THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 21 



February, when it should be sown in a mixture of peat and leaf-mould, 

 and placed on a gentle hot-bed. If early sowing is not convenient, wait 

 till the end of April, then sow in shallow pans, cover the seed with the 

 sixteenth of an inch of soil, lay a square of glass over each, and place them 

 on a back shelf of a warm greenhouse or in a frame, and in three weeks 

 there will be plenty of small plants. The seedlings from the early sowing 

 will be potted in thumbs singly in May ; the soil to be peat and leaf-mould 

 and silver-sand, equal parts. In July they will require a shift to sixty- 

 sized pots, and the soil is then to be peat, leaf, and turfy loam, equal parts. 

 They will require a little care as to watering from the first, because of 

 the tendency of peat to dry quickly, and from the 1st of August to the 

 Ist of October they may be put out of doors on a sunny border, or in a 

 frame with the lights off night and day to harden them for the vvdnter. 

 When housed for the winter, the majority will be handsome plants of from 

 four to twelve inches in height, and some will show such a naturally bushy 

 habit as to require no stopping or training. Seedlings raised by sun-heat 

 in May will only need one shift, and as they will be less forward by win- 

 ter time than those from seed so^vn in Januarj', it will be advisable to 

 prick them all out into shallow boxes, which will secure them from risk 

 of drought, and lessen very much the trouble of keeping them. The next 

 year, in xipril, they may be potted into sixty-sized pots in the mixture 

 recommended for specimen plants. 



GrExisTAS FKOM CaxTiNGs flowcr mucli earlier than those from seed, 

 and for market growers cuttings are always to be preferred. The cuttings 

 should be taken from the end of April till the end of May ; short young 

 side-shoots of two inches length are the best. These stripped of their 

 lower leaves and dibbled into a pan of sUver-sand, covered with a bell-glass, 

 and placed on a gentle heat of fermenting tan or hops wiU be well rooted 

 in about four weeks, and will then require to be dealt with in the manner 

 described for seedlings. It is a waste of time to put in ripe shoots of the 

 previous year, or indeed any hard and mature wood, for cuttings. 



Standards. — The robust-growing kinds, such as Ct/iisus Atleeana and 

 Everestiana make handsome standards, if Avell managed. Select plants 

 from the cutting pans which show extra vigour, and in potting use from 

 the first a fifth part of very rotten dung with the peat and loam otherwise 

 recommended. At the first potting insert a straight stick in each pot, and 

 train the leader to it. The leader must not be stopped, but all side-branches 

 must be nipped in rather close, and those nearest the bottom be cut clean 

 away, a few at a time, as the leader advances. If the side-shoots are cut 

 away too fast, the stem will be weak and slender, so a moderate amount 

 of side-growth must be allowed for the sake of strengthening the stem, 

 and these shoots are to be successively removed from the base of the stem 

 upwards, as others are thrown out above them, to maintain a vigorous 

 growth. When the stem is as high as desired — say from two to three 

 feet — nip out the point of the leader, and form the head by carefully stop- 

 ping and training as the growth advances. Seedling plants will always 

 produce a fail' proportion of vigorous growers, which may be grown to 

 clean stems, and used as stocks to graft choicer varieties upon to form the 

 head. 



BoTATficAL DisTiJfCXioNS. — Genista, Cytisus, and Coronilla are im- 

 portant families of the order LEGUMixosiE. In Don's " Dichlamydeous 

 Plants," Genista forms the 59th section of the order, and the characters 



