098 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Plants Distribute^ 



Notwithstanding the very definite warning repeated year by year on 

 the Society's distribution of plants form : — " Only surplus plants raised 

 from seeds or cuttings are available for distribution. The great majority 

 of the plants offered are therefore of necessity very small, and may require 

 careful treatment for a time ' ' — notwithstanding this, and the fact that the 

 words "very small " are emphasised by being put in italics, a year seldom 

 passes without some few Fellows grumbling because the plants when they get 

 them are most of them small. Over and over again we have pointed out that 

 small tilings grow into big if they are taken care of, and we have suggested 

 how greatly it adds to a true plant-lover's interest to watch the plant growing 

 from month to month and year to year. That they will so grow and amply 

 repay a little kindly care let the following letter from a Fellow prove : 

 " Among the small plants I received from the Society in February last 

 was a Lupinus arboreus. I put it in a corner of my garden and it grew 

 well and flowered a little, bearing white flowers. I think it may interest 

 you to hear that it now measures round 21 ft. ; that is, 7 ft. in diameter 

 across the plant ; and the circumference of the stem about an inch or so 

 from the ground is five inches. Altogether it is a very fine specimen of a 

 year's growth, I think." A very fine specimen indeed, and an excellent 

 reproof to all who despise the day of small things. 



Manuring Strawberries. 



" What is the best artificial manure for Strawberries, and what 

 quantity should be given ? " Some few years ago we tried chemical 

 manures on Strawberries, and after careful comparison we found the best 

 results accrued from 1 oz. of nitrate of soda and 2 oz. of superphosphate 

 to every square yard, applied just as the flower trusses begin to show 

 themselves, care being taken that it did not fall upon the foliage. 

 Then immediately the fruit was set we applied 1 oz. of muriate of potash 

 a square yard, again carefully keeping it off the foliage — that is absolutely 

 necessary. And we may mention in passing that another advantage was 

 secured, namely, that these dressings of chemical manures almost entirely 

 removed the nuisance which slugs so universally are, particularly in 

 gardens. 



Acanthus latifolius. 



How often, in searching after rarities, we lose sight of easily obtainable 

 beauties ! The rarities are often undeniably beautiful when they grow 

 and blossom freely. But how frequently they will not do so, notwith- 

 standing all our care and toil ! They live, and that is all. Often they 

 look miserable and make a true lover of plants feel miserable to see them 

 — so unkindly do they respond to our loving care — so unable are they to 

 adapt themselves to their uncongenial surroundings of soil and climate. 

 A tenth part of the trouble and expense bestowed upon really hardy and 

 free-growing plants would repay us a thousandfold. Look at fig. 208. Is 

 it not a stately plant? Has it not a beauty peculiarly its own — beauty 

 of leaf, beauty of blossom, graco of habit— and all combined with absolute 

 hardiness and ease of growth ? Anyone can grow it if he will. And yet 



