TO THE FLOWER GARDEN. 169 



pagate them strike cuttings in sand under a bell-glass with 

 slight bottom heat. Pot them off as soon as they are well 

 I'ooted into three inch pots, in which they are to remain until 

 the pots are filled with roots. The plants must have the ends 

 of the shoots pinched off directly they fairly start for growth, 

 which will induce side branches. In the summer months 

 they must have all the air that can be given. Wlien the 

 pots get filled with roots shift to the next size larger, until 

 the plants are as large as required ; but this shifting must 

 not take place between September and February, and during 

 the winter season the plants must always be kept very close 

 to the glass. The soil proper for the young plants is rather 

 light peat earth, with a fifth part sand, forming a sandy peat 

 of open texture. As they grow larger a little mellow loam 

 may be added, commencing in the proportion of one-sixth, and 

 never exceeding one-fourth of the whole. The roots of these 

 plants are very delicate, and soon injured irrecoverably by 

 either excess or lack of moisture, on which account the most 

 perfect drainage of the pots is essential, as well as the utmost 

 care in watering. The hot days of early summer are apt to 

 do irreparable mischief, by drying up the soil between the 

 periods at which watering is attended to. The safeguard is 

 assiduous attention— not the constant use of small portions of 

 water, which only moisten the surface, leaving the soil 

 below quite parched, but a thorough watering when the soil 

 is getting dry, not repeated until it is getting dry again, how- 

 ever long or short the time may be, and yet repeated before 

 it does get dry. This is the whole secret of watering deli- 

 cately-rooted plants. In winter any excess must be carefully 

 avoided, as at that season it does not pass off readily. L. 

 biloha, flowers blue, in June. L.forniosa, flowers deep orange 

 scarlet. L. ohlata, flowers orange scarlet, in June. L. 

 splendens, flowers bright scarlet. 



LEUCADENDROX. [Proteaceae.] Greenhouse ever- 

 green shrubs, sometimes grown for their silvery foliage. Soil, 

 sandy loam, with one-third fibrous peat. Increased by im- 

 ported seeds, or by cuttings of the ripened shoots in sand 

 under close glasses. L. argenteum is the Silver tree of the 

 Cape colonists, so called from the whiteness of its silky leaves. 

 There are a good many species. 



