F. H., New Bedford, Mass., writes:

" 1. I send you to-day a specimen of double daisy, Bellis perennis. I never saw one with quilled petals before; did you? I fancy it is something entirely new: is it?

" 2. I enclose a slip from a plant; I do not know the name of. Please give me its name, habits, etc.

" 3. Also put in a leaf of a plant for name. Blossoms red in June.

" 4. I have a bed of Ghent Azaleas situated where it gets the sun only from seven to eight and eleven to two. There is a good circulation of air under the trees where it is located; the soil is porous and drainage good. I fancy they would do better with less shade, perhaps not, however. Please tell us the taste of the lovely Azalea in this matter.

" 5. I would like a description of the Retinis-pora; its habits, height, breadth and general appearance.

" 6. I have excellent success in transplanting fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs, plants, etc. Have made two efforts with Chinese Magnolias and failed in both. I don't intend to give it up, that doesn't run in the blood. Do nurserymen ever send them out with a ball of earth attached as with Rhododendrons? At what stage of growth and what size is best for transplanting ?

" 7. You will find in the package a piece of a shrub with buds attached. A man who has charge of one of our cemeteries handed it to me; says he found a number of the shrubs in an uncleared portion of the grounds, doesn't know its name and can't find any one that does. BIgs-soms early, buds turn red".

[1. Quilled English daisies are not uncommon.

2. Cryptomeria Lobbii, probably. It is too small a slip to be certain about it. It is scarcely hardy at New Bedford.

3. The "piece" of a leaf, probably came from the Oriental Poppy.

4. If the soil is made of a porous spongy material, so that it is always cool but never what a gardener would call wet, the more sun the Belgian Azelea gets the better it thrives.

5. There are many kinds of Retinospora, and their habit is like unto a slender growing arbor vitae. There are however some of these that are abnormal forms that have retained their juvenescent character through life, - imbeciles; these look like heaths. There are Arbor vitaes which are in this imbecile condition as well as Retinosporas, and "Tom Thumb" is a well-known instance.

6. The better class of nurserymen sell trees with balls of earth. But this implies that the plant has been transplanted several times or it will not come up with a ball; and more labor to preserve the ball; and hence they charge about double the price for such trees, to those which are simply known as catalogue trees. Magnolias love to have their weaker shoots cut away on transplanting.

7. Daphne Mezereon. - Ed. G. M].