HEPATICAS. — I have double and single hepaticas growing side by side in my garden, both in bloom at this writing. I must confess, I prefer the single: they are more graceful and unaffected. The double ones are prim and regular, like small dahlias; but they bloom freely, and are very ornamental. I am astonished that the single hepaticas are not more generally cultivated. They grow in abundance in all our woods; are called wood-violets; and flower so early in the spring, that my garden is gay with them almost before the lawn is green. They are transplanted with ease, and accommodate themselves to any garden-soil and exposure; doing well in the shade, where few other plants will bloom. They increase rapidly, and form large clumps, literally covered in April with graceful, wide-awake little flowers of blue, pink, and white, and a thousand intermediate tints. They may be planted along the margins of beds, where they interfere with nothing. They require little care, and are sure to elicit the love and admiration of all who cultivate them. W.

TROY, N.Y., May 1.

NEW DOUBLE CRIMSON HAWTHORN. - This very fine variety of the English thorn is most remarkable for the intensity of color. In other respects, it is not materially different from the common double red hawthorn. We clip from "The Florist" the following account of its origin:

"The history of the sport is briefly this: About seven or eight years ago, some flowers of this intense hue were observed on a plant of the double pink thorn; and, on examination, it was found that a strong branch had started up from near the centre of the tree, with leaves as well as flowers differing from its parent. The branch was encouraged, and year by year increased in size, retaining the color and character originally observed. The parent plant is apparently about twenty-five years old, thirty feet high, and as much in diameter, measured from the outermost branches at its greatest width. There is still only one stout central branch of this deep color; the other branches, which are profusely adorned with flowers, being of the original pale pink so well known to horticulturists. When looking at the tree recently, so great was the contrast between the sport and the original, that we could not rid ourselves of the impression that the parent variety was in this instance paler than usual; and we asked ourselves whether the coloring-matter had not been drawn from the larger surface, and intensified in this particular branch by one of those secret processes which the student of Nature is often called upon to behold and wonder at, without being able to account for or explain. This may be fanciful; but here is certainly a lusus nature worthy of the attentive consideration of our vegetable physiologists."

The plant, which has only recently been brought out in England, is well deserving of extensive cultivation. There is nothing more ornamental, or more endeared to us by early memories, than the showy and rosy hawthorn of May; but the colors have always been dull. Now, we have intensity of color, which must add much to the attractions of the plant. We suppose any stock of this variety can hardly yet have reached this country, but have no doubt that our florists, with their usual enterprise, will soon introduce it to the public.

CHINESE PRIMROSES AFTER FLOWERING. They should be placed in a cold frame, and have air plentifully. Towards the end of June, they should be repotted in the same sized pots as before, most of the old soil being shaken from them. The lights should be drawn on closely, and a very light sprinkling of water given every evening, with shade from bright sun. When the plants recover from the potting, admit air freely, and keep them well supplied with water. At night, the lights may be drawn off, and replaced in the morning, tilting them high at back during dry, hot weather, and when heavy rains occur. In August, shift the plants into six-inch pots, pursuing the same treatment as before. The plants will bloom finely in autumn, all bloom-stems showing before September being pinched off closely. It is only the best that are worth keeping; for seedlings are better for a late autumn and spring bloom. There is no better plant for the parlor than this.

ALOYSIA CITRIODORA (Lemon Verbena) PROPAGATION. — Cuttings may be taken from the shoots of the current year; and such are best when from three to six inches in length, and when the wood is about half ripe, or a little hardened, but not woody. They should have three joints, and not exceeding four if shortjointed. The leaves should be removed from the lowest two joints, and the cutting be cut through with a sharp knife immediately below the lowest joint. A six-inch pot is large enough for a dozen cuttings. The pots should be drained to one-third their depth, and then be filled up with a compost of sandy loam, fibrous peat, and silver sand, in equal parts, surfaced with silver sand. The cuttings are to be inserted in the sand up to the leaves, or nearly so, and placed round the sides of the pot, at about an inch apart. A gentle watering being given, the pot should be plunged in a mild hot-bed of from 70° to 75°, and slightly shaded from bright sun. The atmosphere should be moist, and the sand also, but not excessively so, otherwise the cuttings will damp off. If the atmosphere is close, they will soon root, and be fit for potting off singly in six weeks. Harden them off when well established.

The modern name of this plant is Lippia citriodora. Plants may also be raised from seeds; but they seldom ripen in our climate.

