213 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. [ September 15, 1863. 



by leaves "' is not suitable. Begonias, Cacti, and several 

 other succulent-leaved plants may be said strictly to iirojja- 

 gate by leaves, but not Pelargoniums. Together with the 

 leaf you must have a joint, and at the union of the leaf to 

 the joints there must be a bud visible. Pelai-goniums, there- 

 fore, may strictly be said to pi-opagate fi-om eyes or from 

 single joints, and yet it is not every joint that will make a 

 plant. For instance : those joints which have a leaf on one 

 side and a fiower-stalb on the other, though they may 

 succeed in rooting, will seldom grow into a plant. But 

 take a good strong cutting of your Cloth of Gold Pelargo- 

 nium — say it is 4 or 5 inches long, with four- well-developed 

 leaves growing on opposite sides at each alternate joint, 

 besides two toi) joints, the lowest with the bud just bmsting 

 into leaf, and the topmost with two or thr-ee young leaves 

 on it. These two last had better be put aside tOl you have 

 two or thi'ee more of a similar gi'owth to pot with them. 

 Take now your four lower leaf-joints, cut them in the usual 

 way about the eighth of an inch below and rather more 

 above each joint, .and you have four leaf-joints with buds ia 

 the axil of the stalks, besides the two top ones — six in all. 

 Have a pot i-eady with j^lenty of di'ainage, and filled to 

 within half an inch of the rim with soil made up of light 

 loam and leaf mould, and a good quarter share of sUver 

 sand in it. Press the soil firm, and add a little more if after 

 pressing the surface is more than half an inch from the rim. 

 Prepare now four- httle sticks about 9 inches long, take one 

 and push it fii-mly iato the soil. Close to the stick make a 

 small hole half an inch deep, and in the hole just press one 

 of your joint-cuttings so that the leaf stands at right angles 

 to the rim of the pot ; tie the leaf to the stick. Proceed in 

 the same way with the thi'ee other joint-cuttings, and you 

 have a pot mth four masts and four lug sails set to catch 

 every breeze and ray of sun to convey the cargo below on to 

 the next potting season. Give the pot a shake, and sprinkle 

 over the surface of the soil about the eighth of an inch of 

 silver sand. The two little top joints may be treated in 

 much the same way when you have others of a simdar 

 growth suiEcient to Sll a pot. Yom- cuttings so prepared 

 will require to be dewed only with a syringe, and shaded 

 from hot sun for three or four days. After that the hotter 

 the sun the better, being careful only to give a syringing 

 three or four times in the course of the day ; keep, however, 

 from di-enching rain. In three or foiu' weeks the buds wUl 

 be pushing out tiny leaves ; and if you began propagating 

 in July, by September each bud will be a plant from which 

 you may take some half donen more leaf-cuttings. 



There is, however, a mode of preparing the mother plants 

 from which to propagfute, by a system of alternate forcing 

 and hardening, which I shaJl be happy to lay before your 

 readers on a futm-e occasion. Tlie season is now too late 

 for it. It is not too late, iiowever, for leaf-cuttings, and I 

 shall probably be making some hundi-eds this week ; but 

 when they have formed a caUus I shall give them a little 

 bottom heat to start them and strengthen them for the 

 winter, in hopes of getting more stuff oft' them in the spring. 



I am son'y that my absence from home prevented me from 

 sending you this before ; but " Nokth Bkiton " can try his 

 hand, nevei-theless, if he begins at once. 



What a magnificent season this has been for crossing ' 

 Pelargoniums ! I hear there ai-e lots and lots of fine things 

 coming out next year ; but what wonders shall we see the 

 season after! By-the-by, these names "Pelargonium" and 

 " Geranium " are a great nuisance. I know " Pelargonium " 

 is right botanicajly ; but is it not possible to come to some 

 general understanding that " Geranium " means all the bed- 

 ding classes, while '" Pelargonium " means the exhibition 

 varieties, blotched, spotted, and foreign and fancy ? Let 

 the heatls of the trade meet before thefr next catalogues are 

 out, and give the public some decided signification to the 

 two words " Pelargonium " and " Geranium." — F. W. Adet, 

 The Cell, Ihmstahle. 



ExTKAOECiN-aB7 BROCCOLI. — A Specimen of the " South- 

 ampton Broccoh," grown in the parish of Mortimer in this 

 county, was recently exhibited for a week in the window of 

 Messrs. Sutton & Sous, of Heading. The weight in cooking 

 order was 17 lbs. G ozs., and the measm-e round 4 leet 

 C inches. — J. S. B., Hurst, Twyford, Berks. 



AVELL HEAD G.IEDENS, HALIFAX, 

 YOEXSHIEE. 



(Continued j'roM page 194.) 



