young foliage springs from the top of this novel flower-vase, and entirely conceals the bulb. In this way, many pretty effects may be produced. The treatment is the same required by bulbs in glasses.

In Moss.

- Pots or glasses may be filled with moss, and bulbs grow very prettily therein. The treatment is the same as that required by bulbs in earth. A very pretty way is to make a ball of moss, fill it with bulbs, wire it round, and hang it in a warm, light place; occasionally turning it to make an even growth, and dipping it in water when it gets dry. The shoots of the bulbs will cover the moss, and the roots will run through the inside. The Jacobean lily (Sprekelia, or Amaryllis formosissimus), grown in this way, blooms beautifully, and is a fine summer ornament.

In Sand. This mode is popular, as sand is cleaner than earth, and the contrast of the white sand and green leaves is very pleasing. The only care necessary is to see that the sand contains no salt, and that it never becomes dry. The other treatment is the same required by bulbs grown in earth.

Crocus-Pots. Crocus are often grown in fancy china-pots, representing porcupines. They are planted so that the leaves may represent the quills of the animal. The pots may be filled with earth, moss, or sand, and treated as directed for bulbs thus grown. The great difficulty is to produce an even growth, the effect generally being a porcupine with quills in a very dilapidated condition; and therefore this mode of growth is not now so popular as formerly. — “Bulbs," by E. S. Rand, Jun.

SALVIA PATENS. What a splendid bed this fine old plant makes! Large beds, when well filled, soon become masses of intense blue, and are then very striking objects. This is one of those sterling plants that ought to be in every garden. Though not quite hardy, it is one of those plants that can be preserved through the winter by every one. Towards the middle of October, a dry day should be chosen for lifting the roots all the old flower-stems should be cut clean off, and all the loose soil shaken off the roots. They should then be laid for a few days to dry; and afterwards be packed away in a box, putting some dry sandy soil between the roots. The box may be put away in any convenient place where the frost cannot enter, and may remain there without further care until the following spring. Early in March, the roots should be taken out of the box, potted, and placed in a warm pit or vinery, where they will speedily begin to grow, so as to furnish cuttings if an increase of stock be desired. Cuttings strike very readily in heat; and if potted off as soon as rooted, and stopped and shifted into larger pots when necessary, they make fine plants for turning out in beds towards the end of May. The easy way in which this plant can be kept through the winter is a great recommendation in its favor to all lovers of gardening, and particularly to those who have only very limited space for keeping plants in winter, and who require all the room they have for variegated pelargoniums and tender bedding-plants. Salvia patens, when well grown in pots, makes a fine plant for the conservatory, and lasts a long time in flower. Young plants should be chosen and kept well stopped back to make specimens, and should have liberal pot-room. — Florist.

We extract from the letter of a Western correspondent, dated June, 1867, the following items about native plants :

"The violets (Viola pedata) were beautiful beyond description two weeks ago. If these I send prove true to their professions, some of them will be nearly pure white, some pansy-petaled, and all very large.

"This violet (V. pedata) has tried my love more than any Western plant, serving me as Cypripedium acaule and Rhododendron used to do in my Eastern home. They would do well enough for one year: they rarely appeared after that. This violet will not stay where there is any thing commonplace, abhors 'fussing,' and is in several respects an exception among social plants. I hope it will be friendly to you. I have put my spring-planting in a place which will not be disturbed by rakes or rollers, to give it another trial.

"I wish you could have seen the four or five acres of violets from which these were taken. And yesterday I wished every lover of flowers could see the ladyshoes (Cypripedia) as I saw them at home. One side of the marsh where the white infant-socks (Cypripedium candidum) are found has a belt of woodland, large oaks and hickory-trees, throwing a deep shade over a strip of meadow half a dozen rods in width. The sward was gay with yellow-slippers (Cypripedium pubescens), the largest and most fragrant I ever saw; and in the wind they seemed giving fantastic kind of welcome to the only admirer they ever had seen.

"Seven years ago, I gathered them in the same spot, without remarking their abundance: now they were thick as dandelions.

"I brought home from my journey after C. candidum a treasure of ostrich fern (Struthiopteris Germanica); this season being just what they need for their perfecting a root of this is a picture from tropic suggestions. My specimens, I do believe, beat Brazil! Fifteen or twenty fronds from one root, and these a yard and a half high! I have almost divided a Sunday between admiring them and my little Allosorus, obtained a week earlier, and already fruiting.

"J. C. C."

Good Wine. — Messrs. Editors,—In a recent very brief horticultural excursion, it was my good fortune to have an opportunity of tasting, and critically testing, side by side, a number of samples of the very choicest foreign and American wines; and the conclusions I reached with regard to the different kinds seem to me worthy to be noted down. The wines criticised were Concord, Ives's Seedling, Catawba of Mottier's most famous vintage, a good Burgundy, an excellent claret, a Hockheimer of undoubted purity, Steinberg wine brought by a trusty person direct from the cellar of the Steinberg vineyard, and last, though not least, two samples of pure Iona wine.

