178 
PARNASSIA ASAREFOLIA. 
Wished. In this pan they may grow until they 
have not room enough, giving them warmth 
no longer than establishes the roots, and then 
moving them into the green-house; keeping 
them, however, protected with the glass and 
shade, as before. When they require repot- 
ting, it is still better to get other pans or large 
pots, and increase the distance apart, for the 
larger the body of mould they are in, the 
better. In the case of Americans and hardy 
things, they may be bedded out in a place 
composed of peat and loam, such as Rhodo- 
dendrons and Azalias are grown in, the first 
June after they are large enough, and there 
shaded from the heat of the sun daily; while 
the Eriostemon, or any other green-house 
plants, may be potted into those of forty-eight to 
the cast. The after management, however, is 
not so much the object of this paper, as the 
germination of the seed. We have known 
sowing after sowing to fail, in the hands of 
some of our best cultivators, but on trying 
the moss and heat, they have succeeded com- 
pletely. When once the seeds have fairly 
begun to grow, it does not matter how soon 
the heat is reduced a little; for both the plants 
we have mentioned, and all Botany Bay plants, 
Ericas, Epacris, and Americans, are impatient 
of warmth ; and an hour or two neglected, 
would perhaps kill them all ; still moisture 
prevents generally any rapid dissolution. It 
must also be remembered that an hour or 
two's hot sun would clear off and dry up the 
whole batch, in its young state. On this 
account, as soon after the pricking out as they 
are fairly established, and begin to grow, you 
may begin to lessen the heat; first by putting 
them in the coolest part of the stove, and 
next by removing them to the warmest part 
of the green-house, after which to the coolest. 
PARNASSIA ASAREFOLIA. 
ASARUM-LEAVED PARNASSIA. 
This plant is often quoted as one of the 
numerous botanical curiosities which engage 
the attention of naturalists. The flower is 
one of those unconspicuous colours, if colour 
it can be called, which is a struggle between 
a white and a green, and perhaps the green 
has the best of it ; for independently of the 
greenish cast over the whole flower, there are 
distinct green stripes all over it. The leaves 
are heart-shaped, and without stalks, folding, 
as it were, round the base of the flower-stem. 
In some of the species there is a leaf rises 
with the flower-stem, and grows midway, as if 
it had been drawn up the stalk from the base. 
With the botanical beauties of plants we have 
little to do, or we might quote a long descrip- 
tion of one of the species from the Ladies' 
Botany, where the plant is treated of at 
some length on account of the singularity of 
its glands. Maund thinks this plant is 
well adapted for cultivation in the Wardian 
cases ; and Dr. Lindley, mentioning one of 
these varieties, says it may be grown in 
wet bog-moss, covered with a bell-glass, and 
exposed to the light. It is a neat com- 
pact looking subject, but not by any means so 
much a garden beauty as a curiosity. It should 
be planted in the shade. It requires a peat 
bed, and it propagates by dividing the roots. 
HINTS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF 
FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 
THE HYACINTH. 
The raising of seedling Hyacinths chiefly 
occupies the Dutch, and all they seem to care 
about is novelty and size of flowers ; they 
neither prize the best nor save the best, so 
that for years we have had no improvement in 
the general character of the flower. I mention 
this in confirmation of the general assertion 
that floriculture was impeded by the wholesale 
manner of saving seeds from general collections. 
Now we are so close upon the blooming season 
of Hyacinths, that I would recommend a visit 
to the nearest nursery at which the flower is 
grown, with this work (page 88) in your hand, 
containing the proper form for a Hyacinth; not 
that you will find any there so perfect, or that 
I would hold out hopes of ever producing one 
so perfect ; but then pick out the nearest you 
can find to the standard you have in the book. 
Find the nearest white, pink, red, light blue, 
dark blue, and yellow or straw-colour. It is 
necessary you should go where there is a pretty 
good variety, and pay some attention to the 
form of the single pip, rather than the form 
of the truss ; there being many very closely 
blooming varieties which will not bear nice 
examination, the individual flowers being so 
excessively ragged as to hardly bear separat- 
