The Cyclamen are all naturally handsome, flowers of which any one would be proud to have a bouquet. Latterly the skill of the florist has added

brilliancy of color. No power could improve the form of the flower: it is perfection. Admirably adapted to parlor-culture, they have ever been favorites.

The species mostly grown, and those represented in our figure, are C. Persicum and its varieties. It is winter-blooming, and flowers and leaves are seen together; many kinds blooming before the leaves appear, which detracts from the beauty of the plant.

The root is a flattish tuber, with a black, rough, wrinkled skin, studded all over with minute knobs: from the top of this proceed the leaves and flowers in a close tuft, or in larger bulbs in several bunches; and from the sides and base, a few roots.

The tubers should be planted in sandy loam in October, placed in at moderately warm position, and slightly watered. When they begin to grow, give plenty of sun, light, and free air, keeping them near the glass. The pots used should be rather small, - about twice the diameter of the tubers, and must be well drained. The plants should be kept moist, but not wet, and will bloom from February to May. When the bloom has faded, the plants should be gradually dried off, and allowed to rest until the season of repotting. A good way, when the leaves have faded, is to bury the pots, with the tubers, two feet or more deep in the garden, taking them up and repotting when the season arrives.

Seed ripens freely, and should be sown in shallow pans as soon as ripe. It vegetates freely, and seedlings may be forced to bloom in a year with ordinary treatment, they bloom the third year. A curious provision of Nature is shown in this plant: the flower-stalk, as soon as the bloom is past, curls into graceful spiral coils, and buries the seed in the earth; there it ripens, and then comes forth.

The original colors of C. Persicum are white, tipped with purplish crimson and but the skill of the florist now gives us white, purple. pure white; pink, and all the varying shades.

C. Europæum has pink or reddish flowers, on rather short foot-stalks, which are produced in spring before the flowers, and is hardy even as far north as Boston. C. coum resembles the last species in flower.

There are other species; but they are rather of interest to the botanist than the florist.

We had almost forgotten to say that the foliage of many of the plants is exquisitely marbled, and the leaves are no less attractive than the flowers. E. S. R., Jun.

GLEN RIDGE, July, 1867.

CRYPTOMERIA JAPONICA. This a very ornamental, distinct-looking tree, where the plants happen to have assumed a good habit; but sometimes they make only a straggling, naked growth, and have a poor and mean appearance. I have several trees of different habits, and of heights varying from twenty to thirty feet, some very nicely shaded ornamental trees, and one in particular of noble aspect, branched to the earth's surface so thickly, that the bole of the tree cannot be seen without putting the branches aside. This tree, unfortunately, a few years since, had nine feet of its head smashed off by a terrible south-east gale; but by tying its upper branches down, and loading them with stones, it started the second year, a vigorous leader, which has since gone ahead in a most luxuriant manner, putting out its side-branches as it proceeded, so vigorously, that the tree has now almost grown into its natural pyramidal shape, with a bole of four feet in circumference, and a diameter of branches of from twenty-six to twenty-eight feet. It has borne cones for years, and many fine plants of beautiful, close, thick habit have been raised; and even these latter have themselves produced cones.

The cryptomeria is a plant that cones at an early age, and very freely. The cones are about the size of a morello-cherry, blunt, and rather globular in shape. The male catkins are formed in autumn, in great abundance, in the axils of the leaves. The cones first appear at the ends of the branches in the winter months, and are in full bloom in March and April. On a sunny, windy day, the pollen may be seen to fly about as if a dusty bag had been shaken. The cones grow very fast, and soon reach their mature size. They become ripe in September, and are full of seed; but they soon burst open and shed the seeds, which

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are small and flattish, of a dull-brown color. The male catkins, when fully developed, are yellow, about half the size and length of a good-sized oat

corn.

Our experience here fully proves that by selecting the seed from well-shaped, fine-habited trees, the plants raised from them will fully maintain the superior habit. It is therefore desirable to propagate only from such as these.-Florist.

SLUGS AND WOOD-LICE. - Slugs are best caught by searching for them at night with a lantern. Wood-lice are not easily caught. Their numbers may be considerably diminished by placing a boiled potato in a little hay at the bottom of a flower-pot, and laying the pot on its side near their haunts at night. In the morning, shake the wood-lice out of the hay into boiling water. A number of potatoes may be cut through the middle, the inside scooped out a little, and the pieces placed at night, hollow side downwards, near the haunts of the wood-lice. In the morning the insects will be found secreted under the potatoes, and may easily be destroyed in boiling water. These traps will last a long time. For slugs, fresh cabbage-leaves may be laid at night near the plants eaten; and, early in the morning, the slugs may be found secreted under them. The leaves should be replaced every night by fresh ones.

