March 20—The Golden Bell (Forsythia viridissima) is a mass of flowers these days, the warm weather recently experienced has encouraged these free-flowering ornamental shrubs to bloom and gardens that were still "asleep" last week are now a blaze of colour. The above-named species and also F. suspense bear flowers in profusion along their slender stems and as they grow with little care, they are ideal for planting as facer shrubs. They may also be used for training up pillars or. over harbours and a more decorative early flowering plant for this work would be difficult to find. The stems have a habit of rooting if they are permitted to touch the ground and a single plant soon becomes a group after a few years. We noticed a few shrubs in the Autumn. that had emitted bunches of roots from every node along the stems, the roots looked dry and shrivelled, but: they quickly showed signs of life when placed in soil and numerous tiny plants are now thriving. The forsythia: is a native of China and it was named after William Forsyth who was the Director of the. Royal Garden at Kensington in 1800. It is a member of the Lilac family (Oleacew), Writing of this family reminds us of another member about which we were asked a few questions recently: we were asked the name of the shrub that is used extensively by Chinese in the country for fencing purposes. The plant is Fontanesia Fortunei: this shrub has slender stems that are easily bent over and tied down io form fences. During the Summer, young growths are produced in profusion and a thick hedge is soon obtained, many of these growths are removed in the late Autumn; but sufficient are left to tie down, with the result that after a {esr years the hedge-fence is practically impenetrable during the Winter also. Its chief advantages over the ubiquitous bamboo fence is the fact that it is never stolen for fuel and that maintenance costs are negligible—w.s.x.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.