import direct from foreign nurserymen or else procure from their own dealer in such things, who imports his lilies in large quantities from abroad. But we may well ask, Have foreign gardeners found out some great secret in the cultivation of this plant? Or is their climate more suitable for it? Or their soil adapted to growing it and getting it into splendid condition for forcing? It is impossible that the conditions for growing large and fine heads of this lily can be in any way better in Berlin or elsewhere than they are in our own land, unless greater heat in summer than we experience in England is necessary for ripening the growths in autumn.

There is another question certainly as to varieties; one variety may be superior to another, but surely if so it is only on the principle of the survival of the fittest, that is to say, by carefully working on the finest forms only and propagating from them, a strong and vigorous stock may be the result, and this stock may be dignified with a special name. For my own part what I want is to have a great abundance of lily of the valley from February till the out-door season is over. To do this with imported clumps would, of course, be most costly, and far beyond what any person ought to spend on mere flowers. Though it must be remembered that it is an immense advantage to the parish priest to be able to take bright and sweet flowers to the bedside of the sick, or to gratify the weary spirit of a confirmed invalid, confined through all the lovely spring time to the narrow limits of a dull room, with the fragrant flowers of the lily of the valley. I determined, therefore, that I would have an abundance of early lilies, and that they should not be costly, but simply produced at about the same expense as any other flowers, and I have been very successful in accomplishing this by very simple means. First of all, it is necessary to have the means of forcing, that is to say the required heat, which in my case is obtained from an early vinery. I have seen lilies forced by pushing the clumps in under the material for making a hot bed for early cucumbers, the clumps being drawn out, of course, as soon as the flowers had made a good start. They have then to be carefully and very gradually exposed to full light, but often, although fine heads of bloom may be produced in this way, the leaves will be few and poor.

My method is simply this: In the kitchen garden there is the old original bed of lilies of the valley in a corner certainly, but not a dark corner. This is the reservoir, as were, from whence the regular supply of heads for special cultivation is taken. This large bed is not neglected and left alone to take care of itself, but carefully manured with leaf mould and peat moss manure from the stable every year. Especially the vacant places made by taking out the heads for cultivation are thus filled up.

Then under the east wall another piece of ground is laid out and divided into four plots. When I first began to prepare for forcing I waited four years, and had one plot planted with divided heads each year. Clumps are taken up from the reserve bed and then shaken out and the heads separated, each with its little bunch of fibrous roots. They are then carefully planted in one of the plots about 4 in. or 5 in. apart, the ground having previously been made as light and rich as possible with plenty of leaf mould. I think the best time for doing this is in autumn, after the leaves have turned yellow and have rotted away; but frequently the operation has been delayed till spring, without much difference in the result.

Asparagus is usually transplanted in spring, and there is a wonderful affinity between the two plants, which, of course, belong to the same order. It was a long time to wait—four years—but I felt there was no use in being in too great a hurry, and every year the plants manifestly improved, and the buds swelled up nicely and looked more plump each winter when the leaves were gone. It must be remembered also that a nice crop of flowers could be gathered each year. When the fourth year came, the first plot was divided up into squares about 2 ft. each way, and taken up before any hard frost or snow had made their appearance, and put away on the floor of an unused stable. From the stable they are removed as required in the squares to the vinery, where they grow beautifully, not sending up merely fine heads of bloom without a vestige of leaf, but growing as they would in spring out of doors with a mass of foliage, among which one has to search for the spikes of flower, so precious for all sorts of purposes at that early season of the year.

The spikes produced in this way do not equal in thickness and substance of petal the flowers which come from more carefully prepared clumps imported from Berlin, but they are fine and strong, and above all most abundant. I can not only supply the house and small vases for the church, but also send away boxes of the flowers to friends at a distance, besides the many gifts which can be made to those who are ill or invalids. Few gifts at such a time are more acceptable than a fragrant nosegay of lily of the valley. In order to keep the supply of prepared roots ready year after year, a plot of ground has only to be planted each autumn, so that in the rotation of years it may be ready for forcing when its turn shall come.

As the season advances, as every one knows who has attempted to force the lily of the valley, much less time is taken in bringing the flowers to perfection under precisely the same circumstances as those in which the first sods are forced. In February or earlier the buds are more unwilling to start; there seems to be a natural repugnance against being so soon forced out of the winter's sleep and rest. But when the flowers do come, they are nearly as fine and their leaves are quite as abundant in this way of forcing as from the pieces introduced much later into heat. It would be easy to preserve the squares after all the flowers are gathered, but I found that they would not, like strawberries, kindly furnish forth another crop later on in the year, and, therefore, mine are flung away; and I have often pitied the tender leaves in the frost and snow after their short sojourn in the hot climate of the vinery. But the reserve bed will always supply an ample quantity of fresh heads, and it is best to take the new plants for preparation in the kitchen garden from this reserve bed.

This very simple method of forcing lilies of the valley is within the reach of any one who has even a small garden and a warm house, and these two things are becoming more and more common among us every day.—A Gloucestershire Parson, in The Garden.

[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 802, page 12820.]

REPORT ON INSECTS

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THE ONION MAGGOT.

Phorbia ceparum (Meig.)

Early in June a somewhat hairy fly, Fig. 9, may be seen flying about, and depositing its eggs on the leaves of the young onion plants, near the roots, Fig. 10.

Dr. Fitch describes this fly as follows: "It has a considerable resemblance to the common house fly, though when the two are placed side by side, this is observed as being more slender in its form. The two sexes are readily distinguished from each other by the eyes, which in the males are close together, and so large as to occupy almost the whole surface of the head, while in the females they are widely separated from each other. These flies are of an ash gray color, with the head silvery, and a rusty black stripe between the eyes, forked at its hind end. And this species is particularly distinguished by having a row of black spots along the middle of the abdomen or hind body,