The Concord, in my opinion, stood at the bottom of the list, with the Ives's Seedling next above it; both of them, in comparison with better varieties, coarse, rough, and very far below Mottier's Catawba. This last, the Catawba, was rich and delicate, with only the least possible "tang" of the foxy, native flavor.

The Hockheimer was superior to the Catawba, but inferior to the almost priceless Steinberg wine; this last, in my judgment, reaching the highest degree of excellence.

The Iona wine was as good as the Steinberger in all respects. This statement may excite derision among those who have not tasted the fermented juice of the Iona; but it is, in my judgment, a simple, indisputable fact. I had no idea before that any American grape could produce wine so pure, rich, and delicate, and with so exquisite a bouquet, as the samples I tasted; but, as Sairy Gamp observes, "facts are stubborn things, and won't be drove."

There may be better American wines than that which the Iona produces; but it has not been my good luck thus far to meet any native wine which combined so many good qualities as the samples of which I am speaking.

If we can have wine like this, we need not grieve that we cannot raise the Kiesling Grape; nor need we envy Prince Metternich and the Duke of Nassau. J. M. M., Jun.

[We publish the above communication from one of our valued correspondents, without doubt of its being his impartial judgment in the matter. Tastes differ so much, that many will be found to dissent from his conclusions. There can be no doubt that the Iona, when grown under favorable circumstances, possesses more of the qualities of a good wine-grape than any variety now cultivated in this country. Our country is so large, that it seems impossible that any variety can be produced, that can be recommended for general cultivation, and prove, in all sections, superior to all other varieties; and it is absurd for the originator of any grape to make such a claim: while it is equally absurd for one who has failed with the variety in a certain locality to condemn it altogether.]

THE MAUPAY TOMATO. Of all the tomatoes I have yet grown, I think the Maupay the best. In addition to this variety, I planted, the present season, Keyes's Early, Extra-early Red, Lester's Perfected, Feejee Island, and Tilden. The Keyes was planted the earliest, and had the greatest care in forcing, as well as the most favorable position in planting. With all these advantages, it only ripened about a week before the Maupay, and was greatly inferior to the latter in size, productiveness, and quality. The Maupay I find of large size, very smooth, seldom corrugated, bright-red color, very solid and heavy, with few seeds, and excellent flavor. With the same care, I think it would have ripened as early as the Keyes, and from two to three weeks earlier than any other of the above-named kinds. G. W. Campbell.

DELAWARE, O., Aug. 12, 1867.

THE CLARKE RASPBERRY. This new variety has this season fruited finely here, and given great satisfaction. It is of large size; handsome, bright-red color; in flavor equal to the very best; and of sufficient firmness to bear carriage well. Its crowning excellence, however, is its perfect hardiness. In several perfectly exposed locations, it endured twenty-five degrees below zero last winter entirely unprotected, and came out in the spring wholly uninjured. It seems also very productive, and remains long in bearing. All things considered, I regard it as the most valuable raspberry within my knowledge. DELAWARE, O.

G. W. Campbell.

LARGE VINE. Mr. J. A. Watson mentions in "The Gardener's Chronicle " a large vine growing on Mount Salevi, in Switzerland, which has been found to increase in size of stem at the rate of an inch annually. In March, 1867, the circumference of the stem at four feet from the ground was a hundred and fourteen centimetres, or three feet ten inches English. The branches have covered and monopolized several large trees, and have had no pruning nor care of any kind for years: still the produce last year was four hundred bottles of first-class red wine. This, at Is. a bottle, is £20 sterling; and, calculating the number of square yards covered by the vine, is at the rate of over £300 sterling per

acre.

THE GOODALE PEAR. This variety was introduced by S. L. Goodale of Saco, Me., who sent it to the Fruit Committee of the Massachusetts Horticultural

Society in 1864. It was raised from a seed of the M'Laughlin by E. Goodale of Saco. The tree is a good grower, and quite healthy and hardy. The fruit, as will be seen from the engraving, is of large size, sometimes weighing ten or

twelve ounces; form oblong-obovate, large at base, and somewhat contracted in the middle, quite blunt at stem-end; skin smooth, very handsome when ripe, being yellow with bright red on the sunny side; flesh yellowish-white, fine

grained, quite juicy, and of good quality; stem short, eye small, closed, in a slight plaited basin. Ripe, October. Should be picked and ripened in house; very promising.

THE RANUNCULUS.

It has always been a question with florists as to what soil is best suited to this plant. While any good, light soil will bloom the ranunculus, care in the preparation of a suitable bed is rewarded by increased size and beauty of flower, both in form, color, and substance.

A compost which is sure to grow them well may be thus prepared: Cut from a good loamy pasture the surface sods, three inches thick: let these be piled one on another in ridges for a year, and then sliced down with a sharp spade to form a crumbly mass. Turn this over carefully, and pick out all wire-worms, grubs, and insects. Then pile it all into a heap again, and let it remain another year; by which time, all the grass and herbage will have resolved itself into