THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



279 



severest winters since it was planted 

 have not affected it any. Have not had 

 any fruit from it yet. Quince trees 

 frozen down two yoars ago. Peach 

 trees killed out. E. D. 



BLANCHING CELERY. 



Mr. TV. C. Milton writes on this sub- 

 ject to the Michigan Farmer as fol- 

 lows; — First I sow in a cold frame early 

 in spring ; when the plants are about 

 two inches high I transplant in rows ; 

 plants 12 or 14 inches apart in the rows, 

 the rows about five feet apart. When 

 the plants are about ten or twelve inches 

 high, I then commence to handle by 

 gathering up the stalks and leaves and 

 drawing about three inches of earth a* 

 round each plant. When they are 16 

 inches or so high I take a common three- 

 inch drain tile and slip over the plant. 

 This is done by one person gathering up 

 all the leaves, and another person with a 

 strip of cotton cloth, three inches wide 

 and about five feet long, commencing 

 winding around the stalk at the base 

 and winding up to the top. Then slip 

 your tile over, and as the tile desends 

 unwind the cloth, and so on through 

 vour row, or as much as you wish. You 

 can take up one plant and not molest 

 any of the rest. Care should be taken 

 that the leaves come out over the top 

 of the tile, or it will smother. This is 

 as near the way that I managed with 

 mine as I can tell you on paper." 



Mr. Milton says his plants are always 

 nicely blanched the entire length of the 

 tile, and free from canker, dirt or worms. 

 The tile settles into the earth slightly, 

 and protects the plant from insects. He 

 has had good success with this method, 

 and he thinks it less trouble than the 

 usual one pursued by growers. It is an 

 easy thing for growers to test it with a 

 few plants, and if they grow as fine 

 samples as Mr. Milton exhibited, they 

 ought to be pleased with this new idea. 



THE GARDENS OF VANCOUVER 

 ISLAND. 



I do not know when I have been more 

 agreeably surprised than by a visit to 

 the town of Victoria, which is on the 

 south-east point of Vancouver's Island 

 and between latitude 415° and 49° in the 

 North Pacific Ocean. We have been 

 for some days sailing on the Pacific and 

 and along the Straits of San Juan de 

 Fuca, the heavily snow-capped moun- 

 tains of the Olympic making the air so 

 chilly that those who kept in the open 

 air at all had to do so with overcoats, 

 or, if ladies, in warm wraps or fui-s. 

 All at once we came to the mouth of 

 Puget Sound, opposite to which is Vic- 

 toria, and all was at once pleasant. 

 Summer weather and everything as 

 lovely and beautiful as the prettiest poet 

 might imagine . The harbor of Victoria 

 is, however, small and shallow, and, as 

 a consequence, our heavy vessel had to 

 lie for six or eight hours a mile and a 

 half outside, waiting for the tide to rise, 

 and this gave me the opportunity to do 

 some interesting botanizing among the 

 rocks along the coast. 



The town of Victoria, which we reach- 

 ed in the afternoon, is an indescribably 

 pretty place. It is built on a high rocky 

 bluflf, and has a park called Beacon Hill, 

 from its use in signaling in those olden 

 times when Indians were troublesome. 

 Though the mountain tops, some fifty 

 miles away, are perpetually white with 

 snow, except when the morning and even- 

 ing sun lights them up in purple and 

 gold, the air in the town is warm 

 (though without sultriness), owing to 

 the long day's sun — sixteen hours now, 

 July — warming the sheltered spots 

 where the high mountain ridges keep 

 off the arctic winds. 



The people are fond of flowers, and 

 almost every cottage was embowered in 

 vines, and seemed ready to break down 

 with their load of blossoms. In my 

 early life in England, I have memories 



