308 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



thought strawberry-beds are manured too highly, inducing too large 

 a growth of leaf, to the injury of the fruit. One thing is certain 

 with regard to vegetation generally, that, in proportion as you 

 manure highly, you must allow more room. Turnips will bulb well 

 when left thickly together on a poor soil, but, if it is rich, they 

 must be hoed out to greater distances, or there will be nothing but 

 leaf. 



WINTER FLOWERS. 



IHOSE who desire to prolong — nay, to continue — the 

 treasures of Flora, with as little intermission as pos- 

 sible, through the winter, must now make use of no 

 small activity in retarding autumn flowers, and making 

 provision for those intended for forcing. To this end 

 the following remarks may possibly be of service to amateurs. I 

 will pass by botanical rarities, and confine my observations to the 

 more popular tribes, which, indeed, are far more adapted to the end 

 in view. Foremost amongst these stands the Primula sinensis. In 

 all establishments where winter flowers are desired, this holds a con- 

 spicuous place ; and though by no means difficult to grow, yet to 

 produce it at once with ease, certainty, and at the period when it is 

 really wanted, requires certainly a little management. They are 

 assuredly best from seed annually ; two sowings, the one in March, 

 the other in May, will suffice, under high cultivation, to furnish 

 flowering plants from October to the following May, or even later. 

 Those of the first sowing should have been prevented from flowering 

 until the end of September, by constant stopping ; these should 

 now be well established in five and seven-inch pots, and the only 

 conditions required henceforward to flower them well are total 

 absence of frost, free watering, sometimes with clear liquid manure, 

 and not too intense a light. The finest I ever saw were produced in 

 a dark and damp old-fashioned greenhouse, the walls covered with 

 various mosses in the most excellent health. The second stock of 

 those intended for spring work should have their final shift in the 

 course of September from three-inch to five and six-inch pots, 

 according to the objects of the cultivator. They should have every 

 flower picked off until the end of December, and will require, of 

 course, the same conditions as to temperature, moisture, etc., as the 

 early sowing. These plants, it is pretty well known, are exceed- 

 ingly partial to leaf-mould. This, therefore, in a decomposed state, 

 should form the bulk of the compost, to which may be added a little 

 sound and mellow loam, a little peaty soil, a little wood-ash, and 

 charcoal of the size of peas, and a good sprinkling of a sharp and 

 lively sand. 



The next popular tribe I would make a few remarks on is the 

 Cineraria. This is scarcely second to the Primula for purposes of 

 general decoration ; these will do well from seed. However, as the 

 seedlings cannot be relied on as to colour and character, it is better 

 to raise them on the sucker system. The best plan by far is to turn 