PENTSTEMONS. These have much improved of late years. Not only has variety of form and color been secured, but the size of the flower has gone on increasing; and latterly a very great advance has been made by the expansion of the limb segments, which gives to the flowers altogether a bolder character. Some of the new Continental sorts leave the varieties of former years very far behind as regards size and form, while they show also a manifest improvement in foliage and habit. They possess, moreover, what is very desirable in the case of flower-garden plants, - a vigorous habit and hardy constitution. The following varieties are among the cream of the novelties in question, and all first-class flowers: Alfred de Musset, reddish-crimson, with beautifully pencilled throat; Edmond About, scarlet, with large white throat; Georges Sand, bright purplishlilac, with large white pencilled throat; Indispensable, tinted rosy white, throat veined with rich crimson; John Booth, rich crimson-carmine, with beautiful pure white throat; L'Africaine, white, tinged with lilac-violet, handsome throat; Mélaine Lalaulette, fine delicate rose, fringed with carmine, white pencilled throat, dwarf habit, extra; Pauline Dumont, light rosy crimson, with white pencilled throat; Souvenir de Matthieu Pernet, amaranth-purple, throat white, veined with crimson; Souvenir St. Paul, rich purplish-crimson, with white pencilled throat; Surpasse Victor Hugo, fine reddish-scarlet, with pure white throat, extra.

RIVINA LEVIS CULTURE. - This native of the West Indies was cultivated by Philip Miller more than a century since: yet is not so well known as it deserves; for, of fruit-bearing plants adapted for decorating the dinner-table, I would give the preference to it. The plant produces a great number of elegant drooping racemes, four inches in length, of beautiful scarlet berries, throughout the

autumn, winter, and spring months: indeed, its value cannot be overrated. A shilling packet of seed (which we had true from Messrs. Barr and Sugden), sown in April, will produce plants which will fruit well from the following autumn.

The seed readily vegetates in a cucumber-frame; and, when the plants are about an inch high, they should be potted singly in thumb-pots. When well established, they should be shifted into 32-sized pots, in which they will fruit abundantly. In the following spring, if larger plants are required, they may be shifted into 24-sized pots, in which they will produce an immense number of fruit, which is exceedingly useful for garnishing grapes and other fruits, and also for mixing amongst cut flowers for vases. A few sprigs mixed amongst white camellias, white primulas, and other flowers, for bouquets, give a most enchanting appearance.

The soil which the plants require is peat, with a little loam and sand, well blended together; and they may be grown either as standards, pyramids, or bushes. A warm greenhouse or stove suits them best from October till March; and, in the summer months, they will grow well in a cold pit or in the open air.John Perkins, in Cottage Gardener.

A ZONALE PELARGONIUM may now be seen in the garden of the city of Paris, at Passy, which produces rose-colored and scarlet flowers in about equal proportions on the same plant. The rose-colored are like Christine, and the others are of a brilliant scarlet: there are some, too, which may be called intermediate, being of a deep red. On several of the rose-colored trusses, there is here and there a solitary scarlet flower. The plant is a seedling of 1865; and the young plants that are propagated from it maintain the same remarkable characteristics.

We gladly insert the following article. The waste of fertilizing material is very great; and any one who aids in calling attention to the subject, and shows how waste material may be utilized, is a public benefactor.

RUBBISH-HEAPS. I have generally two or three rubbish-heaps, which I treat differently; and much future labor as respects weeds would be avoided, were they always kept distinct by the workmen. The first or regular rubbishheap, the never-failing help to the kitchen-garden and the rougher flower-borders, consists of the remains of all vegetables and plants that are useless for other purposes, balls of temporary plants that are of no more use, weeds that are seeding, and, from the lawn, short grass that is not needed for heating-purposes or mixing with litter. By this time of the year, there are generally two such heaps; and much of their future utility depends on the mixing of their constituents, and when, as in the case of much green grass being added, there is considerable heating, on the covering all over with a coating of the most earthy part, to keep, as much as possible, all gases from escaping. This can scarcely be done in the additions that are made day by day, as there will be baskets of this, and barrow-loads of that, thrown down in the easiest emptyingplace. If these heaps are near the working-sheds, all work connected with them may well be done between the showers in such uncertain weather as that