The next house is a stove, 62 feet by 18, with a centre 

 bed, under which run several hot-water pipes, and there is a 

 shelf aU round on a level with the glass. At one end of the 

 pit a tanlc containing aquatics is charming. The Sacred 

 Bean (Nelumbium splendens), was in flower, and Nymjihsea 

 Devoniana, dentata, and cosrulea occupied the remainder of 

 the tank. Of plants Lasiandi'a Fontainesiana, G feet high 

 by 3, Ixora coccinea superba, 4 feet by 3, and I. javanica, 

 alba, &c. ; Clerodendrou faUax and C. Thomsoni, Centradenia 

 grandifolia (very fine), and the ciuious Aristolochia triloba. 

 All the varieties of this genus are grotesque enough for 

 anything, and form fitting companions to Nepenthes, or 

 Pitcher-plants. Aristolochia ornithocephala is the most 

 singular plant I ever saw. It has the head of a hawk and 

 the beak of a heron, mth the wattles of the Spanish fowl, 

 which, however, are grey netted with brown ; the head the 

 same colour veined, whilst the beak is grey — the gorgeoxis 

 flowers of JEchmea fulgens contrast well with the foliage, 

 thereby fitting it for a good place on the dinner table. Musa 

 Cavendishii is well ciUtivated. Fruit weighing 42 lbs. was 

 lately cut, a notice of which appeared in this Joui-niJ, but 

 it was stated to have been weighed with 14 ozs. to the 

 pound instead of 16 ozs. However, there is no suclx local 

 weight as 14 ozs. to the pound, though there is IG lbs. to the 

 stone ; therefore the weight of the fr-viit was 42 lbs. avoir- 

 dupois. Here are also large specimens of Allamanda Schotti, 

 grandiflora, and scores of fine-foliaged and variegated plants, 

 as Croton variegatum and pictum, 4 feet by 5, Dieffenbachia 

 maculata, DracKnas, Pavetta borbonica, Colocasia macro- 

 rhiza variegata, Pandanus javanicus foliis variegatis, 8 feet 

 thi-ough, itc. 



Descending by a few steps we enter, from the stove, the 

 show-house, 30 feet by 18, now gay with Petunias, Fuchsias, 

 and Geraniums. Here I fell in with that good old free- 

 flowering plant, Campyha elegans, a plant of which, 3 feet 

 across, is no despicable object. Plants of the old tuberous 

 GeraniaceEe are as cmious as Oi-chids, but no one seems 

 to cai'e about them. At one end of the house was a fine 

 specimen Cyathea australis, wlulst the other was ornamented 

 by a magnificent specimen of Dicksonia antarctica, Cattleya 

 Lemoniana in flower, and in baskets suspended fi-om the 

 roof were Stanhopea insignis and oculata, both in flower. 



Proceeding a couple of yai-ds further on we enter the 

 Orchid-house, 30 feet by 20, heated by hot-water pipes in 

 u'on troughs. These troughs, which can be filled with water 

 when moisture is wanted, are about 2 feet w ide and 10 inches 

 or 1 foot deep, and at the bottom a couple of four-inch pipes 

 are placed, of com-se longitudinally. Now, by this system 

 — which, in my humble opinion, is superior to all others — 

 the atmosphere of the house can be made moist, even satu- 

 rated, without syringing much, or di-y as cu-cumstances 

 requu-e. Its other advantages are, the amount of evaporating 

 surface is large, therefore the plants imbibe the moisture at 

 a temperature never exceeding that of the house ; and that 

 there is none of the stew-pan tendency of hot-water gutters 

 fixed on hot-water pipes, for the troughs are on the floor 

 under the shelves, so that the heat and moisture must be 

 thoroughly difiused through the house before it reachesthe- 

 plants." In short, the troughs give the genial and beneficial 

 effects of a tank without any of its di-awbaoks, as moisture 

 in winter when it is not wanted. 



The Orchid-house is divided by a partition of glass, a,nd 

 is a double span. Amongst a choice but not large coUectiou 

 I noticed good plants of Anasctochilus Lobbi, Lowi, setaceus, 

 ai-genteus pictus, striatus, and xanthophyUus, growing in 

 fibry peat, sphagnum, and silver sand. The surface of the 

 pot being covered with the last, the compost is kept moist. 

 A bell-glass encloses the plants, and is tilted a little on one 

 side, for these gems above all other plants detest a stagnant 

 atmosphere, though it must be close, wa,ter on the leaves, 

 and a sovu- soU. Of plants in bloom were Calanthe masuca, 

 vestita rubra (crimson eye), vestita aurea (yellow eye) ; 

 Peristeria elata; MUtonia Candida, Clowesiana, and specta- 

 bUis ; Oncidium sphacelatum and papiho major, and Tricho- 

 pilia suavis. Out of flower, but not less interesting, were 

 Phalsnopsis SchUleriana with fine leaves, P. amabilis, and 



