fine spike of bloom, early, and very desira¬ 
ble in all respects. Couranti Fulgens, bril¬ 
liant crimson and good shaped flower; 
Adonis, ro 3 Y salmon; Archimedes, red, cha¬ 
mois and carmine; Daphne, cherry color, 
stained with carmine; Diana, white, flaked 
■with dark red, and Imperatrice, -white, tinted 
with carmine, are all very fine flowers. Don 
Juan, orauge, lower petals yellow tinted, is 
a very fine variety, and I consider it one of 
the best. The spike of bloom is shorter 
than many varieties, but very compact, and 
the flowers large and well opened, and it is 
among the earliest t.o bloom. Pcllonia, rose 
spotted with crimson, is a tall, branching 
variety, flowers large and splendid. John 
Bull, light sulphur; Raphael,Vermillion red, 
shaded with purple; Rebecca, white, varie¬ 
gated with lilac; Triumph d’Engheim, rich, 
flame crimson, are all splendid varieties. 
These notes were mostly taken last sum¬ 
mer, from the middle of August to the first 
of September, when the flowers were in full 
bloom, partly from my own flowers and 
partly from others. Several late varieties did 
not begin to bloom until the middle of Sep¬ 
tember, and were soon after destroyed by 
frost. The Gladiolus is very easily affected 
by diy weather, and many were entirely 
rained last summer. With this exception, 
they are of the easiest culture, and when a 
little extra care is given them, almost always 
give good satisfaction. 
Next to the Gladiolus, the Dahlia is the 
most desirable of the summer and autumn 
flowering bulbs, and is much more common 
in the flower gardens, though not as easy to 
raise, as it should be started with artificial 
heat several weeks before the ground be¬ 
comes warm enough for outdoor planting. 
Those who live near a green-house can obtain 
good growing plants earlier than they can 
obtain them in ant’' other way. Those who 
raise their own tubers, or buy diy ones in 
the spring, and have not the convenience of 
a hot-bed, can plant them in a box in the 
house, from the first of April to the first of 
May in this latitude, or even later. As soon 
as the ground becomes warm enough, not 
generally much before the first of June, they 
may he carefully removed from the box to 
the flower garden. Very choice varieties 
may be planted in a large pot or box, and be 
allowed to remain and grow in it. 
Before the frost kills the tops in autumn, 
three or four inches of dirt,, fine chips or 
other litter, should he heaped around the 
stem to prevent its freezing too low down, 
aud to protect the growing tubers from 
heavy rains and sudden changes, and as 
soon as the top becomes ripe or killed by the 
frost, the stem should be cut at the surface 
of this heap of dirt, and as soon as the 
ground begins to freeze, the tubers should 
be carefully dug and allowed to remain on 
the stem, (not separated from it and from 
each other, as many do,) and preserved 
through the winter in dry sand or moss. I 
think if the sand or moss is kept a very little 
damp the tubers will keep better. 
Anemones and Gladioli may be preserved 
in the same way. They should be looked at 
occasionally to see if they arc keeping well. 
The tubers should not be separated from the 
stem until well started in spring. 
The Dahlia is injured by dry weather 
nearly as easily as the Gladiolus. As to vari¬ 
eties, all the perfectly double, well-formed 
flowers are beautiful, and many of the old 
varieties are too well known to need de¬ 
scription. Many new and splendid varieties 
are introduced every year, and while some 
are improvements, some are no better than 
the older varieties. Mark Antony, moderate 
sized and very doi#»lc flowers, variegated 
red and yellow, pleased me the most of any 
variety I have yet seen. The pure red, white 
two of space between the ends of each, as 
seen in the engraving. 
I endeavored wlieu laying them in, to ele¬ 
vate the largest end of the root just a little; 
although I have doubts of its being any 
practical importance. I have sometimes put 
my root cuttings in upright; same as my 
wood cuttings; only leaving their upper 
ends half an inch or so below the soil, and 
in so doing I have been successful in grow¬ 
ing them; but as nearly all authors direct to 
lay the root cuttings horizontally, I tills time 
pursued that course. After I had set all my 
root cuttings, I served them the same as my 
wood cuttings, viz; put between the rows a 
mulch of two inches deep or so of coarse ox- 
long manure. 
