NOTES ON FLORISTS JFLOWERS. 
315 
water when necessary ; the bottom of this bed 
is then laid with six or eight inches of open 
material, among which water may be absorbed 
in passing downwards after watering the sur- 
face, or when poured beneath the soil, at 
places formed on purpose; the object is, in 
dry weather in summer to keep this open 
material thoroughly moist, and this keeps the 
roots cool ; moisture may be retained for any 
length of time in the bottom of the bed, by 
stopping up the point of egress, which may be 
made in the form of a simple sluice. In 
winter or in wet weather at any period of the 
year, when the artificially induced moisture 
was not required, the point of egress might 
be free for the passage away of the water from 
the bed, which in this case would not differ 
from an ordinary bed of earth. The thickness 
of the peat soil for the roots may be from 
fifteen to eighteen inches. In this, the plants 
will be found to grow freely enough in an 
open and exposed situation, without requiring 
shelter of any kind. 
It may be well to mention, that where a 
number of these plants are seen growing toge- 
ther, an occasional branch or two maybe seen 
gradually drying up and eventually perishing ; 
this is found to have been caused by some 
injury sustained by the bark during the pro- 
cess of hoeing or weeding the ground, by some 
careless hand. The injury of the bark there- 
fore from this or any other means, ought to 
be carefully avoided. 
It is propagated readily by layers, which 
take two seasons to root. They are best put 
down in the month of April, because the spring 
is the best time to remove them when rooted, 
and they ought to be taken off and transplanted 
as early as they are ready to be detached, for 
if allowed to remain they grow rapidly and 
become crowded, which is injurious to that 
bushy and well furnished habit so much to be 
desired in the young plants. 
In planting, both in the case of these and 
other groups of Andromeda, it has too often 
happened that they are planted much too 
closely together^ by which their natural habits 
and characters are totally lost, and their 
blooming greatly hindered ; they ought in all 
cases to be placed so as to grow quite apart 
from, and independently of, each other. 
Allusion has been made to forcing this shrub. 
Its flowers are formed along with the young 
shoots during summer, and even out of doors 
continue to advance slowly all through the 
winter up to the time of flowering in the 
spring ; their maturity may be accelerated 
by taking up the plants carefully in the early 
part of October, and potting them in pots 
suitable to their size, and in peat soil ; they 
should then be placed in a situation where 
they will be protected not only from wet but 
from extreme cold — not that they require pro- 
tection from severe weather, for they are per- 
fectly hardy, but the protection thus afforded 
to them is the first advance in the progressive 
increase of temperature, by which alone perfect 
success in forcing hardy plants into bloom is 
to be realized. When submitted to this mode- 
rately increasing temperature they will be in 
flower in a month or six weeks, according to 
the particular period of the winter, and the 
presence or absence of sun. "When in bloom 
they can be taken to the drawing room, or 
conservatory. After the blooms are faded, 
they must be again sheltered by a frame till 
about the month of April, when they should 
be planted out, and other plants must be 
selected at the proper season for forcing the 
following year. In planting out, the tips of 
the fibrous roots should be carefully disengaged 
from the balls of earth, and laid out on the 
soil. Some plants of this shrub in the garden 
of the Royal Botanic Society in the Regent's 
Park, which were taken off' as rooted layers 
in the spring of 1837, were in 1844 about 
three feet high, and thirteen feet in circum- 
ference, closely and evenly furnished with 
branches, and with flowers in the blooming 
season, and at that period resembling a huge 
mass of pearls thickly studded over the dark 
green leaves. 
The remarks here given on the treatment 
of this plant will apply equally to the Lyonias ; 
and also more or less to the Cassandras, Zeno- 
bias, and Andromedas. The species enume- 
rated in this paper may be considered as 
Andromedas, or the name we have given may 
be adopted if preferred. 
In the case of most of the species here re- 
ferred to, the flowers are of a delicate waxy 
texture, and admirably adapted for bouquets. 
NOTES ON FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 
BT GEOKGE GLENNY. 
The present season has not been very pro- 
lific in the way of novelties. A few specimens 
of flowers exhibited up to this time at the 
Metropolitan Shows may be worth notice, 
and only a few. Tulips afford but little, nor 
is there any subject that requires an elaborate 
notice. Two tulips that were let out last 
year are deserving mention — The Queen of 
the North, by Mr. Hepworth, and Bijou, by 
Mr. Dickson, — the former was described by 
us while it was a seedling in the first holder's 
hands. It is a compact but unwilling opener, 
with rather a long cup, very close, splendid 
white ground pure as snow, a dark feathering, 
