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GARDEN NOTES OF THE MONTH. 
As an example that pine growing is progressing in other countries as well as Britain, a friend writes 
us from the Azores that he cut, in 1851, “a Cayenne Pine, weighing twelve pounds ; five Trinidads, 
averaging eight pounds each; and twelve Moscow Queens, six pounds each (one over seven pounds). 
The only accommodation I have for growing them is a dung-pit, twelve lights long. As soon as the 
fruit is cut, which is about the end of August, the plants are taken up, the bed refreshed, or renewed, 
and the strongest suckers are planted out, and by growing them late into the winter, which this 
climate admits of, and keeping them a little later at rest in the spring, I expect to start even a better 
lot than I had last year.” This is gratifying intelligence ; and considering that St. Michael is only 
fourteen days, if the wind is favourable, from England, would not pines pay there as a commercial 
speculation P for if cut just as they began to ripen, they would be in prime condition for the table 
when they got to this country. 
Chrysanthemums promise to become very general favourites, and blooming, as they do, in the very 
depth of winter, deservedly so. We have recently received a little brochure, “The Cultivation of the 
Chrysanthemum for the production of specimen blooms,” by G. Taylor,* and a very useful little work 
it is. Mr. Taylor is certainly one of the most successful of the metropolitan growers, and though the plan 
he recommends for specimen blooms is not calculated to produce “ specimen ” or handsome plants, still 
there can he no question but that his practice is a good one. We saw his productions at the Stoke 
Newington Show, in November 1851, and we must confess the flowers surpassed our notions of 
perfect growth, some of the blooms being more than six inches in diameter. We therefore can confi¬ 
dently recommend the work as being a good shilling’s worth, and a book from which the amateur may 
glean much information, not only upon treatment, hut also upon the most suitable kinds to grow for 
cut flowers, for specimen plants, and also of the pompons. 
In buying plants, amateurs cannot commit a greater mistake than that ot purchasing plants, 
deficient in quality, for the sake of then’ cheapness; for though they may accord with the free-trader’s 
notion of “cheap, cheap,” yet, in the majority of cases they will, as compared with good plants, he found 
dear. An illustration occurs to us :—Six months back we purchased a quantity of plants, for which we 
paid from half a guinea to two guineas each. Among them was one plant of which the nurseryman said, 
“-, you will see, is not my growth, hut it is the best I can procure and true enough it bore 
good evidence of not being his growth, and even to the present time, though it has been subjected to 
precisely the same treatment as the others, it is not worth so much as kinds purchased at the same 
price by seventy-five per cent. It is, therefore, quite certain, that a properly started, well-grown 
plant, may he “ cheap” at ten shillings, while a badly grown one, though quite as large, would be dear 
at half-a-crown. Prices in nurserymen’s catalogues must he regarded as representing a certain article, 
and that which upon paper may be regarded as “ dear,” will, when quality is taken into consi¬ 
deration, he found very cheap. We have never bought plants at a “ cheap shop” hut once, and we 
paid so dearly for our experience, that we shall never deal at such a shop again. The “labourer is 
worthy of his hire and good plants are worthy of their price. In this as in all other garden requi¬ 
sites, the best will be found the cheapest.—P. 
The Anomcitheca cruenta is an excellent little plant for small beds, or for planting near the 
edges of large ones or borders, and answers exceedingly well under the following treatment:—Early in 
March pot the bulbs in equal parts of loam, dung, and leaf-mould, with a good admixture of sand, 
putting four bulbs in a pot; place them in a pit, or cold frame, until the season arrives for turning out, 
when they should he planted in a bed of similar compost, without disturbing the roots. With ordinary 
attention they will then grow vigorously, and flower profusely, from June to November. If bloom is 
all that is required, the seed-pods should he cut away as the blossoms fail; hut if increase of stock be 
required, seed may be easily saved, and bulbs raised; they are also readily increased by offsets. The 
bulbs should be taken up before frost sets in, potted in silver-sand, and stored in a dry place secure 
against frost for the winter. 
* London : Published by the Author, 7, Park Street, Stoke Newington. 
