THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 191 



Do you know it ? We shall be most ^lad to determine the species, but from a leaf 

 only it is not an easy matter. If the plant from which yours was obtained has been 

 ten years out of doors, then it certainly is not Xepalensis, for that would have been 

 killed by frost in 1860 and in 1867. "The three distinct forms of B. Japonica are 

 easily distinguished by those who are used to them, but it is no easy matter to 

 furnish rules for distinguishing them. The best off-hand characters we can give 

 are as follows :— The true Japonica is of spreading habit, and gets up slowly, has 

 very broad leaves, and more or less yellow mixed with the green of the leaf. 

 B. Bealii runs up fast, and makes a tall plant, but does not spread much, and has 

 less yellow in its colouring. B. intermedia is exactly intermediate between ths 

 other two. We should be greatly obliged if you could favour us with a leaf and 

 flower each of B. concinna and B. pallida. The late severe winter removed from 

 our collection B. glumacea, B. Hookeriana, and much injured B. Fortune!, B. 

 Jameson ii. 



Davallias. — F. M. S. — You ask as if you thought it a rule for Davallias to die out 

 in the centre of the pot while still alive all round. It is not the rule for them to do 

 so, and we suspect that yours have been subjected to a drip of water, which has 

 killed the centre of the plant during the winter. They may recover all their former 

 beauty if left alone, but were they ours, we should certainly repot them. To do 

 this is an easy matter enough. Prepare a compost consisting of four parts fibrous 

 peat chopped to the size of walnuts, one part silver sand, and one part broken 

 pots of the size of hazel nuts, with all the dust resulting from the chopping 

 and breaking. Mix together thoroughly. Have new or quite clean pots for the 

 plants, put in crocks to fill one-fourth the depth of the pots ; turn out the plants, 

 shake the soil from them, and with a sharp knife cut them into pieces, so as to 

 remove all the dead rhizomas, and make nice pieces of them. Keep as many good 

 roots as possible, but such roots as have been travelling round and round the pots, 

 and which you cannot spread out in repotting, cut away entirely. As for the 

 arrangement of the rhizomas, you must use your own judgment and taste. When 

 you have placed them to suit you, fix them in their places with pegs, and fill in the 

 soil amongst their roots tolerably firm. Place them in a dark, warm place — a gentle 

 hot-bed will do, if you have no other — but they must be screened from sunshine. 

 Give no water at the roots, but twice a da}'' send over their leaves a light shower 

 from a syringe, and enough of this will reach the roots for at least a fortnight, to 

 afford all the moisture they require. 



Rhododexdkoxs. — F. S. W. — You do not give us the least idea where you 

 date from, so that we cannot judge if there be any local circumstances to interfere 

 with the flowering of your rhododendrons. You say the " common rhododendron 

 blossoms beautifully here ;" but where is " here ?" It is very probable, we think, 

 that you have the "crimson and Avhite rhododendi-ons," that is to say, the hybrids 

 of Catawbiense, in a soil quite unsuitable for their well-doing. The " common," 

 that is to say, the Pontic rhododendron, will thrive in almost any soil, but is not 

 worth a place in a good garden ; but the garden varieties require good sandy peat, 

 and do far better in a rather moist, shady position, than in the full sun. If yours is 

 a hot, dry soil, the proper way to make a rhododendron-bed will be to excavate a 

 great hollow, and line it with clay ; then within the clay to lay down a bed of peat, 

 and plant in that. Wlien finished, it ought to be a little below the general level. 

 The cultivation of the rhododendron is not everywhere understood, as witness those 

 planted on banks in the Kensington garden of the Royal Horticultural Society, and 

 which have been perishing from the day they were put there. 



Names of Plants. — A". C. i.— The plant growing on the old wall appears to 

 be Geranium pusillum, but from the mite you send it is impossible to determine it 

 with certainty. — E. W. A. O. — Your pretty shrub is Ceanothus azureus. 



Books. — C W. P.— For the society to be formed, a few good periodicals would 

 be necessary as well as books. It is a good thing to gather people together fre- 

 quently, and keep them interested in things of the day, and to this end periodicals 

 are a great help. We should recommend the Gardener's Chronicle^ the Gar- 

 dener's Magazine^ and no other weekly horticultural work. Amongst the 

 monthlies, L' Illustration Horticole and the Botanical Magazine should have 

 place. To your list of books add Lindley's Theory of Horticulture, Gkindon's 

 British Garden Botany (a capital book for every amateur gardener and botanist), 

 Du Bkueil's Practice of Grafting and Training, Williams's Orchid Grower's 

 Manualf Hibbekd's Rose ^ooA,*^ and Profitalle Gardening^ and the first eight 



