460 Genei^al Notices. 



during tlie winter time. In spring, when tliey begin to grow, water must 

 be given to them very frequently. The flowers will be seen in May or 

 beginning of June. G. psittaciiius, cardinalis, and bizarrbinus require the 

 same treatment. The bulbs must be taken out, after their stems and leaves 

 get yellow, and they must be kept clean and dry in an airy place till they 

 are planted again. They propagate themselves by forming a great many 

 young bulbs during the summer. The following sorts are very desirable, 

 but they are not so hardy as the gladioli, and most of them require to be 

 managed like the Alstrcemerias : — Calochortus splendens, venustus, and 

 luteus ; Camassia esculenta, Chlidanthus fragrans, Phycella corusca, 

 A''ieussenxia glaucopsis, and Bessera miniata. — ( Gard. Jour., 1849, p. 516.) 

 On keeping up a Succession of Floioers. — To keep up a succession of 

 flowers as long as possible is one of the chief objects of a flower-gardener. 

 A parterre without blossoms is like an orchard without fruit ; every expe- 

 dient is therefore had recourse to for the purpose of retarding the flowering 

 of some kinds, and expediting that of others. Our early spring flowers, 

 which are chiefly bulbs and tubers, would be inclined to flower again in the 

 autumn if they were not checked by the great heat of the summer in those 

 countries of which they are natives ; or if, in imitation thereof, the careful 

 florist did not remove tbem out of the bed in which they have already flow- 

 ered. Thus, by stopping their growth and keeping them in a colder and 

 moister climate than their own, we keep them from blooming till the season 

 when their blossoms are most welcome to us. In this way many of these 

 bulbous and tuberous-rooted plants can be flowered almost at any season ; 

 but there are rules of propriety in the execution of these proceedings ; a 

 snowdrop would scarcely be regarded at midsummer, while surrounded by 

 so many gaudier beauties ; neither would the tulip — the bright queen of 

 the garden — look well amid the sober tints of autumn. Nature intends 

 that her beauties shall be dispersed over the whole circle of the year, and 

 the florist assists in this arrangement, and for this assistance claims for 

 himself the privilege that she shall be, to a limited extent, subservient to 

 him in some instances while he encroaches upon her seasonal laws. The 

 British florist has a peculiar claim to this privilege, because he has taken 

 under his care the floral beauties of every clime in both hemispheres — 

 affording to each, as near as can be, its natural temperature, its natural soil, 

 and its natural rank and station among others. If, then, he should occa- 

 sionally interfere with nature's laws in bringing forth flowers out of sea- 

 son, he is not only excusable as their cultivator, but it is creditable to him 

 as their guardian. To have them always in beauty would diminish rather 

 than advance them in our estimation ; but the recurrence of a flower when 

 not expected — and especially if obtained without any derangement or muti- 

 lation of the plant operated upon — would be a delectable rarity, and really 

 a desirable incident in the flower garden. Every one knows that trans- 

 planting rose trees late, or pruning them late in the spring, procures a late 

 bloom — three weeks or a month later than the usual time of flowering I 

 am speaking of the common Provence rose, though this treatment of rose 

 trees is less necessary now than it was before the introduction of so many 



