which can be trained as desired.  Apples need very little pruning, it being merely necessary to remove branches growing in the wrong direction; but this should be done annually, while the branches are young—­either at the end of July or in winter.  If moss makes its appearance, scrape it off and wash the branches with hot lime.  The following sorts may be specially recommended:—­For heavy soils, Duchess of Oldenburgh, equally suitable for cooking or dessert; Warner’s King, one of the best for mid-season; and King of the Pippins, a handsome and early dessert apple.  For light, warm soils, Cox’s Orange Pippin or Bess Pool.  The Devonshire Quarrenden is a delicious apple, and will grow on any good soil.  In orchards standards should stand 40 ft. apart each way, and dwarfs from 10 ft. to 15 ft.

Apricots.—­Early in November is the most favourable time for planting Apricots.  The soil—­good, sound loam for preference—­should be dug 3 ft. deep, and mixed with one-fourth its quantity of rotten leaves and one-fourth old plaster refuse.  Place a substratum of bricks below each tree and tread the earth very firmly round the roots.  They will not need any manure until they are fruiting, when a little may be applied in a weak liquid form, but a plentiful supply of water should be given during spring and summer months.  The fan shape is undoubtedly the best way of training the branches, as it allows a ready means of tucking small yew branches between them to protect the buds from the cold.  They may be grown on their own roots by planting the stone, but a quicker way to obtain fruit is to bud them on to vigorous seedling plum trees.  This should be done in August, inserting the bud on the north or north-west side of the stem and as near the ground as possible.  To obtain prime fruit, thin the fruit-buds out to a distance of 6 in. one from the other.  In the spring any leaf-buds not required for permanent shoots can be pinched back to three or four leaves to form spurs.  The Apricot is subject to a sort of paralysis, the branches dying off suddenly.  The only remedy for this seems to be to prevent premature vegetation.  The following are good sorts:  Moor Park, Grosse Peche, Royal St. Ambroise, Kaisha, Powell’s Late, and Oullin’s Early.  In plantations they should stand 20 ft. apart.

Aquatics.—­All aquatics grow best in wicker-baskets filled with earth.  Cover the surface of the earth with hay-bands twisted backwards and forwards and round the plant, and lace it down with tarred string, so as to keep the earth and plant from being washed out.  The following make good plants:—­White Water Lily (Nymphaea Alba) in deep water with muddy bottom; Yellow Water Lily (Nuphar Lutea); and Nuphar Advena, having yellow and red flowers; Hottonia Palustris, bearing flesh-coloured flowers, and Alismas, or Water Plantain, with white, and purple and white flowers.  Water Forget-me-nots (Myosotis Palustris) flourish on the edges of ponds or rivers.