JAN.] 



THE GARDENER. 



75 



if secured, as in the greenhouse, from the chilling in- 

 fluence of ungenial frosts or cutting winds ; their na- 

 tural habits are not altered by change of climate, yet 

 a peculiar artificial treatment has been lately found to 

 effect a change of the law of nature in this particular 

 respect, and in a particular plant Mr. Loose, a florist 

 at Ghent, has forced sixty out of eighty lilies to flower, 

 at any season after fifteen days' management. Warm 

 moisture increased to a certain temperature was his 

 great agent, but he accelerated the development of their 

 fructification and the opening of their corollas by di- 

 viding their leaves.* 



If plants brought from distant latitudes were only 

 to blow in our spring and summer seasons, how com- 

 paratively dull would be our greenhouses and con- 

 servatories in the winter ! 



Open Ground, — Though the out-of-door work be 

 often interrupted by frost and rain, there will always 

 be something to keep you employed. Manure can be 

 wheeled out to the squares and borders, if this work 

 has not been already executed at an earlier period, to 

 be dug into the ground, which you can cover with litter 

 or a thick coat of leaves, if there be reason to appre- 

 hend a hard and continued frost, so that the spade work 

 may go on. Artichokes should be carefully protected 

 by half-rotted litter during frost, but not to such an 

 extent as would occasion, by fermentation of the ma- 

 terials, any degree of excitement in the plants. Celery 

 should be protected by dry turf or clean straw, or 

 better still by thatched hurdles. 



When neatness of appearance is the only relief to 

 the dreariness which prevails out of doors, it is espe- 

 cially desirable that the walks of the garden should not 

 be cut up by wheels, nor dirtied by litter or manure. 

 The materials for composts, &c. therefore should be ac« 



• Annals of the Royal Society of Horticulture, April 1844. 



