12 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
trouble in preserving them from those little plagues. It is rather difficult to 
entrap or shoot the little depredators, and perhaps it is best to defend the Pears 
with nets; and to keep these birds from Peas it is good to grow plenty of 
Sunflowers and Poppies, whose seeds they prefer to green Peas. I may state, 
that during the past season a small covey of hawfinches, or grosbeaks, at¬ 
tacked my Pears, which was the first time I had seen those rather rare birds 
alive. As some of them were young they may have been bred in this locality. 
Cossey Hall Gardens . J. Wighton. 
THE CULTIVATION OF THE PRIMULA. 
Where is there a plant which during the autumn and winter months is so 
gay or beautiful as the Primula ? It is also very useful for exhibition or deco¬ 
rative purposes, or for filling the flower-vase cr bouquet. By artificial light 
some of the varieties are very brilliant. During the last season a number of 
very beautiful double seedlings have been brought before the public, especially 
those of Messrs. Windebank & Kingsbury, of Southampton, who at the present 
time possess some very splendid seedlings. 
Where high cultivation is aimed at, care must be taken to keep the plants 
healthy at all times. I generally sow the seed early in March, or in April, in 
pans placed on the front shelf of the greenhouse or vinery. I find that to 
bring the seedlings up well nothing is so good as putting a square of glass over 
each pan, and as soon as the plants appear I remove this to prevent their being 
weakened. When strong enough, I pot them into small 60’s, using for soil 
half leaf mould, loam, and a little silver sand. I keep them in a close frame 
for a few days till well established, when I give air freely on all favourable 
days. Early in May I repot the plants into 32’s, using the same description of 
soil as before. I now plunge them in a cold frame in a shady situation for the 
summer months, and in the end of July I repot into their blooming-pots, 24’s, 
using a mixture of half loam, leaf mould, and a little rotten dung and silver 
sand. I then replace them in the frame as before, and am always very careful 
not to allow them to get dry during the summer, as nothing is so injurious to 
them. Early in September I remove them to the greenhouse, and I thus secure 
a good supply of bloom for the autumn and winter months. 
Crabivood , Southampton. J. C. Higgs. 
OUR MONTHLY CHRONICLE. 
Royal Horticultural Society. — Al¬ 
though the Fruit Show held from the 9th to 
the 16th of December had but little claim 
to the title of “ International,” there was, 
nevertheless, a very respectable display both 
of fruit and vegetables, good without being 
remarkable. Especially worthy of notice 
were the fine collections shown by Mr. Lewis 
Solomon and Messrs. Webber & Co. of Covent 
Garden, containing, as they did, numbers of 
those magnificent Pears which are to be seen 
at this season decorating the shop-windows 
of the Grand Row of that market. Such 
Pears are purchased at almost fabulous prices 
from French growers, who must derive a good 
profit from their cultivation, but for the most 
part the only recommendations which they 
possess are their size and beauty ; indeed one 
of the kinds, Uvedale’s St. Germain, known 
also at Paris as Belle Angevine, is a stewing 
Pear. It seems that at Paris these Pears are 
let out by the fruiterers for dinner parties, 
and one of the French gardening periodicals 
relates that a gourmand, after fondly eyeing 
a dish of them for a long time, much to the 
dismay of his entertainer requested that one 
of them should be cut. However, there was 
no escape, a Pear was cut up into a number of 
pieces, the party tasted, and but tasted, dis¬ 
gust was depicted on every countenance, they 
might as well have eaten a Turnip ; but what¬ 
ever their disgust might have been that of their 
entertainer was greater, for when the fruiterer’s 
bill came in one of the items was “ an Angevine 
Pear, 70 francs.” Our lively neighbours 
have, perhaps, a little exaggerated the price 
to improve the story, for these Pears may be 
had in London for about half that sum and 
