78 
THE FLORIST AND P0M0L0GI8T. 
and the plants are not so long in the baskets before flowering. In that case, 
of course, watering and proper culture would begin with the basketing. 
Probably a temperature of from 60° to 70° suits the Acliimenes best; 
but they will grow well in 10° less. I have invariably placed in}' baskets 
in a vinery at about 70°. When fairly in flower they are removed for 
a week or so to a lower temperature, and are finally suspended in a cool 
conservatory and a corridor of the same temperature. By putting in three 
or four lots every month, from the 1st of January to the 1st of April, they 
may be had in great beauty from June to the end of October, or indeed 
through most of the winter if the last batch is suspended in the stove. 
They certainly do not like flowering in a temperature under 45 Q ; neither 
should they be hung too close to the glass ; from 2 to 8 feet from it is quite 
near enough. If they can be shaded for, say three hours, from the direct 
heat of the sun in the middle of the day, their leaves would have a greener 
tint, and their blooms last longer. 
' To appreciate the full beauty of Achimenes in baskets, it is necessary to 
see them spheres of lilac, scarlet, pink, or white, a yard in diameter; nay 
thus must we relieve and break up the dull uniformity of our sky or roof 
views by their surpassing beauty. Some baskets of A. longiflora and 
Ambroise Verscliaffelt, that I have seen can never be forgotten. The very 
form of the flower is endowed with new charms, when it thus reaches down 
to us, and there is no other position so well adapted for exhibiting its pecu¬ 
liar beauty. I ought to add that as the plants strengthen, and the baskets 
get full of roots, they require daily watering in bright weather, and will 
repay the grower for a small dust of guano or superphosphate of lime in 
their drink. 
|! The weaker-growing sorts are the best for baskets. The whole of 
the varieties of A. longiflora are admirable; A. coccinea with all its 
rose-coloured relations, such as Meteor, Parsonsii, rosea elegans, magni- 
ficaus, are also good; and so are the following—Edmund Bossier, Marga- 
ritse, Dazzle, carminata splendens, Sir Trelierne Thomas, Mauve Perfec¬ 
tion, Carl Woolfartli, Hendersonii, and an old variety that I have long 
known under the name of patens. In one word, all those old or new sorts 
that require most propping up in pots, are just those that do best in baskets. 
The old grandiflora, Chirita, gigantea and picta are types of the upright 
varieties that do best in pots. Both classes are useful, but to those who 
have'only room for one mode of culture, I confidently recommend the semi- 
prostrate sorts, that delight to hang from suspended baskets, as a constant 
source of amusement and satisfying pleasure. 
Hardwicke House, Bury St. Edmunds. D. T. Fish. 
THE DAISY. 
• This very humble evergreen herbaceous plant, the Beilis perennis of 
botanists (from bellus, pretty), was the delight of my boyhood, for I cul¬ 
tivated the Daisy for an edging, when my father allotted me a patch of 
ground about 12 feet by 0, for floriculture. As I advanced in years I found 
to my cost that this friend of my youth was a troublesome lawn weed, and 
that it had been rightly named perennial, for it proved remarkably tenacious 
of life. Every gardener has been tormented with its fine healthy appear¬ 
ance, in full bloom all over the lawn in little more than a day after mowing ; 
