iSyi.] PLANTS FOR TABLE DECORATION. 221 



they may stand a week or ten days before they require water. The 

 pots should either be new or washed clean and well dried, as no plants 

 thrive well in dirty pots. If the pots are new they should be dipped 

 in water, as pots fresh from the potteries, if not wetted and allowed to 

 dry, slightly slack when the plant is watered for the first time, and 

 this is not good for the roots. The plants will now require very little 

 water, except what they get by syringing. I have sometimes let them 

 stand all winter without giving water more than once or twice ; but 

 as soon as the plant begins to show its flower-stem, it will require 

 water whenever the soil gets dry ; if not, the flower will be small. 

 The plant should occasionally be inverted, to let out the water which 

 is sure to lodge in its heart where the syringe is used. This should 

 be done by placing the neck of the plant between the fingers, with the 

 rim of the pot resting on the hand : by this means you will prevent the 

 soil from falling out of the pot. About the time the plant is in full 

 flower, young shoots will make their appearance at the neck of the 

 plant, and when these have grown to about 5 or 6 inches long, they 

 may be cut off close to the parent with a sharp knife, and placed in 

 the middle of a thumb-pot, using a mixture of peat, leaf -mould, and 

 silver-sand, in equal parts, and they will very soon root and make 

 nice young plants, which can be shifted as soon as they have filled their 

 pots with roots, using the soil described above. When the old plants 

 have done their best, they may be thrown away to make room for 

 young ones ; or if a number of young ones are wanted, they may be 

 cut down, and they will soon send up three or four suckers, which may 

 be parted with roots to them ; or cut off and struck, whichever is pre- 

 ferred. The cuttings will strike in the stove or in a warm dung-frame. 



It is a good plan to take three or four cuttings whenever you can 

 get them, as then you will have plants in flower at different times of 

 the year. Last year I had plants in flower from the last week of July 

 until the last week in December. They came into flower in succession, 

 at intervals of about a fortnight. And now some cuttings that were 

 struck in May will, I have no doubt, flower by April ; and some more 

 that were struck in September have grown considerably, and will most 

 likely flower by May or June ; and plants struck in February and March 

 will flower in the following August and September. So by taking a 

 few cuttings all the year round, you may be sure of plants fit for table 

 decoration almost whenever they may be required. And should they 

 not be required for table decoration, their beauty, and the length of 

 time they flower, will amply repay the trouble. 



William Nokes. 



Blake Hall, Ongar, Essex. 



