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CURRENT GARDEN LORE. 



Early-flowering Gladioluses. — These are very valu- 

 able, either for warm borders or for growing in pots. The 

 earliest to bloom in the open ground is Byzantinus, 

 which is a very hardy variety, producing large, rich pur- 

 ple flowers. The height of the flower-stems varies with 

 the quality of the soil in which they grow. In rich, 

 deep, well-drained positions they may reach a height of 

 30 inches. In every case a warm, dry border should be 

 selected for them. The variety Rosy Gem, here figured, 

 is excellent for pots or the border. It grows and flowers 

 as well in pots as in the open ground ; the same treatment 

 serves for both situations. In warm situations and when 

 planted near a wall, this gladiolus is hardy enough 

 to stand the winter, but is so impatient of resting 

 that it frequently begins to grow again in autumn, and 

 then, if not protected, a severe winter will injure it. 

 To save all risk from frost, it is best to lift these early- 

 flowering gladioluses in September, and spread out 

 the corms on the floor of a dry loft or shed. This is 

 the only satisfactory way of retarding them. I find 

 that wkether in the soil or not, they start January i or 

 soon afterward ; they should therefore be attended to 

 about that time. Those required to flower in pots 

 may have eight corms put in a 6-inch pot. and grown 

 in a cool greenhouse or pit. Those to be planted out 

 should be potted in 4''<-inch pots, six corms in each, 

 and placed in a coldframe ; about April 30 they may 

 be planted out where they are to flower. I find these 

 gladioluses to be wonderfully useful as cut-flowers, 

 and they may be cultivated with very little trouble. 

 — Garden ing J II it st ruled. 



Shakespeare as a Gardener.— We know that 

 Shakespeare was a hearty lover of nature, and a close 

 and careful observer of her phenomena. If he gath- 

 ers us a garland of spring flowers, as Perdita does in 

 the Winter's Tale, they are really flowers of the 

 springtime, and not, as some poets would make them, 

 the growth of every month from May to October. 

 His pictures of rural objects and occupations are 

 those of a man familiar with the minutest details of 

 agriculture and horticulture. Many of his metaphors 

 and illustrations drawn from these sources are such as 

 no superficial knowledge could have suggested. Take 

 this from Troilus and Cressida, for example ; 



" As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, 

 Infest the sound pine, and divert his grain 

 Tortive and errant from his course of growth." 



Only a practical gardener would know that the twisted 

 branches and ugly knots often found on old trees are 

 sometimes the result of improper pruning. In Richard 

 II. there is a detailed comparison of the care of a garden 

 or orchard to the government of a state : 



" Go, bind thou up yon danghng apricocks, 

 Which, Hke unruly children, make their sire 

 Stoop with oppressio* of their prodigal weight ; 

 Give some supportance to the bending twigs. 

 Go, then, and, like an executioner, 

 Cut off the heads of the too-fast-growing sprays, 

 That look too lofty in our commonwealth ; 

 All must be even in our government." 



Of bad grafting we have a suggestion in Richard III., 

 where Buckingham sneers at the young princes as ' ' royal 

 stock graft with ignoble plants." 



There is no more admirable statement of art in the 

 production of new varieties of flowers than we have in 

 the Winter's Tale. Perdita tells Polixenes that she does 

 not like the "carnations and streaked gillyvors " (gilly- 

 flowers) which " some call nature's bastards." Polixenes 

 asks her why, and she replies ; 



" For 1 have heard it said 



There is an art which, in their piedness, shares 



Witli great creating nature." 

 Artless herself, she cannot endure the idea of artificiality 



Gladiolus, Rosy Gem. 



even in the development of a flower. The reply of Poli- 

 xenes is a complete defence of horticultural art ; 



" Say, there be ; 

 Vet nature is made better by no mean 

 But nature makes that mean ; so over art. 

 Which you say adds to nature, is an art 

 That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we wed 

 A gentle scion to the wildest stock, 

 And make conceive a bark of baser kind 

 By bud of nobler race. This is an art 

 Which does mend nature — change it rather — but 

 The art itself is nature:' 

 Could a scientific writer enunciate and illustrate the 

 truth more clearly or more concisely ? 



It would take too much space to cite Shakespeare's 

 illusions to manuring, weeding, the effects of blights, 

 frosts, noxious insects and other enemies of the gardener 

 and farmer, all of which show the same minute and 

 practical acquaintance with the subject, nowhere better 

 illustrated than in Friar Laurence's long soliloquy in . 

 Romeo and Juliet — "A'.," in Popular Science Monthly. 



