THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 359 



we say, passim, passim, passim, and put down the pen and go to 

 bed. Details at some future time. 



XTlie varieties represented in the plate are the following : — 1, -2". 

 helix Nigra; 2, H. h. Aurea ; 3, H. h. Lucida s; 4, H. grandifolia 

 Pallida ; 5, H. g. Maculata ; G, H. h. Ghrysophylla ; 7, R. h. Margi- 

 nata grandis. S. H. 



6 E 



WINTER-FLOWERING HEATHS. 



BY JOHN MALLEB, 

 Brunswick Nursery, Tottenham. 



jlEATHS are generally considered to be so difficult to 

 manage that amateur plant-growers are afraid to take 

 them in hand. The difficulty, if there is a difficulty, 

 does not, however, consist in their requiring any extra- 

 ordinary treatment, but rather in their having the 

 necessary attention at the right moment. Unlike many soft- wooded 

 plants, which can be allowed to flag for a considerable time without 

 serious injury, the heaths must not suffer a moment for the want 

 of moisture at the roots ; for if the soil gets dust-dry, the foliage will 

 assuredly fall off, and leave the plant a mass of bare wood if it 

 happens to survive the shock. On the other hand, too much moisture 

 at the roots will produce results equally disastrous, though not so 

 quickly accomplished. The heaths have many claims upon amateurs, 

 because they take up very little space, bloom at a season of the year 

 when flowers are comparatively scarce, and require no expense for 

 fire-heat beyond what is necessary to keep the frost from them. 

 They can, in fact, be grown altogether without fire-heat, if they 

 are sufficiently protected with mats or litter. 



The most difficult part of heath-growing is propagation ; and it 

 will be as well fur those who have not much practical knowledge of 

 plant-growing to buy in a stock of young plants just potted into 

 small GO's. This will save much time, and, perhaps, disappoint- 

 ment. However, it will not do to pass it over, for there are hun- 

 dreds of amateur growers who take double the pleasure in cultivating 

 plants raised by themselves from cuttings than others which have 

 been bought in. But it will be well to point out at once that, 

 unless the following conditions can be complied with, it will be 

 better to leave it alone. 



In January, a plant of each sort that is to be propagated must 

 be placed in a temperature of about 50 \ and be kept near the glass. 

 This is necessary to start the young side-shoots into active growth, 

 and draw them slightly. When they have attained a length of from 

 half to three-quarters of an inch, slip them off with the finger and 

 thumb ; then remove a few of the lower leaves by the same process, 

 and iusert the cuttings rather thickly in five-inch pots prepared in 

 the usual way. But in preparing the pots, be careful to have them 

 well-drained, and the peat and the layer of sand on the surface 

 made very firm. The cuttings must be kept in the same temperature 



