THE FLORAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



63 



benas, petunias, etc., that are struck at 

 this season, in thumbs till May, to save 

 room. If tliej get a little starved, tliey 

 pick up immediately they are put out, and 

 the space among the pots is just doubled 

 by such economy. 



That saving of space is an important 

 matter, and may be accomplished by the 

 adoption of other plans of propagating ; 

 for where some hundreds of pots stand 

 together, at least a fifth of the space is lost 

 between them — say eighty pots take up as 

 much room as a hitndred would if they 

 were all square. But square pots are not 

 made, and would perhaps be of very little 

 use if we hud them ; but square seed-pans 

 are fast coming into use, having been in- 

 troduced by Messrs. Adams, of the Pot- 

 teries, at Belle Isle, King's Cross. We 

 have turned out all our old circular seed- 

 pans, and substituted the square pans for 

 them, and the first cost of pans is at once 

 paid for i)i the increased area. In a Wal- 

 tonian case, where there are only some few 

 hundreds of square inches of surface, these 

 square pans can be arranged so that not a 

 hair's-breadth is lost ; and the very first 

 thing I did, when I heard of them, was to 

 get all the pots out of my case as quickly 

 as possible, and put in the next batch of | 

 seeds and cuttings in pans that fitted it | 

 from side to side. Wliile Messrs. Adams 

 are in my mind, let me add, for the com- 

 fort of Londoners, that they make the best 

 pots to be obtained anywhere in the three 

 kingdoms, as well as every kind of tile for 

 draining, edging strawberry-beds, etc., etc. 

 We often get rotten pots here that we are 

 obliged to break up for crocks without 

 using them in any other way ; but since 

 we have had supplies from Belle Isle we 

 believe our troubles in that respect are 

 over. 



Another mode of economizing space in 

 your propagating-house is to prick out 

 the rooted cuttings into shallow boxes, 

 and not use pots at all for the stock in- 

 tended for bedding. Boxes for this pur- 

 pose can generally be found about the 

 house ; but if made expressly, let them be 

 six inches deep, nine inches wide, and 

 eighteen inches long, and without bottoms. 

 Stand every such box on a slab of slate 

 or a stout board, just an inch larger than 

 the outside of the box ; put in two inches 

 of crocks, and then fill up with a mixture 

 of chopped turf, fibry peat, sifted loam, 

 very old crumbly dung, and silver-sand, 

 in equal proportions, the whole well 

 mixed, and in small lumps of the size of 

 hazel-nuts, with plenty of dusty stuff to 

 rattle in between the lumps. Plant some 

 cuttings all over the surface, an inch and 



a-half apart. As soon as they meet, thin 

 out every other one, and plant them in 

 other boxes, three inches apart, and so on, 

 never letting them get crowded, and shift- 

 ing only those that must bo removed, to 

 allow space for those that remain. Be- 

 ginning with two or three boxes, you may 

 before June have a dozen or two filled 

 with healthy bushy plants ; and as time 

 goes on from the first planting, room will 

 be afforded for the increase in the number 

 of boxes by the removal of camellias, pri- 

 mulas, cinerarias, and other things, to win- 

 dows or protective beds. When planting- 

 time arrives, you have but to lift up the 

 sides of the box, and, presto ! there is the 

 soil in a square cake, and every plant can 

 be removed from it without shaking a 

 particle of mould from its roots. 



The matter wliich occupies me just 

 now, more than all the bedders, is the 

 new substitute for a grass, Spergula pili- 

 fera, of which Messrs. Henderson have 

 published an account that makes one's 

 mouth water. That same announcement 

 dissipated a five-pound-note for me within 

 a week after I read it, simply to give it a 

 fair trial. I had a large piece of lawn 

 stripped near the house, a bed of conifers 

 taken up, and places made for them else- 

 where ; then the whole laid out in a circle 

 twenty-four feet wide, and in the centre 

 of that circle a bed formed for roses. 

 The piece stripped was a steep slope, and 

 there was a vast deal of earth-work neces- 

 sary to bring it to a level, with a step 

 down on to the lawn at the lowest side. 

 My man sent for me this morning to 

 announce the arrival of a set of roses or- 

 dered for the purpose of Messrs. Paul ; 

 and in a couple of hours we got fifty into 

 their places — a three-feet standard in the 

 centre, a ring of six half-standards, then a 

 ring of quarter-standards, and an edging 

 of small fancy sorts. We have now in 

 the best place for the purpose — imme- 

 diately under the drawing-room windows 

 — a flat circle, tw^enty-four feet across, 

 and as level as water ; Avithin that a cir- 

 cular bed thirteen feet wide, containing 

 the fifty roses ; and there are not two of a 

 sort all through. The outer ring is for 

 Spergula 'pilif era, which, if it at all equals 

 the description, will make a luxurious 

 band of green round a bed worth the 

 relief of a respectable breadth of turf. 

 Time will tell its lesson there. The Sper- 

 gula is already sown in seed-pans — for I 

 never risk a new thing in the open ground 

 too soon — and by and by shall dibble it, 

 and expect next autumn to realize the 

 pleasure of treading on " elastic verdure, 

 softer than the finest Turkey carpet." 



