164 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
that when frost is imminent the soil should he pressed firmly round the root of 
the plants and brought up close to the foliage. 
In some of the midland and north-western districts of England I have often 
been struck with the beauty of the common Cowslip, growing so freely in the 
fields and hedgerows. Transferred to the garden it might be advantageously 
used in the spring. Its yellow flowers would contrast well with the dark 
blossoms of the Polyanthus, and render valuable aid at its appointed time. As 
old Donald Beaton once informed us, “ Cowslips come like Polyanthuses, but 
all looking down the contrary way. Polyanthuses come in umbels or heads 
of so many flowers on the top of one stalk, and every flower looking up. The 
Oxlip, which is a hybrid between the Cowslip and the Primrose, comes with 
the guard flowers, or outside flowers of the head looking down and the centre 
flowers looking up, or half way between the two parents. All these are of more 
colours than one.” * 
The Alpine Auricula, too, as a member of this group, can be used also with 
effect in the spring. In some districts, generally in the south and west of 
England, it will flourish well out of doors during the winter, and when it 
grows with comparatively little risk it should be cultivated as a useful member 
of the class we have been treating of. 
To the foregoing may be added the double Daisy, a most invaluable agent 
in the hands of a spring gardener like Mr. Fleming. With him these Daisies 
grow lustily, flower freely, and propagate themselves rapidly. They can be 
had of a deep rose colour as well as pure white, and there are intermediate 
shades of pink as well. Immediately after flowering the plants can be lifted 
and divided, and planted out in some shady nook to make growth for autumn 
planting. 
Many inquiries have been made for seed of the double Daisy ; but it 
appears that it will not seed in England. Seed, however, is sometimes imported 
from Germany, but it seldom if ever grows. As before stated, by root-division 
a quantity of plants can soon be obtained. Their propagation does not make 
a large demand on the time of the cultivator; but it yields, notwithstanding, a 
large return, when, awakening from its sleep, the plant puts forth pretty 
flowerets at the summons of soft skies, vernal breezes, and lengthening days. 
Quo. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FILBERT. 
(Concluded from page 152.) 
It has been remarked that no fruit tree is pruned with more severity than 
this, and long experience has proved that without doing so a good crop of fruit 
need not be looked for. Some judgment is also wanted to start the tree into 
the proper shape at first, and a glance at those of mature age will show how this 
is to be effected. The universal custom in Kent is to train the tree into a sort 
of basin shape, not unlike the ribs of an umbrella when inverted; and in the 
adult tree, the edges or tips of all the branches radiating from the centre being 
of a uniform height of about 5 feet, a great similarity exists amongst the trees 
which compose a plantation, and if the ground is level the eye of the spectator 
will skim over the whole. Their height and uniformity are very striking after 
they are newly pruned, but, of course, when the summer’s growth is going on 
they are widely different, and show as rampant a growth as that of any plant 
I am acquainted with, some of the shoots being little short of 8 feet long, 
straight and tapering like an Osier wand. Those of the young plants are 
rarely so long, and it is to these that we have more especially to direct our 
attention. 
