vegetating. It seems to follow, therefore, that if it be found one year that the best potato crop was obtained by planting on the 4th of November, being the first day the gooseberry-leaves had all fallen, and that the following year the leaves of the same tree did not fall until the 20th of November, that in such case the potato planting ought until then to be delayed, for, as M. Barck observes, "No one can deny but that the same influences which bring forth the leaves of trees will also make grain vegetate; and no one can justly assert that a premature sowing will always and everywhere accelerate a ripe harvest."

We beg leave to explain that our illustration by potato planting is a mere assumption, and that we do not intend to advance that the fall of the leaf of the gooseberry and potato planting ought to be simultaneous: we only throw out the suggestion for others to confirm or to refute by observation and experiment, adding only thus much, that Mr. Stillingflect, one of the most careful of Nature's observers, says, that in his time "the prudent gardener never ventured to put his greenhouse plants out until the mulberry leaf was of a certain growth."

Returning to the consideration of the requisites necessary for the healthy germination of seed, we next may observe, that as no seed will germinate without a certain degree of heat is present, so also does it require that a certain quantity of water be in contact with its outer skin or integument, and this is required not only to soften this covering, and thus permit the enlargement of the cotyledons (seed lobes) always preceding germination, but also to afford that water to the internal components of the seed, without which the chemical changes necessary for the nutriment of the embryo plant will not take place.

Pure water, or some other liquid of which it is a large constituent, is absolutely necessary; no other fluid will advance germination a single stage. The quantity of water, necessary to be present before germination will proceed, varies much. The seeds of some aquatic plants require to be completely and constantly submerged in water; others, natives of dry soils and warm climates, will germinate if merely exposed to a damp atmosphere, of which the Spanish and Horse chesnut afford ready examples; but the far larger majority of seeds require and germinate most healthily in contact with that degree of moisture which a fertile soil retains only by its chemical and capillary attraction. If the soil be inefficiently drained, and there is, consequently, a superfluity of stagnant water, the seeds either decay without germinating, or germinate unhealthily. This arises neither merely from its keeping them in an ungenial temperature, nor only from the usual tendency of excessive moisture to promote putrefaction; but also because the vegetable decomposing matters in a soil, where water is superabundant, give out carburettedhydrogen with acetic and gallic acids-compounds

unfavourable to the vegetation of most cultivated plants, whilst the evolution of carbonic acid and ammonia is prevented, which two bodies are benificial to the embryo plant.

WE are reminded by the calendar to-day of one of our favourite bulbous flowers, the TIGRIDIA PAVONIA, of which there are two or three forms in the seed shops; they are called species by some, and are as much entitled to such distinction as many others. The second form of the Tigridia is more dwarf than the old one, and orange yellow where the old one is red; the beautiful markings are much the same in both kinds. The name of this second species is Tigridia conchiflora, or shell flowered; and the third form of this plant is called "superba," though not so handsome as the other two; it is more in the way of the old Tigridia, with less brilliant colours, and in stature is intermediate between the two. We also learn from some excellent papers by Dr. Mc Lean, in late numbers of the "Florist and Garden Miscellany," that he has succeeded in raising cross seedlings between these tigridias, or tiger flowers. We hope this may be so, and we should very much wish to hear of others following his example; perhaps our coadjutor, Mr. Beaton, will enter the lists here. He has said that these tigridias require some such treatment as he described for the Tuberose, and it is for this reason that we now more particularly allude to them, as we are assured that not one out of a hundred succeed in keeping all their bulbs of them over the winter. This failure is caused by taking them up too early in the autumn. These bulbs do not ripen in our climate by the time they are overtaken by the early frosts; nor do they require a lengthened period of rest like many other bulbs. Therefore, what we would recommend for them is this, that they should be left in the ground till about the commencement of the new year, with dry leaves, or some kind of thatch, to keep the earth about them from freezing, then to take them up and dry them thoroughly and to pot them, about the middle of February, three in a 5-inch pot. They should then be placed in a warm situation, such as a cucumber bed, till their leaves are well up above the soil, then to be removed to a cool greenhouse, pit, or window, till the spring frosts are over. They may be planted out then in beds, or borders, with the balls entire, and the surface of the balls to be an inch or so below that of the bed.

THE FRUIT-GARDEN.

