80 THE FLORiL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



lifted down and examined, should it appear needful. The young 

 growth of the vinea will require training rather close to the main 

 rods until after the strawberry plants are removed, to aflbrd the 

 latter all the light possible ; but the vines will receive no harm 

 whatever, as the shoots can be tied out immediately the crop is 

 gathered. The staging must be made to be readily taken down when 

 no longer required, and as readily put up again iii the spring. The 

 rests upon which the shelves are placed are fixed at the bottom to a 

 wooden sill, and at the top to the rafters, in each case with strong 

 screws, and are supported half-way up with stays, as shown in the 

 diagram. The shelves are six inches wide, and an inch in thick- 

 ness. Air is admitted at the top by sliding lights, and at the 

 bottom by means of openings in the front wall. In houses with 

 balf-span roofs there is more room for watering the strawberry 

 plants, and the vines receive the advantage of more light than 

 would be the case in lean-to's. 



SHAKSPEARE'S WALL-ELOWERS. 



" Flower in the crannied wall, 



I pluck you out of the crannies ; — 

 Hold you here, root and all, in my hand. 

 Little flower — but if I could understand 

 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

 I should know what God and man is." 



Tennyson. 



HE wall-flower is described in the books as a biennial, 

 and that is about as wrong as ifit were described as an 

 annual. The wall-flower is a perennial, and should 

 always be so regarded, unless there are special reasons 

 for treating it as a biennial. "When required for spring 

 bedding, it must be sown in the reserve ground, and be planted in 

 the beds in September or October, and when the flowering is past, 

 may be destroyed. But in an old-fashioned border, or on the skirts of 

 a broad gravel walk, the wall-flowers should be allowed to grow into 

 great bushes, for then they flower superbly, and last many years. 



But what has this remark to do with Shakespeare's Wall-flowers ? 

 Not much, perhaps. As regards the place of the plant in the poet's 

 works, it has no place, for he never mentions it, and so I have no 

 chance of a sentiment to begin with, and may as well make an end of 

 my essay as soon as possible. Three years ago I saw on the wall of 

 the chancel of the church at Stratford, a tiny, half-starved wall- 

 flower, with two pods of ripe seed on it. The position of the plant 

 was exactly where, by piercing the wall, we should come upon the 

 dust of Shakespeare. If I had been alone, I should certainly not 

 have touched the plant, for I never have indulged in that sort of 

 thing. But as one of the churchwardens was with me, I asked per- 

 mission to take away the ripe seed, and permission was granted. 

 The plants I obtained from those seeds proved, to my surprise, to be 

 good garden wall-flowers, pure yellow, neat habit, and as well adapted 

 for bedding as any in cultivation. I have now a fine lot of large 



