FOREIGN NOTICES. 



185 



A uniform temperature is essential, and 

 that a low one : we should say a steady 

 temperature of from 40 3 to 50° is excellent 

 as a general principle. Many of our Flem- 

 ish pears, however, will not attain perfec- 

 tion under this degree of cold, for such we 

 must term it. For these pears a special 

 provision must be made late in the autumn, 

 of which we shall soon have more to say ; 



in the meantime we take leave of fruit 

 gathering by observing that the thinner 

 apple or other stores are placed the better. 

 When people throw them in heaps in these 

 days, it may be considered a matter of ne- 

 cessity ; much, therefore, depends on the 

 convenience the parties possess. We shall 

 return to this subject in due time for further 

 operations. R Errington. 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



Torenia Asiatica, discovered by Toren, a 

 Swedish clergyman, in China. When first I saw 

 the flower, with its marbled-like, blended colours 

 of blue, purple and light lilac, I thought it was 

 among plants a gem of the purest water. It be- 

 longs to the 14th class and 2d order of Linnaeus, 

 and the natural order Serophuiariacea?, and thus 

 is somewhat allied to the beautiful and well known 

 Maarandya. The blossom is tubular, and mono- 

 petalous in its corolla, which is generally divided 

 into four segments. The two upper stamens are 

 conspicuous in the throat of the flower, joined to- 

 gether so as to form a beautiful arch, while the 

 anthers, cohering and projecting, might convey 

 the idea of an ornamental architectural key-stone. 



Soil. — It flourishes in equal proportions of loam 

 and peat, with a dash of silver sand. The soil 

 must be rough, and the pots well drained. A few- 

 pieces of charcoal would be useful for both pur- 

 poses. 



Culture. — If kept a second year in the same 

 pots, the plants will bloom profusely, if, after 

 examining their drainage, they are top-dressed 

 with equal proportions of such soil and dried cow 

 dung. A plant thus managed exhibited a profuse 

 mass of bloom in the verandah from the end of 

 April to the end of October last year. It was 

 then removed, and as the aphis had begun to nib- 

 ble it a little it was not preserved any longer. 

 Having flowered so freely, I resolved upon saving 

 a few more large plants that had been cuttings in 

 1847, but unfortunately in resolving to harden 

 them well, they were placed on the floor of a 

 vinery, and got more cold than was agreeable to 

 them. I find that, even in attempting to keep 

 them in a dormant state, the temperature should 

 not be below 40°, and after the month of January 

 they should have a little more, and all the light 

 you can give them. I find, also, that many ten- 

 der plants if inured to it gradually will stand 

 much more cold before the day begins to lengthen 

 than they will do afterwards. This fact is of im- 

 portance to be known to those with limited means, 

 who yet may have a forcing-house of some sort, 



Vol. iv. 15 



which they set in motion at the beginning of the 

 year, as there many tender plants may get a lift 

 for a couple of months. The Torenias I have 

 now in bloom occupy and completely conceal 

 trellises between three and four feet square ; 

 others are trained on circular trellises, others as 

 bushes, three feet in height and three feet through. 

 A young larch or spruce tree, peeled in the 

 spring, with all the twigs peeled and retained, 

 makes a nice support for all such plants to ram- 

 ble over. Grown in baskets, and suspended so 

 that the long shoots hang gracefully down, stud- 

 ded with blossom, is also a very interesting me- 

 thod of treating them. 



All these plants have stood in the glass-pro- 

 tected verandah for nearly three months, beauti- 

 fully in bloom, but not equal to the old plant for- 

 merly alluded to. If the autumn prove mild, they 

 will remain to the middle or end of October, and 

 then, if I could afford them room and heat, they 

 woulJ make fine objects all the winter; and, fresh 

 potted or top-dressed in spring, would be ready 

 for another summer's campaign. All of them 

 were cuttings at this time last year, potted into 

 sixty-sized (three-inch) pots in September, re- 

 moved with many other things to the shelf of a 

 pine stove at the end of October, kept in a tem- 

 perature of from 55° to 60°, stopped to make 

 them bushy, shifted into a size larger pot in the 

 end of February, moved into 12-inch pots in 

 March, watered carefully so as not to deluge the 

 unappropriated soil until the roots began to work 

 their way into it, then removed under the shade 

 of vines that had shortly before shown fruit, 

 trained, and from thence taken to the verandah 

 in the end of May. 



Propagating. — I am putting in a few cutting* 

 just now; they are easily struck cither with or 

 without bottom heat, but will root quicker and 

 more surely if placed in a cold close pit for a 

 week, and then plunged in a little bottom heat. 

 But why take oil - cuttings now, instead of pre- 

 serving an old plant, and waiting until spring? 

 Simply because, without entering upon the physio- 