"The Botanical Magazine" for April figures the following new plants: SACCOLABIUM GIGANTEUM. – A rare and very beautiful orchid, introduced a few years ago from Rangoon, E.I. The species is nearly related to S. violacea, but differs in the shape and nervation of the lip.

The flowers are whitish, with lilac and white lip, agreeably fragrant, and last in full beauty about three months.

CORDYLINE AUSTRALIS. A handsome small tree from New Zealand, almost hardy in the west of England, and wholly so in the Scilly Islands, where it has flowered in the open air. It is often seen in greenhouses under the name of Cordyline indivisa, which is a totally different plant, with broader yellow-green, strongly-veined leaves, and a drooping panicle of larger flowers. The trunk of this species is from twelve to twenty feet high, producing at the top a crowded erect panicle of white flowers. It would probably prove hardy in our Southern, and perhaps in the Middle States.

GESNERA ZEBRINA AND SPLENDIDISSIMA. - The dry, parched atmosphere of dwelling-rooms is very injurious to plants, particularly during the autumn and winter months, when strong fires are kept up. Valuable plants that would suffer by being kept a few days in such an atmosphere should on no account be used for this purpose. Plants that do not suffer by this treatment should be, as much as possible, employed for in-door decoration. There are numerous plants well adapted for this purpose: I find these Gesneras very useful. The roots are all fresh potted in April, and then placed in one of the vineries at work. I put one root into a small pot, three into larger pots, five into larger still, and as many as a dozen roots into very large pots. By this plan, I have plants of all sizes. I have the pots well drained; and I use a compost of nearly equal portions of loam, peat, and leaf-mould, mixed up with plenty of coarse river-sand.

The plants soon begin to grow when put into heat. As soon as they are a few inches high, they should be tied up neatly to stakes, and kept tied up, from time to time, as they advance in growth. I never shift them after they are potted. Gesnera splendidissima comes soonest into flower, - generally in September, and lasts till December. G. zebrina begins to flower in October, and lasts till January. They both withstand the dry atmosphere of rooms for weeks; and, as the roots are generally full grown by the time they are in flower, they can be dried off, when they are out of bloom, on any shelf in the coolest part of the stove, and can remain there until the time for potting, in April, comes round again. M. Saul, in Florist.

THE COLORING OF GRAPES. — Gardeners have both heard of and seen grapes badly colored, especially Black Hamburgs. Some ascribe the fault to bad supplies from the roots, others to the want of sufficient sunshine or light and air : but neither seems to be the chief cause; for large berries, badly colored, may be seen upon very strong vines, and the reverse on weak ones. In former days, when vines were not so highly cultivated, and grown under green or dark glass, there were fewer complaints of grapes being red instead of black.

I have been long of opinion that the chief cause is to be traced to injured leaves and unripe wood. In such cases, the supply of crude sap from the roots is not properly elaborated in the unhealthy leaves, nor, in its way through the immature vessels, in the green wood, on which the bunches hang. When this happens, I leave the laterals or young shoots beyond the bunches, instead of pinching them off, in order to encourage the vines to gather or produce more nourishment for the fruit. I have observed that there need be no fear of both the fruit and wood not ripening under the shade. For instance, the blackest cherries are found under the shade of leaves; and, without a proper supply of such, the young fruit on trees and vines may remain green until blackened by frost. I should remark, that neither extra heat nor sunshine has much influence on the unripe wood of vines after the proper time of their growth is past. Hence the inutility of placing vines in pots out of doors, in the full sunshine, after the crop is over, with the view of ripening the wood. Instead of this, the leaves are scorched, and thus all chance of their influence on the wood is gone; and on the condition of this the success of the next season's crop greatly depends.

TINNEA ÆTHIOPICA (Violet-scented Tinnea).— A beautiful plant; one of the results of the recent explorations of Central Africa, being brought home by no less than three of the expeditions. It is a bushy stove-plant, growing from four to six feet in height. Flowers profusely produced all along the shoots, -of a purple-maroon, with light-green calyx, and having a delicious violet fragrance.

DICTYOPSIS THUNBERGII (Thunberg's Dictyopsis). — A climbing plant of the Smilax family, from Southern Africa, and well adapted for greenhouse culture. Flowers drooping, white, and bell-shaped.

DOMBEYA MASTERSII (Dr. Masters' Dombeya). — A small bush with bright pale-green leaves; native of Tropical Africa. The flowers are pearly-white, about an inch in diameter, in drooping panicles. A curious fact has been observed in the fertilization of this plant. The staminodes in the opening flower curve downwards and outwards, so as to come into contact with the stamens, whose anthers open outwardly, and allow their pollen to adhere to them. Being thus provided with a freight of pollen, the staminodes uncoil, and bring their points to a level with the stigmata, which curl round them, and thus receive the pollen.

