The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-02-24 00:00:00

REVIEWS

A Popular History of British Ferns. By Thos. Moore,
F.L.S., 8; c. London : Reeve and Benham.

Some time since we noticed the Hand-book of British
Ferns, by the same author ; and we thought at the time
It was all that could be desired. Messrs. Reeve and Ben-
ham have, however, published in their popular series one
of the most pleasing books we ever saw. Twenty elegant
coloured plates give figures of nearly all our choicest Bri-
tish ferns, accompanied by a description in an easy and
interesting style; besides which, the scientific classification
and nomenclature is given for the benefit of the more
advanced student. It embraces the ferns, the equisetums
or horsetails, and the lycopodiums, and contains quite
sufficient to guide and instruct every person anxious to
acquire a knowledge of this delightful tribe of plants, the
interest in which is daily increasing. Ferns are amongst
the most beautiful objects in nature; their graceful foliage
is unrivalled by any other tribe in the vegetable kingdom,
and the eye of taste has at length raised them from the
neglect they formerly received to rank with the choicest
flowers of the stove and conservatory.
Sowerby's English Botany this month contains the
whole of the beautiful tribe of geraniums (comprising the
genera Geranium and Erodium), which are indigenous
to this country. The plates are beautifully coloured.
The Garden Companion and Florist's Guide (the new
name of the Gardeners' Magazine of Botany) contains
fine figures of three new varieties of gladiolus, named
laud 1.11/1“, ill4ctu. Thu filmo,
one is a remarkable instance of the extraordinary perfec-
tion to which this elegant and showy genus can be brought.
It also contains masterly coloured figures of two new
plants—lpomcea palmata and Dillwynia scabra. The
articles on botany are short and interesting.

OPERATIONS FOR THE WEEK

Greenhouse, Stove, cc.—ln these departments much
may now be done, which, if left to a late period, will
greatly impede the general operations of the gardens.
Most kinds of hard-wooded plants should be re-potted,
and the best way to do this (supposing a proper compost,
or soil, has been prepared) is to put a good drainage of
broken crocks, at least two inches deep, in large pots, and
over this a little dry sphagnum moss, to prevent the soil
working downwards and choking the drainage. Let the
compost be well broken up, but not sifted so as to sepa-
rate the fibrous parts, and mix a few lumps of charcoal
with it. Before being placed in fresh pots, the roots
should be carefully shaken, so that the exhausted soil
may be removed without injuring them ; and, after being
re-potted, should have a slight watering with a fine rose
watering can. Verbenas. calceolarias, salvias, and all
sorts of bedding plants should be propagated as fast as
possible.
Flower Garden.—Give to the beds a top dressing of
well-rotted manure, or the contents of an exhausted hot
bed, mixed with fibrous loam. This should be nicely
forked in during the process. It is desirable to raise the
roots of hardy herbaceous plants which have been large,
and divide them, as they are much improved by dividing
every two or three years. Prime roses of all the hardy
kinds thus require judicious management, and some little
knowledge of their habits ; and those which contain any
admixture of the Chinese sorts require less than those
in which the Gallic kind prevails : these latter are gene-
rally benefited by severe pruning, otherwise they will
become very weak and straggling.
Kitchen Garden.—Continue to sow successional crops
of peas and beans ; prick out a few lettuce plants from the
frame!; sow parsnips on a well-dug quarter, and give a
plentiful supply of manure.

. ,
for plants a double gorse, and
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
J. Hodson.—Apply to some respectable nurseryman
pocure them in pots.
They will not always bear removal.