wice a day with tepid water. When they
have done blooming, if worth keeping over for another time, remove
them to a cool house and thus gradually harden them off, then plant
them out in the garden in May, and give them two years' rest.

Shrubs to be forced for their cut flowers only should consist of such
kinds as have flowers that look well and keep well after being cut.
Among these are _Deutzia gracilis_, common Lilacs of various colors,
_Staphyllea Colchica_, _Spiraea Cantonensis_ (_Reevesii_) single and
double, the Guelder Rose, the Japanese Snowball and _Azalea mollis_.
To these may be added some of the lovely double-flowering and Chinese
apples, whose snowy or crimson-tinted buds and leafy twigs are very
pretty. The several double-flowered forms of _Prunus triloba_ are also
desirable, but a healthy stock is hard to get. _Andromeda floribunda_
and _A. Japonica_ set their flower buds the previous summer for the
next year's flowers, and are, therefore, like the Laurestinus, easily
forced into bloom after New Year's. Hardy and half-hardy Rhododendrons
with very little forcing may be had in bloom from March.

In addition to the above, for conservatory decoration we may introduce
all manner of hardy shrubs. Double flowering peach and cherry
trees are easily forced and showy while they last. Clumps of _Pyrus
arbutifolia_ can easily be had in bloom in March, when their abundance
of deep green leaves is an additional charm to their profusion of
hawthorn-like flowers. The Chinese _Xanthoceras_ is extremely copious
and showy, but of brief duration and ill-fitted for cutting. Bushes of
yellow Broom and double-flowering golden Furze can easily be had after
January. _Jasminum nudiflorum_ may be had in bloom from November till
April, and Forsythia from January. They look well when trained up
to pillars. The early-flowering Clematises may be used to capital
advantage in the same way, from February onward. Although the Mahonias
flower well, their foliage at blooming time is not always comely.
Out-of-doors the American Red-bud makes a handsomer tree than does the
Japanese one; but the latter is preferable for green-house work, as
the flowers are bright and the smallest plants bloom. The Chinese
Wistaria blooms as well in the green-house as it does outside;
indeed, if we introduce some branches of an out-door plant into the
green-house, we can have it in bloom two months ahead of the balance
of the vine still left out-of-doors. Her