82 
THE FLOraST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[JUNE, 
is raked clear of stones, &c., and jnst before 
Christmas a good di’essing, two inches in depth, 
is given of the mixture of cow-dung, stable- 
dung, and leaf-mould mentioned above. In 
the spring, before the Lilies begin to grow, the 
beds are cleaned over, and made nice and neat. 
The first picking of Lilies takes place in 
April, earlier or later, according to the season ; 
but to protect the earliest beds from harm 
from frost, soine rough boards are put along 
behind and in front, as in the case of a frame, 
with cross-pieces, on which mats and any such 
covering can be laid. A certain space of a 
bed is covered at one time, and this covering 
is continued as long as needed. During the 
time the flowers are being gathered, something 
like 100 to 120 dozen bunches of flowers, each 
containing twelve or thirteen spikes, are sent 
to market every day, in addition to wdiat are 
sold locally. The variety grown is that known 
as the Victoria, or Major Lily of the Valley, 
which bears large bold spikes of really superb 
flowers, each stem or spike bearing many 
blossoms.— B. Dean. 
GOLD-FISH. 
E see in the windows of shops in towns 
where water-filters are sold, samples 
of water that may have been got 
from some ditch or standing pool, slightly 
green, and not without motes which one would 
not like to see in connection with drinking- 
water ; and by the side of this a sample of the 
same water after passing through the filter. 
In some other windows we see the aquarium or 
tank of glass, with gold-fish and other creatures 
that inhabit the water. In these there is some¬ 
times to be seen a very quiet creature, a snail, 
that, were it not for his house which he carries 
on his back, we should think lifeless ; indeed, 
his very motion has passed into an idiom in 
our language, “ crawling like a snail,” but these 
snails are all the while busy cleaning the glass 
so as to show the collection inside, and whilst 
their disc holds them tight on, their mouths 
are busy with the very small fry that adhere 
to the glass. 
The elegant movements of the gold-fish in 
a globular glass, greatly magnified, are w'ell 
known; but it is not so well known as it ought 
to be, that such little pets are often starved, 
on the score of cold and hunger, for want of 
some kind friend to put in a good word for them. 
In my case, we had to buy in a stock of gold¬ 
fish occasionally, as they were wanted to tenant 
a marble centre-piece in the garden. What 
with the changes of our variable climate and 
neglect, our stock of gold-fish always kept 
lessening, no provision having been made for 
their comfort in the only way they could be 
benefited, namely, by food and warmth, and 
the presence of some aquatic plants to hide 
under. 
At Matlock there is a hot spring, where the 
water issues smoking into a pool in the garden ; 
at all events, it was so at the old Bath, when I 
was there, and we got fish of the size we 
wanted, as the place was swarming with them, 
of all ages. Again, at a silk mill in the town 
of Leek, there were two tanks in front of the 
mill, one with very hot water, and the other 
with water about blood-heat, and this con¬ 
tained gold-fish in abundance; and the older 
ones seemed always to prefer the warm spot 
where the water entered. There are, no doubt, 
many tanks doing such duty now, but I 
would cautipn any one who may wish to build a 
tank for gold-fish, to make it not less than a 
yard in depth, as the fish go down with cold, 
and come up into the hot sunshine ; and unless 
there be glass overhead, some system of heating 
should be got up. When the work is done, 
and the tank tenanted with the fish, you will 
see them playful as kittens, trying to catch 
bread-crumbs or anything else savoury, fjr 
they belong to a ravenous race. This only 
shows that what they so greedily run, or rather, 
swim after, is quite in their lino. These two 
important items—viz., food and warmth, and 
I may add, shelter—are essential to their wel¬ 
fare. An extra supply of animalculae is got, 
when plenty of water is put within their reach. 
Spring water, generally speaking, is not good 
for gold-fish, but that which has stood in pits 
or ponds exposed to the air, and usually river 
w^ater is good, when not in flood. All mineral 
Avaters, as lime, iron, lead, are bad to keep 
gold-fish in. In adding fresh water, it is easy 
enough, in glass tanks or globes, to introduce 
tepid Avater, by way of a treat to the inmates 
in their prison.— Alex. Foesyth. 
liOSA POLYANTHA AS A STOCK. 
« HE attention of Eosarians is called to a 
ncAV stock for Boses, one which is re¬ 
markable for its freedom of growth and 
its facility of reproduction. This stock is the 
Itosa polijaniha,- Siebold and Zuccariui, a shrub 
of recent introduction from Japan, Avhich 
bears single white odoriferous floAvers, thirty 
or forty in a panicle, succeeded by obovate 
fruits of the size of a cherry-stone. M. Oarriere 
