Our native Amaryllis Atamasco, which makes such a show in every moist spot here in spring, is also easily grown in pots, placing three or four in a six-inch pot.

In the way of greenhouse shrubs, the oleander has long been a favorite, but the newer sorts, particularly the semi-double N. Madouni, var. grandifiora, pure white and profuse, should be more grown. In abutilons, too, we now have varieties of compact habit and free blooming qualities that are greatly better than the old weedy sorts. One of the best of these is the golden yellow sort called Golden Bells. This is of dwarf habit, and very profuse in the production of its golden bells. Another dwarf-growing variety adds the charm of variegated foliage ; this is Eclipse. Abutilon Darwinii is also well suited to house culture. Window gardeners are very commonly advised not to try the culture of hard-wooded greenhouse shrubs like the camelia, but some of the finest specimens of camelias I have seen were in the hands of women gardeners, who, by attention to their wants, always had fine blooms and good plants.

The chief points to observe in the house culture of camelias is to avoid a high temperature in winter, keep the leaves clean of dust by sponging them, and avoid injury to the roots by over-watering or extreme drought. The pots should be plunged in a bed of coal ashes in a moderately shaded place out-doors in summer. After the bloom is over in spring, encourage a rapid growth by giving a warmer spot and more sunshine, and an occasional dose of lime water. The lime water drives out earth-worms and encourages the growth of camelias in a wonderful manner. Remember that during winter a few degrees of frost will do less harm to a camelia than a high temperature, which will cause it to drop its buds. Most of the red and pink colored sorts are more hardy and better growers than the double white camelia. The Camelia Japonica is nearly a hardy plant, and should be treated accordingly. In the latitude of Raleigh, on dry, sandy soil, it thrives finely in open air culture, though at times exposed to a temperature of 150 above zero. Some of our hardy shrubs, particularly Deutzia gracilis, if lifted and potted in the fall and kept in a cool, light cellar until a few weeks before the flowers are wanted, will bloom finely in the sitting-room window.

A very attractive Easter display can be made by any women by having some Deutsia gracilis potted in autumn, and bringing them into a warm room about five or six weeks before Easter, so as to give them time to develop their pretty white bells in profusion.

Violets can easily be had in cold climates in winter by setting some pot-grown plants in a roomy window box, in a sunny window of a room where no fire is kept. Cover the box at night with an old blanket to prevent hard freezing, and give all the sunlight possible. Or what is better, a little frame covered with an old window sash in a sunny place in the back yard, carefully covered at night, will give a great supply of flowers. The plants used should have been grown in pots during the summer and planted in the frame in September, and the sash kept off until frosts come. I have known many women in the city to get large supplies of violets from their back-yards by a careful use of a cold-frame. Not only sweet violets, but pansies can be grown in the same way, and when frosts are not too severe, mignonette and candytuft can also be grown thus.

A large winter supply of white flowers can be had from a little frame in a back yard planted in spring with the perennial candytuft, Iberis Gibraltarica. Allow it to grow all summer and completely mat over the bed. Late in fall put a sash over it, giving plenty of air on sunny days and cover from frost at night, and it will bloom all winter through. In North Carolina it blooms all winter in the open air. By potting strong plants early in the fall, these will also bloom well in a sunny window in-doors.

One of the most showy plants for Christmas bloom is the old Linum trigynum (Reinwardtia trigyna), the three-styled yellow flax. Small plants of this set out in the garden in spring and pinched into shape during the growing season, may be lifted in the fall and potted for the window. They will, by Christmas, be a complete mass of large, yellow, saucer-shaped flowers. This is a very old plant, but much neglected of late years. It is easy to grow, and very showy when in bloom. Many hardy herbaceous plants, particularly the dwarf-growing campanulas, can be treated in the same manner. Among handsome pot shrubs for house culture, many of the myrtles are very attractive, and I have seen them in very handsome condition in window gardens. Eight or ten are in cultivation, some very tender and others quite hardy. Myrtus regia, a South American species, has handsome foliage and profuse fruit, of a pleasant odor and taste. Myrtus communis, from the south of Europe, is a handsome white-flowered scented shrub much grown in pots by Germans in some of our cities.

The large and interesting cactus tribe furnishes many grotesque and showy plants for the window garden, but as these have already been fully treated in the pages of The American Garden in the past three months, I will not enlarge upon them.

Raleigh, N. C. W. F. Massey.