THE STRAWBERRY IN-DOORS.-We are now too late to offer advice about the culture of the plants as a preparatory step to their successful forcing; indeed, this part of the ground has been gone over in previous numbers in another department of THE ĈOTTAGE GARDEner. As, however, practices slightly differ, we shall, in due time, have a good deal to say about it; for no mode of forcing can prove successful with bad plants which have been improperly treated.

The first point to which we would draw attention | at this period, is the protection of the plants until wanted for forcing; for this is a most material point of the business, and many a lot of fine plants have proved barren for want of precautions in this way; whilst the owners would be completely puzzled to divine the cause. This often happened in former days, when the pots were set down in any out-of-the-way corner, to be dried up, or frozen, as the case might be, until scarcely a live root remained to commence operations with; yet, at the same time, they might possess strong looking buds; these, however, were the produce of former agencies. Hence one fertile cause of the anamolous appearances they frequently carried, and which the gardener of the olden time used to term "going blind;" and, on inquiring the reason, we used to be thus answered: "There's no accounting for it-they're apt to do it in some seasons.' make farther inquiries after such an answer was, of course, considered impertinence; and many a one, in our younger days, stuck fast contentedly in this "slough of despond," without attempting to lift a leg.

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To protect strawberries in pots, then, they must be punged, as gardeners term it; that is to say, immersed in soil, sand, ashes, or tan, down to the very rims of the pots. The object is to preserve the tender fibres from the vicissitudes of the wintry air; and this the plunging accomplishes, and indeed something more, as we will endeavour to show. It is well known that the earth and the atmosphere borrow, at certain periods, of each other; they do not, however, like some parties, repudiate their debts, but pay them back in the most scrupulous way, as all good agents should do. Thus, during one half the year-perhaps in May, say from April to September-the earth borrows of the sun; or, in other words, the ground heat increases or accumulates during that period. Towards, however, the period of the "equinoctial gales," the reverse takes place; heat-solar heat-is no longer absorbed, but the borrowed store of what may be termed natural bottom heat, is progressively restroed to the atmosphere by a process which our learned men term "radiation;" that is, the air being colder than the earth, the heat from the latter passes off into the air. Towards March, these things being not far from a state of equilibrium, a balance is struck, and the accounts opened anew, in the language of our commercial friends. So that it will be seen, as we before observed, that the plunging affords protection from vicissitudes, and something more. affords a real "bottom heat," and which is of no mean service, as encouraging a small amount of root action, which acts in a very similar way to the advanced fibres in the hyacinth; for here the great desideratum is to get roots before the bud is excited. Very frequently, indeed, at the latter part of October and the early part of November, during severe weather, a thermometer at six inches in depth will give ten or more degrees in favour of the ground heat: this, then, is a consideration not to be lost sight of. Having now, we trust, established the principle, we revert to the plunging. It is essential that the ground on which they are plunged should be perfectly dry; an airy, sound, and elevated spot, therefore, must be selected. The pots should be set on the surface, and filled up between with any of the materials before named. The plants should not be crammed too close-at least the leaves should barely touch each other-and the soil beneath them should be of so porous a character that any amount of rain that may fall shall speedily find an exit.

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We must now see what should be done for the tops. Some kinds, as the British Queen, are notoriously impatient of severe frosts; whilst others, as the Kean's Seedling, are comparatively hardy. This tenderness of habit on the part of the "Queen" is indeed a serious drawback on its out-door culture, for otherwise it is doubtless one of the finest strawberries in cultivation. It is absolutely essential, then, that the tops be covered in frosty weather. Any loose dry litter, whether of straw, fern, or even bad hay, is eligible, but the more free and open the better, as any close soft material might, through laying on them during a long frost, engender mouldiness on the under side. When frost commences we would suffer them to have a night or two uncovered, if not too severe, and then, when they are slightly frozen, cover them well with the litter. We would pursue this course in order to avoid the necessity of frequent uncoverings through slight fluctuations in the weather; for as long as they could be kept unthawed there would not be the slightest occasion to uncover them. No mouldiness will engender under those conditions.

This, then, is the mode of handling pursued by all our very best gardeners, not one of whom, of any standing in his profession, will suffer them to remain unplunged or unprotected. One thing must be observed, and that is, that a little watering will at times be necessary during the autumn months. It should, however, be given rather grudgingly after this period; for, although any amount of dryness is not desirable, yet any extreme of wet or water lodgments is extremely prejudicial.

