134 THE FLORIST. 



a nursery which shall be nameless. There may be exceptions to the 

 rule, but I am tolerably well persuaded that the intense heat of the 

 last few summers is at the bottom of our difficulties, and that to keep 

 them we must use our utmost ingenuity. 



So much has been written, and so well, too, upon them, and separate 

 treatises certainly have said nearly all that can be said, that there is 

 little room to add more ; there are, however, one or two points con- 

 nected with the difficulty we have lately experienced, that I may as 

 well notice. I speak only as far as pot culture is concerned. Now, 

 unquestionably the only plants for this purpose are those that are struck 

 late — early struck ones being lanky, and apt to throw out a number of 

 stems ; but as the old plants are very likely, during the summer, to go 

 off" entirely, cuttings should be taken in the spring months when they 

 are fit, and these, planted out in a shady place, will make good plants 

 to take autumn cuttings from, while the old plants should be cut down 

 as soon as the blooming season is over, and also placed in a shady 

 situation. I am inclined to think that if they were plunged the 

 roots would be kept cooler, and they would be less likely to perish. I 

 am so dreadfully exposed to sun, that it is almost impossible to carry 

 out my own directions ; but if your plants are treated thus, they will 

 probably have thrown out, by the end of August, some fresh shoots ; 

 these are to be taken off, then, and put under a handglass, the glass 

 itself being filled up with mould nearly three-fourths of its length. 

 Each cutting must be firmly pressed in, so as to leave no cavity between 

 the bottom of the cutting and the soil, freely watered, and the top of the 

 glass only to be put on in severe weather. This is the plan adopted by 

 Mr. Banks' gardener, and the result is, that he generally has a nice lot 

 of well rooted, healthy plants by the first week in October ; these are 

 kept to one stem, and in the spring they make very handsome pot plants. 



Surely, there is no need to say a word in praise of this beautiful 

 flower. It comes to us in early spring, like the swallow, a herald to us 

 that summer is coming on. As a friend and neighbour says, " they 

 wake one up," and tell us that all our watchfulness and toil during the 

 winter will be now repaid ; and although there is not that variety in 

 them that there is in many flowers, yet they are so exquisite in shape, 

 so velvety and rich in texture, that they are universal favourites ; and 

 were they more easily propagated, they would be more generally grown. 



I subjoin a list, to which I am indebted to Messrs. Downie and 

 Laird. The varieties marked with an asterisk I have seen, and know 

 to be good : — 



Selfs. Duchess of Wellington (D. & L.) 



Admiral Dundas (Horsburgh) John Lofley (Oswald) 



Cloth of Gold (Nairn), yellow *Sir John Cathcart (Turner) 



.Airs. Hope (D. & L.) 



Charles M'Intosh (D. & L ), dark 

 *Jeaune (D. & L.), shaded dark 

 *J. B. Gough (D. & L.), finedark 

 *Lady Belhaven (D. & L.), black 



*Ventas (Turner), white *Colonel Wynham (Lang) 



* Louisa (Read) 

 Yellow Ground. 

 Bacchus (Turner) 

 Cyclops (Bayliss) 



Deal, April 20. D 



White Ground. 

 *Countess of Roslin (Lang) 



*Royal Standard (D. & L.) 

 *Sir C. Campbell (Paton & Small) 

 Miss Caroline Saddler 



