40 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[March, 
greenhouses two or three years old, the 
normal condition of the plant is annual, and 
by no means very hardy, though this might be 
disputed, as during the long summer days we 
see it growing freely in situations by no means 
sheltered. 
I once had a neighbour, a gardener, who had 
a Vine border with which he did Dot feel satis¬ 
fied, and he wheeled it out and -wheeled 
another into its place, but made of very dif¬ 
ferent materials, for being in the heart of 
Cheshire and where maiden loam abounds, 
he made the staple of his border of grassy 
turves, perhaps 200 years old. When it was 
finished, he sprinkled the surface with a few 
seeds of Mignonette, which grew and devel¬ 
oped until it hid the earth of the border. 
There was no coddling here, for the plants 
tillered like wdieat, each one covered nearly 
a yard square, and the odour was perceptible 
long before you saw the Mignonette that 
bloomed so finely on the outside of the 
border. 
A few years after I had to plant a very 
steep bank with Roses, and it was needful to 
put in large stones to keep the bank from 
slipping down. When this was done, the 
stony surface of the bank was not agreeable 
to the eye, so I grouted the joints of the 
stones with clay and cow dung, and sowed it 
with Mignonette, and whether it was the 
Southern aspect that warmed it, or the new 
maiden loam that fed it, I know not, but its 
odour affected the air for nearly half a mile, 
this being no doubt assisted by the experi¬ 
ment being carried out on a high terrace but 
well sheltered from the north. 
Whatever this plant may endure from 
dryness, it must not be soaked in wet, and 
if soil has been used for other plants it will 
not grow Mignonette worth owning. Maiden 
loam, shelter, ample space between the plants, 
hanging up the watering-can for these, are 
all symptoms of better days dawning upon us, 
not only for tender annuals, but for the 
supplies of more important subjects.—A. 
Forsyth, Salford. 
The Ghent Quinquennial Horticultural 
Exhibition is fixed to open on April 15 , and close 
on April 22. The programme is very comprehensive, 
the plant classes of the prize schedule being 268 in 
number, while 23 classes are devoted to the depart¬ 
ment of objects of art and industry connected with 
gardening. 
SOLOMON’S SEAL AS A FORCING 
PLANT. 
ERMIT me to bring under the notice of 
those of your readers who may not 
hitherto be acquainted with it, the 
merits of the Solomon’s Seal (ConvaU 
laria multiflora ) for forcing purposes. It is 
suitable both for the decoration of rooms and 
for small greenhouses and conservatories ; and 
is a plant well adapted to meet the wants of the 
amateur portion of your readers, seeing that it 
can be easily grown in the summer, and is not 
at all difficult to force in the late winter or early 
spring months. We have been using it since 
the middle of January both as a “ greenery ” 
to mix with cut flowers in epergnes, and also 
as single specimens turned out of the pots 
into china bowls and vases, and it has been 
much admired. 
The way in which we grow, prepare, 
and force our stock is as follows :—Any time 
during the month of March or up to the 
middle of April, if the w r eather is moist, 
we dig up some of the old stools from the 
shrubbery borders, and pull them apart into 
pieces consisting of three or four crowns. 
We then choose a piece of a warm border 
if to spare, give it a dressing of well-rotted 
dung, take out a trench, and commence to 
dig it as if to plant potatos. We plant the 
tufts as we go, in lines about 16 or 18 inches 
apart, and the same distance asunder in the 
lines. The only summer dressing required is 
to keep down weeds, though if the soil is of a 
dry nature a good watering once - or twice 
would be beneficial, or perhaps a mulching of 
tw r o or three inches of manure would be even 
better. If the crowns are fairly good to start 
with, as in our case, they can be lifted again 
in the following October, though another 
year’s stay would as a rule be the best. 
When lifted, we pot them into G-inch pots, 
and plunge them in ashes until required for 
forcing. This operation can be carried out in a 
simple hot-water pit, with an average tem¬ 
perature of 55° to 60°, and as in the case of 
its relative the Lily of the Valley, a brisk 
bottom heat of say 80° helps them on more 
quickly. 
We find there are few forced plants that stand 
such a long time in rooms as Solomon’s Seal, 
though it is as well not to take them directly 
