March 19, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICUIiTUBB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



good-Bizod plants, and I have not disturbed it this year at all, 

 but merely took off the surface to the depth of an inch or more, 

 and top-dressed with tlie same compost. Notbingcan be doing 

 better. The pan is lilled with offsets, and the flowering sterna 

 for this year are fully an inch in diameter, so that I expect 

 each of them to bear at least six or seven blooms. I seeded 

 one plant in the autumn of ISCpti, and in consequence I believe 

 nearly lost it. I, however, divided it, did not allow it to deve- 

 Jope its flowers last year, and now it seems to be thriving as 

 well as the others. I never induced any of the seed to grow ; 

 but Mr. Leach informs me that he has a few little seedlings 

 " large enough to be seen without spectacles," the produce of 

 seed sown in 18G6, and that he has another pot with a multi- 

 tude of plants in it from seed of last November or October, as 

 yet so diminutive as almost to require a microscope to see 

 them. lie adds that there is no difficulty in raising them, and 

 hence Disa grandiflora ought to be in everybody's possession. 

 D., Deal. 



here, but never when the plants were in single or double rows, 

 and I have attributed it to the want of a circulation of air to 

 dry the foliage after rain. Disease baa always made its ap- 

 pearance when the plants are thickly together, and it is always 

 in the centre of the mass. — TnojiAs Record, Ilawkhuist, Kent. 



CENTAUREA CANDIDISSIIMA PROPAGATION. 

 As my method of propagating the above plant differs mate- 

 rially from those of your correspondents in your last week's 

 issue, I send an account of it for publication, hoping they will 

 give it a fair trial, and I have no doubt of a satisfactory result. 

 In the month of August I select a sunny, yet sheltered spot, 

 under a wall or a similar place, and take out the soil '.> inches 

 deep and 18 inches in width, level the bottom, and put in 

 6 inches of drainage with the same care as if for a valuable 

 stove plant. On this I place an inch of leaf mould, then a 

 mixture of loam, leaf mould, and coarse white sand in equal 

 proportions, all sifted ; in this I place the cuttings. 



Now, if the Centaurea has had favourable treatment in the 

 flower garden, it will be very much increased in bulk by the 

 third week in Atigust, and each plant will afford two cuttings, 

 some three or four, without damaging its appearance if selected 

 carefully. Cut them off with a sharp knife, regardless of a 

 heel to them, for I find this is not necessary. Take off a por- 

 tion of their leaves, say four out of twelve, and prick the 

 cuttings in the soil previously prepared for them, 3 inches 

 apart each way. Let them have the benefit of the sun and 

 dewy nights, but protect from heavy showers and frosts if they 

 occur. By the middle of October the major part will be 

 rooted; those that are not so will be callused, and may be 

 treated as the rooted plants without much loss. 



In taking them up great care is necessary. I dig a trench 

 close to the first row, and by a little contriving the cuttings 

 are undermined and taken out carefully, when the roots will 

 be found clinging to the leaf mould. They are then potted in 

 a similar soil to that in which they were struck, but a little 

 coarser, and plunged in a half-spent dung bed in any porous 

 material, where they must have air night and day, regulated 

 according to the weather, but on no account must they be 

 shut up closely. I find this plant will not do without air at all 

 times. 



The old plants when taken up may be treated similarly, or 

 they will do if plunged in coal ashes, but not so well as with a 

 little dryish heat. 



When established all may be placed on a front stage in any 

 Jiouse where they can have abundance of sunshine and plenty 

 of dry cool air. 



In January I select a number of the strongest plants and 

 place them in heat, such as a vinery at work. 'When they 

 show signs of growth, which will be in a fortnight, the strongest 

 side shoots are taken off as far away from the stem as possible ; 

 the advantage of this will be seen hereafter. Prepare them 

 similarly to the August cuttings, and let each have a 72-pot to 

 itself ; plunge them in bottom heat and they will soon strike. 

 In three weeks there will be numerous shoots sprouting out 

 from the stems where the first cuttings were taken off. When 

 these have about five leaves pull them off, and place about nine 

 in a 0-inch pot. Treat as advised for the others until estab- 

 lished, when they should be hardened-oft' by degrees. 



It will be seen that by my method the cultivator has two 

 chances of propagation ; but I have always found spring to be 

 the best time, as I obtain three crops of cuttings, and the 

 autumn affords only one. Besides, I have found that to cut 

 the plants up into cuttings in autumn is to run the risk of 

 losing the lot, for the old plants are likely to die through being 

 mutilated so Eoar the winter. 