We extract from an amusing article in "The Cottage Gardener " the following in reference to an orchard-house. It makes all the difference possible

whether we look at the bright or dark side of the matter.

"I shall beg to introduce to your readers my friend Mr. Potts, who has lately built an orchard-house, as placing each dark reflection that arises in his mind in juxtaposition with its corresponding white.

"Black. — I have built a large orchard-house. It has been a considerable expense. The extras, including a tank, pump, and shelf for strawberry-plants, have exceeded by almost one-third the original estimate. My wife taxes me with extravagance, and thinks that the money would have been better expended in adding to my stock of household furniture, or providing an adequate supply of table-linen. "White. Never mind its liberal dimensions. Size, if a fault, is one on the right side it argues in me, surely, a Sir Joseph Paxton largeness of mind. sides, it has been all paid for, and so is fairly my own; which is more than can be said of every coat on every man's back. Extras are an inseparable accompaniment of every grand design. I do not much mind what my wife says. She really thinks that 'e'en my failings lean to virtue's side;' and I have as much reason for charging her with a lavish expenditure when she rides her hobbies as she me when riding mine.

66

Be

‘Black. — I cannot say that my house quite answers my expectations. I perceive that several spurs have only blossom-buds at their extremities (barren spray, Mr. Bréhaut calls these): a pretty kettle of fish, after all my painstaking! Other lanky shoots have, indeed, a leaf-bud at the end; but all the other buds, both leaf and blossom, have clean dropped out, — effects of unskilful pruning, of

course.

"White. — My house makes a capital lounge. I enjoy my weed in it immensely. How jolly it is to bask in the sunshine when the east wind whistles outside! I am rather glad I built it, after all. When that barren spray is clean cut out,

Alternate

plenty of spurs will remain; and several of them, I am glad to see, are furnished with double shoots. Hurrah! one for wood, the other for fruit. pruning.

"Black.- My trees were covered with blossoms; but not a quarter have set: they strew the ground, and make me think of a place said to be paved with good intentions. I believe those little busy bees have knocked half of them off. I wish they would improve each shining hour, instead of injuring my property. I saw a great bumble fellow on a very promising blossom, making it quite topheavy.

"White. I suspect, that, if all the blossoms had set, they would have been more than my trees could bear. A dozen peaches on each tree would not be a bad crop at a period when my trees can hardly be said to have arrived at years of discretion; and more than a dozen blossoms have set. In any case, I need not take the trouble to thin them, an operation recommended in the books, but requiring great strength of mind. By the by, I remember to have heard that bees are invaluable; and they seem to have been sent for the special purpose of scattering the pollen, which it would be tedious to effect with a camel'shair brush. How wonderful is the economy of Nature!

"Black.—Alas! some boys have been throwing stones over the wall, and have smashed several panes of glass. What wretches boys are! I should like to give them all a sound cuffing. At this rate, a fine glazier's bill I shall have to pay! "White. Boys will be boys. I was a boy once myself, and a bit of a pickle. I am fond of pickles, and appreciate exuberant spirits. There is something very charming in that freedom from care, that recklessness of consequences, and that mischievous disposition, which characterizes boys. It was very natural, now, of those urchins, who have accidentally broken my glass, to have been testing their projective powers; and it is a comfort to reflect that the apertures they have made in my roof will materially increase the ventilation of my house, – no mean factor, I am told, in the product of orchard-house success.

"Black. The leaves that have made their appearance look queer. What makes them seem as if they had been twisted in curl-papers? Why, I declare, they are covered with aphides! Whence did they all spring from, I wonder? It is of no use killing off one when a thousand come to his funeral. No wonder flies were considered one of the plagues of Egypt. I will make instant arrangements for giving my house a thorough fumigation.

"White. Others are quite as much bothered with insects as I am. Is there not comfort in the thought? I cannot help feeling glad that so many innocent creatures have been indebted to me for the jolly time they have had of it. Why, my house must have been to them a perfect Elysium. My man, who, bellows in hand, is busy in the work of fumigation, must have the lungs of a rhinoceros to stand that smoke: he seems to like it; for he has a pipe in his mouth as well. The smoke almost stifled me, and the one whiff I had of it sufficed to convince me of its necessarily fatal effects upon entomological existence."

And so on to the end of the chapter. White gets the better of it, as is always the case where one is determined to succeed.

The determination to succeed is success half achieved.