342 THE FLOEAL WOKLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



and filling up witli mould composed of half liglit loam and half- 

 silver saud. I then plunged the pots in the front of a cucumber 

 frame, new-milk warm, and shaded them for a fortnight, giving a 

 little water occasionally. By the 1st of July they were well rooted. 

 I then re-potted them into five-iuch pots, drained with cocoa-nut 

 fibre — the compost two-fourths fibrous m.aiden loam from Epping 

 Forest, one-fourth rotten dung, and one-fourth decayed leaf-mould, 

 pressing the mould firmly round the sides of the pot. I then put 

 them in a cold frame for nine days, with a little air to harden them 

 oiF, and then removed them to a sheltered sunny spot for three 

 weeks, attending to the watering, and every evening syringing the 

 foliage to wash off the fallen soot, and keep otf insects. 



At the end of three weeks I plunged them three parts down in 

 the front of the border, making the hole much deeper than the pot, 

 in order to obtain a free drainage. I then commenced giving a 

 weak liquid manure, composed of horse, sheep, and cow dung, with 

 a little guano, all mixed together in a tub ; and this I continued to 

 follow up till they showed the colour of the flower. As soon as 

 they began to throw and show their side-shoots or laterals, I pricked 

 them out, and continued to do so till they showed the flower-bud, 

 which was in the end of August. When the bud was properly 

 formed I took off" the shoots on each side of the bud where the bud 

 looked healthy and promising ; but I was obliged to let several go on 

 to the second shoot. These did not bloom quite so early, but all 

 did very well. The average height was eighteen inches, with healthy 

 foliage to the rim of the pot, and the blooms as perfect and nearly as 

 large as those of the plants in the borders with unlimited space for 

 growth. They bloomed in the first week in I^ovember, and attracted 

 more notice than all the other blooms on account of the short habit 

 and fine foliage. This system of growing large well-shaped blooms 

 in small pots would give attractive specimens for exhibitions, which 

 might afterwards be brought into use for decorating greenhouses or 

 cottage-windows, and kept in bloom for a m.onth, and is far prefer- 

 able to cutting the blooms oft' to show, which afterward perish in a 

 day or two. If the grower prefers quantity of bloom instead of 

 very large single ones, the flower-bud should be taken oif, and the 

 stopped side-shoots allowed to remain ; these will produce seven or 

 eight blooms, but they will not flower so soon as the single bloom. 



Seed and Seedlings. — Chrysanthemums may be easily seeded 

 by cutting off" the petals with a sharp pair of scissors close to the 

 florets, taking care not to disturb the pollen, and keeping the plant 

 in a dry place till the end of February, taking off' the suckers as they 

 grow up, and giving just sufficient water to keep the plant alive. In 

 March take off the seed, and dry it for a week or so, and then put 

 it in your coat pocket, and carry it about till quite dry. Then sow 

 it in a hot-bed in two-thirds silver sand and one-third light loam, 

 when it will vegetate in nine days. Pompones may be seeded and 

 grown in the |^same manner, even in 60-sized pots (but the side- 

 shoots should remain, as the greater the number of blooms in pom- 

 pones, if perfect, the better they look), so as to have them as near as 

 possible all one size. This mode I saw practised in Gruernsey four 



