508 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



pieces, not sifted, and a liberal admixture of leaf-mould and sand, with 

 a sprinkling of old manure mixed with it. The pots should be cleanly 

 washed and carefully crocked, with an inch of old manure over the 

 crocks. They must be still kept near the glass, and liberally aired on 

 every suitable occasion. When the flower stems begin to appear they 

 may get an occasional watering with weak liquid-manure, which will 

 impart vigour to the plants, and improve the size and colour of the 

 flowers. The centres should never be pinched out (the practice of 

 many growers), as invariably the finest flowers are on the centre stem. 



"When the accommodation for wintering them in quantity is limited, 

 they will do fairly well pricked out into pans or boxes, and potted up 

 early in spring. Of course they will not be quite so good as those grown 

 on in pots ; still for ordinary purposes they will do very well. 



Now a word as regards the saving of seed. A very common prac- 

 tice is to set the plants outside in some out-of-the-way place to 

 ripen the seed, where they are often neglected, and become a prey to 

 green-fly. If good seed is wanted, they should be as carefully looked 

 after as when they are in a young growing state : at this stage they are 

 even more subject to the attacks of aphides, from being so long under 

 glass while in flower, so that they should be kept in a place where they 

 can be fumigated, and properly attended to with water. The pots being 

 crammed with roots, the demand for water is greater than ever. 



J. G., W. 



THE GARDENER'S PRIMER. 



NO. VI. 



So amenable are leaf -buds on stems to scientific treatment, that 

 buds apparently dormant may be started, and set in motion, and 

 become branches, by the simple plan, in the month of February, of 

 cutting a notch with a fine saw in the bark just above it, so as to 

 check the upward flow of the sap — the too rapid growth of the stem 

 has caused the bud to be dormant — and arrest or divert some of it into 

 the dormant leaf-bud, which will become a branch (in fact, a branch 

 is only a developed leaf-bud). This is one of the many methods by 

 which gardeners repair the loss of a branch where one has been lost 

 on a pyramid tree, to give it symmetry. 



Grafting is an operation at present confined to dicotyledonous 

 plants, by means of which a portion of a plant containing one or 

 more eyes or buds, called a scion or graft, is joined or inserted in 

 another plant belonging to the same species, called the stock, and is 

 effected in many different modes (not within the object of the writer 

 to explain), such as by approach or inarching, or by detached scions, 



