244 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
44- to 4f inches in circumference. Skin smooth, thin, greenish, speckled white. 
Flesh tender, and very fine flavour. In 1852 it weighed 23 dwt. 17 gr. 
Bears freely, and makes a fine bush. 
Snowball (Adams).—Medium sized, roundish. Skin white, and hairy. Of 
first-rate flavour. Bush pendulous. 
Tally Ho (Riley).—Fruit long oval. Skin hairy, greenish white. Flavour 
moderate. In 1852, weighed 26 dwt. 18 gr. 
Makes strongly prickly wood. A good bearer, and forms a large bush. 
White Champagne. —Small and roundish oblong. Skin white, and hairy. 
Flavour of first-rate quality. Bush erect; leaves pubescent. 
Whitesmith (Woodward), [Whitesmith; Sir Sidney Smith; Hall’s Seed¬ 
ling; Lancashire Lass; Grundy’s Lady Lilford). —Large, roundish-oblong. 
Skin white, and downy. Flavour of first-rate excellence. Bush erect, and a 
good bearer. 
SPRING DECORATION. 
I have just commenced bedding-out for spring. My beds are never allowed 
to be idle, for, no sooner are they cleared of the summer decorative material, 
than they are filled with something which shall begin to bloom when the first 
call of the cuckoo is heard, and that will aid in rendering mother earth more 
lovely when the nightingale pours forth his song. Surely the spring is the 
season of flowers ; it is then that Nature, left to herself, assumes her loveliest 
garb; Daisies, Primroses, Daffodils, and Buttercups smile a welcome to returning 
spring; the flowering trees are then at their gayest, the birds sing sweetest, 
the air is freshest, and all around is beautiful. Why, then, in the garden, 
should the flower-beds expose but a bare surface of brown earth? And do they 
not strike the beholder as being sadly out of place when all around is so 
cheerful and gay ? An apologist for this state of things in spring will soon 
start up and say, Wait a little while, just a month or two, and then all these 
beds will be as full of beauty as they are devoid of it. Granted; but why not 
have them as gay now as then ? why be content with a season of bloom that 
continues only a few months, when, with a little trouble and foresight, you may 
extend that season nearly two months longer ? But with what shall it be done? 
Well, with almost anything that is hardy, whether annual, biennial, or peren¬ 
nial, that is dwarf in habit, will bloom early, and is easy of propagation. 
A lovely dwarf annual which I am now using for the first time for this 
purpose is the Limnanthes Douglasii, with a cup-shaped flower like the 
Nemophila, colour white and orange, height 6 inches. Another especial 
favourite is the Saponaria calabrica multiflora, rosy pink, height 8 inches ; and 
it will produce one of the most elegant masses of bloom which it is possible to 
conceive. The great endurance of this annual is very noticeable. I sowed a 
batch of annuals in the spring, on a warm border, in order to obtain seed for 
autumn-sowing, the Saponaria being among the rest; and although the others 
bloomed and seeded in due course, and have grown and are now being planted 
out, the Saponaria still continues to be one mass of bloom, seeming to defy the 
rain, which only had the effect of making it look brighter than ever. These are 
only two out of many annuals ; but among those old-fashioned ones which every¬ 
body has grown at some time or other, almost any shade of colour can be 
obtained to assist in making a grand display in the spring. » 
Whatever is to be done in order to produce such a result, no time should be 
lost in taking active measures. I am filling up one lot of beds with Silene, 
Alyssum saxatile, Cheiranthus Marshalli, Myosotis, Nemophila, Virginian Stock, 
and Perennial Candytuft and Cerastium, both of the purest white; another 
