

 a frame-work to the beds, and to occupy space not allotted to flowers. Foliage plants 

 can be used with fine efl'ect interspersed with the flowers, and in every garden green 

 should be the predominant color, or ground, while the flowers form the embroidery. 



In the arrangement of flowers in vases and baskets, the same order should prevail. 

 A bouquet without a background of cedar, arbor vita3, or some other evergreen, is 

 never complete, and is all the more perfect if ferns and grasses are interspersed. — Ex. 



