HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 871 



rnence to grow. They can be shifted into larger vessels as they seem to re- 

 quire it, but good crops can be had in comparatively small pots by supply- 

 ing them with liquid stimulants while growing and ripening a crop. The 

 roots being thus placed under -complete control, there is little danger of ex- 

 cessive wood growth, consequently they will be very productive. 



Figs succeed well in this way, a poor soil suits them best, but as they re- 

 quire a good supply of water during growth, particular attention must be 

 jriven to the drainage, that no stagnation of water take place in the soil. 

 The ripening of young wood can be hastened towards the end of summer 

 by a gradual withdrawal of water and exposure to the sun. S. B. 



DECEMBER. ^ 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Grounds. — This month is usually con- 

 sidered as the most leisure one of the year to the gardener. But it is far 

 from that. "'Hours of Idleness" have.no signification in his vocabulary. 

 At this season, though perhaps called upon for less manual labor, his mind 

 and reflective powers have to be tasked more than at any other. In the de- 

 partment under consideration, there is always food for reflection. Few 

 Flower Gardens, especially in our country, are laid out in the first instance 

 in the most perfect or tasteful manner. Every successive season will ex- 

 pose new beauties that were in the beginning overlooked. Many things 

 must remain as they are, but much can be remedied, and often by a very 

 small amount of labor or expense. In the alteration of the forms and 

 shapes of flower beds, for example, great results can be easily accomplished. 

 We have seen the most tasteless, and disagreeable objects of the kind, re- 

 tained year after year, for no perceptible reason than that it was supposed 

 to be "immutably" perfect on its first conception. Apart from the pleas- 

 ure which a nearer approach to the pure principles of taste gives in such 

 cases, the very change itself will be agreeable. Novelty often pleases, so 

 long as the change is not from a beautiful to one decidedly less so ; and 

 this species of novelty should receive as much attention in connection with 

 our grounds, as with the introduction of beautiful exotics to our greenhouses. 

 The past season will have disclosed many imperfect features; and the pre- 

 sent could not be better employed, than in preparing these so as to be easi- 

 ly and speedily acted on when the proper season arrives. In the formation 

 of regular sets of flower beds, or imrterres, much difference of opinion ex- 

 ists as to the use of gravel or grass for the walks. If the beds are to con- 

 tain flowers of many individual species, forming what is generally under- 

 stood by the term "botanical flower garden," gravel walks with box edgings 

 should be always employed, as they afford the best facilities for examining 

 each plant separately ; but where the flowers are to be grown in masses, 

 and the effect is sought for in a distant view ; the most pleasing results will 

 flow from the bed appearing to be set in the grass, the green walks materially 

 relieving the gaiety of the masses of blossom. In the proper forms or 

 figures fur flower beds, the same difference of opinion is found. Some be- 

 ing advocates of lines and angles, working them out into all kinds of shapes, 

 triangular and hexangular ; others being equally hard upon curved lines 

 and circles. It is seldom indeed that any effort built entirely on one or the 

 other of these principles pleases, and the situation or circumstances should 



