OUTDOOR FLOWERS IN FEBRUARY IN B. C. 



Fig. 1321. — A Table of Flowers Grown in the Open Air in B.C. 



connection with the opening of these 

 Provincial Buildings at Victoria, on the 

 loth of February, the Natural History 

 Society undertook the collection, as an 

 object lesson, of such open air spring 

 flowers as were then obtainable. The 

 result was, that a table was arranged in 

 the botanical room of the Department 

 of Agriculture, in which was exhibited 



bunches of flower of the following varie- 

 ties : — 



Daphne, wallflower, primrose, violet, 

 laurestinus, polyanthus, crocus, stock, 

 scylla, pansy, snowdrops, anemone, corse, 

 willow, jasmine, Monkshood, or Aco- 

 nite, Japanese berries, ivy. 



Under separate cover I send a photo 

 of the table and a cut of the buildings. 



Fertilizers for Strawberries. — 

 Nitrate of soda is a valuable fertilizer 

 for strawberries and raspberries, and 

 should be applied with powdered phos- 

 phate of lime. 



This application to strawberries will 

 sometimes treble the yield. The berries 

 are larger in size, handsomer in color, 

 more solid and finer in flavor. Ordinary 

 manure will not produce such results, 



as it is not converted into plant food 

 until after the demand of the fruit. 



Nitrate of soda and powdered phos- 

 phate of lime are assimilated by the 

 plant at once, and appropriated at a cost 

 of less than ten dollars per acre, using 

 four hundred pounds of the mixture 

 which contains the three ingredients 

 considered necessary to use for feeding 

 plants ; nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 

 an alkali. 



133 



