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THE CULTIVATION OF HARDY LILIES IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
thinned out, they must he almost worthless, 
either as respects the durability of their timber 
or the size of the trunk. The oak is a wide 
Bpreading tree naturally, and though it is not 
necessary to expose its under branches freely 
on all sides to the air, the rule is, that a full 
grown tree should, at thirty feet from the 
ground, have a free area to breathe in. The 
same fact is applicable to all- other tr ^es in 
proportion to their height and the spread of 
their branches. James Gkigor. 
HORTICULTURAL BUILDINGS. 
WINTER PRESERVE. 
Of these there are as many varieties as of 
any other description of building for garden- 
ing purposes. The very best is half a ridged 
house, — that is, a wall, say three feet high, and 
a roof sloping upwards with three feet rafters. 
The back of this being to the north-east forms 
a complete screen to those perishing winds, 
while being open to the south and west gives 
them all the advantage of sufficient sun : the 
roof is covered up to the ridge behind, but left 
with the rafters only on the other half, so that 
mats, waterproof cloth, or any other covering 
may be placed over at night, and in frosty 
weather. A construction of this sort keeps 
off a tolerably hard frost, and must always be 
covered up from the wind, which in winter 
time does more mischief than half the appar- 
ent hard frosts. These constructions are 
sometimes made with reed backs and roofs, 
and, except that they harbour vermin more 
than a wall, there is no objection, for they are 
quite as warm as bricks. We have seen a 
very complete thing made with common boards, 
the roof formed of shutters, which will turn 
right back one half on to the other, and the 
sides of which let down; these will shut up 
entirely, but we do not like them so well as a 
solid brick wall of three or four feet high at the 
back only, one half the roof covered and the 
other half with the front entirely open, to be 
covered over with mats if required. Azalia 
Indica will do well in such a place, and many 
plants which would be perfectly proof against 
frosts in the open ground, require this kind of 
protection if petted off, as the frost will often 
get through the pots and injure the fine fibres 
which are next the side unless they have some 
such protection as this winter preserve. But 
there are many persons who use the irons put 
into the form of uprights and a ridged roof : 
these are stuck in the ground even with each 
other at distances of about four or five feet at 
most, and when so placed, quite even, long 
strips of wood, about the thickness of laths, 
are tied to them, one length at the top or 
point as it were of the roof, one at each 
shoulder, and one on each side, half way 
between the top and the shoulder. In these 
the mats are thrown over in bad weather only; 
but we need hardly say it is a very inferior 
contrivance to a brick-built place like that we 
first mentioned : hoAvever, if there be plenty 
of covering, and that be put on in time, plants 
will take but little harm. Of course, such 
places as these are unfit for most greenhouse 
plants, and will only do for those which are 
commonly called half-hardy, or are made so 
by removing them from the ground to pots; 
but it is in constructions of this kind, and 
coverings for frames and pits, that the value 
of the transparent varnish will be found; for 
covered up as plants in such places must be 
during any long frost, they suffer dreadfully 
from the darkness, whereas it is doubtful 
whether, if they are well lighted, they would 
suffer at all. The Tulip beds round London 
are all under such a preserve as we have de- 
scribed, formed with irons with slips of wood 
along them to prevent the coverings from fall- 
ing through. Some of the owners have the 
tops rounding like the tilt of a waggon, but 
the ridge like the roof of a house is far 
better, and the wet runs off quicker, nor does 
it hold so much snow or risk so much the drip; 
however, if the covering be the transparent 
waterproof varnished cloth or calico, wet can- 
not affect it, however heavy, and this is import- 
ant, as the plants should he dry in winter. 
THE CULTIVATION OF HARDY LILIES 
IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
There is scarcely a more interesting genus 
of flowers than " The Lilies of the Field," and 
in this country we consider the hardy ones 
alone can fairly come under this division. We 
never pass a cottage garden in which the 
splendid white and orange lilies are growing, 
without regretting that they are not more 
generally adopted as garden ornaments in 
well-kept establishments. They are graceful 
even before they flower, and handsome in all 
stages; but when in bloom, they appear one 
blaze of colour, and throw the most brilliant 
things in the garden into the shade. The 
white is considered by Paxton the original 
species; but beyond being one of the earliest 
introduced, and, therefore, one of the first 
with which we in England were acquainted, 
we cannot go. For instance, it was intro- 
duced in 1596, together with Lilium Bulbi- 
ferum, or orange lily, and its varieties, from 
Italy ; Lilium Croceum, or yellow lily, Lilium 
Glabrum, or orange lily, the Martagon lily 
and its varieties, white, purple, and yellow, 
from Germany; Lilium Pyrenaicum, a dark 
orange, from the Pyrenees; but from their 
