FORCING LILACS — BOUGAINVILLE A. I>1 



C. M. Atkinson said that in 1840 there were no spotted calceo- 

 larias, but in that year two appeared. The raiser was ver}^ much 

 freckled in the face, and it was said that he had produced these 

 varieties by looking at thera. Perhaps Mr. Hovey had not been 

 able to make up his mind whether he would have a white or a pink 

 camellia. 



A. P. Calder had some lilac flowers on exhibition, to which 

 he wished to call attention. They were of the common purple 

 variety, but perfectly white, though they had not been grown in 

 the shade, but in the direct rays of the sun. The plants were 

 taken up and heeled in last autumn, and put into the greenhouse 

 four weeks ago to-day. He had also forced what he purchased for 

 the true Persian lilac, but the flowers had come purple. He had 

 forced the common kind the last two years under the same treat- 

 ment, and had always succeeded in producing white flowers. 



Mr. Hovey said that the French grow the lilac in the dark, be- 

 cause they use the Persian, which has larger clusters and smaller 

 foliage. He had forced lilacs some years ago and found it not 

 diflScult, but there was then no taste for them as in Europe. 

 The lilac is not easily started into growth, — about every other 

 winter youwill see a paragraph in the paper stating that "the re- 

 markably mild weather has started all the lilacs," but the buds 

 always present a swollen appearance after a period of warm weather 

 in winter, though they do not make any growth. Mr. Hovey had 

 taken a lilac out of the ground and kept it in good heat from 

 October, and it never started an atom until March, while plants 

 kept in a cellar until February started immediately on being 

 brought into heat. 



Mr. Gray referred to Mr. Robinson's account of lilac forcing in 

 Paris (Parks, Promenades, and Gardens of Paris, p. 537). 



Mr. Calder said that his experience agreed exactly with Mr. 

 Robinson's account, except that darkness was not necessary, nor 

 so much heat. The Persian lilac comes so small that it is of little 

 value. 



Mr. Hovey called attention to the BougainviUea spectahilis, of 

 which a specimen was on exhibition, as very beautiful, easily grown, 

 and almost hardy, being grown out doors in Italy. A late number 

 of the "Gardener's Chronicle" gave an illustration of a large 

 plant in India, which had covered a tree forty feet high. Mr. 



