38 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. [February, 



state, divided them, keeping safe all the young roots, put one sucker in the 

 centre, and five or six round the sides of a 32-sizei. pot, and in a year made 

 " perfect specimens " of them, with, of course, a greater profusion of bloom than 

 if I had depended on one plant only. Annual or biennial division is an 

 excellent plan to pursue with many of these plants, which in a wild state run 

 each year a little further into the deposit of decaying herbage which surrounds 

 them, or, it may be, into the sand and grit which are for ever being carried down 

 by natural agencies. In our long summer some of the Primulas will make a long 

 growth with the roots much exposed, — a state for which dividing and replanting 

 fimily, deep down to near the collar, is an excellent remedy. 



Of course there are many with which an entirely different course must be 

 pursued, which demand to be permanently established, above all things never 

 protruding a root above the earth — things like Spigelia marilandica and Gentiana 

 verna, for example. This last is very rarely succeeded with, and yet I am 

 convinced that few will fail to grow it, if they procure in the first instance strong 

 established plants ; pot them carefully and firmly in good sandy loam, well 

 drained, using bits of grit or gravel in the soil ; plunge them in sand or coal-ashes 

 to the rim, in a position fully exposed to the sun ; and give them abundance of 

 water during the spring and summer months, taking, of course, all necessary pre- 

 cautions against worms, slugs, and weeds. And such will be found to be the 

 case with many other rare and fine Alpine Plants. It would in some cases 

 be desirable to remove these to a cold frame, with a northern exposure in winter ; 

 but many kinds, very hardy and stiff in texture, would be better plunged deep in 

 porous material, on a porous bottom, and under a north wall, where they would 

 be excited as little as possible during the winter months. — W. Eobinson. 



FERTILIZERS FOR FRUIT-TREES. 



(N relation to appropriate fertilizers for fruit trees, a diversity of opinion 

 prevails. All agree that certain substances exist in plants and trees, and that 

 these must be contained in the soil, in order to produce growth, elaboration, 

 and perfection. To supply these, some advocate the use of what are 

 termed " special manures," while others ridicule the idea. I would suggest 

 whether this is not a difference in language, rather than in principle, for in special 

 fertilizers, while the first apply simply those principles which correspond with 

 the constituents of the crop, are not the second careful to select and apply 

 manures which contain those elements, and do they not in practice affix the 

 seal of their approbation to the theory which they oppose ? Explode this doc- 

 trine, and do you not destroy with it the principle of manuring, and the necessity 

 of a rotation of crops ? 



Trees exhaust the soil of certain ingredients, and, like animals, must have 

 their appropriate food. All know how difficult it is to make a fruit-tree flourish 

 on the spot from which an old tree of the same kind has been removed. The 



