382 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



care for me " appearance. Its beautiful green leaves are soon 

 overrun with the dirty green-fly, and its coat of snowy whiteness 

 becomes covered with filth. And yet under these conditions it is 

 marvellously tenacious of life. I have seen a plant literally 

 covered with this pest of the garden, after being freed from its 

 enemy and made clean and tidy, start again into active growth 

 in a surprising manner, thereby not only demonstrating its 

 vitality, but also its gratitude for proper care and attention. I 

 have seen plants in most luxuriant health and vigour both in 

 frames and greenhouses, in pent-up gardens of but a few square 

 yards, and surrounded with bricks and mortar. I have seen 

 plants in pots, standing down the sides of garden paths. I have 

 seen plants standing upon boxes in odd corners of the garden. I 

 have seen them on window-ledges, and even under these conditions 

 in health and vigour ; and I know of a collection of Alpines that 

 were repotted last autumn and left in the open, exposed to all 

 weathers until about six weeks ago, when they were taken into 

 a spare room having a large window facing south. I need hardly 

 say the bloom has not been satisfactory, but the loss of plants was 

 almost nil, Another gentleman that I know, having neither 

 frame nor greenhouse, and thinking the plants required some 

 kind of protection during the winter months, placed upwards of 

 a hundred plants in a coal-house last autumn, and there they 

 remained until about six weeks since. Finding that the plants 

 had but little inclination to start into growth, he came to me for 

 advice. In reply to my questions, he said as the coal-house had 

 a window he thought that gave sufficient light. The plants were 

 standing upon shelves, but were covered with dust, and were 

 very small, but only two died during the winter. The plants 

 were taken out of the coal-house and placed in the most sheltered 

 portion of the garden, and the owner assures me he has derived 

 much real pleasure from the bloom, even under such mistaken 

 treatment as this. I mention these two cases to illustrate the 

 extreme hardiness of the plant. 



A well-known grower and exhibitor from Beading is so 

 cramped for room in his small garden that his frames are not 

 only shaded, but quite overhung with trees, and as a consequence 

 his plants are somewhat drawn, but still he can manage to carry 

 off some of the best prizes at our annual shows. In contrast to 

 this another Reading man, who in 1888 exhibited for the first 



