510 THE GARDENER. [Dec. 



pieces of dry cow-dung (which I gather in summer) over the crocks 

 at the bottom of the pot. I put them again into their old quarters 

 (bottom-heat), and give them a good shower overhead through a rose 

 watering-pot. I shade for a few days until the roots have begun to 

 run in the pots, up to which time they get no more water than a slight 

 shower through the rose as before ; but after the roots begin to fully 

 occupy the pots I give them plenty of water, adding a little sheep- 

 dung and guano-water every alternate time or so moisture is given. 

 They are thus treated until they have fully occupied their pots, and 

 before they have become pot-bound, when they will require shifting into 

 7-inch pots ; but a few days previous to this I take them out of their 

 quarters wherein they have been plunged, in order to harden them a little. 

 They are then placed in a spare corner in the vinery ; and, as before, I 

 give them a little water overhead with the rose, doing this morning and 

 evening until they show signs of being established in their pots, after 

 which they are liberally treated every way, all bad leaves picked off. 

 and flower-shoots nipped, until about August, when they may be intro- 

 duced to the conservatory. "Water must be sparingly given all winter. 

 About February they may be introduced into a vinery just started, 

 and after they have begun to grow a little, may be shifted into 12-inch 

 pots, in which I grow them freely all the season, keeping clean and nip- 

 ping off flower-shoots until July, when they are taken to the conserva- 

 tory again to be the admiration of all, attending to them regularly with 

 copious manure-waterings. In shifting from a 7-inch to a 12-inch pot 

 care must be taken not to sour the soil by over- watering ; to prevent 

 this I give the soil no water except what falls down through the leaves 

 when they are watered with the rose, until the pots are pretty well 

 occupied. From subjects so treated I can now (September) boast of 

 plants, struck between seventeen and eighteen months ago, and treated 

 as detailed above, that have made specimens 30 inches in diameter of 

 foliage, with no less than thirty-one spikes of bloom, and more con- 

 tinually appearing. J. F. 



[Statice " Rattrayana" is not known at Kew; what is our correspondent grow- 

 ing under this name ? — Eds. 



THE CULTIVATION OF HARDY FRUITS. 



THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 



{Continued from page 491.) 



The disbudding of the trees next demands attention. Our practice 



is not to do the whole operation at once, but to go over the tree at 



least twice or thrice, at regular intervals of a week or so. The first 



