240 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



grown as dwarf specimens on their own roots, or as standards grafted 

 on the Pereskia aculeata, according to the taste of the cultivator, but 

 if I may be allowed to offer a suggestion upon this matter, I 

 should advise their being grafted on stocks from twelve to eighteen 

 inches in height. Grafting can be most successfully performed in 

 the spring, when the plants are in full growth ; that known as side 

 or tongue grafting being the best system to adopt. The scion 

 should correspond in size with the stock, and be secured to it with 

 a piece of matting. A little moss should then be bound round to 

 maintain a little moisture about the junction of stock and graft, and 

 to exclude the air. Cuttings can also be struck at the same time 

 with but little trouble, as the small branches will emit roots, even 

 when laying upon a damp surface. Inserted round the sides of a five- 

 inch pot, and then placed in a temperature of about 60 3 , they will 

 soon form roots, and start into growth. The most important matter 

 connected with striking the cuttings is to guard against giving them 

 too much moisture, for if they are kept too wet before they are 

 rooted, the soft wood will speedily rot. The young plants can 

 remain in the cutting pot until the following spring, and then be 

 potted off and treated as I shall direct in the following re- 

 marks. 



As there is no material difference in the treatment of own-root 

 and grafted specimens, it must be understood that the undermen- 

 tioned cultural directions will apply with equal force to both. In 

 the first place, allow me to say that it is a matter of impossibility to 

 do these things justice without the aid of a stove, or intermediate 

 house. I have tried a warm greenhouse, but with little success ; I 

 can manage to keep the plants healthy and the growth steadily pro- 

 gressing, but I cannot succeed iu getting more than three or four 

 flowers upon a large plant. The growth must be made early in the 

 year, and to do that a temperature of about 60° is necessary. My 

 plants bloom about Christmas, some before and some after, and 

 they last good for about a month. Early in February all the dead 

 flowers are removed and the whole stock shifted. Old specimens 

 have the balls reduced, and are re-potted in the same size again, but 

 younger and smaller ones have a shift into a pot one size larger, 

 which is quite sufficient for the most vigorous specimen. After the 

 potting is completed, our plants are removed to a shelf near the 

 glass, in one of the succession pine stoves, the temperature of which 

 averages 65°. Here they have nothing but a slight sprinkle overhead 

 occasionally with tepid water until a new growth is commenced. 

 After that water can be applied carefully to the roots, increasing 

 the supply as the young growth makes headway, and the pots fill 

 with roots. The gradual increase in the temperature necessary for 

 the pines suits them admirably, and here they make a splendid 

 growth. When the sun gets very powerful after March, it will be 

 advisable to screen the tender growth from its rays foi a few hours 

 during the hottest part of the day ; but at other time;- it is well nigh 

 impossible to keep them too close to the glass, or to give them too 

 much light. Throughout the growing season the ordinary precau- 

 tion of applying a sufficiency of water to the roots, without soddening 



