120 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



If you intend to buy, huy now. You cannot see tlie colours to ad- 

 vantage in spring, but mayhap you know what you want, and if in 

 the dark on a point tlie " Garden Oracle " may lielp you. This is, 

 say the first week in April ; the plants are growing, we have the 

 prospect of six months' sunshine, suitable for building up the con- 

 stitution of a tricolor. Put your plants in the sunniest house you 

 have, give plenty of air, and if they will not furnish cuttings instanter, 

 you will not have to wait long. 



Now as to the way. I will tell you in a few words the very best 

 way. Make a bed close to the glass in a sunny house. A large 

 shallow wooden box will do. Far better is a bed of earth within a 

 brick wall, such as in some houses pot-plants are placed on, with 

 pebbles or coal-ashes for a surfacing. Better to make a bed rather 

 than trust to pots and pans. It must be six inches deep, and consist 

 of equal parts quite rotten cocoa-nut fibre and sharp sand well 

 mixed together. In this mixture the tricolors will root in a way to 

 indicate that to them it is a discovery and a delight. There is to be 

 no bottom-heat, but a little husbanding of sun-heat may be prudent, 

 especially until we get a little way into May. Get rid of all old 

 notions about propagating, and go to work just as I advise. I well 

 know what Seneca says, Dediscit animus sero qv,od didicit diu ; but 

 it must be done if you want tricolors. "When this bed has been 

 watered, and had a little time to settle, begin to cut wherever you 

 can take a two-inch length without spoiling a plant. There are two 

 ways to make cuttings for this bed. The rather softish tops of 

 shoots of an inch long or so must not be cut smaller ; plant them 

 firmly in the bed, and they will soon be plants. Stout ripe pieces 

 may be cut into as many parts as there are leaves ; that is to say, 

 a bit of wood and one leaf are enough to make a plant. Never 

 remove a leaf if you can fix your cutting firmly without burying a 

 leaf or a leaf-stalk ; rather than do this take a leaf off; but I think 

 he would be a poor bungler who would ever have to take oflf a leaf, 

 unless it happened to be a dead leaf, and that is better off" than on. 

 It is perhaps, not needless information to say, that a leaf taken off" 

 cannot be put on again ; it prepares us to understand the maxim of 

 Publius Sjrus, Deliberanduvi est diu, quod sialuendem semel. I say 

 nothing about what you are to do with them when rooted, for that 

 is another subject. But let us shift the scene to the opening of 

 June, and then let us begin again. 



It is a matter of fact that any and every tricolor can be as well 

 struck in a sunny border as a Tom Thumb, only with this difference, 

 that they want more time. Begin, therefore, on the 1st of June, 

 and if the weather is cold, put mats or flower-pots over them at 

 night ; but not in the common border, mind, for that may consist 

 of clay, or putty, or pudding ; malce a harder for them, a sunny border 

 under a wall ; put on a foot depth of a mixture of equal parts sand, 

 leaf-mould, and cocoa-nut fibre ; no harm if one part of very old 

 hotbed manure be added. A little turfy loam — no harm if mellow 

 and yellow. Slope it up to the wall above the level, and there dib 

 away as fast as you can get bits to dib ; they will be all plants in 

 August fit for potting to go through the winter. 



