SPRING FLOWERS AND SPRING GARDENS. 
69 
functions, becomes latent in the moisture given off by the pots. 
And thus the absorbent action of the plant is arrested when the 
greatest demand is made upon its juices. 
Having endeavoured to show the necessity of a well-regulated 
system of applying artificially the principles essential to vegetation, 
it will be my object in the next paper to describe the mode by 
which that end may be attained. William Sherwood. 
ON SPRING FLOWERS AND SPRING GARDENS. 
Numerous as are our printed works on the different depart¬ 
ments of floriculture, there is not one expressly upon Spring 
flowers; and as for a Spring garden, it is never so much as 
noticed. This cannot be owing to the subject never having been 
treated of; for there are various places styled “ Spring Gardens,” 
both in the southern division of the country and in the northern ; 
and these places must have originally obtained their names from 
being principally appropriated to the growth of Spring flowers. 
But if it once was the practice to cultivate such flowers upon an 
extensive scale, the practice has now fallen off. Spring flowers 
are not the leading subjects anywhere : they are generally planted 
in detached spots, and concealed from the view by plants of more 
lofty growth. 
This is the more to be regretted, as almost all Spring flowers, 
though small, are pretty; as the Spring is the time when a 
flower-garden is most wanted; and as, if placed in beds, or large 
groups of the same species together, they would have a very rich 
and imposing appearance. 
They have other points of interest about them: they are all 
very hardy, and not injured by those vicissitudes of the Spiing 
weather which are often so injurious to summer flowers, and that 
in the most early stages of their growth. They also require 
scarcely any attention; so that the cultivator has nothing to do 
but to place them in the appropriate situations, and leave them 
there, and they will not fail to grow vigorously and flower well. 
In order that they may do both with their full vigour, they are 
better on the south side of a wall, or in some situation where they 
are sheltered from the cutting winds of the north and north-east. 
Garden mould is the best soil for them all, and if it is light and 
friable so much the better. Such of them as are bulbous, or have 
