1873.] HOW TO GROW DEACiENAS. G5 



take up to improve by careful fertilisation and selection, really good novelties are 

 very slow in appearing. I kave raised thousands of seedlings, and know others 

 who have done the same ; and while some of us, during a lifetime, may happen 

 to have obtained one or two good things worth keeping, others have never been 

 lucky enough to get a single variety of any prominent merit. This seems dis- 

 heartening, and so it has been in the case of some who having tried for a few years, 

 gave up in despair; however, had these persons made but another sowing they might 

 have been successful, and have had their names registered among those who stand 

 in the first rank as seedling-raisers. This should at least stimulate to persever- 

 ance. When we come .to examine, we find that we have nearly as many names of 

 men who have raised choice sorts of Auricula as we have of good named flowers ; 

 from which we gather that no one has ever been fortunate enough to raise any 

 number of really choice sorts. 



For all this, I do not see why the Auricula should have got into such dis- 

 favour. True enough, different individuals have different tastes and ideas ; but, 

 as one among the rest, my notion is, that of all the flowers in cultivation there 

 is none to surpass or even to equal this in beauty. I may, on a future 

 occasion, have a few more words to say by way of encouragement to young 

 florists to try their hand at the cultivation of the Auricula — my first favourite, 

 now of over fifty years' standing, and likely enough to be my last. — J. Hepwoeth, 

 Huddersfield. 



HOW TO GROW DRAC^NAS. 



. HESE most useful of all foliage plants — which, thanks to our enterprising 

 nurserymen, have been much improved of late — should find a place in every 

 stove ; for while they are second to none for table decoration, they are, 

 when well coloured, and raised above the other plants, amongst the best 

 of all plants for making the conservatory gay with their painted foliage. They 

 are also found to be very useful in the subtropical garden, but should be well 

 hardened before being placed there, or they will lose most of their leaves. 

 The DraccBnas are very easy to propagate, as any portion of the stem or main 

 root, cut to about an inch in length, and put into light sandy soil, will, with the 

 aid of bottom-heat, strike root freely ; but to obtain well-feathered and richly- 

 coloured plants, I prefer the tops taken off early in the spring, and potted singly into 

 60-size pots in light sandy soil. These must be placed in a temperature of 75^ 

 with a gentle bottom-heat. As soon as the roots find their way to the sides of 

 the pot, they should be shifted into 48-size, using equal parts of good fibry loam 

 and peat, with sufficient silver-sand to make the compost sufficiently porous to 

 let water pass freely through. Pot moderately firm, and place them in a stove 

 where they can obtain the benefit of the sun's rays, which will not only brighten 

 their colour, but harden the foliage, so that it will stand much longer than that 

 of plants grown in the shade. By the end of June they should have another 

 shift, using the same kind of compost as before. Care must be taken that the 



