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quence. When you see a warm genial shower coming in April or May, pull off your lights, and expose the plants to it, shutting them up as soon as it is over, if it is after the time named above: keep them well stopped, and harden them off a fortnight before planting out.

Amaranthus and perilla also do very well in this way; and so will coleus, I believe, although I have not tried it. The plan described saves much of the watering that would otherwise be necessary, and is the easiest I have fallen in with.— Cottage Gardener.

MOSS ON LAWNS. — The chief causes of mossy lawns are a poor soil, and its being undrained. Give a dressing of rich soil or very rotten manure, first scratching the lawn with an iron rake, and then applying salt at the rate of half a pound per square yard; finally dress with compost of loam and well-rotted manure, not covering deeper than a quarter of an inch. The first heavy rain will wash it in. When the ground is dry, roll well; sowing, previous to rolling, twenty-four pounds per acre of lawn-grass seeds.

FERNS LOSING THEIR FRONDS.-A house is moist enough for the growth of ferns when there are evaporation-troughs, and the walls and every available surface are sprinkled with water twice daily. Syringing overhead is destructive to the beauty of many kinds, and also to the young fronds. Sprinkle the walls and paths with water twice daily: do not syringe the plants overhead, but afford enough water at the roof, and yet not so much as to saturate the soil; giving also a fair but not an excessive amount of air, and slight shade from bright sun. We have no doubt that the plants would thrive. A temperature of from 50° to 55° is sufficient for the stove kinds, and one of from 45° to 50° for the greenhouse sorts, increasing the temperature in spring; when, after a season of rest of not less than three months, they will start into growth with increased vigor. Remove the pots from the pans of water at once, and place in the coolest and most shady part of the house. If they require potting, the best time to perform that operation is just as they are starting into growth.

ANNUALS FOR Late Blooming.- Centranthus macrosiphon; Alyssum maritimum; Erysimum Peroffskianum ; * Dianthus Chinensis (Chinese pink); Gilia achilleæfolia; Hibiscus Africanus; Gypsophila elegans; Godetia rosea alba ; Double Clarkia integripetela ; C. pulcherrima; * Prince's Feather; * Love-liesbleeding; White Rocket and Crimson Candytuft; Centaurea cyanus minor; Bartonia aurea; *Calliopsis cardaminifolia ; * C. atrosanguinea; * C. Burridgi ; Campanula pentagonia; Convolvulus minor (Dwarf Morning-glory); * Saponaria calabrica (Soapwort), and its white variety; Eschscholtzia crocea and E. tenuifolia; Godetia Lindleyana; Obeliscaria pulcherrima; * Enothera Lamarckiana (Evening Primrose); * Nasturtium Tom Thumb, scarlet, *crimson, *spotted, and yellow varieties; Virginian Stock ; * Tagetes signata pumila (Dwarf Marigold); * Senecio elegans in variety. Those marked with an asterisk (*) should be sown in May, and the others not until the end of May, or early in June. Mignonette should not be omitted. There are no flowers that are to be depended on for blooming after October, except chrysanthemums.

WEEDS ON WALKS. — If walks have become dirty at the surface, which is a prolific source of grass and moss, they should be picked up and turned, giving them a sprinkling of fresh gravel. They will then, if well rolled, last until half the summer is over; and, by the time weeds are troublesome, one dressing of salt will serve the whole season. Three pounds per square yard are required to destroy weeds on gravel-walks effectually; and that quantity makes the surface so damp, that it is objected to by many. Salt causes the gravel to wear much more quickly, and so encourages the growth of weeds: hence the prevailing opinion, that weeds on walks come thicker after salting. The time to salt walks is when there are weeds; and its application will be necessary in April or May, and again in July or August, putting it on during dry weather, dependent, of course, on the season.

GRAPES RUsted. Grapes are apt to have a brownish skin round them if subjected to a sudden check from a great change of temperature, or if sulphur has been used freely on a heating medium when the berries are young and tender. Under such circumstances, it is best to apply the sulphur during the day, when there is a considerable amount of air on, so that the strength of the fumes may pass off before the house is shut up. Perhaps Hamburgs are most easily thus injured.

CANNABIS GIGANTEA. - This is a large form of the common hemp, and grows six feet or more high, with a beautifully pinnated leaf, clustered in a sort of fanlike form at the top of every branchlet, which are pretty numerous, but not crowded. The whole aspect of the plant is Oriental, reminding one of the palms we are in the habit of associating with Eastern scenery. As a plant, nothing is more easily grown. Seed sown in March, with other annuals, in a gentle heat, and afterwards planted out in May, quickly shows the neatly-furrowed character of the leaflets and the general outline of the plants. I believe there are some other varieties; and possibly some one will be presenting us with one, by and by, having the rich claret-colored foliage of the purple spicant with its own inimitable graceful form. That such may be, I have no doubt: only let public taste intimate its wants, and caterers for it will accomplish much at one time thought impossible.

