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CURRENT GARDEN LORE. 



Inside the fig will be found very beautiful and well 

 worthy of study. — Meelian' s Monthly. 



There is here (Tyninghame, England) an old' plant of 

 Ficiis elastica kept for propagating purposes, which, 

 in most cases, brings a crop of fruit to maturity. — 

 Journal of Horticulture . 



Profitable Elder- Bushes. — We have spent many an 

 hour digging out clumps of them from the old fence-cor- 

 ners, where they had long held possession, when we 

 wanted to remove the fence and turn two fields into one. 

 Now we are almost ready to wish we hadn't worked so 

 hard. The common despised " elderberry " was found 

 to be valuable in a scarcity of other fruit a few years ago, 

 and now mixed with sour apples, or something to give it 

 more tartness, it is frequently used for pies, even when 

 fruit is plentiful. It sells well, too, in cities, many hav- 

 ing learned the old-fashioned country way of making 

 elderberry-wine. — American Ciillirator. 



Indian Terrace, or Sunken Garden. — We repro- 

 duce on page 758, from the Gardeners' Chronicle, an 

 illustration of a sunken terrace in the Makurpura Palace- 

 garden, India. This terrace is laid out in gracefully- 

 designed beds and walks. Beds are planted with cannas 

 and other plants capable of producing a strong and 

 varied effect as seen from an upper level. If there be 

 any merit in a sunken garden, it is that its contents 

 are thus viewed in a measure from above. We all know 

 that a garden scene is generally enhanced by being 

 viewed from some higher point. 



Abnormal Forms of the Arum Lily. — Double- 

 spathed forms of the arum lily, as in the illustration, oc- 



Double-Spathed Arum Lily. 



cur frequently with those who grow very strong plants. 

 Four years ago I was engaged in working up a stock of 

 arum lilies. All the suckers as they appeared were taken 



off and rooted in small pots. By the middle of June 

 they were gradually hardened off and planted outside 

 in a trench prepared similar to those used for celery. In 



r 



Three-SpatheD Arum Lily.— Engraved from a photograph 

 by the Rev. C. C. Harper. 



September the plants were lifted and placed in 12-inch 

 pots. After lifting, the plants were placed behind a north 

 wall, kept well soaked with water, and syringed until they 

 were again established. On the first appearance of frost 

 they were housed and kept cool until Christmas. Toward 

 the close of January and all through February more than 

 half the plants produced abnormal spathes. This was 

 attributed to their remarkable strength and the liberal 

 feeding which they received. They not only produce a 

 solitary double spathe or two, but many in succession 

 during the whole season. The same thing has occurred 

 with the strongest callas every year since, but the same 

 plants, when not strong, only produce single spathes. — 

 The Garden. 



Big Squash Yield. — Yesterday a man brought me a 

 load of Hubbard squashes. I paid him I7.61 for what 

 he had on his light spring buggy. Then he informed mo 

 that they grew on four square rods of ground — just one- 

 fortieth of an acre. A neighbor let out the secret. He 

 cleaned out an old ' 'chicken roost, " and got so much man- 

 ure he did not know what to do with it ; so he spread it 

 cut on the four rods of ground. He worked it in after a 

 fashion, and planted potatoes. The ground was too rich, 

 and he did not get any crop. Last spring he plowed 

 up the same ground very thoroughly, so as to get more 

 dirt mingled in with the manure, and then planted pota- 

 toes again. He put a squash seed in every other hill of 



