78 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[March, 



is it better to keep them flowering and growing 

 at the same time, as I have a hygrometer. 



" Which will produce the most flowers, and the 

 quickest way ? By growing plants (when first put 

 in greenhouse) cold, and when they have formed 

 their buds pretty well, to force them with fire heat, 

 or to force them as soon as put in, until they have 

 formed their buds ; by having a moist atmosphere 

 and then flower them with a dry atmosphere ? For 

 I have noticed that I get more flowers of my plants 

 that are outside when a dry spell comes, but I 

 have never been able to find out those points, for 

 I either dry too much or not enough. 



" Has there ever been such an instrument, 

 equally simple and efficient, as the thermometer, 

 with which we may ascertain the proportions of 

 its gaseous elements, so as to regulate the con- 

 stituents of an atmospheric volume as easily as 

 we can its heat ? 



" Now the reason I ask you these questions is 

 this : I am a poor man and have started in the 

 flower business on a small scale. I never was able 

 to go and learn under some good man. I know 

 nothing about botany ; all I know I have studied 

 myself, and if you will please be so kind as to give 

 any or all the information you can I will be ever 

 so much obliged. From what I have heard of you, 

 you surely must know something about flowers, 

 and I hope to be able to compensate you in the 

 future should you do anything for me. For I 

 never want a man to do anything for me for noth- 

 ing. Perhaps you may know of some good books 

 that I can get on raising carnations, roses, violets, 

 hyacinths, and lily of the valley ; or is there any 

 books published on botany that would be of any 

 practical benefit ? Hoping you will do me all the 



favor you can, and that you will please excuse my 

 inquisitiveness, as I am an entire stranger to you, 

 I close for the present, hoping to hear from you 

 soon and oblige." 



[Winter blooming carnations do not like heat, 

 but desire all the sunlight they can possibly re- 

 ceive. Nor do they like a moist atmosphere. 

 Florists put in the cuttings about February or 

 March, in boxes, and about May set the young 

 plants out in a rich piece of ground, pinching them 

 back several times 'during the summer to make 

 them bushy. When frost is imminent, the plants 

 are taken up with balls of earth, and set in benches 

 in the houses. A temperature of 55° is quite 

 enough to force carnations. 



There is no instrument in use among florists 

 similar in value to a thermometer for the purpose 

 indicated. Cultivators have not found the need of 

 any such instrument. 



There are no especial works devoted to these 

 flowers, but the correspondents of our Magazine 

 keep the readers posted on all that is new on these 

 topics, and are generally ready to give all they 

 know of older matters whenever inquiry is made. 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



Window Plants. — H. C. W., Saxton's River, 

 Vermont, asks : " Will you please inform me 

 through the Monthly if Anthurium Scherzeri- 

 anum, Lapageria, Doryanthes Palmeri, can be 

 grown in a large sunny bay-window ? If so, will 

 you give the necessary culture. 



[These plants require atmospheric moisture to 

 thrive properly, and are scarcely the plants for a 

 bay window, as we generally see them contrived. 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



However much some may regard the cause of 

 fire blight in the pear a mystery, there is no doubt 

 about its being far less serious than it was a few 

 years ago. The leaf bhght and other blights are 

 still about the same, but these are trifles as com- 



'•ed with the fire blight which would often de- 



stroy comparatively large trees in a few days. It 

 is now clear that Mr. Barry's original advice to the 

 sufferer was sound. This was that the best rem- 

 edy for a fire-blighted pear tree was to take it out 

 at once and plant another in its place. Those 

 who followed this advice from the first have 

 many of them plenty of pears now. In all the 

 discussions on this question, some things have 