SPECIMEN CALADIUMS ANd Achimenes. For good specimens of caladiums proceed thus: Keep the rhizomes free from cold in winter, shake them out, and repot as soon as they begin to move, potting them singly in small pots, to be afterwards placed singly in larger pots, or three or four plants at once in a large pot. Drain well; use turfy loam and peat in equal portions, with about one-sixth of old rotten cow-dung and silver sand; and give bottom-heat until the leaves come to their best. To grow good specimens of achimenes, select the tubers, place them singly in well-drained pans or pots, using light rich soil, and set them in a temperature of from about 60° to 65°. When the plants are up, and from an inch to an inch and a half in height, plant them in soil similar to that recommended for caladiums, in their flowering-pots (the small kinds at an inch

apart, the larger kinds at from two to three inches apart), and plunge in a gentle bottom-heat of about 75° or 80°, and a top-heat of from 60° to 65°, with a rise from sunshine. No sun must touch the leaves, or those of the caladiums either, when damp. Air should be given early; for if there is confined moist air in the place, and the sun strikes on the plants, the leaves will be spotted to a certainty. When hardened off for conservatory, they will not be so easily affected. Achimenes for late work may be grown well in a cold pit after the end of May.

CULTURE OF ROSES IN POTS IN GREENHOUSES. -The best roses for greenhouse culture are the finer varieties of the China and tea-scented; the latter especially, on account of their peculiar and delightful fragrance; but the Bourbons and hybrid perpetuals must be included. The following varieties I have found good: China.

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Madame Bréon, Mrs. Bosanquet, Triomphe de Gand, Prince Charles, Henri Cinq, La Séduisante, Infidélités de Lisette, Louis Philippe, Napoléon, Clara Sylvian (generally classed with the Tea-scented), and Fabvier.

Tea-scented. - Goubault, Homère, Devoniensis, Abricoté, Buret, Adam, Barillet-Deschamps, Comte de Paris, Élise Sauvage, Caroline, Le Caméléon, Lays, Madame Bravy, Madame Maurin, Madame J. Halphen, Safrano, Victoire, Souvenir d'un Ami, Niphetos, Madame William, Maréchal Niel, and the finest scented of all teas, the original of this family, 'Rosa indica odorata.

Bourbons. Souvenir de Malmaison, Baron Gonella, Acidalie, Queen of the Bourbons, Emotion, Marquis de Balbiano, Reveil, Vorace, Souchet, Rev. H. Dombrain, Louise Margottin, and Catherine Guillot.

The hybrid perpetuals, not to be overlooked, are Lord Macaulay, Lord Clyde, John Hopper, Lord Palmerston, Duc de Cazes, Duc de Rohan, François Lacharme, Gloire de Santenay, Charles Lefebvre, Caroline de Sansal, Madame Furtado, Duchesse de Morny, Madame Alfred de Rougemont, Madame Boutin, Louise Magnan, Louis XIV., Senateur Vaisse, Pierre Notting, Monte Christo, Virginale, William Griffiths, Comte de Nanteuil, Maréchal Vaillant, Madame Vidot, Baronne Pelletan de Kinkelin, Alfred de Rougemont, and Prince Léon.

All the above are good roses, and, for greenhouse culture, should be on their own roots. Most, if not all, of the kinds named, are kept in stock by our principal nursery-men in twenty four or six inch pots, of a size fit for this mode of culture; the cultivator being thereby saved a year in the preparation of the plants. Those, however, who wish to prepare their own plants, should procure them in spring, not later than May; and if in small pots, as they usually are, they may be at once placed in pots six inches in diameter, in a compost of loam and leafmould, in equal parts, with a free admixture of sharp sand, amounting to about one-sixth of the whole. The pots should be drained to one-third their depth with crocks; and, in potting, the ball should be gently pressed to loosen it, which is desirable.

After potting, the plants should have a good watering, and be set on slates, or a hard bottom, in an open, warm, sunny situation. The intervals between the pots should be filled with ashes; in other words, the pots should be plunged to the rim. The plants should be frequently syringed, especially in the evenings

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of hot days, and well watered at the root; taking care not to saturate the soil, or make it sour through repeated waterings when it is already wet; and dryness must be equally guarded against, extremes of either being injurious. All flowerbuds as they show are to be pinched off between the nails of the finger and thumb, and any strong shoot stopped at the eighth leaf. The pots should be occasionally lifted to see that the roots are not coming through; and, if they are, rub them off before they make any great progress.

Towards November, the pots should be lifted, and plunged in coal-ashes in a cold pit or frame. The watering, being discontinued after September, is not to be renewed on the removal of the plants to the pit; but they are to be kept dry, and to have air whenever the external atmosphere is mild, also protection from rain and frost.

