BRIEF REMARKS. .'521 



expensive. When this prepared fuel was gone, I procured some char- 

 coal dust, almost useless in commerce, and having sifted the very fine 

 away, I cliarged my stove with this. To my great pleasure this burned 

 quite as well as the more expensive coal, with little, if any, more smell, 

 and cost me next to nothing. Now, tlien^ I saw my plants in safety, 

 and henceforward I entertained no fear ; five shillings more than 

 covered the expense of all tlie winter months, and many times the fire 

 continued untouched for twenty-four hours. I never lost a single 

 plant all the winter. One drawback tiiere was, especially if my plants 

 had been in delicate flower, namely, there was more dust than I could 

 have wished ; but my object was to preserve my plants, and in this I 

 succeeded to my utmost wish. 



Winter now yielded as much pleasure in gardening almost as sum- _ 

 mer. Every morning my wife and I visited our greenhouse, and 

 inquired diligently of each, almost daily, how they fared. The Gera- 

 niums continued in full leaf, the Petunias continued to flower, the 

 A^erbenas mildewed a little, our Phloxes also continued in bloom, and 

 every day almost some flower would greet our eyes. Thus the greater 

 part of the winter passed, and about February we found our Geraniums 

 making way. Then came the idea given us of striking cuttings of 

 Verbenas and Petunias for bedding out in spring. This we managed in 

 a way peculiar, I think, to ourselves, and which I think worthy of 

 recording. Wlien I purchased my stove, I had an iron pan made to 

 fit the top, so that when I wished I could take away the usual cover 

 or lid, by which aperture the stove is fed, and substitute as a cover my 

 iron pan, holding water to create a moisture ; this was about five 

 inches deep and fourteen inches square. We filled this for about three 

 inches with broken charcoal and gravel, and above this one inch of 

 pure sand, and having well watered it and prepared eighty-one cuttings 

 of Verbenas about two inches long, we placed them in tlie sand in nine 

 rows. They looked like a little forest. The stove gave out its heat 

 to the house, and generated sufficient heat to the sand, so that in ten 

 days I found my pretty little slips starting freely at the top. I scarcely 

 dared to disturb one ; however, about the twelfth day 1 ventured to 

 look at one of the most healthy, and judge of my surprise to find that 

 the roots had shot out on all sides, three-quarters of an inch long in 

 some of them. No time was lost. Some small 60's were prepared 

 with common garden mould, four of the cuttings placed in each, care- 

 fully shaded and kept comfortably warm until they grew to six and 

 eight-inch plants, and at length when May appeared, took their place 

 in a neat bed, heart-shape — for this was very near my heart — and soon 

 produced such a grand and dazzling appearance as almost to intoxicate 

 me with delight. This was my first effort, and from that moment to 

 this when I write, August 31, they have never failed to obtain the 

 admiration of my friends ; nay more, my neighbour, a gardener of 

 some experience, paid me tlie compliment of saying, " You beat me at 

 Verbenas." — Cottage Gardener. 



New Dahlias. — To those we described in our Number for Octo- 

 ber, we add tlie following ;— 



The Uuhlid King. — A rich crimson, of fine form, good outline, 



Vol. xviri. No. 48.— iV.S'. 2 D 



