THE FLORIST AND POMOLOG 1ST. 



any further, for, as far as my experience has gone, all Cherries, when well ripened, are most 

 agreeahle. The great satisfaction a Cherry-house gives is the certainty of your fruit being 

 safe from boys and birds ; and I felt pleasure last year when, towards the last week in May, 

 I saw my trees full of fruit, just showing their Cherry summer-reminding tints — put a pad- 

 lock on the door and put the key in my pocket, only to be delivered occasionally to a trusty 

 man, who gave the trees water when they required it. My Cherry-eating visits to my house 

 continued till September, and it was really a pleasure— although a small one— to watch the 

 progress of my trees, to taste the different varieties, and to take notes as to their periods of 

 ripening and their qualities. As small pleasures help to brighten the path of life, allow me 

 to advise some of your readers to build a Cherry-house, and try and find one most agreeable 

 source of satisfaction. Cerasus. 



IN-DOOR GARDENING. 



The papers that have appeared under this heading in the Gardeners' Chronicle, have ao 

 completely put in the shade my poor attempts in the same direction, that it is with some 

 hesitation I resume my pen and the subject. And yet the smallest attempt in this way, 

 even if the results be meagre, is worthy of record ; and though the fruits of my attempt may 

 not equalise the large hopes excited at the outset, they are results notwithstanding, and, in 

 spite of my adverse " surroundings," as a whole, better than I anticipated. The coldest 

 blasts of the wintry wind seemed to have assailed my window — to me conservatory, greenhouse, 

 and all. They appeared to concentrate their energies there, as if it was some important position 

 that should be carried by storm at all hazards. When the sky was clear, and the atmosphere 

 under its best conditions, no gleam of sunshine glanced in upon my mimic show-house to 

 neutralise the chilling influence of "bold Boreas," and I seldom had a fire even when the 

 weather was the coldest and most severe. Did I open my window ever so little to get some 

 fresh air (too often fresh only in the article of acquaintance), then would a shoal of blacks 

 put in appearance, and, perching on the foliage and flowers of my pets, superadd to Nature's 

 artistic excellence a shading not her own. Morning and night had I to puff away these 

 unwelcome lodgers, sooty trespassers on one of Flora's preserves. 



The majority of my Hyacinths in glasses are in flower. Those in pots are some distance 

 in the rear. Florence Nightingale, Single Fed, led the way, as did her great original in the 

 work of mercy that has made her name a "household word" throughout the land. I had 

 this variety for l'Etincillante, a magnificent deep carmine, but it was not true. It had a 

 fine spike of flower ; colour a delicate pink, with midrib of carmine to each division of the 

 bell. It is a variety admirably adapted for glasses, and has very short stiff foliage. Quite 

 a group contended for the second place. They were Staaten General, Alba Maxima, and 

 Grande Vidette, Single "Whites ; General Lauriston, Single Blue, a fine dark with light 

 centre, good for glass ; Norma and Fobert Steigeiy Single Feds ; and OtheUo, Double Blue. 

 Excepting the last-named they have fine spikes of flower. A later group nearly expanded 

 contains Favilion Blanc and Mont Blanc, Single Whites ; two very good varieties, La Feine 

 des Beauties, Single Fed, a very delicate blush with close small spike ; Blanchard, Double 

 White ; and Vulcan and Uncle Tom, Single Blues ; the latter a fine dark purple variety. 

 The remainder have scarcely commenced to show colour. I made a trial with a little guano 

 placed in the water, but shall not use it again ; it had an injurious effect on the roots. As soon as 

 colour presented itself I filled the glasses with water up to the brim, nearly submerging the bulb ; 

 and it is reaUy amazing what a quantity of water a bulb will absorb in a short time. On a 

 soup-plate, and planted in silver sand, I have a group of six Hyacinths of various colours 

 in flower, having an edging of Crocus, mixed varieties, just coming into bloom. I have fine 

 heads of bloom from two Folyanthus Narcissus — namely, Florence Nightingale and General 

 Windham, said to be two distinct varieties, but identical in every respect. They are in pots 

 and surrounded with Crocus in flower. From the centre of a circle of Single Van Thol Tulips, 

 all in flower, rises a large truss of Bazelman Major Narcissus. This group pleases me vastly. 

 I like the contrast of the Fed Tulips with the light-coloured flowers of their loftier colleague. 

 I have a pot of Sir Walter Scott Crocus, a large violet-striped, that is literally a mass of 

 flower. A pot of Lilaceus Superbus has its glory fast departing. Near it is a pot of a white 

 kind rapidly breaking into flower. I cannot get them to expand. Could Sol but look in 

 upon me to give a finishing touch to what has already been done, the Crocus would gladly 

 unfold themselves that his beams might kiss the delicate stamens they now so carefully hide 

 from my view. Tulips in pots are yet in abeyance. I have kept them back, so that they 

 may succeed the present generation to which I have also acted in one aspect of the character 

 of SDonsor. 



"But I am also operating with a view to provide some flower for summer. I have a 

 Tropasolum Jarrattii making vigorous headway, but will be late in flowering if I can only 

 succeed in doing so. I have potted some dwarf Iris as an experiment, and a bulb or two of 



