104 THE GARDENER. [March 



operation. Take care that there are no old roots left to them, as 

 they are often cankered, and do the plants no good. It does not mat- 

 ter if there be no roots to them at all, as they soon make new roots 

 •when put in heat. I give them a good soaking with water, and keep 

 them close for about twelve or fourteen days ; then I give a little air 

 for a few days, afterwards I take the lights off altogether till the latter 

 end of September, and then put the lights on for the winter. I 

 generally sow my seed the first week of March in well-drained pans. 

 Fill the pan with leaf-mould and turf, and a little sand on the top. 

 In this I sow my seed, just covering it over, and give it a good 

 watering, and put it in the frame till it comes up. As soon as the 

 young plants form rough leaves, I put them out of doors till the latter 

 end of June, then I plant them in beds, where they remain till they 

 flower. Inferior sorts I pull up as they flower. If any of my Poly- 

 anthus friends will send to me in April, I shall be glad to send them 

 a box of flowers of named kinds, and some of my seedlings to look at. 



William Allsebrook. 



[We have had so many inquiries about this beautiful old flower that we ex- 

 press a hope that the remarks of Mr Allsebrook may serve as an answer to 

 these inquiries. — Ed.] 



K"OTES OK HARD -WOODED GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 



ACACIA. 



It would be easy to make an extended list of beautiful and use- 

 ful species of Acacia for general decorative purposes without exhaust- 

 ing the list of those which are or have been in cultivation. It is a 

 large family, and varied and interesting enough, botanically consid- 

 ered ; but for the simple purposes of the garden or the decoration of 

 the greenhouse, a very small selection will suffice. The fact that there 

 is little variation of colour in the family settles this point. So large a 

 group of plants, with the same colour repeated in nearly every member 

 of it in slightly varying shades, as it is in this, can hardly be singled 

 out from the whole range of the vegetable kingdom. Therefore, except 

 in the case of large collections, of which there are few or none worthy 

 the name in private gardens, a limited number of the greenhouse 

 species will suffice for the purposes of introducing greater variety into 

 the furnishing of the greenhouse in winter and spring, which is all 

 that in these papers will be advocated. And here let me explain, that 

 I aim only at rousing some general interest in the value of hard-wood- 

 ed or shrubby greenhouse flowering-plants, wherever the circumstances 

 of the garden admit of their being introduced more largely than they 



