In managing house plants, one of the difficulties is the struggle with insects. There are now many kinds of oils and washes sold by florists, that are found very effective; but, when applied in the usual way, are costly. But new inventions come to the flower growers' aid. Light troughs are employed, with a spigot at the end, and the material used in syringing can be drawn off and used over and over again. In the trough a wire cradle is hung, on which the plants can be laid on their sides, so that the operator may syringe the under side as well as the upper side of the leaves. The idea is so simple that anyone can make a syringing trough for himself, if out of the way of a mechanic who knows how. It has always been against the use of hot water to destroy insects, that it took so much for use. But on this plan the water can be used over and over again, a little boiling water being added when necessary to bring the temperature up to 130, which is the temperature at which insects may be destroyed without injury to the plants. Warm soap suds is one of the best insect washes, and when mixed with tobacco water is as good a wash as most things. Oil is for hard-wooded things, but has to be used with great caution, as it may clog the breathing pores, and smother the plant.

Some use it with water in syringing. The oil, of course, floats on the surface of the water, but those handy in the use of the syringe know how to stir the water at each insertion so as to draw in only a very little oil with a good deal of water. There are plans for mixing oil with milk or chalk before being mixed with water, when it diffuses through the water more readily than when used alone. Many of these things have been made familiar to our readers, from time to time, through our magazine, but it is well to keep them in memory through our seasonable hints.

How long it takes to get an idea into general practice, has never been better exemplified than in the work of Mr. Saunders, in showing florists that warm water will flow better down hill than up hill. Up to his time, it was an axiom that heat ascended because it was warm. He showed that it did not ascend at all in the true grammatical meaning of the term. Heated air, or heated water, would never rise a hair-breadth above the surface of the earth, if left wholly to itself. It has no ascending power. But when you place a heavier liquid near it, the heavier pushes the lighter out of the way. It is the cold water or the cold air, that makes the circulation, not the warm. Mr. Saunders showed this over and over again in our columns, and moreover showed, by a practical test at Washington, that the sooner we gave the cooler water a chance to gravitate to the bottom, the more rapid would be the flow. The highest point for the water should be right at the boiler, and from there at once the pipes should fall regularly. In other words, the only flow pipe should i be the boiler; all the pipes should be return; pipes. Although it is nearly a quarter of a cen-tury that Mr. Wm. Saunders first undertook this reform, it has moved slowly.

But it is getting more recognition of late, and though this excellent gentleman has passed his three-score, we should not be surprised that he lives to see its general; adoption, for when once there is a notable break in old notions the disintegration is usually rapid.

In cultivating house or window plants, people often worry as to how to keep them warm. The thought rarely occurs that they may be too warm. But great heat is often the cause of failure. Gas is often charged with what high temperature does. People often envy the windows of the poor. Flowers of any kind seem to thrive. The com-paiatively low temperature has much to do with it. Flowers like violets, roses, geraniums, fuchsias and many others, are better at a temperature of 50 than they would be at 700.

This is the time of the year when people who love chrysanthemums think about starting plants for next year. On this subject, a grower of prize plants says, in the Gardeners' Magazine :

" In referring to the preparation of the cuttings, I would strongly advise cultivators to refrain from the too common practice of taking them off below the surface, with or without root. When they are, so to speak, dug up, the plants produce a large number of suckers in the course of the season that are certainly not wanted. The right way in proceeding with the work is, to select short-jointed shoots, and take off the tops low enough down for the cuttings to be about three inches in length when they have been prepared. Each one should be cut clean through with a sharp knife, and have the two lower leaves removed. When the cuttings are prepared in this way, not only are the plants free from a large number of suckers, but they are much dwarfer, as proved by those which form the annual displays here, a fact especially worthy of the attention of those who require the stock for conservatory decoration. The cuttings are here struck in large sixties, four or five in each, and the pots used are clean and efficiently drained. An inch layer of rather small crocks is put in each, and this is covered with a little cocoanut fibre refuse, to keep the soil in its place.

For filling the pots, we use a mixture consisting of good turfy loam three parts, leaf mould one part, and enough silver sand to keep the mixture open. The pots are filled with this to within about a quarter of an inch of the upper edge of the rim, and care is taken to press it firm, and make the surface perfectly level. Upon this is placed a quarter of an inch layer of sand that is moderately moist and can be pressed firm without being sprinkled with water. The cuttings are inserted equal distances apart round the sides of the pot, and have the soil made firm about their base".

The time for making cuttings extends from November to February.

Much controversy occurs, as to the injury plants in warm houses are supposed to receive from being watered with cold water. We have never seen the slightest injury to the plant itself by cold water, but it retards flowering. In cases where the plants are required to bloom early, warm water is a great advantage. Outside of this, the ordinary pump water is good enough for watering.