The Of the other varieties of Stocks he produces so finely, I am most wedded to the Pyramidal section, especially the two colours-violet and scarlet. former is indeed violet, not the washy lilac shade one often sees; his colour is a deep violet purple, with a distinct shade of bright blue. Any pale-coloured plants are withdrawn, and consigned to the refuse heap as soon as they betray their presence. They are grown in a moderately rich, but good, holding soil, and sometimes are treated to a little manure water. In dry weather they are copiously watered, and as this is invariably an inevitable necessity, they are planted in slightly sunken drills in order that the water may not be wasted. I have called attention to this old-fashioned, yet thoroughly good and domestic flower, because it has receded into oblivion as far as the horticultural press is concerned. New things, that too often mean worthless things, crowd them out, or else eccentric lucubrations which move one to pity most heartily both writer and readers. I both wish and try to move with the times, but I cannot keep pace with a great deal that passes current as modern horticulture. I must, therefore, lag behind; but I press closely to my heart many of the old-fashioned flowers that had a charm for me in my youth, and have not robbed me of it in my age, and foremost among these stands that thoroughly English and popular flower that heads this paper. DACTYLIS GLOMERATA VARIEGATA. ADAM. I ANTICIPATE that this elegant liliputian Grass will be extensively employed for edging-purposes when more plentiful. Whether in beds or ribbonborders it cannot fail to be admired, being graceful in the extreme; moreover, it is of easy culture, and will succeed out of doors without protection in ordinary seasons. The least portion of the roots will grow readily at any season. I pot separately in pots of the smallest size, using ordinary soil, and the pieces strike at once, soon filling the pots with roots. I then divide again until I secure a sufficient stock. This Grass, I believe, will be at home in the moist districts of Ireland and Scotland, where it will luxuriate in a far greater degree than we are in the habit of seeing it in the south. Wrotham Park, Barnet. JOHN EDLINGTON. INTERNATIONAL HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION AND BOTANICAL CONGRESS. THOSE of our London friends who have occasion to visit South Kensington will have observed how rapidly is being raised the building, or rather tent, in which the Exhibition is to be held. A" monster tent," indeed, it is to be; it must be so, when it is remembered that space is computed for the circulation of 15,000 visitors, independent of mounds, and banks, and borders of plants, &c., that will be arranged within the tent. All other flower shows that have preceded it in Great Britain dwindle into insignificance when compared with the huge proportions of this one. The Executive have their hands pretty well full by this time, and as the time for holding the Exhibition draws closer, the tax on their time and energies will be considerably increased. The engagements of the week may be briefly summed up thus:-Tuesday, the 22nd, Opening Day of the Exhibition and grand Banquet at the Guildhall, at which the Right Hon. The Lord Mayor of London will preside, and which will be served to a very distinguished company on a scale of great magnifi cence. The guests will be limited to six hundred, in order that the comfort of each shall be insured. On Wednesday morning the Botanical Congress will open in the Raphael Cartoon-room, at South Kensington Museum, under the presidency of that distinguished European botanist, M. Alphonse De Candolle, of Geneva. A large number of foreign botanists and horticulturists will be present, and a number of papers have already been furnished to the Congress Secretary. On the evening of Wednesday a Conversazione will be held at the South Kensington Museum, which, together with the Raphael Cartoon-room, has been liberally and kindly placed at the disposal of the Executive Committee by Her Majesty's Government. The suitability of the place is so apparent that it needs no commendation, and the numberless articles of interest stored there. together with the picture-galleries, &c., will be valuable auxiliaries to such a gathering. On Thursday, the 24th, a Horticultural Dinner on a very extensive scale will take place at St. Martin's Hall. This, though not promoted by the Executive Committee of the International Horticultural Exhibition, has their entire sanction, and is regarded by them as a valuable adjunct to their engagements. This dinner is promoted in order to give an opportunity for those of the nurserymen, gardeners, and amateurs from the provinces and in the metropolis to meet together at the "festive board." The movement promises to be a great success, is being extensively patronised, and will be carried out in a very spirited manner. The Committee of Management will