182 THE FLOKAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



would be more pernicious than too little, and especially for the large plants, where 

 the soil is in greater qutmtity ; one or two injudicious waterings are enough to kill 

 the best established plants. Good drainage in the bottom of the box or pot will 

 prevent many accidents. In the winter they want very little water. Before 

 watering tliem, the grower should feel the leaves of the tree, and if flabby, as 

 though on the point of flagging, it is then time to give them water. This applies 

 only for tlie large plants, tlie large quantity of soil employed for them keeping its 

 moisture for a long time. The small plants must be watered more frequently, but 

 still with great moderation in winter. During the summer water must be given 

 freely, but not in excess. The best time to do the watering is in the morning ; and 

 at night the plants will i-equire a little syringing on the leaves, but only in the 

 hottest time of the year. Liquid manure given with great moderation will do them 

 good and quicken their vegetation. The small plants which have passed beyond 

 the hotbed stage should be potted in a very rich light soil, r.ud not too sand}', say 

 nine parts of soil divided as follows : — Three of maiden loam, tv. o and a half of 

 yellow loam, one and a half of old dung-mould, one of peat, and one of sand. In 

 potting plants of a larger size, the soil should be a little stronger, and be composed 

 as follows : — Three and a half of maiden loam, three of yellow loam, one of 

 thoroughly rotten dung, a quarter of peat, and one part of sand. 



Oleaxder Culture. — Visitors to the Coniiuent in the summer months can 

 hardly fail to be struck with the employment of certain plants for decorative pur- 

 poses, of which we in this country make comparatively little use. Here, if a tew 

 orange trees or Portugal laurels, perchance a pomegranate, are grown in tubs and 

 put on to the terrace in summer time, it seems to be considered that enough has 

 been done in that way. There is no reason, however, why many other plants 

 should not be used in like manner. We well remember the beautiful effect pro- 

 duced on a quay fronting the Lake of Lucerne by a number of standards of this 

 kind, including not only the plants mentioned, but Pittosporums, Yellow Jasmines, 

 Evergreen Oaks, Euonymus, Aucubas, and Figs. At Vienna a similar assortment 

 may be seen in front of some of the principal cafes, where o)ie n:ay sit in the open 

 street under the shadow of the pomegranate and the oleander. This latter plant, 

 too, is an immense favourite with the Parisians. In fact, the oleander forms, with 

 the myrtle and the pomegranate, one of the most important articles of Pai isian com- 

 mercial horticulture. The reasons for this are obvious — the elegant habit, glossy 

 foliage, profusion of bright rosy or white flowers, endowed, moreover, with an 

 agreeable almond-like perfume, off'er recommendations hardly to be exceeded by 

 those of otlier plants. The culture, moreover, is easy. Indifterent as to the treat- 

 ment it receives in winter, it may be kept in cellars or garrets — almost anywhere, 

 in fact ; hence its frequency abroad in the windows of the artizan and at the doors 

 of the merchant's office. The shrub maybe propagated either by layers or by 

 cuttings ; but of late years, in France, the former method has been abandoned, as 

 it is found that cuttings produce plants of better habit, and in greater numbers. It 

 was from cuttings that those beautiful little oleanders exhibited in the reserve 

 garden of the late Paris Exhibition, in the first fortnight of June last, by M. Chevet, 

 were obtained. 



A well-known French horticulturist, M. Chate fils, who has had great experience 

 in the cultivation of this plant for the last twenty -five years, has obligingly commu- 

 nicated to us the details of his method of cultivating this plant, which are as 

 follows : — " If layers be required, about the end of April or beginning of Maj^, a 

 period when in Paris greenhouse plants are placed in the open air, some old stocks 

 of oleander are planted out in the soil, previously trenched and well manured. At 

 the end of a month these stocks are rooted in the soil, and then all the branches are 

 bent down to the ground and fixed in that position with pegs. They are then 

 covered Avith soil about fifteen to twenty centimetres (six to eight inches) deep, 

 taking care to leave the extremities uncovered. The branches are copiously watered, 

 especially when the roots begin to be formed. In the early part of August the 

 branches are cut through, and thus separated from the parent stoul without disturbing 

 the roots. About the beginning of September the young plants are placed in pots 

 proportioned to their size. Formerly gardeners used to layer at once into pots, 

 thinking that by adopting the method thus described they would lose their plants. 

 They also used to cut the branches, as they would do with pinks, at the places 

 where they wished to secure the formation of roots. But after a time it was found 



