HARDY CONIFERJE. 
tinue the syringing; every morning when cireunistances are favourable, as they ai-e particularly fond of 
a shower bath. After they become pot-boimd, which will be the case some time in June, water regu- 
lai'ly with soot-water, which gives them a very healtliy dark-green colour ; this soot-water is made by 
jjutting three pecks of soot to eighteen gallons of water, which will be quite strong enough ; stir it 
well up together, and after it has settled sldm off the top, and it is then fit for use. Continue water- 
ing with this soot-water irntU they show signs of flowering. "V^Hien the flower-buds appeal' they may 
either be kept back or hastened — the latter by placing them into the stove, for they do not di-aw up 
after they have reached this stage of their development, and wUl bear a very liigh temperatm'e if 
freely watered and sjTinged. Where there is, say, a dozen plants, it is advisable to push on some 
of them in the stove ; and to keep the others iu a cool, shady place, so as to make a succession. 
After they have done flowering, tm'n them out of doors and expose them fully to the smi, that they 
may ripen well. In ease of hea^'y rains, the pots should be tm'ned on to their sides so as to keep the 
bulbs somewhat dry, and, to the same end, diminish the watering gradually, untd they become quite dry. 
Then cut off the stems, and store the pots away in some dry place out of doors, until the nest season. 
In the following Febniary, they may be turned out of the pots, the finest bulbs selected for pot 
cultivation, and the rest planted out in a prepared reserve bed of soil in the garden. The sod of this 
bed should be about eighteen inches deep, and rather sandy. Some of these bulbs, after a yeai''s 
growth, will be strong enough to transplant for flowering mto a bed in the flower garden, when they 
will prove, for late flowering, one of the most attractive of groups. The soil of the bed should be 
prepai'ed for them after proper drainage is secured. A similar compost to that recommended for pot 
culture may be used, and plenty of rough material should be mixed thi'ough the mass. The bulbs 
should be taken up every season, for the purpose of remo'sung the offsets ; when they may be planted 
again, and the stock put into the nursery beds untU they become flowering bulbs. By following these 
rules, a sufiBcient quantity of flowering bulbs may be obtained in three years, to have a bed of each 
sort. The best time for planting is the end of February or early in March ; but it must be before the 
bulbs show signs of growth. In arranging a mixed bed, the strongest bulbs of the varieties spe- 
ciosnm and punctatum should occupy the centre ; then the strongest of the variety album ; next the 
second size speciosum and punctatum, and then the smaller bulbs of album, which is the dwarfest 
grower. 
HARDY CONIFERS. 
By Mr. W. P. KEANE, Al'thok of " The Beauties op Surrey," &c. 
KftllERE is nothing more pleasing to a benevolent mind than to observe, amid all the bustle and 
H competition of tliis age of excitement, the daily increasing taste for the beautiful Coniferoe, diffusing 
itself over the length and breadth of the land. In no other manner, to my apprehension, is the 
disinterestedness and the noble-mindedness of man so finely developed, as in planting for posterity. 
How barren and di-eary is a country without trees. "WTiat scene so beautiful as the landscape adorned 
with the tall, stately, and conical forms of some trees, the gracefully drooping branches of others, and 
the ever-changing and beautiful features that each revolving season gives to all. When we now admire 
the landscape scenery of the country, adorned as it is principally by the natives of the sod — fine 
fellows, too, the brave old Oak, Elm, Beech, and many others — we cannot help picturing to our minds 
how great the change wiU be, and how enriched the embellishment pi'odueed over the whole face of 
the countiy, when the fine and noble race of Coniferas, having arrived at the perfect state of matm-ity, 
shall contribute an oriental grandeur to the scene. Posterity cannot be too grateful to the many 
gentlemen — phUanthi'opists in the true sense of the word, who have planted, or are preparing to 
plant, the hardy denizens of other climes, to give splendour' and beauty to the pleasure-grounds and 
parks, to the hills and valleys of theii- own estates. 
The accounts given by travellers of the rich luxm-iance of the large and handsome trees of foi-eign and 
distant climes are interesting and instructive. They are also useful, as it has been generally in conse- 
quence of such accounts that collectors have been appointed to different parts of the world to send home 
seeds or plants of all that would be useful or ornamental in this country. It is pleasant to picture to one's 
self the marked change that the whole face of the comitiy shall undergo, when the noble and magestic 
Araucaria imbricata, the graceful Deodar Cedar, the beautiful Abies Douglasii and Pinus insignis, 
P. montioola, and many other majestic Coniferte of varied and vivid greens, shall be luxiuiating with 
us in all the natural beauty of then- native dress. 
Nearly aU the Coniferas are valuable for timber, or for ornament, and generally for both. The 
Thujas, Cypresses, and Jimipers, are particularly interesting in their habits of growth, and are suitable 
