For such a wet climate as yours, Lady Downes is the best late black Grape. From what you say of your climate, we doubt if Muscats would ripen with you, and unless this Grape is well ripened it does not keep well. The best white companion for the black Lady Downes is the white Lady Downes. It is the black one in every sense except the colour. The Madredsfield Court is a showy black Grape of good flavour, and if it keeps well, which has yet to be proved, it will be an acquisition. The Mrs Pince's Muscat, according to our experience, is worthless.

Your soil seems much too light for Grapes, therefore use a little cow and not horse manure, and a good few bones of various sizes. There is no portable manure we could recommend you to use for Vines, nor do you require it if you can get the drainage of a dunghill or farmyard.

J. G. H. S. would like to know in your next number how to press flowers and ferns properly, in order to make them keep their colour. (Place them between old newspapers under a heavy weight, and dry them quickly; that is, as often as the newspapers get damp replace them with dry ones. - Eds).