84 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



in Fig. 2. The tubers will bear a considerable amount of cutting 

 about without injury. Some growers propagate their stock by 

 dividing the roots down the centre, with one tuber to each, and 

 theu shorten the latter to admit of its being put in a rather small pot. 

 This is a very simple method, but it is not one that can be recom- 

 mended, excepting when they are required exclusively for home deco- 

 ration, and the cultivator has only a greenhouse or cold-frame to start 

 them in. When the young shoots, which start from the crown, have 

 attained a length of about three inches, as shown in Fig. 3, take them 

 off with a small heel, and put them either singly in small pots, or 

 several round the sides of pots of a larger size. When five or six- 

 inch pots are employed, a large or small "60" should be turned bot- 

 tom upwards in each, a layer of small crocks then put on regularly, 

 and the remaining space filled with soil, consisting of at least one- 

 half either silver or clean river-sand. When the cutting-pots are 

 prepared as here directed, the danger of the cuttings damping off 

 is reduced to the lowest possible minimum, because of the compara- 

 tively small amount of soil employed. Small pots should have a 

 good layer of crocks in the bottom, and the cuttings be placed in the 

 middle. Place the cuttings in a warm corner of the house or frame, 

 and partly plunge the pots in bottom-heat, if available. Water 

 cautiously, because if kept too wet, a large number will damp off; 

 but they must be sprinkled overhead often enough to keep them from 

 flagging. They must also be shaded with thin canvas or paper, when 

 necessary, and sufficient air admitted to keep the atmosphere pure. 

 The cuttings produced by roots started in a low temperature, may 

 be struck under a hand-light, placed in a warm corner of an ordinary 

 greenhouse. 



When nicely rooted, put them singly into three-inch pots, and 

 after the second or third day, begin to harden them off gradually, and at 

 the earliest moment possible transfer them to a frame, where they can 

 be efficiently protected from frost. The tops can be taken off, and 

 struck if required. It will be necessary to keep rather close for a 

 few days after the stock is removed to the frame, but the frame 

 should be well ventilated, as they become hardy enough to be exposed 

 freely to the air. When sufficiently hardened, draw the lights off 

 altogether during the day in congenial weather. It is a most excel- 

 lent plan, although few growers adopt it, to shift the whole stock 

 into six-inch pots as soon as those in which they were first put are 

 well filled with roots. The difference at planting time between those 

 shifted and the others that are kept starving in small pots is in- 

 credible, and more than sufficient to doubly repay the extra labour. 



A complete list of the best of the established sorts was published 

 in the December number of last year, which buyers cannot do better 

 than take for their guide. Those who are anxious to speculate in 

 the new varieties, will find in the recent issue of the " Garden 

 Oracle " the names and descriptions of the best that will be sent out 

 in the ensuing spring. 