Spring: Bmldinjr. 
Although the policy of spring budding 
may be questioned, when applied to nursery 
practice, yet it often happens that alter the 
period for grafting has passed I find here 
and there a tree, or some vacant, place in 
the form of a tree that I wish had a branch 
growing from it. I have practiced spring 
budding by using the lateral or small branch 
of last year’s growth cut. back to one btul, or 
say about an inch from the main shoot; but 
recently 1 have found budding with a term¬ 
inal bud to succeed more surely, and to give 
me a much stronger growth during the 
season. This mode cannot, of course, be 
employed largely for want of a sufficient 
number of terminal buds; but for the pur¬ 
pose of obtaining one tree of a new kind, 
or creating a branch on a young tree where 
the natural bud has failed or been destroyed, 
I have found this budding with a terminal 
eye quite satisfactory. The practice will be 
to judge. Between the two, we prefer the 
Cynthiana. 
This question of variation will be brought 
to apply in the future to a great many mem¬ 
bers of this family. They have so many 
merits in common, and are so well suited to 
our soil, climate and wine production, that 
they wifi be much inquired after. Langen- 
dorfer’s Seedling, (now Herman,) may be 
thrown off upon the same reasoning. We 
must avoid the evil of cultivating too many 
varieties. 
in that way I should have my labor for my 
pains; for all the plants would rot before 
they could possibly grow sufficiently to allow 
the earth to be drawn to a level. 
The following figure show3 this mode of 
planting as I understand it: 
|bt Vincmtrtr 
IN THE VINEYARD 
Planting Grape Viues. 
I have been gelling ready to plant out 
some more grape vinos, and as the day is 
stormy so that 1 cannot work out of doors, I 
set mo down to write how I propose to do 
the work. I have always found it good 
policy to thoroughly digest my plans of 
work before setting about the manual labor. 
My ground is a singular atrip; it embraces 
about one acre, is long rather than wide, a 
part of it an old pasture, and a part an old 
garden. It lies nearly level, but yet is easily 
surface drained. It was all plowed last fall, 
formed into lauds north and south of just 
eight feet from crown of ridge to crown of 
ridge. That part which was last year in 
pasture has all of It a clayey loam surface 
about six inches deep, and it is underlaid in 
part with clay subsoil from eight, inches to 
three feet before striking a calcareous shale. 
A part has a clayey loam to a depth of over 
two feet before reaching the yellow clay. 
Where the pasture meets the old garden it is 
a gravelly, poor clay, and then immediately 
runs into a sharp, coarse, sandy loam, which 
is underlaid by sand and gravel, or what is 
termed drift formation. It is none of' it uu- 
der-drained, for I can keep surface drains so 
that water can never stand an hour. I do 
not think niulcrdraining at all a necessity— 
in fad, I have serious doubts of its being 
any advantage. 
I am going to keep all my rows at the 
same distance apart, viz: eight feet; lntl as 
I am about to plant many varieties, inasmuch 
as I am growing more for the purpose of 
testing, studying, and comparing varieties, 
and also to fill numbers of little mouths that 
are around me, rather than for market profit, 
I shall give the varieties varied distances 
apart in the rows. Thus I have planned to 
plant Concord, Salem, Rogers 15 and 4, 
on my old garden plat of sandy soil, and 
shall give them ten feet apart ui the row. -My 
Walter, Iona, Mottled, Delaware, Lydia, and 
Rogers 9,1 shall put on that portion of the 
sftd ground having a deep, clay loam sub¬ 
soil, aud propose to put them six feet apart 
in the row. My Mine, Adirondac, lsraella, 
Ives, Rogers 3, Rogers 5, Ac., 1 shall place 
on the next deepest clay loam, aud give 
them eight feet apart in the row. My Hart¬ 
ford, Diana, Clinton, Norton’s Virginia, Ac., 
I shall give my thinnest soil and give them 
ten feet apart in the row. 
