20 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



and there it was kept till the tubers had made growth fully an inch in 

 height, the surface of the box being completely covered with foliage ; 

 and it might have been mistaken for a small bed of some new variety 

 of Ana?ctochilus, the box looked so pretty. I then transplanted the 

 tubers into their flowering-pots, placing the plants singly in pots 5 

 inches in diameter, and three and four in a pot 8 inches in diameter ; 

 they were then placed in a Melon-pit, watered, kept close, and shaded 

 for some days, and when the Melon plants required all the room, the 

 Gesneras were removed to another division of the pit; and it is in this 

 part of the treatment I consider the germ of success lay ; for instead 

 of being treated like stove-plants, they got only such treatment as is 

 usually given to soft-wooded greenhouse plants in a pit ; in fact, the 

 remaining space of the pit in which they were placed was filled with 

 such plants, and there was always plenty of air given by day, and some 

 continued all the night. Under such treatment the plants made fine 

 growth, and were put into the stove in September, but only because 

 the plants were touching the glass of the pit. I would have liked to 

 have kept them there longer — at least a fortnight — and was compelled 

 to remove them for the cause stated. 



The point I want to advance is this : That hitherto I have treated 

 the Gesneras as stove-plants, but after my experience of this season, 

 the summer treatment will be, as I have indicated, as long as I shall 

 grow them, subject to any fresh discovery I may make. The soil I 

 use is peat-loam and leaf-mould — of each an equal part — with some 

 rotten cow-dung and a good sprinkling of silver-sand. 



There are a few other winter and early-blooming plants I may have 

 a few words to say about at some future time. We want in the ' Gar- 

 dener ' short suggestive papers, not only about winter-flowering plants, 

 but about many other things quite as useful and interesting, in which 

 the writers can give their own special treatment of things new and old, 

 in the management of which they have proved successful : for example, 

 such as the short articles on " Neglected Plants." Useful and instruc- 

 tive as the ' Gardener ' is already, it would become much more so if 

 my suggestion could be acted on. J. H. C. P. 



[Many thanks ; and we sincerely hope to hear from our correspondent again. 

 At the Exhibition of the Liverpool Horticultural Society on November 23, prizes 

 were offered for three paus of Gesneras. They were, however, but poorly repre- 

 sented. Our correspondent has taught us something that we hope may produce 

 better results at Liverpool in November next. — Eds.] 