shortly publish their programme. On Friday morning there will be another Sitting of Congress, and probably it will be continued on Saturday. The Conversazione which was to have been held on the evening of Fray has been definitively abandoned, owing to the multiplicity of engagements already and in course of being contracted. Besides the special invitations that have been issued to distinguished foreigners allied to botany and horticulture, a great number of other invitations have been issued, a large proportion of which have been accepted. Delegates will also be present from several of the continental Governments, some of which have already named the gentlemen who will represent them. That the weather will be propitious is the earnest desire of all who look forward with interest to this great meeting, and also that the movement should be a pecuniary success is not the less earnestly hoped for. On the opposite page is a ground plan and cross-section of the Exhibition tent, which is 30 feet in height, 563 feet in length, and 293 feet in width, thus covering a superficies of more than 32 acres. Of this area about 55,000 square feet will be devoted to plants arranged on turf-banks and mounds, and 60,000 square feet for promenades, which, as stated above, will allow space for 15,000 visitors at one time. For the Orchids and other tender plants a division 500 feet in length and 40 in width has been set apart, and every precaution has been taken not only to insure a sufficiently high temperature whatever the weather may prove, but also to secure that which is not less essential to their safety, a due amount of ventilation. The beautiful design, according to which the ground has been laid out, is due to Mr. Gibson, the Superintendent of Battersea Park, assisted by his son, Mr. John Gibson, jun., and the whole of the works have been carried out under his active supervision, and this gratuitously given, and pursued with that energy and perseverance which he brings to bear on all which he undertakes. Viewed merely in outline, the graceful curves of the design have an excellent effect; what, then, will this be when those mounds and valleys are covered with the most choice of all that is beautiful in flower, and leaf, and fruit, gathered together not only from every corner of our own country, but from all parts of Europe as well? JOTTINGS AT EXHIBITIONS. Ar a recent meeting of the Floral Committee some very handsome varieties of Sparaxis were produced by Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea. They had been received by them from the Continent under the name of Ixia sp., and had been simply grown in a cold frame. They are of great beauty, and should they become distributed, will be great favourites, as they deserve to be. At the same meeting was shown, by Mr. Watson, of St. Albans, one of the tricoloured varieties of variegated Geraniums, named Miss Watson, the leaves being green, deeply edged with yellow, and having a striking zone of crimson. It appeared a very desirable variety. 66 At a recent Saturday Show a collection of Apples and Pears in a wonderful state of preservation, was sent by Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth. As showing they are good keepers at least, a list of the varieties may be advantageously appended. Apples: Cockle Pippin, Betty Geeson, Forge, Belle d'Angers, Lamb Abbey Pearmain, Mela Carla, Rhode Island Greening, Baxter's Pearmain, Reinette Diel, Newtown Pippin, Dominiska, and Pearson's Plate. Of Pears: Colmar Van Mons, Morel, Madame Millet, Easter Beurré, Beurré Brétonneau, Beurré Perreau, Bellissime d'Hiver, and Bezi Mai. On the third Saturday in April there were exhibited at South Kensington, by Mr. William Miller, of Combe Abbey Gardens, Coventry, four bunches of Lady Downe's Grape, which were cut from the Vine on the 9th of April, having been hanging ripe since the 1st of September last, thus being preserved for a space of nearly eight months. Many of the berries were plump and full, and the colour good. With them were also shown some bunches of Foster's White Seedling from pot-grown plants, which had fruited in a Pine-stove in a continuous high temperature. The Vines were placed in the stove about the 1st of December, having thus fruited in a little over four months. R. D. LIFTING FRUIT TREES. ALTHOUGH the practice of removing fruit trees with the view of limiting growth and inducing fruitfulness is not new, having been advocated by Mr. Rivers for many years past, and extensively adopted, yet the following system detailed by Mr. George Lee, of Clevedon, near Bristol, in the last Part of the "Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society," differs materially from that recommended by Mr. Rivers. The account of it given in that publication is of considerable interest as showing how even large fruit trees may be removed with safety and advantage, and we therefore extract the particulars, with but slight abridgement, merely adding that