We have now handled the subject as far as the ordinary practice is concerned; we may now endeavour to assist those who would fain force forward, yet have hitherto made no preparation. The taking up strawberry plants in November from the open ground, and forcing them, although by no means the best practice, is nevertheless practicable; only one thing may be remarked-they will not bear atmospheric warmth so suddenly applied; neither, indeed, can they be forced so early as established plants—it would indeed be folly to attempt it. Those amateurs, or others, who would indulge in a hobby of the kind, should not remove their plants until the early part of December; they should be prepared with a frame, or pit, in which a little bottom heat should be provided -say a guaranteed heat of 60°, for three weeks. Some tan or other plunging material should be placed on the top, and the strawberry plants, the moment they are potted, should be plunged to the rim, and even a little over it. The soil should be moist at potting time, and we would not even "water them in," as it is termed (that is, pour water over the soil at the time of planting,) unless the plants were actually dry; but rather leave the roots somewhat porous, in order that the warm gases of the bottom heat should freely breathe through the mass.

Whilst in this frame, or pit, which may merely be considered a preparatory stage to their introduction to the hothouse or planthouse, they should be kept at a low surface temperature-the thermometer ranging from 55° highest to 45° lowest. This course is pursued in order to bring on a root-action before the buds are excited-an important point, which we before explained by referring to the bulbous tribes. It is only of late years that this principle has been recognised as it ought; and now no gardener will venture either to dispute or to slight it. As soon as Christmas is turned they may be introduced to the house, and as the change from a close and damp medium (as to the roots,) to one more airy and more dry, is

very considerable, the waterpot must be put in requisition; watering frequently but slightly at first.

We shall in a few weeks have much more advice to offer about strawberry forcing, and in the meantime we must conclude with a few general observations. At no time should they have a greater heat by artificial means than 602, if possible: we believe this to be the maximum amount to be beneficial. Of course sun heat is a different affair, especially when the plant is much advanced; still the strawberry succeeds best in a moderate temperature. They should at all times be kept as close to the glass as possible, and when once the blossom spike appears, they should never be suffered to become dry for an hour. Not that they like to be saturated; we merely mean attentive watering, for being so limited as to soil, as compared with those in the open ground, not a point may be given away. Again, liquid manure should be used from the moment the truss of blossoms begins to rise, for unless the flower stalks lengthen freely, and with vigour, it is vain to expect a good crop. The liquid manure may be commenced very weak, and increased slightly in strength as the fruit advances towards maturity, taking especial care to discontinue it the moment the first berry is observed to change colour. These, then, are the main maxims, but more advice in detail will be requisite in a few weeks. R. ERRINGTON.

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THE FLOWER-GARDEN. PLANTING. One of the greatest improvements in modern gardening is autumnal planting, and more particularly of evergreen trees and shrubs. Here we inade a beginning, for some years past, about the middle of September, and we consider it a good hit when we can finish by Christmas. Those who have planted thus early will not willingly put off to a later period in after years. This has been one of the best autumns for early planting that I recollect. ground was warm and the weather very mild — no heavy blustering winds to toss about newly-planted things, and the early rains at the beginning of October were abundant, and as warm as on a May day, so that fresh loosened soil was soaked through and through, thus carrying the finer particles of it down into any open spaces that might have been left about the roots; and no doubt, by this time, fresh healthy roots are formed in abundance from the sides and cut ends of the larger roots of our transplanted trees or shrubs. As, however, a good deal of planting is still unfinished, and, in the majority of places, not yet begun, or, may be, not much thought about, I am still in good time to lay down a few rules which may be useful to young planters. We often learn as useful instruction from the results of bad practice, as from details of the most perfect operations or the most scientific bearing of a question relating to the operations of the gardener. Indeed, were we candid enough to avow our errors and record them, I am not sure if that would not be, at times, the best portion of our instructions. At any rate I shall here record, in the first place, how I was first taught to plant a tree: a hole being made large enough to hold the roots, and as deep as would allow of the tree being planted as far in the ground as it formerly stood, the roots were spread evenly on the bottom, and then a few spadesful of soil thrown over them; the tree or bush was now shook up and down and, may be, sideways, in order that the soil should crumble down among the roots; a few more spadesful thrown in, and another shake or two, and

