298 THE GARDENER. [July 



same time breaking off all the weakest sprays, the strongest of the shoots- 

 being selected to make the current season's plant. Five of these are 

 quite enough to leave, that good heads of bloom may be secured. Other 

 necessary work consists in putting strong sticks to each shoot at an 

 early stage of their growth, mulching the surface of the beds with 

 rotted manure where the soil is naturally poor and light : artificial 

 manure mixed with soot, or by itself, and applied occasionally in 

 showery weather, is very beneficial. Plants treated thus will produce 

 very fine spikes. Plants for producing spikes for exhibition are pro- 

 pagated from cuttings. These may be successfully struck at any season 

 of the year. Small healthy root-cuttings make the strongest plants, and 

 may be successfully struck with about equally good results in the long- 

 run, either from the young growths produced out-of-doors in spring, 

 or earlier in the year from cuttings produced from potted plants kept 

 over the winter in a cool house. In the former case the cuttings will 

 strike in a cold frame, and may either (after roots are produced) be 

 planted out in nursery beds, or potted and grown on for producing 

 flowers in pots the succeeding year, after which the same treatment, 

 when planted out in beds, will be required as above indicated for 

 divided plants. In the latter case it is necessary to lift plants in 

 autumn after the stems are cut down, and pot them up in as small 

 pots as will conveniently hold the roots without breaking off too many 

 of these to gain that end. These plants must be wintered in a struc- 

 ture where they will commence to move into growth shortly after the 

 turn of the year, so as to have cuttings ready by the beginning of 

 February. These cuttings are to be broken off at their junction with 

 the root-stock, and inserted in an open compost in thumb-pots. There 

 is no better place for putting these than a common dung-frame, a very 

 useful institution at that season. Here, with a moderately brisk bot- 

 tom-heat, roots are produced in a comparatively short time. Air will 

 be constantly required to be left on the frame, in order to keep the 

 atmospheric temperature low, so that the young plants may have no 

 inducement to commence weakly growth. When rooted, the pots are 

 better taken out of the plunging material, on the surface of which they 

 may stand for a week or ten days, when a shift into 4-inch pots will be 

 necessary. A compost of loam and mushroom-dung is very suitable for 

 these, a sprinkling of crushed bones being an advantageous addition. 

 When potted, do not return them to the dung-frame, unless the heat has 

 become spent and low. A cold pit or frame without means of artificial 

 heating suits the plants admirably. There, as the natural heat increases, 

 the plants will grow slowly but healthily, at the same time filling the 

 pots with strong roots. By the beginning of April another shift into 

 C-inch pots will be required. In these the plants will produce each, 

 a strong spike; though rather late, the early- flowering sorts will flower 

 at the same time with the established plants of the late-flowering sec- 

 tion ; and this is therefore a good way to get the finest of these in for 



