58 
TUE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
first potting of newly-struck cuttings, plenty of silver-sand. Gera- 
niums Lave been cut up very much by the damp in places where the 
bedding-stuff is wdr/tered in pits. AVhen killed down to the pot, the 
roots will generally be found alive, and if the fleshy parts of the 
roots are cut into two-inch lengths, and dibbled into silver-sand 
with the top of each cutting above the sand, good plants may be 
obtained, but they will bloom late. Hyacinths must have frequent 
doses of liquid manure, and there is nothing better than diluted 
house-sewage or soot-water. They like bottom-heat, and must have 
plenty of light to give them their true colours, but to be shaded when 
in bloom. Pelargoniums must be got into shape at once, and with 
as few sticks as possible. When they' want water, give them enough, 
but let them be rather dry for a while, rather than water during 
severe f weather, because with water they will also require air. 
Average temperature this month — forty-five degs. at night, fifty to 
fifty-five degs. by day, with a rise of five degs. more with sun-heat. 
Stove. — Pines should be kept at a moderate bottom -heat, or 
many may fruit prematurely ; from eighty-five to ninety degs. will 
be quite sufficient ; anything beyond ninety is a positive injury to 
them. In houses where vines are in leaf, air must be given at every 
opportunity, but with great caution. Beware of undue heat at 
night ; it is better to let the temperature sink a few degrees on sharp 
nights than to drive the vines on in an unhealthy air, which is a 
frequent cause of failure insetting and ripening. Keep evaporating 
pans at work where syringing would be inadvisable to keep down 
spider. 
PoECiKG Pit. — I n this structure keep the thermometer at eighty 
degs. for bottom-heat, and on sunny days increase the atmospheric 
heat to the same point for an hour or two, to give an opportunity 
for syringing. 
The Le.vfing of the Oak and the Ash. — The old proverb which deduces an 
augury of the weatlier from the relative position in order of time of these trees in 
leafing has been brought into prominence again. The Rev. F. 0. Morris, writing 
on the weather of last year, makes the following remarks : — “ This is the last day 
of the year 1872, and the excessive rainfall we have had for the greater part of the 
period has certainly been a proof of the truth of the old adage : — 
‘ The oak before the ash, a summer of splash ; 
The ash before the oak, a summer of smoke.’ 
I believe, however, that the old saw is sometimes read backwards, and I do notray- 
self place much faith in it. I incline to think that the fact of one tree or the other 
being out in leaf first is a .sign of the weather that has been rather than that which 
is to he. But be that as it may, the oak, as I duly noted at the time, was in full 
leaf this spring long before the ash, and far mere so than it usually is even when 
it has the start in the race between the two. Not only so, but when the ash-trees 
had begun ‘ sero sed serio’ a full month after the oaks, to come into leaf, they were 
cut oft’ by the extraordinarily severe frost of May 19 and 20, and did not for 
months come into their proper full foliage, if ever they did so at all this year. The 
walnut-trees, too, as well as others, were withered away in like manner, and had 
only come into leaf again by the end of June.” 
