OPERATIONS FOR JULY, 
143 
style of growth of N. distillatoria, with pitchers resembling those of N. ampullaceum ; both leaves 
and pitchers are very thickly and freely produced. It is a very interesting, hardy-looking species. 
Tobe'nia asia'tica. This is a dwarf -growing, much-branching, trailing-like stove plant, 
bearing most lovely flowers. It has ovate, serrated, opposite leaves and flowers, which are pro- 
duced very .freely towards the points of the shoots, and consist of a rather large green calyx, in 
which the flower is situated as in a sheath. The corolla approaches campanulate-shape, and has a 
tube which is deep purple inside. The limb is four-lobed, the lobes wide-spreading, their ground- 
colour purple lilac, and the two lateral and lower ones have a very deep velvety black-purple 
blotch on each, which by its brilliancy casts a shade on the ground-colour of the limb. It was 
sent to the last Chiswick exhibition from Kew, and was exhibited in a box, which sheltered it 
above and on three sides, and the shade it was thus favoured with heightened in a peculiar 
manner the charm of its flowers. 
TropjE'olum spes. — A curious plant, a member of this genus, covered with a glaucous hue, 
and having many-cleft rotate-like leaves, with greenish-white flowers, of no beauty, but singular. 
It was sent to the first Chiswick exhibition, by Mr. Green, gardener to Sir C. Antrobus, Bart. 
OPERATIONS FOR JULY. 
This month ushers in the period when the culturist generally, as well as those who do not engage 
directly in the actual operations of the garden, begin to reap, in the out-door department, the fruit 
of their labours ; it occurs more in the case of the highly kept, modernly-managed gardens, than 
those which are less so, for those gardens most strictly managed in the modern style, depend prin- 
cipally for their chief beauty and general display of flowers, upon the tender and exotic plants, and 
as these are seldom all turned out, and each point of the gardens completely furnished, till at least 
the middle of June, it will be easily understood little effect is produced by this period, though indis- 
tinct glimpses of beauty begin to appear. The less scientific, more usual gardens, so to speak, from 
consisting of less costly materials, and being composed of those plants, shrubs, and trees, more 
naturally accordant with the climate of England, have, in proportion to the extent they are employed, 
a greater or less display of flowers, a more or less engaging aspect, from as early a period as the 
commencement of vegetation in spring. The two kinds of gardens alluded to, have each their 
respective excellences, advantages, and disadvantages. That most delightful is, perhaps, the one 
which combines a nicely regulated, judiciously arranged, and amalgamated portion of the features 
of each. But to the operations of the month : — 
The state of the weather is the great regulator of the principal work at this season : the hinge 
upon which the main garden work turns. If we are to experience a continuance of the drying, hot 
weather that has characterised the preceding month and chiefly that of May, our principal business 
is easily determined, and is comprehended in watering and shading. Would that the result 
of our labours was generally as satisfactory in the former, as it is in the latter practice ! But small 
as is the result compared with the amount of labour, expended, it is our own fault if there is not 
some proportion evident ; for instance, if the care we exercise is restricted to the mere application 
of water, without any effort to insure any of it effecting what it is capable of, a great deal of labour 
is certain to be thrown away. Briefly to turn our attention to the flower garden, and the method 
of procedure there in reference to watering : — All we can do at most, is to preserve plants alive and 
maintain them in good health ; but we may make a great outlay of time and labour, and only effect 
this, or effect it with comparatively little. It is the experience of every one in hot drying 
seasons, that however much water we may pour upon the surface of the earth we wet no more 
than the surface, for it will escape in all directions upon, but will not enter the ground. The surest 
method of inducing it to do so, or rather the most serviceable plan of applying water to plants in 
the open ground, as we have directed in a recent calendar is, to remove the surface soil to a depth 
of an inch or two under some circumstances, and more or less according to the nature of the plants 
occupying the ground, and about to be watered, and loosen the soil exposed with a small fork or 
suitable instrument, and then at the time of watering pour on sufficient to completely saturate every 
particle within reach of roots ; which will do more lasting good by being practised once a week or 
