HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
47 
talent and enterprise of our countrymen, and 
although the first may be more grotesque than 
beautiful, the second a lively specimen of the 
" nevergreens," and the third inferior to nine- 
tenths of the ancient Britons that are mowed 
down every midsummer with the meadow hay; 
still human exertion and thought and care 
have been bestowed on them, and it would be 
ungracious to the adventurous explorers of 
distant regions to undervalue their discoveries, 
and we praise and admire, but ofttimes with 
a mental reservation. But in presence of a 
first -rate collection of show flowers, no matter 
whether tulips, carnations, ranunculuses, or 
auriculas, we feel no drawback on our perfect 
admiration; we worship the spirit of beauty 
there most fully made manifest: colour soft or 
brilliant, " by nature's sweet and cunning hand 
laid on," the most classic beauty of form, the 
delicate shades of difference; invisible, unin- 
telligible to the uninitiated, but broad and dis- 
tinct to the keen eye and cultivated taste of 
the amateur. No need of mental reservation 
here; we have nothing to excuse. It is true 
the collector can narrate no " moving ac- 
cidents by flood and field" to excite your 
wonder and to give a factitious value to his 
productions; but there they are, as goodly a 
sight as can well be looked on, and so you 
must confess, unless the frosty breath of utili- 
tarianism has blown upon you, and congealed 
your sympathies with the natural and the 
beautiful. 
I am sure it will not be necessary to set 
forth at great length the many claims that 
Florists' Flowers have on the conductor of a 
work on Horticulture, to be published in Lon- 
don; the means and appliances for their growth 
are cheap and simple, and their culture offers 
a delightful recreation to the man of business 
in his suburban retreat; he is doubtless not 
insensible to the beauty of an "Oncidium," or 
a " Dendrobium," but a " house" is rather 
expensive, and the "patent conical boiler," 
with its pipes and appendages, involves an 
expense which would look quite awful, as 
compared with the cost of the " two-light 
frame" in which he grows his two hundred 
pots of auriculas. 
I may also venture to assert that the finest 
varieties of Florists' Flowers of all kinds are 
to be found in the vicinity of London. I am 
far from undervaluing the spirit of our pro- 
vincial growers, but it is an undeniable fact 
that if anything good is produced in any part 
of the country, it is not long before it may be 
heard of in London. 
Under all these circumstances, I can hardly 
be wrong, I think, in arguing that to a very, 
great number of persons it would be most 
acceptable to see an occasional and rather fre- 
quent notice of Florists' Flowers. — C. C. 
Planting Trees. — When trees or shrubs 
are being planted, their branches should al- 
ways be pretty freely thinned, unless they be 
such as the fir tribe or rhododendrons. This 
gives the roots a better chance of stimulating 
the portion left into free growth. The leading 
shoots should, however, be left for shortening 
in the spring, just before the opening of the 
leaf; when the sap then becoming active, and 
each bud left being equally matured, will 
rapidly distribute its impulse over the whole. 
On ^the other hand, if shortened early in 
winter, the sap, whilst deficient of energy to 
produce any apparent effect, will gradually 
ascend to the ends of the branches, become 
deposited there, and in the spring, being roused 
into quick action, impel the terminating buds 
into rapid growth, which -will rob all below 
them of that stimulating fluid of which they 
themselves have become the greedy consumers. 
— Maund's Botanic Garden. 
Hardy Annuals. — It has often occurred to 
me, that in many instances a much better effect 
might be created and maintained, by a pro- 
perly selected collection of annuals and spring 
bulbs, than could be by either a botanical, or 
indeed by a select collection of hardy herba- 
ceous plants. In saying this, I must not be 
understood to slight such useful genus of 
herbaceous plants as Phloxes, Penstemons, Mi- 
muluses, Antirrhinums, Primulas, &c. These 
are all beautiful and highly useful plants, but 
scarcely so well fitted for ' very poor, stony 
soils" as are the highly showy Chryse'ises, Ne- 
mophillas, Oenotheras, &c. ; or so well for 
heavy soils, as are the Candytufts, Collinsias, 
Clarkias, &c, all hardy annuals. 
Is the object to have masses of colours ? the 
annuals are decidedly the most suitable for 
the purpose. Or is it wished to grow plants 
singly, and as individual specimens ? then 
again annuals will be found well adapted for 
such purpose ; from the neat, humble-spread- 
ing Nemophilla, scarcely three inches high, 
up to the showy conical Schizanthus, three 
feet high and nine feet in circumference ; or 
the robust Lupinus Cruickshankii, five feet 
high. Or is scent and fragrance the object ? 
the Mignonette and Alyssums in the sunshine, 
and Schizopetaton Walkerii and Limnanthus 
Douglassii in the shade, will give all that can 
be wished for that way. In short, if we want 
dwarf plants or tall, trailing plants or climbers, 
slender plants or stout, early flowering plants 
or late, the catalogue of annuals will give us 
what we wish for. It is true, blue colours 
and yellows are somewhat predominant, and 
scarlets and rose somewhat scarce, but not 
more so than is the case with hardy herba- 
ceous plants perhaps. Then any common 
garden soil will suit for the growth of most 
annuals. It is true, Stocks, Asters, Mari- 
