316 JFtorat JVoies. 



Floral Notes. 



Culture of Lilies, 



A correspondent of the Rural New-Yorker has been very successful with lilies 

 planted in a deep bed formed of rotten sods, gravelly loam, leaf mould and a small 

 portion of rich compost. While the buds are growing, the bed is watered with weak 

 liquid manure. A single bulb of Lilium auratum, undisturbed for four years, had 

 increased and borne more than seventy flowers. The varieties of L. lancifolium had 

 also succeeded finely, and given a profuse bloom. 



The I'erfiiine Crop. 



The Lo?ido7t Garden quotes Dr. Schomburgh's report on the Botanic Garden at 

 Adelaide, Australia, for the statement that 150,000 gallons of handkerchief perfume 

 are consumed yearly by Europe and India, and the revenue from imported perfumes 

 in England is estimated at a quarter of a million dollars. The immense material 

 used for these scents are jasmine, mignonnette, verbena, rose, heliotrope, rosemary 

 peppermint, violets, orange, etc. One acre of jasmine has produced over a thousand 

 dollars ; violets, eight hundred dollars; and other plants largely, but less in amount. 



Sweet-scented Tulips. 



A writer in the English Jovrnal of Horticulture, speaking of the sweet-scented 

 Tulip, says: "I last week had the pleasure of inspecting at Laurel Bank, the pic- 

 turesque villa residence of A. Stirling, Galashiels, an unnamed sweet-scented Tulip, 

 the like of which I do not recollect having met before. Tulips usually are void of 

 any pleasing odor. None that I am acquainted with merits being classed with sweet- 

 scented flowers. This at Laurel Bank is equal in fragrance to the finest-scented 

 rose. Mrs. Stirling, who is a great lover of flowers, and a good judge of them as well, 

 told me she preferred it for the delicious perfume which it emitted, as a cut flower 

 in the rooms, before any rose. It is growing in an outside border in rather a shaded 

 position, where it was placed some years ago. In form the bloom is semi-double ; 

 in color an orange ground prettily striped with chocolate. It would be much appre- 

 ciated in our conservatories and room vases, or wherever odoriferous flowers are in 

 demand." 



Training Vines over Windows. 



A lady writer in the Rural Neio Yorker asljs why the people, both in city and 

 country, do not train vines over their windows. " What is more beautiful than green 

 leaves falling around the casement in graceful festoons ? Grape vines clambering 

 over a trellis are very fine : but, if a grape vine is out of the question, the next best 

 thing is a hop vine, that being free from the objectionable creepers that push out 

 from woodbines and attach themselves to clapboards and shingles. I have a luxu- 

 riant hop vine now, which requires no care save a dish of suds poured upon it occa- 

 sionally, that shades two of my kitchen windows ; and the cool tendrils cling so closely 

 to the house, with the aid of a friendly nail and string here and there, that it makes 

 closing the windows, even in a storm or shower, wholly unnecessary, securing a capi- 

 tal ventilation of the room both day time and night. And there is such a silky, 

 sociable rustle of the leaves all day, that I like to sit close up to them and listen to 

 what they say, as I have a notion that everything has a voice and language of its 

 own. Then fill a few vases with roses, and place them out on the window sill; and 

 the green background makes a delightful, reviving picture." 



Care of House Plants. 



A lady in Kansas gives her plan of caring for house plants, as follows : " I live in 

 a frame house, and last winter kept fifty pots of diff'erent kinds of geraniums, roses, 

 fuchsias, and remontant pinks, all of which received the same kind of treatment, 

 and in the spring my plants were more healthy and the leaves a dark green color. 



