FORCING THE WHITE LILAC. 537 



varieties or supposed varieties — certainly he had that 

 number of bottles. Others showed large numbers also, but 

 in most cases the Roses were inferior to those seen at an 

 English show. As for the varieties, they were chiefly such 

 as abound in England. There were quantities of that line 

 Rose, Marechal Niel, to be seen, one bed of it being ten feet 

 in diameter, the blooms plunged singly in moss. The 

 largest exhibitor grouped his flowers very prettily by arrang- 

 ing wavy lines of yellow and white varieties through the 

 long mass of rose and dark-coloured ones. 



Forcing the White Lilac. — The production of the white 

 Lilac seen so abundantly in Paris during the winter 

 and spring is often a source of curiosity. To meet 

 with a mass of it in October, quite white and deliciously 

 sweet, is a pleasant surprise to the English visitor. You 

 may see large bunches of it in every little flower-shop 

 in the month of January, and it is always associated 

 with the early Violet and the forced Rose. This Lilac 

 is the common kind, and yet it is perfectly white. 

 French florists have tried the white variety, but they do 

 not like it — it pushes weakly and then does not look of so 

 pure a colour as the ordinary Lilac one. They force the 

 common form in great quantities in pots, and to a greater 

 extent planted out, as close as they can stand, in pits for 

 cutting. 



The plants that are intended for forcing are cut around 

 with a spade in September, to induce them to form flower- 

 buds freely, and they are at first judiciously introduced to a 

 cool house, but after a little while given plenty of heat, in 

 fact, from 25° to nearly 40° C. = 77° to 104° F. At the 

 same time abundant humidity is supplied, both at the root 

 and by means of the syringe, but the chief point is, that 

 from the day the plants are placed under glass they are not 

 allowed to receive a gleam of light, the glass being com- 

 pletely covered with the paillassons, or neat straw mats, such 

 as are much used for covering frames, pits, and all sorts 

 of garden structures in winter. Thus they get the Lilac to 

 push freely, and gather its white blooms before the leaves 

 have had time to show themselves. The great degree of 



