172 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[June, 



lished on the Cactus. I know of none of any 

 importance, although I have frequently searched 

 for one. Such a work would be of great value to 

 many, for I know of no class of plants so badly 

 mi-\ed as they are. [Castle's Cactaceous Plants may 

 be had at the Gardeners' Monthly office for 50 

 cts. Ed. G. M] Every one seems to have chosen 

 a name for himself My experience has been that 

 from ten different parties you will have almost ten 

 different specific names, but really only the one 

 species of plant. Government Grounds, Canada. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPAGATING 

 PLANTS. 



BY W. M. BOWRON. 



In your answer to Mrs. J. S. R. Thomson, 

 at page 106, you speak of boxes of rooted heath 

 cuttings and give us to understand that the 

 illiterate youth and the sand mush had " done 

 done it," to use the darky phrase. Can this be 

 really so ? Was old Donald Beaton with his 50 

 years of life in harness as a head gardener playing 

 with our inexperience when he spoke of taking 

 single cuttings of Erica, putting in thumb pots 

 "with peat and broken sandstone in lumps, getting 

 finer toward the top, and at least half an inch of 

 silver sand on the surface ?" The whole was to be 

 surmounted with a bell glass and shaded from the 

 sun, and the glass wiped out every morning for 

 months — eight months he speaks of in one instance 

 in the Journal of Horticulture of 20 years ago. 

 Has horticulture grown since that day to the 

 simple means you indicate ? I am interested in 

 your reply, for I used to grow Cape Heaths in 

 England in a greenhouse suited to them. Are 

 they to be grown in the fierce dry heats of this 

 country ? 



I have before me two trade catalogues. One 

 tells me to water Primula sinensis sparingly and the 

 other says " needs plenty of water." Again, certain 

 correspondents seem to have had difficulty in 

 raising it from seed. My experience with this 

 plant is, that you can water it much, water it little, 

 give it rich soil or starve it, keep it in a steady 

 temperature or give it the jerky alterations of an 

 amateur fired house and its bells will open at the 

 proper time if — and it is indispensable — it has 

 drainage. In the seedling stage it can be raised 

 without difficulty, with drainage perfect and 

 protection from burning sun heat. I am glad to 

 see the Gloxinia recommended as an amateur's 

 flower. A fifty-cent package of seed gave me 

 several dozens of -plants last summer and the bulk 



of them bloomed in the fall. Nothing could be 

 more beautiful, if I except the lovely hues of that 

 old trailer Torenia Asiatica. So. Pittsburg, Tenn. 



[The Heaths in our mind when speaking were 

 E. stricta, E. cineria, E. vagans, and E. vulgaris. 

 These are hardy in this part of Pennsylvania, if a 

 few dry leaves are scattered over them in the fall. 

 With the tenderer species we have had no experi- 

 ence in propagating in this easy way, but have no 

 doubt ot similar success. Other Cape and Aus- 

 tralian plants are so raised ; for instance. Poly- 

 galas, Metrosideros, Acacias, Chorozemas, Genistas, 

 and so forth. Everything in fact of this class 

 without distinction are placed in square boxes or 

 round pans of sand, water-tight and placed on 

 tables or benches in a full light greenhouse, or 

 partially shaded one in June, July, and August. 

 Being water-tight, they need no water, or very little 

 as evaporation takes some away. Our present im- 

 pression from what we have seen the past few 

 years is, that there is nothing at all but will grow 

 on this simple plan. The only art is in selecting 

 the wood for propagating. Mature wood will not 

 do, and in very few instances must be as much as 

 half ripe. 



Possibly our warm suns havegiven an advantage 

 that Donald Beaton never had. The cuttings 

 under this treatment seem to like hot sun. We 

 know one amateur who was very successful with 

 these soft wood rose cuttings, and who had no 

 greenhouse. He used to place his saucers of sandy 

 mush on the hot gravel path of his vegetable 

 garden. These rose cuttings would be all fully 

 rooted under two weeks of this treatment. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



«-»-»^ ■ 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Electricity in Bouquets.— On a recent public 

 occasion the Princess of Wales carried a bouquet, 

 in the centre of which was a small electric light. 

 It was too heavy to carry comfortably, but the 

 electric engineers think they can do better next 

 time. 



Arrangement of Roses as Cut Flowers. — 

 Mr. Joseph H. Brown, the Ex-President of Rhode 

 Island Horticultural Society, recently addressed 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, on Roses, 

 and gave the following suggestions about them as 

 cut flowers : 



"The arrangement of cut roses is a matter of 

 taste, in regard to which there does not exist a 

 unanimity of sentiment, else we should be wearied 

 with a continual sameness. But there are certain 