so on till the hole was quite full; then two or three stamps with the foot were given, to steady the plant, and this barbarous work or mischief-which you will -was finished. Let us now analyse this process from beginning to end, and see what we can make of it. In the first place, the hole was large enough to hold the roots without cramping or twisting them round it; so far so good, but it ought to have been larger even if it had been in a piece of garden ground that had been dug and trenched times out of mind -in order to allow the new formed roots to pass on in straight lines, instead of having to grope about for a free passage, which probably they would soon find in this garden ground. But let us suppose the planting to be done in a new piece of ground that had not been disturbed for years, and the case is very different. How the young roots are to escape from a confined space in such hard soil is more than what many planters can tell, or even guess at; aud yet this is not the worst part of the tale. The roots were spread out regularly, that is, not one of them crossing another, but drawn out from the stem like linesnothing could be done better; then a little mould was thrown over them-all right and proper too; but now mad-brains will have his way-he orders the tree to be shook, to let the soil fill in among the roots. You pull it up gently, it is true; shake it two or three times, and then let it down in its place again, and the mischief is accomplished. How? You can't see it. Of course you cannot-it is below the surface; but can you not perceive that, when you pulled up the plant to shake it, all the roots followed, and, on a moderate calculation, were thus displaced full six inches; that is, their points are six inches nearer the centre of the hole than they were when we laid them down. Moreover, many of them, per chance, are as soft and as pliable as Sally's auburn hair, and they have a load of earth thrown over them. Now do you understand me? No. Well, then, when you let down the plant after shaking it, what became of those pliable roots? Why, every one of them must have been doubled up into loops, as they could not be pushed forward into their former position through the soil, unless they were made of cast iron, or something else that would not yield ; or, if they are brittle, as many roots are, they would snap like glass sooner than they could be pushed back through the soil into their former places; and thus many an honest man laid the foundation of bad diseases in his best shrubbery plants-rendering them liable to the attacks of insects-to be covered with moss and lichens, and all other casualties to which sickly or stunted plants are liable. I could instance a lot of young thorns that had been planted twelve years since, after this fashion, that have not yet made six inches of young wood, and, to this day, they look the pictures of misery and bad management. But I have said enough to warn the young planter against this way of planting, and now let us see how the thing should be done.

If the soil is at all dry at the bottom, no matter how poor it may be, it should be stirred or trenched three feet deep for garden planting-that is, for ornamental trees and shrubs, and for hedges. In the case of single plants, where a pit or hole is only required, the narrowest diameter ought to be four feet, and if the bottom soil is poor it should be removed and some good added instead; but loose soil of this description will subside in time, and if the plants are tied to stakes, as many need be to keep them firm the first year or two, the sinking of the soil from under the roots may cause them to strain, or other

wise injure them, by cracking and letting in the dry winds to them. Another evil is, that when trees thus planted sink down gradually, additional soil is placed over the roots to make the surface level, and this is equivalent to planting too deep in the first instance, and deep planting is always to be avoided. Therefore the loose or new soil beneath the roots ought to be gently pressed down, and the pit filled up to near the surface of the ground, or say to within three or four inches of it, so that, when the tree or bush is planted, the surface of the pit will appear a little mound, several inches above the surrounding surface. Some good planters make mounds much higher to allow for settling, but I prefer pressing the bottom soil in the first instance. One might say of this, why loosen it at all if you press it down again? The reason is to have a perfect drainage under the roots, and to encourage the strongest of them to run deep in the ground, which will give the plant greater vigour. We plant fruit-trees shallow and on hard bottoms, to prevent them getting too luxuriant; but in gardening for ornamental plants, the more healthy and vigorous we can grow them the more ornamental they will be; unless, indeed, they are rather tender for our climate, in that case shallow planting on a solid or unloosed bottom suits them best, as they cannot grow so strong, and will therefore ripen better. All this being understood and settled, let us plant a moderate sized bush to begin with-say a Portugal laurel, for instance; it has been well taken up, has some long bare roots and a host of small fibres, with a considerable ball of soil attached close up to the bole or botttom of the plant; this ball we place in the middle of the prepared pit, and we find that the ball is so thick that those strong roots cannot lie down level on the surface, but "ride," or hang loose some inches above it. What is to be done with them? hook them down to the surface, or lower the bottom of the hole? No, that would be bad planting again. We must fill in the loose soil under them, that they may lie in their natural position, and in doing that the small fibres are pressed down too much, perhaps; if so loosen them back again, and fill in any cavities under the bole or main roots. We shall now suppose that the whole under-surface of the ball is resting on the soil, and also all the roots, great and small, and each of them branching out in straight lines, or as regular as they can be placed. Some of the lower ones will be out of sight, but the majority are still in view. If we had a little better soil from a compost, this would be the proper time to throw it over the roots; not at random, however, for fear of displacing the fibres. You must do it thus: take a spadeful, and throw it past the stem of the plant on the roots on the opposite side to you, so that the soil runs along in the same direction as the roots. If you throw it on the roots next to you, it will run against their direction and turn back their small points, which would be nearly as bad as the old way of shaking the plant up and down at this stage. When all the roots are covered an inch or two, the watering-pot must come, with a large rose to it, and you must water all over the surface heartily, even if it is a rainy day. This watering is to do the business of the old shakingsettle the finer particles of the soil about the roots: the rest of the soil, to the depth of four or five inches, may be thrown on any how, if the lumps are broken small, so that the surface is pretty smooth, and formed into a shallow basin to hold the future waterings. A stout stake, or stakes, according to the size of the plant, should be driven down before the earth is put over the roots, to tie the plant, as recommended in a

