I873-] COCOA-NUT FIBRE FOR PROPAGATING. 35 



the decoration of the greenhouse are fairly examined, the former are 

 by no means eclipsed by the alleged superiority of the latter. It is 

 true they cannot in general be forced and brought in at different 

 seasons of the year, and this is the strongest argument against them 

 in a general way ; but it is of small force when it is remembered that 

 in their varied ranks many species, and even families, when well selected 

 in accordance with the end in view, may be brought together to main- 

 tain a display of flowers in the greenhouse the year round. The dis- 

 play may be less massive than that produced by the plants at present 

 employed for the purpose, but it may, I think, be claimed for it that 

 it is accompanied by an amount of variety and freshness of interest 

 that mere massiveness fails to yield to the beholder. But in some 

 genera of greenhouse shrubs there is no deficiency even in the quality 

 most sought after in flowering plants at the present time. What 

 among the popular soft-wooded plants can equal the profusion and 

 massiveness of the Acacia Eiceana, the splendid plant of which in the 

 corridor at Floors Gardens is worth going a long way to see? Other 

 species of Acacias may be mentioned which are perhaps inferior to 

 Biceana in point of grace and rich profusion of bloom, but in no 

 degree are they inferior to the best display which can be produced 

 by soft-wooded plants in similar colours, and of such A. Drum- 

 mondii, grandis, and celastrifolia may be instanced as examples which 

 by no means exhaust the list. Elegance of colour and form are 

 special characteristics of this numerous and diverse class of plants ; 

 and it is wonderful, in these days when the efforts of gardeners are 

 directed so strongly to the production or introduction of something 

 new in the decorative way, that some favour has not fallen on the 

 best at least of them. The object of this paper is not to insist on any 

 superior fitness which they have over any other class to meet the grow- 

 ing demand for greater variety in flowering greenhouse plants, but to 

 show that among hard-wooded plants as a class may be found all that 

 is wanted to meet that demand. A more general adoption of the old 

 practice of growing them in collections by them^selves, wherever the 

 means admit of it being done well, would be a wholesome step ; it 

 would give young men more frequent opportunities of becoming 

 acquainted with the plants themselves, and of learning how to 

 cultivate them. W- S. 



COCOA-NUT FIBRE FOR PROPAGATING. 



The art of propagating is frequently rendered a tedious and difficult 

 operation with the amateur, and even the professional horticulturist, in 



