276 THE GARDENER. [June 



sometimes the cultivator employs art to accelerate the process. This 

 is specially the case with the Hyacinth. The Dutch growers sever the 

 bulbs in a manner somewhat analogous to that in which the Potato- 

 planter increases his " sets." This induces them to produce numerous 

 "offsets" or bulbels from the part so severed, and these last are grown 

 on as rapidly as possible to increase the stock. Calanthes readily pro- 

 duce new pseudo-bulbs from the scar caused by breaking the bulb 

 where it is contracted in the centre, and also from the apices of entire 

 pseudo-bulbs; while our pretty little friend, Pleione humilis, frequently 

 bears a whole progeny of "offsets" on its old pseudo-bulbs previous to 

 their ultimate decay. Every Orchid-grower knows with what pro- 

 fusion " offsets " are borne on the pseudo-bulbs of Dendrobium nobile 

 and other species. When the preceding season's growth has not been 

 well ripened, these " offsets " are produced in place of flowers. 



Some plants — as Solanums, Sonchus, Ferdinandia, and Trichinium 

 — are easily propagated in any quantity by cuttings of their root-'^. 

 Experiments in this direction would doubtless extend the number of 

 plants, which may be increased by the adventitious buds on their 

 roots when the latter are placed in circumstances favourable to their 

 production. 



Grafting is not much resorted to by English gardeners in the multi- 

 plication of flowering or ornamental plants, although it is as applicable 

 to the latter as it is to fruit-trees. Continental horticulturists avail 

 themselves of this simple means of propagation very largely ; and our 

 own nurserymen are beginning to apply the art more generally in the 

 case of Roses, Clematis, Daphne, Prunus, and many other flowering 

 plants and ornamental shrubs. One of the quickest methods by which 

 a stock of that admirable window or decorative plant, Ficus elastica, 

 can be obtained, is to graft its shoots on the roots of the common Fig, 

 Ficus carica. 



Any one who has a close propagating case or two at hand may gain 

 a great amount of practical information by experimenting with cuttings 

 and scions on different stocks. Information gained in this way is far 

 preferable to that obtained from books, the latter being the aids to 

 knowledge, and the former the real knowledge itself. In the last issue 

 of the 'Gardener,' mention was made of the late Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, Esq., than whom few have derived more knowledge by way 

 of experiment and studying out cause and effect. In the ' Transactions 

 of the Horticultural Society of London ' will be found many valuable 

 papers written by himself, together with records of his instructive 

 experiments, from which many of our best practical gardeners and 

 botanists — including the late Dr Lindley — have been content to glean 

 much valuable information. F. W. B. 



