APRIL. 
113 
half equal portions of sandy peat and well decomposed leaf-mould, form 
a compost suitable for their growth. When potted they are protected 
in frames or pits until severe weather comes on, when those of the 
persicum section require to be housed for the winter, and those of the 
coum section to be plunged in ashes or dry tan within the cradle-bed or 
frame. The Persian varieties are adapted for blooming throughout the 
early winter months by being repotted at an earlier period, and after the 
root-growth is formed in autumn, the varieties in either section may be 
stimulated to bloom successively by the gentle heat of a greenhouse or 
early forcing-pit. Amongst the most desirable varieties for early and 
successive bloom are C. persicum and its varieties album, rubrum, and 
roseum; and C. africanum. Of the coum section, the most elegant 
are C. Atkinsi,v C. Atkinsi roseum, C. ibericum, C. ibericum album, 
C. coum, C. coum carneum, and C. vernum. The hardy autumn¬ 
flowering kinds are C. neapolitanum and neapolitanum album, whilst 
C. europseum is also a late summer-blooming species with richly 
fragrant blossoms. 
ON LIME AS A SOIL IMPROVER. 
Old gardens are frequently unproductive through being manured year 
after year with the same kind of manure and growing the same crops. 
In such cases, the vegetables are rank in growth and ill flavoured. 
Potatoes and other roots watery and liable to disease, and Peas and 
Beans unproductive, and Cauliflowers and Cabbages subject to club 
disease. When such is the case, use no manure for a couple of years. 
The first spare ground you get trench it two spits deep, if the ground 
will allow of it, and thoroughly mix with the earth, as you turn it over, 
a good dressing of fresh slaked lime, the fresher the better. My plan 
is, when the top spit is thrown to the bottom of the trench, to throw 
over the hot lime and to fork it in, and to repeat the dose of lime over 
the lower spit thrown to the surface. Employed in this way, lime acts 
as a complete renovator of old and over-manured soils, as the produce 
afterwards will show. The second year I repeat the lime dressing 
fabout half the quantity of the first year), forking it in instead of 
digging the ground, as % that means the lime becomes more com¬ 
pletely mixed with the soil. I add also to the lime a surfacing of road 
scrapings if the ground is heavy or inclined to be so. By these 
means, giving up manure for two years, I have succeeded in bringing 
an old garden soil, which would positively grow nothing well, into a 
first-class soil, producing good crops and of the best quality. 
R. M. 
GOMPHOLOBIUM POLYMORPHUM GRANDIFLORUM. 
Although this is one of the most beautiful of greenhouse climbers, 
and a plant which, when properly managed, remains in beauty longer 
than most things, and is equally valuable for exhibition or decorative 
purposes, yet it is,rarely seen in anything like perfection. The 
VOL. XV., NO. CLX. I 