Has any correspondent seen disease in this plant when 

 planted in masses of two or three hundred ? It has occurred 



SOWING ORCHID SEED. 



You were so kind as to answer my inquiry respecting the 

 seed pods on the Odontoglossum grande. The pod, which was 

 the size of a hen's egg, and has remained on the plant for two 

 years, broke open this morning (March 10th), and has shed a 

 large ([uantity of cream-coloured seed, not unlike Poppy seed. 

 The question now is, How is it to bo sown ? My gardener thinks 

 it ought to be sown on chopped sphagnum and turfy peat, and 

 covered with glass in tbo stovo or propagating pit. 



As the plant was standing between L.-clias that were in 

 splendid bloom at the same time, my man took a little of the 

 pollen from L. superba with a camel's-hair brush, and im- 

 pregnated the bloom of the Odontoglossum ; this he thinks 

 has caused it to seed. — H. M. 



[The best reply we can offer to this inquiry is in the follow- 

 ing extract from Williams's " Orchid-Grower's Manual:" — 



" The best place to sow is on the top of an Orchid pot, where the 

 seeds will not get. disturbed ; let the peat be ia a rough state ; do not 

 cover the seed, bnt give a little water with a fine-rosed pot, jnst to 

 settle it in the peat ; some rough blocks of wood on which another 

 plant is growing afford a capital situation to grow upon ; they should 

 always he kept a little moist ; and of such as are sown on pots in the 

 same way, when the plants are strong enough, pot them off into 

 separate pots, or place on blocks in material already recommended ; 

 in potting and taldng them up, care must be taken not to break the 

 roots ; by hybridising the finer kinds yon are most certain to get fine 

 flowers. Of Cattleyas we have only one which is not worth growing, 

 and that ia C. Forbesii, yet that is better that many other Orchids in 

 cultivation ; therefore, let many begin to raise hybnds, not only with 

 the view of obtaining finer flowers than we already possess — though 

 that would be a real accpiisition — but for the additional purpose of 

 raising sorts that might succeed in cooler bouses. Odontoglossnm 

 gi-ande and many others, for instance, do better in a cool house than 

 in a warm one. Cypripedium insigne will also thrive well in a green- 

 house. If, therefore, we could cross this with some of the other kinds, 

 such as C. grandiflornm, C. hirsutissimum, C. Lowii. or C. barbatnm 

 superhum, something good might be the result. There is also our 

 hardy C\-pripediam spectabile, which might be induced to play an im- 

 portant pai't in the operation. Phajns grandifolius and Walliehii are 

 lilvewise two noble plants for winter decoration which do well in a 

 warm greenhouse. Might not these he crossed with albus and Bensonii, 

 the one being white, and the other lilac, and something new be 

 realised, provided they could be had in flower at the same time '? X 

 am glad to be able to state that we have numerous Orchid-growers 

 trying their band at seedlings, and many of them have succeeded in 

 raising some, and I hope to see something startling in that way before 

 long. Moreover, Lycaste will do in a cool house, as, for instance, 

 L. Slnnneri, which is one of the finest."] 



CULTURE OF STOCKS. 



Havinc; been very successful in the raising of Stocks, I oflei? 

 a few hints on the system I adopt. 



I use rich friable soil, such as would grow a Pelargonium 

 well, keeping the finer portion for the top. I then sow the 

 seeds and cover slightly with the same compost, after which I 

 give a good watering through a fine rose, and place the boxes 

 in a vinery at work. 1 keep the soil always moist, and when 

 syringing or bedewing the vinery they have their share. 



After the seedlings have made their second pair of rough 

 leaves I prick them out into other boxes, doing all the work in 

 the vinery where they have been growing. I consider that it 

 is by keeping them always moist that I am so successful, not 

 losing one plant in the hundred, (iardeners err in keeping 

 Stocks too dij. — G. Mc D., Balclutha, Greenock. 



MY ORCHARD-HOUSE JOURNAL. 

 Hatch lf>th. — Dry, bright, and sunny, doors and ventilators 

 all open ; Peaches and Nectarines nearly in full bloom. The 

 house is full of bees, yet there are no hives within half a mile, 

 and but very few in the neighbourhood ; they quickly load 

 their thighs with pollen, and when they depart for home they 

 seem much encumbered with their yellow balls. The diversity 

 of blossoms in the different varieties of Peaches and Nectarines 

 is most interesting, yet one seems to wish that all had the 



