1869.] HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 25 



are very pleasing. As subjects for the mixed border, nothing can sur- 

 pass these tall perennial Lobelias; and it is astonishing that the species 

 and the older varieties should ever have been allowed to fall into disuse 

 for that purpose, for under good cultivation they are striking, bold, and 

 handsome. Their cultivation is a very simple matter. From the 

 combined influences of cold and wet the soft succulent underground 

 stems are liable to perish in ^vinter if left out of doors where they 

 grow, unprotected ; protection of some sort is therefore necessary. 

 Some leave them where they made their growth till spring, protecting 

 them with a mound of coal-ashes or any other available protecting 

 materials ; others lift them as soon as flowering is finished, and stow 

 them away in coal-ashes or dry sand in sheds, under stages of cool 

 plant-houses or in cold frames ; and a friend of the A\T:iter, who was 

 very successful in the cultivation of Lobelias, kept his roots in tubs 

 of water under cover to prevent freezing ; but the water, on account of 

 its liability to become putrid, required frequent renewal, a circum- 

 stance, doubtless, that prevented my friend from making converts to 

 this pickle-tub method. My own experience is in favour of lifting 

 the roots in autumn imm^ediately after flowering is finished, dividing 

 them, and potting the offsets singly in the smallest pots they can be 

 got into, afterwards plunging the pots to the rims in coal-ashes in a 

 cold frame. Liberal airing in favourable weather and protection 

 during frost is all that they will need of attention and labour till the 

 early months of spring. To do them thoroughly well, they must have 

 an early start, and for this purpose a hot-bed, in which a temperature 

 ranging from 60° to 65° can be kept up, should be in readiness to 

 receive them by the second week in February. Examine and trim 

 the plants, and transfer them to the hot-bed, not plunging them, but 

 merely setting them on a bed of ashes. They will soon begin to grow, 

 and will require shifting and constant attention to watering, but as 

 yet very carefully. Continue to shift as required by the progress they 

 make up till the end of April, when they should get their final shift 

 and be transferred to a cold frame, kept close till they are inured to 

 it, and afterwards carefully hardened off for planting out in the end 

 of May. They are not particular as to kind of soil, but are very 

 much so as to the quality. Loam and peat and well-decayed stable 

 manure in nearly equal parts, and abundance of grit of some sort to 

 keep it open and porous, is a compost in which these Lobelias delight 

 in pots, and the beds or borders that they are designed to occupy out 

 of doors cannot possibly be made too rich for them. They are very 

 impatient of drought when making their growth, and will absorb 

 almost any quantity of water ; it should not therefore be spared. 



W. S. 