Mr. Lee has frequently given proofs of his success as a cultivator, in the fine samples of fruits which he has more than once exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society's Shows. "The soil is cleared off in a circle round the tree, 5, 6, 8, or more feet in diameter (according to the height or size of the tree), down to the roots; a trench is then dug sufficiently deep, three-fourths or more round, leaving only about two or three roots on one side undisturbed. The trench is dug round with a spade to cut off any roots which may have gone beyond, and the soil is worked from between the roots into the trench with a fork (this should be done with some care not to bruise or cripple the roots), and thrown out of the trench with a spade as it becomes full. In this way you get with comparative ease at any roots which may have gone perpendicularly, and are able to dig sufficiently deep to get them up long enough to turn horizontally, which is of great importance, for if these roots are cut short off they are almost certain except they are very large ones, to strike perpendicularly again. The soil thus cleared out and the roots all free (except those which have been left undisturbed), the tree is turned over on the side on which the roots are left. "The next time they are lifted, the roots thus left are cut off, and the tree is turned the opposite way. Thus, if the roots are left on the west side this time, they will be left on the east next, and so on alternately. "I find on lifting a large tree, which has not been previously lifted, that some regard should be paid to the prevailing strong winds. Thus if the prevailing strong winds are from the west, the roots should be left the first time of lifting on the west side; but it does not much matter if we begin with small trees, supposing the trees are in single rows, running north and south; the best way then would be to turn them east and west. But suppose there are double, or treble, or more rows, and they run north and south, then it will be necessary to turn them at some other angle, so that the tops and branches may be as free as possible from coming in contact with other trees, say N.E. or S.W. "The greater part of my trees, which have been lifted several times, would, if taken entirely out of the ground, stand on the surface without any support, and it would take quite a strong breeze to upset them, and, I think, the labour is amply compensated by the superior crop of fruit, both as to quality and quantity. Perhaps I ought to speak more strongly than this, for I consider the crop pays several times over the expenses. But for my experience in lifting (for which I am indebted to Mr. Rivers; for although my method differs materially from his, yet it has been suggested by it, and but for his I should never have thought of mine)-my trees, more than 2000 in number, would have been almost valueless, from my having to clear off my present garden for building-purposes; whereas now I might sell many of them for from 10s. to 40s. each. "I will now first give the dimensions of a few trees of my own working, which have been practised upon from their second or third year. "I begin early in the season and continue till the spring, as I lift many hundreds every season; but I begin with the ripest first, generally Cherries, always choosing the mildest, but especially moderately dry weather (I find the trees suffer if lifted in very wet weather), and in filling-in, I never tread down the soil, and rarely have one blow over, not more than one in eighty or ninety. "I begin on very young trees, say the second year after planting, and I generally plant maiden or sometimes two-year-old trees; and if we begin so early there are no large roots taking a perpendicular direction. Great care is taken in pruning the roots while the tree is on its side and laying them carefully in, keeping them as directly out from the tree as possible, so as eventually to form a circle, and the soil is carefully worked over and levelled with a fork. The depth of the hole must be regulated as well as the width by the size or height of the tree; but none of the roots, even of large trees, are above 15 or 16 inches deep, and of those which have been commenced with young (although they may now be large) not more than about 10 or 12 inches. They do not require any support in any one season to prevent their getting blown over-a circumstance which I consider of great importance. If trees are begun with when young and lifted carefully, they soon have an abundance of roots, and their lifting is very little check to them, except in making wood, and even this can be regulated at pleasure. "In the following list of trees which I have lifted successfully, it will be observed that, though the process was commenced when they were very young, their growth was not much hindered. The height is given from the surface of the soil. The spread is taken at about 3 or 4 feet from the ground. The age |