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108 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. rebmary 8, isss. 
iii" season start the plants into growth in January, 
maintaining a temperature of 50° to 55° artificially 
after the growth is fairly started, and above which 
ventilate freely, keeping through the day at G0° 
to 65° from sun heat. As the season advances the 
temperature through the day should he kept at 70° to 
75°. Supply tepid liquid manure, and damp the plants 
on fine afternoons with tepid water from a fine-rose 
watering pot. Early in July the lights may be re¬ 
moved and the growth will ripen early. The following 
season they will he fit for forcing, which may be com¬ 
menced shortly after the foliage has died. If the bed 
is at all dry give a thorough soaking with tepid liquid 
manure, and keep the temperature for the first fortnight 
at 50° to 55°, and afterwards at G0° to G5°. Flowers 
will expand in about six weeks. The plants must not be 
neglected after flowering, but have the treatment con¬ 
tinued as in former years, and they will be available 
for forcing again A bed will continue yielding flowers 
for a month, so that the succession may he maintained 
by starting beds at intervals, those in cold pits pre¬ 
ceding those in the open by fourteen to twenty-one days. 
Similar results may he secured by plants in pots that 
have been forced, hut they must be grown in a light 
position, and be well supplied with liquid manure during 
growth, and be properly hardened off before placing 
them outdoors after midsummer. Such plants can be 
readily forced at an early season and do not require 
bottom heat. 
The above method of forcing entails considerable 
labour, but, all things considered, it is the most econo¬ 
mical in the end. Under ordinary circumstances the 
crowns once early forced are not again available. For 
an early supply a bed may be made of dung and 
leaves in a heated pit, and when this has settled tread 
it firm, so that the surface is a foot from the glass. 
Put on 3 inches of light rich moist soil, and insert the 
crowns in rows 2 inches apart and an inch asunder in 
the rows, firming it about the roots, and having the 
top of the crowns level with the surface. Make sure 
that the heat at the surface does not exceed 90°, and is 
not less than 75° at the commencement. Cover the 
crowns with an inch depth of cocoa-nut fibre refuse or 
other light material. If there he any deficiency of 
moisture in the soil water must he given in a tepid 
state before covering the crowns. Place a single thick¬ 
ness of mats on the lights, nailing it down to prevent 
displacement by wind,’but to the framework of the 
light only, so as not to necessitate the removal of the 
mat when the light is to be drawn off. The top heat 
should be maintained at 60° to 65°. In a month 
flowers can be gathered, and they will keep good for 
about three weeks in a temperature of 50°. Clumps may 
be forced in a similar manner, but they and the single 
crowns will come without the foliage if started before 
the new year ; therefore, if foliage be needed, non-flower¬ 
ing crowns should be inserted at the same time as the 
others, but need not be covered with mats, or the leaves 
will be yellow. No ventilation is given, for the sun 
is not powerful enough to affect them, and the flowers 
lose nothing in delicacy and fragrance. In February 
and onwards it is advisable, as the plants produce 
foliage along with the flowers, to grow them in the 
light, a temperature of G0° to G5° artificially and 5° 
to 10° rise from sun heat being suitable. 
If forcing is not commenced before January bottom 
heat is not necessary for clumps; yet they must not 
be brought forward too rapidly, or they will come up 
without the foliage, and if placed in too much heat will 
not start into growth at all. They never ought to be 
allowed to become dry when at rest. For single crowns 
bottom heat is essential, yet less is needed than in 
autumn and early winter. At no time ought it to be 
less than 70° to 75°. They can be readily forced in a 
frame over a bed of fermenting materials, the requisite 
heat being maintained by linings, or in fact in any 
warm structure where there is command of bottom 
heat, covering them so as to insure the spikes being 
drawn to a good length. Handsome specimens may be 
had for the sitting-room by placing single crowns in 
pots an inch apart in light soil, plunging in a hotbed 
and inverting pots of larger size over ihem, so as to 
elongate the stems or spikes, and when of sufficient 
length gradually inure them to light. 
The Lily of the Valley season may commence in 
November or even earlier, and close with early June, 
growing some plants on a north border with a view to 
have them as late as possible.—-G. Abbey. 
HOME CULTURE OF ORANGES FOR DESSERT. 
The late Mr. Thomas Rivers of Sawbridgeworth was very 
sanguine that the culture of Oranges would spread to large 
dimensions in England, and that we would he able some day 
to walk under the shade of Orange groves, enjoying the sweet 
perfume of the flowers and the delicious flavour of the fruits 
far richer than the best to be obtained from “ the Clime of the 
East, the Land of the Sun.” Many wealthy owners of gardens 
might do worse than form an Orange grove in their garden, 
and many that are not wealthy might enjoy the pleasure of 
eating their own home-grown Oranges. Mr. Rivers in his 
excellent book, “ The Orchard House,” states how they may be 
grown, and he shows us also practical examples of trees heavily 
laden with their golden fruit. We have several trees now of 
the St. Michael’s variety and the Maltese Blood, the branches 
of which are bending with the weight of the ripening fruit. 
The trees fill odd corners either in Pine house, Cucumber 
house, or vinery ; they require a high temperature when the 
fruit is ripening, and the trees like a good compost of sub¬ 
stantial loam well enriched with decayed manure and crushed 
bones. The peaty-looking stuff in which the continental trees 
are potted is no use for growing good dessert fruit. Keeping 
the trees quite clean is absolutely necessary to insure success. 
—J. Douglas. 
[An Orange tree laden with “ golden fruit ” exhibited by 
Mr. Douglas at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society a 
few years ago was one of the best examples of culture we have 
ever seen, and suggested that home-grown Oranges might be 
produced in many gardens where there are heated structures 
and sui able “odd corners” for standing the trees.] 
ORNAMENTAL GRASSES AND EVERLASTING 
FLOWERS. 
Dried Grasses and flowers are so extensively employed for 
room-decoration, more especially during the winter months, 
that it may be interesting to those who are unacquainted with 
them, and who are desirous of cultivating them, to enumerate 
some of the most desirable kinds. The varieties to which 
attention is directed have the merit of being easily grown by 
everyone who possesses a garden, and do not require the aid of 
any special process in drying, but simply to be gathered, and 
when dry placed on one side until they are required for use. 
What are known as ornamental Grasses comprise a consider¬ 
able number of beautiful varieties remarkable for their con¬ 
spicuous silvery flower plumes, their flossy inflorescence, or 
the graceful appearance of their exquisite structure. So varied 
in their forms are these that they admit of being arranged in 
very elegant bouquets, or when tastefully disposed in vases with 
