This is a very sweet flower, and carries an immense truss of bloom; it is a favorite of mine, but I have sought in vain to obtain a plant, or even a pinch of -seed ot Mr. Hunt's far-famed varieties. So anxious was I to see the flowers so highly extolled, that I used the freedom of writing Mr. H., and requested him to favor me, for love or money, with a pinch of his fine seed; but he took no notice of my humble request, which I thought very strange indeed of an Englishman, who, like the French, are so far-famed for frankness and politeness. I had, last season, a seedling - a very fine dark flower, with every good property, which I crossed with one of a much brighter hue (also a seedling), and to perform the cross, I watched each flower as it opened (the trass being covered with glass), and extracted very gently, with my pincers, all the little trembling anthers, then examined the pollen flower for farina, and, when ripe, took the pip entirely off, and extracted the stigma, and shook it over the pistil of the mother plant; and so, day by day, with all the flowers I cross-bred last season.

I have done my best in offering to the young florist every iota of my practice, and if it should be the means of improving men and floriculture, for time and trouble I shall be well remunerated. - J. C.

Sweet Williams #1

A number of ladies have found that when their Sweet Williams and Diadem Pinks (Dianthus), have been closely planted together, they will be beautifully variegated with all the finer tints that usually characterise the Dianthus. One cultivator, communicating his experience to the Rural New Yorker, states that he has produced some very fine Sweet William hybrids, grown from a stock planted in the center of a bed of Dianthus. "The beauty of both plants seems blended in one. The plants partake generally of the nature of the Sweet William in foliage and growth; they also commenced to bloom earlier than the Dianthus planted at the same time. The flowers are almost all the colors of the Dianthus, and about fifty per cent are very large, extremely double, and marked the same as the Dianthus. The flowers are in clusters of three or four on a stalk of some length. They have also the fragrance of the Sweet William, which makes them very desirable for bouquets." Doubtless, just as curious results may be obtained by anyone who will follow the same course of planting the two flowers among or near each other.