leading article, page 14, which article anticipated part of this letter on removing large plants, and is in every respect plainer and more to the purpose than I could put it. All that occurs to me farther on the subject is, that when large bushy evergreens are to be removed, their branches must be tied up towards the stem by passing a rope or strong cord round them, before commencing the roots. All this kind of garden planting ought to be finished before Christmas-I mean the removing of large specimens; but young trees and small bushes are planted by the thousand every spring, with little loss in the hands of good planters; but young beginners ought to finish as early as the nature of the season will allow. When you come to a very large Portugal laurel, or a common laurel, or indeed any very large shrub that has overgrown the space allotted to it, and it is so far encroaching on other things that it must be removed in some shape or other, what is to be done with it if it is too big to remove? A plant 50 yards round the bottom, is no joke to transplant, and I know one as large. Cutting back the longest branches will keep it in check for many years-but that is not the point, but that this very large plant must either be cut down, and grubbed up for the wood yard, or be transplanted.

All gardeners have met with such cases, and no doubt disposed of them easily enough; but I have a new method of dealing with such as cannot be transplanted, which I have adopted here for some time, and which promises to be the best hit I have made for many years. It is to cut them down in November, to within a couple of feet of the ground. I have tried spring cutting, but it does not answer half so well for the purpose. When the stumps begin to shoot next April, they are cut close to the ground, and soon a host of strong suckers will spring up as close together as those of a raspberry bush. After a while, when they are strong enough to bear handling, you begin to cut out the weak ones, till the whole have room enough to grow away freely, which they will now do in earnest, and as straight as fishing-rods or gun-barrels. I have seen strong shoots from a common laurel stool of this kind reach up to ten feet in one season; and they often attain from six to eight feet. Now, what I propose to do with these strong suckers is this-to make clean stemmed trees, or standards of them. Many attempts have been made to obtain fine standards, with clean smooth stems to them, of our more common bushes, with various degrees of success. The Portugal laurel treated thus is a good imitation of the fine standard orange and lemon trees of Italy; and the common laurel is not much behind it. Any of the varieties of the common Phillyrea may thus be made to imitate the narrowleafed myrtle of the south of Europe, while the common Alaternus might be mistaken, at a few yards' distance, for the broad-leafed myrtle, if reared up on a five-feet standard with a close circular head; and to imitate the olive as a close-headed standard, take an overgrown old privet plant, cut it as above, and you will soon have a dozen of them. The pomegranate, and indeed any half-hardy little tree, may thus be imitated the principle is the same with them all; but I must soon have a whole chapter on shrubs, evergreens, and otherwise, which can be formed into fine little standard trees, which would look extremely well in gardens of limited extent, as well as those of the most extensive. I have seen for this purpose whole Portugal laurels stripped of their side branches, up to five or six feet high, and the tops formed into circular heads; but the wounds and scars left on the

