THE FLORAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 349 



towards or from the root, all ambiguity or mistakes will be avoided. 

 Although the genial days we sometimes have in February allow the 

 operations of sowing and planting to be carried on with advantage, 

 it often happens that severe and continued frosts set in after the 

 Ranunculus bed is completed, and the bopes of the florist are com- 

 mitted to it. This probable evil must be guarded against; for 

 although the root must sustain a hard frost when it is really rooted, 

 it is very sensitive when that is not the case. If a frost should 

 come, a mat laid upon the bed will avert injurious consequences, or 

 two may be used if the weather is severe. If, in the daytime, the 

 sun has power to unbind the soil, the mats may be taken off, and 

 the warm rays admitted; but be sure the mats are replaced at 

 night. If the weather is suspicious, about three weeks will be 

 sufficient for bringing the young shoots to the surface, when further 

 care as to cold will be unnecessary. An operation must then be 

 attended to of the utmost importance, both to the future bloom and 

 the increase of the tuber. When the leaves are about half-an-inch 

 above the ground, the soil must be firmly pressed rcund them, so 

 as to fix the tuber firm in the ground. This may be done twice 

 with advantage as the growth proceeds. Lightness of the soil has 

 been very otten fatal to the Ranunculus, and must therefore be 

 guarded against in the manner just described. The operations 

 which have been mentioned in this paper are rather laborious, from 

 the long continuance of the stooping posture, and they will probably 

 discourage those who are not thoroughly imbued with a love of 

 flowers. But the resolute amateur will remember that no good 

 results are ever secured without toil, and he will be cheered in his 

 labours by the brilliant prospects before him. 



PLANTING PEAR TREES. 



|N a deep light soil composed of alluvial layers, or in soils 

 that are stony, schistose, calcareous mixed with humus, 

 marly, or marly clay, and when the subsoil does not 

 retain stagnant water during a great part of the winter, 

 the Pear tree on the Pear stock may be successfully 

 planted. If the plantation can be made in such kinds of soil, and 

 in situations, inclined to the east, south, or west, on the side of a 

 hill or slope, so much the better. The more light, stony, or 

 calcareous the soil, the less a sloping situation is necessary ; but 

 the more compact, strong, or schistose the soil on the sides "of the 

 hills, the better the Pear tree grows and bears. It is only necessary 

 for an attentive observer to travel in the months of August and 

 September, through a country where the pear is generally cultivated, 

 and he will find the above remarks strictly correct. If perfect 

 success is aimed at, we ought never to plant pear trees in ground 

 previously occupied by fruit trees, and which have perished from old 

 a#e or decrepitude. When an old plantation of fruit trees is to be 

 renewed, it is necessary to remove all the old roots, trench the 



November. 



