THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. ^ 



back to within two joints of the ground level, or the point of their 

 entering the house, according as the case may be. They should be 

 planted three feet apart, and for a house thirty feet in length, 

 which would be a serviceable size, ten vines will be required. 



SELECT GBAPE8 FOE THE AMATEUb's TINEET. 



Where there is only one house, and it is desired to have a supply 

 of grapes extending over as long a season as possible, the following 

 sorts, in the proportions here given for a house of the length above- 

 mentioned, will be found the most suitable ; namely, five Black 

 Mamhurgh, two Buchland Sweetivater, and three BlaclcPrince. Houses 

 forty or fifty feet in length may have a division in the centre, and 

 one end be planted with Black Eamhurgh, and Buchland Sweet- 

 water, for use early in the autumn, and Alicante and Lady Downes 

 for winter use. The Buckland Sweetwaters should be planted at 

 the rate of two to every five Black Hamburghs, and the other two 

 sorts in about equal numbers. By having one house divided into 

 two compartments, or two separate structures, a supply of the finest 

 grapes may be had from the beginning of August until the following 

 March without forcing the vines. Lady Downes keeps so well that 

 it may be had in excellent condition until April, if it is so desired. 



THE SNOW PLANT OF THE SIERRAS. 



|NB of the grandest objects, says the San Francisco 

 Bidletiii, which meets .the eye of the traveller in our 

 mountains is the exquisite plant, the Snow Plant of the 

 Sierras — the Sarcodes sanguinea of John Torrey, the 

 botanist. It is an inhabitant only of the higher 

 Sierras being rarely found below an altitude of 4000 feet, and its 

 "lorious crimson spike of flowers may be seen early in May forcing 

 itself through the snow, which, at that period, clings about the sides 

 of our Pine forests. The portion of the plant which is visible above 

 the soil is a bright rosy crimson in colour, and presents the very 

 strongest contrast to the dark green of the Pines and the shimmer 

 of the snow. Its root is succulent, thick, and abundantly free of 

 moisture, attaching itself to the roots of other plants, principally 

 to the species of the Pine family. Hence it is among those curious 

 members of the vegetable world which are known to botanists as 

 parasites, and is consequently entirely incapable of cultivation. The 

 deer are extremely fond of it, and it is not an uncommon circum- 

 stance to find a number of the plants uprooted and robbed of the 

 fleshy part of their underground growth by theso animals. It 

 belon<^s to the natural order Orobanchaceaj, and is met with through 

 the whole of the Sierra region, becoming rarer as we approach the 

 south. 



Jannary. 