stem-unavoidably, it is true-where the great side branches were lopped off, were most hideous to my eyes, and so ungardening-like, that I would as soon live in a desert as be surrounded with such ugly and haggard-looking objects. Unless a thing can be done properly, and more especially experiments on living plants, in the name of all that is blue-apron-like, let us not scandalise our ancient craft by aping and caricaturing. But to return to our suckers, from which these very handsome imitation plants are expected, as soon as they are from five to seven feet high, nip off the points to stop them, and the next half-dozen buds below will start into side branches, which are to form the foundation of the future standard; therefore, see that they are at proper distances from each other. The situation of the buds will determine this before any branches are formed, and if the buds are too close together, disbud them, so as to allow room enough for the future branches. If any side shoots are made lower down, either after stopping the points or before, they must be nipped before they form one joint, and only the leaves from which they issue left. All the leaves on the stem from top to bottom are left on the first season, but no side branches allowed, except the few at the top, to form the head. When the young wood gets firm, say about August, you may begin to cut out the buds, beginning at the bottom and going up progressively as the wood ripens; so that, by the end of the first growing season, all the buds on what is to form the future stem are entirely got rid of. This is the most essential part of the whole process-but the buds ought to be extracted-yes, that is the right wordextracted without injuring the leaves; for unless the buds are taken out with their roots, so to speak, depend on it they will trouble you afterwards by throwing out strong side branches; but once extracted from a one season's growth, no tree, I believe, has the power of renewing them a second time. But some of these days I shall relate some curious experiments on the subject; meantime, these suckers may be safely left attached to the mother stools for three years or more, for they will acquire more strength and come sooner into use that way than if taken off sooner. Anytime during the spring of the second season a ring of bark, about two inches wide, must be taken off the bottom of these suckers, and the lower down the better; then, when these wounds are perfectly dry, and the upper edges of them begin to swell by the formation of new swood, and not before, you may earth up some good soil all over the old stool, till it is four or five inches above the ringed parts. Roots will immediately issue from the swellings of these rings, and so form you a tree" on its own bottom." By the help of these roots and the connexion with the parent stock, very vigorous healthy young trees are formed in less time and more handsomely than by any other process known to us; and in separating them from the stool, work your way to the ringed parts and cut through them with a small saw, and this you may do twelve months before you finally remove your new standard. D. BEATON.

many purposes, such as flower beds, and for pots in windows, those originally introduced, and those slightly varying from the primitive stock, are truly valuable, as they possess the property of continuously blooming for six or seven months in the year, and with a little care would bloom all the season through. What, either in a bed or in large pots for vases or windows, can be more beautiful than the orange C. viscossissima (so named from the clammy nature of the leaves), or some of its dwarfer progeny, when contrasting with a bright scarlet or deep blue, or a vivid purple, or even, if it should happen to be its possessor's peculiar taste, fitting in with the paler yellow of the lately introduced, pretty C. amplexicaulis? Another advantage of these first introduced shrubby varieties is, that they seem to retain with us the natural hardiness they possessed when growing upon the hill sides of Chili, where, though in the immediate neighbourhood of the tropics, they yet flourished in a temperate clime, from being elevated far above the level plains-protected on the cast by the snow-capped Andes, and regaled from the west by the moist breezes wafted from the Pacific; while our more large, beautiful herbaceous, improved hybrids partake, to a certain extent, of that tenderness and liability to injury which generally accompanies improvement in the form and structure of the animal, and civilisation and social progress in the man. counteract this tendency to degenerate, so far as robustness of constitution is concerned, some men must be found strong-minded enough to break through the common practice of hybridising with the most improved forms, and make use of some of the older hardier species as one of the parents, being satisfied with the interesting and beautiful results of their labours; their plants being hardier, though, perhaps, not quite reaching in size and form the florist's standard of perfection. When the proper season arrives we shall again direct attention to the subject, as few can have better opportunities for carrying out the principles of hybridising than the general readers of THE COTTAGE GARDENER; and, in the case before us, no casier means could be taken for obtaining a vast variety for beds or borders.

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The word calceolaria is derived from calceolus, a little shoe, or sandal, and hence the whole family have been styled slipper-worts. The first introduced species might well have reminded a Chinese mandarin of the richly-clad, beautiful dumpy feet of his lady love; and strange sensations they might have conjured up in the minds of many of our ladies, and gentlemen too, who will have their boots made of a certain shape and size to please the eye, magnanimously resolving that the feet shall be made to fit their covering, let corns, bunions, deformities, and illness come as they may. But, lack-a-day, gardeners have so changed the appearance of these flower slippers— have resolved they shall be round as a circle, without even a notch in the circumference, and shall be as blown out as a bladder-that the only slippers these wondrous calceolarias can now-a-days be compared to are those which we put upon a horse's feet when we require his services to roll a carriage-road or a lawn. To such a quarter we have no notion that the devotees of fashion will come for shapes and patterns, though, judging from the strange shapes of shoes for the last thirty years, there is no saying what the next new idea may be. Be that as it may, all honour, say we, to those who in any kind of slippers, whether leather or vegetable, can see beauty and elegance in true utility, though far removed from the shape of fashion, and the standard form of florists. And this