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Early in February, the plants may be taken into the greenhouse, the pots having been previously washed clean, and the drainage made good if defective, as no plant will thrive in a badly-drained soil. The surface of the soil in the pots should also be stirred, and, if green, replaced with fresh. The plants may then be pruned. The pruning of the China and tea-scented kinds should consist in moderately cutting out the very weak shoots, and doing little more than shortening those of moderate growth, so as to form a compact bush. The Bourbons and perpetuals should be cut in, — the very strong shoots to four, the strong to three, and the moderately strong to two eyes; and the weak cut clean out, unless a shoot be wanted in a particular place, when a weak shoot may be cut back to one eye. If tall plants are wanted, any of the tea-scented or China varieties that have made good growths may have a neat stick, or stake, placed in the centre of the pot, and the strongest of the shoots tied to it, the others being shortened to different heights; that tied to the stake to have merely its end taken off. The plants must be placed as near the glass as their growth allows, and between it and them no creepers or other plants must be tolerated. They cannot have too much light; it is easy to shade them when in bloom; and the position should be airy. The temperature need not be altered to suit them, as that of a greenhouse is admirably adapted to their requirements. Due regard must be paid to watering them, avoiding extremes either way; and yet it is as well to let the soil become rather dry, and then afford a good supply, and not driblets, which, if the soil is dry, do not reach the bottom of the pot, or, if it is wet, only serve to saturate it the more. At first, moderate supplies of water will suffice; but, when the foliage has become developed, it will be required in abundance. Syringing should be practised morning and evening, except in cold and dull weather, when once a day, and in the morning, will suffice; and it should be continued until the flower-buds show color.

After blooming, which will be in June, the plants should be removed from the greenhouse, and must be carried to the potting-bench, and repotted forthwith. If the cultivator does not wish for large plants, he will merely cut back the roots a little, so that the pot will hold a little fresh soil, the old pot being clean-washed, and again used. Varieties of compact growth will, of course, be selected for this purpose, small plants that do not take up much room; and the best are the small-growing tea and China roses. The others may have pots nine inches

in diameter, which are large enough, and not too large, for holding sufficient soil for a good and yet not ungainly specimen. The pots should be well drained by placing a good-sized crock over the hole, and about half a dozen of less size above it; then one-third fill the pot (including the space occupied by the crocks at bottom) with pieces of charcoal the size of a hazel-nut, the small dust being sifted out, which may be mixed with the soil, and turf cut thin, and chopped into pieces from half an inch to an inch square. A drainage of this kind seldom clogs, and supplies food to the roots. — English Journal of Horticulture.

SPIRAL-TRAINING AND SUMMER-PRUNING of Grapes. There is great difference of opinion among good grape-growers as to the best mode of training the grape. Much has been written to prove this system or that to be the best. It is not claimed that the spiral system is better than all others, but that it works well, and that it is a cheap mode of training the grape. Some, perhaps, do not understand what is meant by the term, and may not have seen this style of training practised. It is really the spur system, for the fall-pruning of the vine is on that principle; and then the vine is trained around a single stake or post, just as a hop or bean vine runs around a pole. Some of the advantages to be derived from this method are, that the vine is nearly self-supporting when so trained, needing only a good strong rope-yarn tied about it near the top to secure it to the post; that the ground is easily kept free of weeds, and in good condition, by running the cultivator both ways, or four ways, between the vines, which cannot be done when a trellis is used; it is less work to tie up, to trim, and to gather the fruit, while, at the same time, the plant gets more sun and air.

If the plants are set to stakes six feet apart each way (which is rather near), or six feet by ten (which latter distance will allow of the driving of a cart or wagon through the rows to take the fruit or to carry in the manure), it will be seen that there will be no difficulty in doing most of the work in the vineyard by horse-power; which is an important item in these days of high prices for labor. It has been urged by one writer, of late, that the vine should be so trained that its branches will droop, as they do from the top of a tree when they are allowed to run wild. Now, if this be desirable, the object is certainly gained by this spiral method of training; for after the vine has reached the top of the stake, say seven feet high, the branches then spread like an umbrella, drooping like the branches of a weeping-willow.

The summer-pruning of vines so planted is very easily accomplished. After the laterals have made a growth of two or three feet, and the young fruit is about setting, or has set, then pinch in the ends of the laterals, or branches, one or two joints beyond the outermost bunch of fruit. If they start again, as they will be likely to, especially if they are strong-growing sorts, pinch in again at the next joint; and so on.

The most rampant growers, such as Rogers's No. 15, will not bear such close pruning, and, when so treated, fail to give the best results; while, on the other hand, the slow-growing Delaware seems to do very well under such treatment, and even the long-jointed Concord succeeds very well. There is one objection

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