310 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
Each clump must be put into a pot just large enough to receive it, 
and the soil be pressed quite firm to prevent the water soaking away 
too quickly. From the plunge-bed they can be removed to the 
forcing-pit at intervals as may be required, and if practicable the 
pots should be plunged in the hot-bed. With the assistance of a 
brisk bottom heat, and a temperature of about 70° they may be had 
in bloom from six to eight weeks from the time of starting them. 
Solomon’s Seal, although not particularly attractive when 
growing in the open borders, is peculiarly light and elegant when 
grown in pots, and started into growth with the assistance of 
artificial heat. It can be purchased in clumps of a suitable size for 
forcing, but as it may be grown in any out-of-the-way place as 
well as in the best position in the kitchen garden, a supply of roots 
should be produced at home. A bed of moderate extent will afford 
an abundant supply, and this may be formed now or in the spring. 
Moderate-sized clumps should be potted up, and then placed on one 
side until required for use, with a covering of some kind to protect 
them from frost. The pots can be placed upon or plunged in the 
hot-bed, but the plants, as soon as they are a few inches in height, 
must be removed to a light position; for, as in the case of the 
dielytra, the shoots become drawn, and lack grace and elegance, if 
they are produced at too great a distance from the glass. Nicely 
grown plants are specially suited for dinner-table decorations, and 
the sprays may be employed with good effect in the furnishing of 
vases and epergnes. The roots can be planted out after they are 
removed from the conservatory, and properly hardened off. 
Survuss.—The most useful of these for early forcing are the 
Guelder Rose, Persian Lilac, the double-flowered Japanese Cherry, 
and hardy Rhododendrons. The latter are especially valuable, and in 
all gardens where flowers are forced there should be a bed of 
considerable extent for the supply of plants well set with flower- 
buds. Like the Ghent azaleas, alluded to at the commencement, 
rhododendrons can be lifted with good balls of soil, and consequently 
suffer but little from the removal. The other shrubs mentioned 
should be potted as early as possible, and be placed in a cold house, 
if room can be afforded them under cover, until wanted in the forcing 
pit. It is not necessary to plunge the pots in the hot-bed, but they 
should be assisted with a sprinkle overhead once or twice a day, 
until the expansion of the flowers commences. 
A DovsiE-rLowERED Litac has been raised by M. Lemoine, the well-known 
nurseryman of Nancy, and is to be known under the designation of Syringa hya- 
cinthiflora flore-pleno. It was raised from a seed of the variety called S. azwrea 
plena, fertilized by pollen taken, it is believed, from S. oblata, ‘The first time, 
only seven seeds were obtained from a hundred flowers operated upon, as the ovary 
is rarely perfectly developed in the flowers of azure: plena. Subsequent experi- 
ments have been rather more successful. Of forty plants raised, only three have 
flowered, among them the one bearing the above name. In habit, foliage, earlier 
flowering, and other particulars, this variety closely resembles the male pirent, 
S. oblata, the only character of the female parent being the double flowers. The 
name hyacinthiflora was given on account of the resemblance of the flowers to 
those of a hyacinth in miniature. These are at first red, and with a slender tube, as 
in 8. oblata, and borne in large, somewhat loose panicles. 
