258 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
Mixed with the scarlet G-ladioliis the beds have been very gay, and considering 
there were five very frosty nights in August, with two other nights the ther¬ 
mometer fell to 37°, without any apparent injury to the Canna foliage, it may be 
reckoned a tolerably hardy plant. 
Dracaena terminalis under the same treatment, but plunged in pots, kept its 
colour and made several new leaves, but the leaves are liable to bum from bright 
sun when wet. 
Coleus Verschaffelti has grown and been a very fine colour, but is not a very 
satisfactory plant so far north as we are. 
Farfugium grande and Perilla nankinensis is a very good mixed edging to the 
large-leaved free-growing Arums, which are also very telling plants for flower- 
garden purposes. 
Cannabis gigantea is very handsome, but grows too lanky, and requires great 
quantities of water—in fact, one of the secrets of success with the above class of 
plants is to give abundance of water, especially in such an unusually dry summer 
as the past. 
Some of the large-growing Thistles are very fine, look weedy when in flower, 
and are more adapted for a wilderness than in a high-kept flower garden. 
Tritoma uvaria and Pampas Grass work in well in the background, but do 
not blend well with large-leaved plants. 
Teddesley Gardens , Stafford . James Taplin. 
THE HYACINTH. 
The season has now arrived when cultivators must give immediate atten¬ 
tion to the planting of Hyacinth roots; and as we know of no information on 
the subject so valuable as that furnished by Mr. William Paul in his lecture 
on the Hyacinth delivered before the Royal Horticultural Society, we have 
pleasure in introducing here the instruction of so experienced and successful a 
cultivator. 
“ The subject seems to fall naturally under two heads—out-of-door and in-door 
culture. When grown out of doors, the bulbs should be put in the ground late 
in October or early in November. The crown of the bulb should be placed 
4 inches below the surface of the soil, and 2 or 3 inches of litter or manure should 
be strewed thereon as a protection against frost. The litter may be removed early 
in spring, so soon as the leaves have pushed fairly through the earth. It may be 
placed on again at night during frosty weather. A sandy loam is the soil in which 
these bulbs seen* to grow and flower best, and if such is not the natural soil of 
the spot they are intended to occupy and adorn, it is well worth while to provide 
such as an artificial soil. If during the season of flowering a slight shading be 
provided, the quality and durability of the flowers will be increased. Hyacinths 
out of doors seldom require water, as the soil is sufficiently moist in their season 
of growth and flowering. When the flowering is over, and the leaves show signs 
of decay, the bulbs may be taken up and laid by for a fortnight, embedded in the 
surface soil, after which time they may be gathered up, deprived of their roots 
and leaves, and placed away in a cool dry shed or storehouse. This, as we have 
before said, may, from varying circumstances, be desirable, but is not absolutely 
necessary. 
“ The in-door culture of the Hyacinth in pots, rustic baskets, bowls, and glasses, 
is largely carried out in this country. Indeed, our conservatories and halls would 
be shorn of their brightest and sweetest floral embellishments in winter and early 
spring were the Hyacinth and Tulip withheld. Hyacinths potted in September 
may be brought into good condition of bloom before Christmas ; and by the pot¬ 
ting fresh bulbs at intervals of a fortnight till the end of the year, a succession of 
flowers may be obtained till the middle or end of April, when other flowers will 
be bursting upon us from every nook and cranny of the well-stored plant-house. 
The best soil for Hyacinths in pots is also sandy loam, enriched by the usual cool 
and solid fertilisers.^ Of these, decayed cowdung is excellent. Guano I have 
heard recommended under this head, and I am not sure that I have not in former 
