566 THE GARDENER. [Dec. 



After being rooted it should gradually be moved to cooler quarters. 

 "We have not yet tried it in cool pits during the summer, but in favour- 

 able years we believe it would do for a short time during the hottest 

 part of the season. Stopping must be attended to, according to the 

 time the cuttings are rooted and the progress the plants make after- 

 wards : the earliest-rooted plants can be stopped two or three times ; 

 others, if only stopped once, generally throw two or more shoots, which 

 produce as many heads of bloom. The last-rooted ones, if not pinched 

 at all, are by no means to be despised if they only carry one head of 

 flower and fine foliage down to the pot. This plant is in no way par- 

 ticular as to soil, but when in small pots should have a rich compost 

 consisting of good loam and a seventh of manure, and sufficient coarse 

 sand to keep the soil open. It is advisable to feed the plants liberally 

 with liquid manure after the blooms commence to show : an occasional 

 application of soot-water imparts to the foliage a fine dark blue, and 

 assists the plants materially. 



The old but useful Clerodendron fallax can be treated in a similar 

 way, or raised from seed, and will produce a fine show of scarlet at this 

 season of the year. W. B. 



LESSONS FROM THE LONDON PARKS. 



These parks have so often been described as to render it unnecessary for me 

 to attempt a description of them. Instead of this I propose to enumerate some 

 of what I considered the most "taking" arrangements, effective plants used, 

 &c, in the hope that my remarks may prove of service to some of your readers 

 who have not had an opportunity of visiting these parks this season. 



Although my remarks will be confined principally to "good bits," it must 

 not be imagined that there were no failures, for failures there were here as else- 

 where, and they are perhaps equally as instructive as successes. Of course, 

 where innumerable tastes have to be met, and the fashion, as it were, to be 

 set, experiments must be tried that sometimes end in failure. 



I will commence with what I conceive to be a very palpable mistake — viz. , 

 the extreme dulness of many of the large subtropical beds. Cannas, Ricinus, 

 Giant Hemp, Polymnia grandis, Tobacco-plants, Funkias, &c, are very effec- 

 tive associated with other brighter foliage-plants, but when grouped without 

 the latter (I am thinking now more especially of a very large bed in Hyde 

 Park), the surroundings being of the same hue, they are certainly very unat- 

 tractive. During hot and dry seasons, when their growth is more luxuriant 

 and the turf sun-scorched, their effect may be somewhat better; but even then 

 a few of such plants as Solanum marginatum, Arundo donax variegata, 

 variegated Maize, Abutilon Thompsonii, and an improvement on the latter 

 useful variety, Abutilon Darwinii tessellatum, Phormium tenax variegatum, 

 &c, mixed in, would brighten them up. A useful plant seldom seen in the 

 parks — viz., the variegated Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara variegata)— ought to 

 be more used for the margins of large subtropical beds, &c. Funkias are 

 largely used for this purpose, but are much too green. Gardeners, where 

 they have the power to do so, would do well to imitate the arrangements 



