Intermingled with these are some scarlet and violet pyramidal Stocks, and also some scarlet Giant Tenweeks, all three of English strains. They are fine indeed; and I find that these English-saved Stocks yield a larger percentage of double flowers than does the seed imported from the continent.

For brilliancy of colour the last should be grown, and with it the pyramidals for decorative purposes. At their feet are Verbenas, Gazanias, and Mignonette, the whole edged with Dianthus atro-rubens, a dark crimson variety of Indian Pink. The Mignonette keeps the border moist and cool about the roots of the Gladiolus, and emits a beautiful fragrance that fills my room in the evening of the day.

On an opposite division I have Gladiolus, Heliotropes, and Geraniums, with a margin of Verbenas of different colours. Until very recently I had an edging of Red Virginia stock, placed here to fill the void till the Verbenas made growth, but removed as soon as it had reached the maximum of its head of bloom, for I found it to be cramping the vigor of the Verbenas.

This little display, together with the box outside my window, and the flowering plants within it, arrests the progress of passers-by, and greatly am I amused at the criticisms I sometimes overhear.

My worst enemy is the cats, and they always abound in the suburbs of London. They will rendezvous in my garden, crushing down some of my flowers or tearing up others, as well as making night hideous with their feline imprecations.

At the back of the house I have made half kitchen and half flower garden of my contracted space. Along the wooden fence I planted Runner Beans, that climb vigorously up the perpendicular strings I have fixed to the fence. This was the best expedient I could devise as a substitute for sticks.

Along the middle of the border is a line of Beck's Dwarf Green Gun-bean, an admirable variety of the dwarf Fan section; and then, for an edging, I have small patches of various sorts of dwarf annuals, Stocks, Asters, and Musk.

In one corner, unvisited by the rays of the sun, I find great difficulty in getting the Runner Beans to make headway, so pertinacious are the attentions of a colony of slugs that are located here.

Nighltly have I searched for them when at their depredations, and the act of feasting became to many the moment of a violent end; only by this method have I assisted the Beans to gain the mastery.

Wherever there is a space for vegetative action there is a tenant inhabiting it; and so every corner, where the growth of vegetable life is possible, is rendered in some degree cheerful by its presence.

An old box or two form a very homely stage, whereon are Asters in pots and boxes, Mimulus, Geraniums, Petunias, Fuchsias, &c., coming on to take their appointed place within doors, where they shall be able to render fitting service. My two glass dishes are not lying by idle. I make them to appear in both pieces in my floricultural dramatic performance.

One is filled with plants of Countess of Ellemere Petunia, an old single variety, but, being dwarf-growing, and having a branching habit, it sutis my idea famously, as the plants are covering the sruface of the dish.

The other dish has in it plants of Mimulus not so far advanced in growth, yet it will be a good companion for its colleague. They are yet out of doors, occupying my "preparatory stage;" and, when their blossom are expanding, they will be introduced to the window, to create their round of sensation also. A box of double-flowered Zinnias, and some other odds and ends, press on to be ready to play their part in the revolution of the drama.

Finaly, I am applying some weak guano water to my plants in the window. The action of the sun, checked by no protecting material, draws out the very life-blood of the soil, and the leaves of the plants begin to turn yellow in consequence. A judicious application of guano, in a weak liquid state, has arrested the tendency to impaired vigour--

"Whispered by the falling leaf;"---

and already the sickly garniture leaps up into rejuvinescent life. My little experiments, so mean as to be scarcely worth record, keep up a constant round of pleasureable excitement; and though, sometimes, they are not based on the most exact calculations of science, or natural philosophy, and failure comes after, I yet smile at the discomfiture, and again essay a new enterprise.

"Tis the black bosom of the rainy cloud
Wears the bright rainbow form."

"A unversal love, a good in ill,
Worketh for man, yet cheats his human skill"

QUO.

August, Florist and Pomologist, 1864