So much for my plan for general arrange¬ 
ments of varieties to soils and the distance 
apart. I have no doubt I should get larger 
fruit of Clinton on sandy loam than -where 
1 propose to put them ; for I have some in 
such soil; but they then incline to make 
too much wood, notwithstanding 1 train to 
fruit ou laterals as well as to Jong canes. 
And now for planting. I have been look¬ 
ing over my former year’s work, have been 
reading hack or rather over again the views 
of others, and, after studying all, I Look my 
spade and digging fork and went to an Isa¬ 
bella vine, planted some ten years or more 
since, and which has never shown any dis¬ 
ease, but yearly ripened its fruit regularly 
and evenly. It was in clay soil. 1 dug care¬ 
fully all around it a distance of four feet 
each way from the vine, or eight feet diame¬ 
ter, took out a trench with spade, then with 
my fork T commenced to shake out roots, 
which I found much as here represented. 
A straight line drawn across from the ends 
of the dotted line would show the level of 
the ground ; the dotted line the excavation, 
with the plant having two eyes, and set in 
just deep enough to cover the lower eye or 
hud with soil. The roots are shortened as 
here shown, to about eighteen inches in 
length, and spread out regularly, setting the 
base of the main stem on a little mound or 
rise, not u sharp cone, but a broad mound. 
I have practised this mode as an experi¬ 
ment, and with a disposition to try all ways, 
hut in three successive years I failed of get¬ 
ting as early a growth, nor did my vines 
make up for lost time in the hot months of 
summer, as has been sometimes stated they 
would. 
The next manner of planting, highly re¬ 
commended by good cultivators, I have fol¬ 
lowed with good results. It is to prepare the 
ground where this plant is to stand by finely 
pulverizing it, then excavate a breadth or 
circle sufficiently wide to admit of straight¬ 
ening out the entire roots of the vine without 
cutting away a single inch; make the exca¬ 
vation about six inches deep at the outside 
of the circle, and rising so that the center is 
four inches below the level of the surround¬ 
arirentr 
IN THE GARDEN. 
Mnkinz Canines. 
To-day I have been hard at work making 
and planting cuttings. I don’t think I have 
been doing just what I would advise others 
to do unless they had neglected things as I 
have, but perhaps there are some other slow 
coaches among your readers, and while there 
i 9 a better time to make the cuttings than I 
have taken—viz., in the fall mouths—I some¬ 
times doubt whether there is really any bet¬ 
ter time to plant. I almost always succeed 
in growing my plants, and think I shall do 
so again this year. 
First, I prepared a piece of ground by 
digging it full one foot deep; to make sure 
of this J had to dig twice in the same place, 
it was almost, if not quite, trenching; as I 
dug, I worked a good dressing of well rotted 
manure in among the soil, and 1 tried as 
much as possible to keep it among the top 
or upper four inches of earth, because I 
think there are more of the manurial stimu¬ 
lants washed downwards by rains than es¬ 
cape upward by evaporation; and therefore 
the placing of my manures near the surface, 
and yet not so as to dry and rapidly evapor¬ 
ate whenever wind or sun arc strong iu their 
influence. 
I made cuttings direct from my bushes, 
going among Gooseberries, Currants, Wio- 
gelas, Altheas, Deutzias, Spireas, Upright 
Honeysuckles, Persian Lilacs, Cletheas, Co- 
lutcas, Forsytbias, etc., making my cuttings 
of sound, well-ripened, last year’s wood, 
each cutting about eight inches long, and 
having three to six buds, according to the 
habit of the plant, I cut them off just be¬ 
low the lower bud. I did not take special 
care to rnako it square across, but did take 
care not to cut so as to injure the germ of 
the lower bud; i. e., I neither cut. into it nor 
so near it as to cause it to be affected should 
the weather be rainy or dry; really, I left 
about one-eighth of an inch of wood below 
the lower bud, and I cut a sloping cut about 
one inch above the upper bud. 
I did not cut out the lower buds, as some 
advise, to prevent their sending up shoots in 
after time, because I do not believe in trying 
to make trees out of what are naturally 
bushes. I seek 1 ho practical and natural use 
and beauty of my plants, not a fanciful, me¬ 
chanical mode of instructing nature to meet 
my crude ideas of beauty. 
