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THE FLORIST. 
NOTES ON THE MONTH. 
The past month has been remarkable for the quantity of rain fallen, 
which in this neighbourhood has been very great, and sufficient to 
suspend operations on heavy ground, A few days were warm enough 
for a much more advanced period, as on the 30th and 31st of March, 
when we had heavy peals of thunder, with close warm air. The 
electric state of the atmosphere was followed by heavy storms of rain, 
hail, and snow, with sharp frosts on several occasions, which have con¬ 
tinued more or less up to the 18th, from whence to the 21st the weather 
has been drier and more sunny, attended with a rising barometer. 
The general summary may be described as wet and cold, with very 
little sun for the season, and the prevailing winds west, north-west, 
and south. Vegetation has not, therefore, advanced so rapidly as we 
anticipated last month; still the Grass lands, owing to the absence of 
the dry easterly winds of March, are more than usually forward, and 
both autumn and spring corn have been benefited by the rains, 
excepting on cold heavy soils, where the yellow appearance of the crops 
betokens that dryness and warmth would have suited them better. 
Our information as to the prospects of orchard fruits is conflicting; 
the general scarcity of the crops of Apples, Pears, and Plums last year 
would lead to the conclusion that the crops this year will be heavy; 
but we must bear in mind that the crops of those fruits (Apples par¬ 
ticularly) were not only destroyed by the frosts, but suffered by the sub¬ 
sequent attacks of the moth-caterpillars (species of Geometrse and 
Noctua), which not only destroyed the young fruit but devoured the 
entire leaves also, and so completely denuded some orchards that hardly 
one entire leaf could be seen in June. The subsequent growth, we 
fear, ripened imperfectly, owing to the wet autumn, and therefore we 
cannot expect the wood and fruit-buds of trees thus visited to produce 
bloom. Garden wall-fruit trees, as Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots, 
appear to have set an average crop of fruit; and Cherries, Plums, and 
Pears promise well. In some gardens Plums were visited by myriads 
of aphis, afterwards by mildew, and where such was the case the bloom 
appears thin. 
The rain and cloudy weather will have benefited newly planted trees. 
Evergreens may yet be planted, and we are not sure we do not prefer 
the middle of May to any other season for transplanting Evergreen 
Oaks (Ilex), Hollies, and some Conifers, as Red Cedars and Junipers. 
There is no fear of the result, if you only take them just before the 
new growth commences. G. F. 
BIGNONIA VENUSTA. 
The species of Bignonia are all beautiful, either in the shape of shrubs 
or climbers, and greatly improve our stoves and greenhouses. The 
well known B. radicans and its varieties are quite hardy, and will stand 
our southern winters trained against a south or west wall; but in the 
north they require some protection, or I fear but few orange-coloured 
