THE FLORAL WOELD AIsD GAEDEN GUIDE. 167 



me to say tliafc the plants will require regular attention as regards 

 watering — quite as much as they did before the blooming season. 

 Directly the cuttings are large enough to handle, I take them off, 

 and pot them separately in small pots, and stand the pots in a cold 

 frame facing the north. I find they do better than when the frame 

 is exposed to the full force of the sun, for they can be kept cool and 

 moist, and at the same time have plenty of light without being 

 scorched up. I shall not enter into any details for the after- 

 management of the cuttings, for the same treatment will be required 

 as for the seedlings, and as that is the most general way of raising a 

 stock, I will commence at the beginning. Before saying anything 

 about that part of the question, however, I will observe that the 

 cuttings should be taken off near the main stem, and the bottom 

 leaves trimmed neatly away, and the cuttings inserted firmly. The 

 pots should be filled with loam and leaf-mould, and plenty of sand. 



The time for sowing calceolaria seed is variously fixed by 

 different writers from July to September, and each one has the 

 notion that seed sown at any other time than the one he recommends, 

 will not produce plants that will give satisfactory results, Eor my 

 own part I do not attach much importance to a few days either way, 

 but I should advise a couple of sowings, say one the middle of July, 

 and the other a month later ; the first sowing will produce plants for 

 blooming in May, and the last will give plants that will bloom from 

 a month to six weeks later. It will not be necessary for me to go 

 over the same ground twice, therefore it must be understood that 

 the same treatment will apply to both crops. 



The preparation of the seed-pans is a matter of some consequence, 

 for if not properly prepared, the seed very ofteu fails to germinate. 

 I fill my pans about half full with crocks broken rather small, and 

 cover them with a layer of half-rotten leaves, cocoa-nut-fibre refuse, 

 or the lumpy part of the siftings of the soil, which forms the top 

 layer to receive the seed; the remaining space in the pans is then filled 

 with a compost composed of fibry loam and thoroughly decayed leaf- 

 mould, with an abundance of silver sand; this layer should be 

 chopped up fine but not sifted, for when the whole body of soil is 

 sifted, it gets too close for the young rootlets to run in freely. It is 

 desirable to sift a small portion to cover the surface with, about a 

 quarter of an inch deep, upon which the seed is sown, after it has 

 been made perfectly level with the bottom of a small flower-pot or 

 piece of board. Before sowing the seed give the pans a good 

 watering ; the seed often gets displaced when the watering is done 

 immediately after sowing it. The seed should be sown as regularly 

 over the surface as its minute character will admit, and a slight 

 covering of sand sprinkled over it. The after disposition of the 

 seed-pans depends entirely upon the means at hand ; one very good 

 plan is to put them under handlights upon a north border, where the 

 sun will not catch them, or in a frame under similar circumstances ; 

 in either case place the frame or handlights upon a good thick bed of 

 coal ashes. Where the pans are to be placed in a greenhouse or pit, 

 with a general collection of plants, they should be covered with a 

 piece of glass and kept shaded. Whenever the soil requires water, 