Having my cuttings made, about which, 
perhaps, I have said too much, I then made 
a trench as near as possible seven inches 
ing ground. This shows this method, the 
straight line being the surface of the earth, 
the dotted line below that of the mound on 
which the plant is placed before filling in the 
earth. This depth for planting I believe a 
good one, but I fail to find any gain ft-om 
leaving so much root; and as it increases the 
labor and expense of planting fully one half, 
1 think 1 shall follow out my okl plan, viz:— 
With my knife I cut away every small fiber 
or thread-like root, and all that are as large 
around as one of Faber’s lead pencils, 1 
shorten back to sixteen or eighteen inches, 
then prepare my holes, with the mound iu 
center, and plant just as when the roots are 
of full length. 
I never use any water or muck for dip¬ 
ping ray roots -when setting, but I keep them 
well wrapped in a wet cloth, from which I 
take out one at a time, as wanted for plant¬ 
ing:. Frank Amon. 
easily understood from the figures accom¬ 
panying, which represent the stock, in 
which an incision is made in the form of 
a T ; 2 represents the bud prepared by par¬ 
ing down the wood on one side, which side 
is that here exposed to view; 3 shows the 
bud put in its place, and 4 the work finished 
by tying the bud in its place with coarse 
woolen yarn, or some other soft, pliable 
string. Frank Amon. 
nricultnrt 
NOTES ON FLOWERING PLANTS. 
Summer Flowering Bulbs. 
The summer flowering bulbs are a very 
brilliant and beautiful class of flowers, and 
in comparison to many varieties of annuals, 
require but little care to produce fine flowers. 
The Anemone is the earliest. This is gen¬ 
erally considered and is described in the cata¬ 
logues as a hardy bulb, or more properly 
tuber, to be planted iu autumn with the 
tulips, hyacinths, Ac. But I have had the 
best success with these delicate and beautiful 
flowers when the tubers were'left in a dry 
place tlirough the winter, and planted in the 
spring in a mixture of leaf soil aud sand. In 
this latitude, from the middle of April to the 
first of May, is, I think, about the right time 
to plant the tubers. 
The Anemone is a very curious aud beau¬ 
tiful flower. The tuber, which, at planting, 
seems to contain about as much life as a dry 
stick, swells rapidly in moist soil, and soon 
a single deep green leaf appears above the 
ground. In a few days another leaf appears, 
and after several have made their appear¬ 
ance, the large, green bud arises from the 
ground, in the midst of the leaves, iu a very 
curious manner, aud soon unfolds its truly 
splendid flowers. 
The Anemone is rather difficult to raise, 
which is one reason why it is not oftener 
seen in the flower garden. When planted 
in the autumn, the tubers are liable to mold 
or decay, aud when kept till spring, the 
ground often is not in a fit condition to re¬ 
ceive them as early as they should be plant¬ 
ed. But the great beauty of the flowers 
makes them well worthy of a trial, their 
cheapness places them within the reach of 
all, and, as Mr. Vick truly says in his Cata¬ 
logue, “ those who succeed will he de¬ 
lighted.” No bulbous flower ever gave me 
as much satisfaction as my first Anemone. 
The Gladiolus is a very showy and beauti¬ 
ful flower, not, in my opinion, equal to the 
Anemone in delicacy and beauty, but of 
easier culture. The bulbs should be planted 
in rich, warm soil, about the time of year 
that the ground becomes warm enough to 
plant corn. The ground should be fre¬ 
quently stirred and the plants thoroughly 
watered in dry weather, or they may become 
injured or spoiled. The colors are very 
GRAPE SYNONYMS 
report of a committee of the Mississippi 
Valley Grape Growers Association, to wit: 
“ The committee think that unless there is 
a strongly marked difference, varieties should 
not be multiplied,” the Rural World indorses 
it, and, referring to the alleged identity of 
Norton’s Virginia and the Cynthiana, says : 
In regard to the historical part of the 
question, we find that a close examination 
of the Norton’s Virginia tends to establish a 
distinct botanical group, Yitis virginica , at 
the head of which the Norton stands. In¬ 
formation from private sources as well as 
published accounts, shows that this variety is 
found over an extensive range, embracing 
Arkansas, Texas, and Kansas. It has been 
claimed that it is found in Virginia and some 
other Southeastern States. 
