170 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



it is black and unctuous-looking, with a good sprinkling of clear, 

 bright sand sparkling in ib, he may proceed to clear oft' the rougli 

 herbage that grows upon it — for the best is generally found where 

 the ling grows strongest ; then to pare oft" the surface only a few 

 inches thick, and avoid the poor, grey, hungry soil that lies beneath. 

 The supply should be renewed every year or two, for if kept too 

 long it loses its fibrous texture, and is then only fit for very small 

 stock from the seed-pan or cutting-pot. For larger plants, soil somewhat 

 fresh and lumpy is best. Some peat is wanting in a due proportion of 

 clear white sand. This may be corrected by the addition of silver 

 sand, and this should be done upon the potting-bench, as some of the 

 free-growing, soft varieties, such as Bowieana, cruenta, exsurgens, 

 flammea, ret'ulgens, Willmoriana, intermedia. metula?flora, verticillata, 

 Bergiana, cupressina, gracilis, grandinosa, hyemalis, Linneana, pyra- 

 midalis, sulphurea, etc , being the hardiest and most suitable for 

 beginners, will flourish best in a peat not very sandy ; whilst the very 

 bard-wooded, or delicate-growing varieties, such as Hartnelli, ampul- 

 lacea, aristata, elegans, Massoni, Templeana, tricolor, vestita, Spren- 

 gelii, gemmifera, etc., though very beautiful, are more difficult to 

 cultivate, and require a larger proportion of silver sand in the soil, 

 It may be necessary to caution the inexperienced against falling into 

 an error I have known amateurs to commit — viz., the mistaking bog 

 soil, met with in swamps and by river-sides, for the peat soil above 

 described; for no composition, however carefully prepared, can enter 

 into competition with pure native peat soil for heath-growing houses. 

 As the heaths delight in a cool, airy house, they must not be asso- 

 ciated with such soft-wooded plants as pelargoniums, cinerarias, etc., 

 but must either have a house to themselves, or have for their asso- 

 ciates other hard-wooded plants, which will bear the treatment the 

 heath requires. In the latter case, a low span-roof house, with side- 

 lights to open, or with ventilators instead, and with slate benches or 

 beds of gravel, upon which the plants stand cool, and are not so subject 

 to alterations of temperature and moisture as they are upon spline 

 stages, and in "pitched" or " lean-to" houses, is the kind of place 

 in which the heath delights. Some cultivators cultivate them very 

 successfully in bouses with a northern aspect ; and in such houses 

 the hardier kind of ferns may be cultivated with them, and will form 

 a very pleasant accompaniment; but let the house be of what kind 

 it may, above all things it is important that thorough ventilation 

 should be provided ; for, when the weather is neither frosty nor foggy, 

 established plants can scarcely have too much air. The heating 

 apparatus need not be powerful, its only use being to keep the tem- 

 perature just above freezing point, and occasionally, in wet weather, 

 to dry up damps, at which same time the top ventilators should be 

 sufficiently open for the moisture to escape ; but where young stock 

 are to be reared, a common garden frame, or a low pit, are necessary, 

 or at least desirable, as in such places young plants may be made to 

 grow more freely. Indeed, in such places alone thou^iands of nice 

 little specimens, loaded with flowers, are annually produced for the 

 London market. 



Propagation. — For the benefit of those who are curious in this 



