1869.] BOUGAINVILLEA GLABRA. ON THE PROPAGATION OF DRACiENAS. 253 



unwearied perseverance in the way to secure success, is beginning young, for in 

 this way they will learn to love the business, and to excel in it, not for its 

 rewards, but for itself. 



Islington Square, Salford. Alex. Forsyth. 



BOUGAINVILLEA GLABRA. 



'HIS is a handsome plant for decorative purposes, for even plants of small 

 size will bloom well, if properly managed. Young plants should be grown 

 freely on throughout the summer, and should not be shaded at any time, 

 as it is most important to grow the plants well exposed to the sun, in 

 order to produce stiff, short-jointed wood. For potting this Bougainvillea, use 

 good fibry peat and yellow loam, in the proportion of three of the former to two 

 of the latter, adding a liberal quantity of silver sand. Provide good drainage, 

 pot moderately firm, and place the plant in an ordinary stove temperature. 

 Attend well to watering, and endeavour to keep the plant growing until the end 

 of September, when water at the root should be gradually withheld until the 

 whole of the leaves fall off. After this, merely give a little water occasionally t o 

 keep the wood from shrinking. Keep the plant in this state until February, 

 Avhen it should be again started into growth, and if others are started at intervals 

 of three or four weeks, a succession of bloom may be kept up for three or four 

 months. As soon as the plants are out of bloom, give them a shift, and treat 

 them as above recommended. By this treatment fine specimens may be grown 

 in three years. 



Somerley Gardens. Henry Chilman. 



ON THE PROPAGATION OF DRACAENAS. 



RUSTING too implicitly to the dicta of science, observes a recent French 

 writer, gardeners had long considered it almost impossible to propagate any 

 arboreous monocotyledons by cuttings. These plants, they were taught, 

 differed essentially from dicotyledons in not producing branches ; and how 

 were plants to be propagated which did not give branches ? If cut, the head, it 

 was said, would not advance, and if the terminal bud were destroyed, the tree 

 would infallibly perish. 



But science is sometimes mistaken, and practice comes in to destroy without 

 remorse the foundation on Avhich some learned theory reposes. In this case, 

 practice vouches that monocotyledons possess, in the axil of their leaves, an eye 

 which, when favoured with nourishment, gives forth a bud, as capable of forming a 

 branch as the bud of a willow. This eye, however, generally remains latent. 

 The whole secret of success is to excite its vitality. 



And this, in practice, is thus accomplished : — The stem of the Dracaena is cut 

 into pieces of from 4 in. to G in. long, and these pieces being laid horizontally in 

 a hot-bed or a propagating pit, and covered with light soil, push out in a very 