Some confusion at first existed as to the 
identity of the Arkansas, Red River, and 
Cynthiana: they arc now generally conced¬ 
ed to be the same. Where a family extends 
over such an extended area as this Yith vir- 
ginka, numerous variations may be expected 
to appear, and it will perhaps he safest to 
apply, with the utmost rigor, the rule of the 
committee on synonyms — “ that unless there 
is a strongly marked difference, varieties 
should not be multiplied.” 
As to the test of facts, whether the Cyn- 
thiaua is identical with the Norton, we say, 
that in 1859 we planted out five Cynthiana 
vines from wood obtained from Mr. Husman. 
They were so much like the Norton, in every 
respect, that they were regarded as identical, 
aucl treated as such till they fruited. The 
fruit was found to be juicier; the juice more 
limpid, and sweeter Hum that, of the Norton. 
We have taken excellent judges of grapes 
through the vineyard, aud given them the 
fruit from the Norton row of trellis; then, 
directly opposite, eight feet apart, from the 
Cynthiana; aud they at* once, without any 
previous hint, remarked the superiority of 
the Cynthiana. The Saccharometrical test 
shows a similar difference in the weight of 
must. How l'ar this difference is sufficient to 
maintain a distinction, is for each individual 
deep, on a straight, line, east and west, and 
having the firm bank of my trench sloping 
at an angle of about forty to forty-five de¬ 
grees toward the South. I then set my cut-- 
tings, one in every six inches, filling a little, 
say two inches of dirt at. the base, with my 
hand, and then trod it firm with my foot. I 
then drew in two inches more of earth and 
again trod firm, and then I drew in the bal¬ 
ance of the soil, leaving it loose and just 
even with the base of the last or upper bud 
of the cutting. My next row was made in 
the same way as the last, and just One foot 
from it. After all were planted, I spread in 
between the rows about two inches of long 
straw manure, as a mulch, to keep the mois¬ 
ture and condition of temperature of the 
soil around the inserted cuttings, as near as 
possible, at an even point. This is the way 
1 have made my wood cuttings, and now 
come my 
Root Cuttings, 
which I took from my Blackberries, Rasp¬ 
berries, Japan Quince, Sweet Scented Shrub, 
Strawberry or Burning Bush, aud other 
plants that naturally throw up suckers. I 
dug away from the main plant at a distance 
of one foot or so, found a root of the size of 
an ordinary lead pencil, which I took and 
cut into pieces of about three or four inches 
Of course the length of roots is not here 
shown, for some I broke off in digging; but 
there was no direct tap-root of any size, and 
altogether the larger portion of the roots 
were within ten inches of the surface. Small 
roots, as large as a goose quill, it is true, 
were apparently down below. Some of 
them pulled up in lifting the vine, others 
broke off, but there was not a large or main 
root so situated. 
It may not be that this is any guide show¬ 
ing the general habit of roots of the vine, 
when grown in vineyards of clay soils and 
yearly pruned; but for the preseut I think I 
will so consider it, aud when T plant, avoid, 
as I hare generally heretofore, setting my 
roots too deep. Most writers on the grape 
tell us that the roots must be planted deep, 
at least, they must have ten inches of soil 
over and above the upper root of the plant; 
aud they tell us that if the plants are too 
small for such purpose, then wo must exca¬ 
vate a basin, set the plant, and as it grows, 
fill up arouud the stem. In my soil, if the 
spring proved a rainy one, were I to plant 
Flora of Central Illinois. — Mrs. EdW. N. 
Greene, in American Nuturalist, notes the fact 
that iu this region there are only two representa¬ 
tives of Rannnoulacie— Anemone Peunsylva- 
uica and Anemone CyJiudriea. Only one Violet 
— Viola cucculata, the common dog 1 violet; not 
a single representative of the largo American 
order of Ericaoea*; but three Orchids. The Aster 
family, however, are very much at home. 
long. I then made a trench, in line, of about 
an inch deep, and into this I laid my pieces 
of roots, so that there was about an inch or 
