Now, and even a little earlier, is the great pruning-time of the year for all spring-flowering shrubs. No doubt this cutting-out may be especially important in a light soil such as ours, where things flower themselves to death, like pot-bound plants. It is rather tiresome work; it requires one person to cut out the old wood and slightly cut back the topmost branches with a long-handled nipper, and another to stand at a little distance and give directions. Without this precaution, the tree or shrub would often become lop-sided and unsightly. It is impossible for the man who is cutting to see what should be taken out. Choysia ternata must be gone over and cut back severely, in spite of all one may have gathered from it while in flower. Also with Lilacs, Laburnums, Weigelias, Crab-apples, Double Cherries, Viburnum, and Pyrus japonica, this pruning-at any rate, in light soils-must never be neglected or forgotten. Very often only a little cutting-out is required. If it is done too late, it does more harm than good, and injures next year's bloom. Clematis montana succeeds much better if the young growth is cut off every year, which prevents it from getting tangled and matted, and all going to leaf instead of blossom. It is the same with Honeysuckles and Brooms. We sow the Brooms-white, yellow, and red and yellow-every year. They can always be transplanted when quite young to where they are to flower, and a good supply of young plants is so useful.

The bird-boxes this spring have been well used by my little couples. Fly-catchers and Wrens never fail; but this year we have had rather an uncommon bird, a Bed-start, and in the nest are seven eggs, though Bewick asserts that they only lay four or five. The eggs are pretty in colour, like the Hedge-sparrow's. The Red-start's eggs are a little longer and narrower in shape than the Hedge-sparrow's. A pair of Robins have hatched out three families this year in my greenhouse-fourteen young Robins! They began early in March, and built on a top-shelf; when the little ones were hatched, the old birds were so tame that they did not mind at all our putting the nest into a deep pot and placing it near the window for them to feed their young more conveniently. We also thought that in the pot it would attract less the attention of a terrible bird-killing old cat we have. He stays near a nest, scratching, till the parent birds are in such a frenzy of agitation and fear that they kick the young ones out of the nest; he then devours them at his leisure.

To those who have room I recommend the Venetian Sumach (Rhus cotinus), but it is not worth growing if it is crowded up. The most perfect way to grow it is to put the young plant in a well and richly made hole in the lawn, or at the edge of a shrubbery, the formality of which you wish to break. As it grows, cut away the turf from under it, and mulch it every winter; this makes it grow quickly. When it gets into a good big plant, leave off mulching, and dress it with chalk, which will make it flower and bear its lovely feathery seeds in July. In a good sunny situation it will turn a flaming red colour, which is the reason for its English name of the 'Burning Bush.' It does better in moderately damp soils than with us, but a little care will make it grow anywhere. It is well adapted for picking and putting into water, as the leaves have a faint aromatic smell; but it is not suited to very small gardens, for it spreads and takes up too much room. Crowding spoils its great characteristic of rooting into the ground all round.

The finer sorts of Clematis (see 'English Flower Garden ') only do fairly well in our soil; and till I gave them plenty of chalk they often died. All the large Jackmani tribe (see nurserymen's catalogues) want cutting back to the ground very early in the year, before they begin to break in the spring; but they are worth all care and trouble. Many gardeners do not agree with me, but I am very fond of specimen plants grown in holes cut in grass, if they are planted with care, to group with shrubs behind them, and so as not to present a dotted-about appearance. In large gardens there are places enough-in shrubberies, by the side of water, or elsewhere-where these single specimens can grow healthily. In really small gardens they take too much room. In medium-sized gardens they become a feature and an interest. Several plants, besides the Venetian Sumach before mentioned, are such fine growers that they are well worth an individual place to show them off:Polygonum cuspidatum and P. sacchalinense are very effective, and grow splendidly in dry soils if the outside suckers are pulled out every spring; they want no other care. Bocconia cordata (Plume Poppy), a Japanese plant, also wants no other treatment; and in this way the old shoots grow up finer and stronger each year. They are herbaceous, like the Polygonums, and it is best not to cut down their hollow stems till the spring. Leycesteria formosa has a good growth; its uncommon brown flowers come late in the summer. (Kerria japonica, especially the single one mentioned before; the Privets, the golden one and the Alexandrian are the best.) Tamarisks, so seldom grown away from the sea, which are very pretty, especially the one with tiny pink flowers that come out in the spring (T. parviflora, I believe it is called); and many hardy Bamboos can all be grown separately as specimen plants; as also the two Eulalias, japonica and zebrina, the tall Japanese grasses. The Arundo donax is the lovely tall cane that grows in the ditches in Italy. But beware how you move it, if once you get it to grow; it does not at all like being disturbed. Acanthus in full sun is very handsome, and grows large in rather a moist place; so does the Giant Parsnip, but it is only a biennial.