165 



HYDRANGEA. 



however be remembered, that too 

 much salt will kill the plants. 



Growing Hyacinths in pots of 

 soil requii-es particular care. To 

 insure a vigorous growth, the pots 

 ought to be deeper than usual, and 

 they need not be much wider at the 

 top than at the bottom. The soil 

 ought to be a sandy loam, mixed with \ 

 rotten leaves or dung so thoroughly | 

 decayed as to have become a kind of 

 mould, and the pots ought to be well 

 drained. "When first planted, which 

 ought to be in September, or any 

 period between that month and 

 Febx'uary, the bulbs may be kept in 

 a cool place, and covered with soil or 

 rotten tan, till the buds have begun 

 to move ; when the pots maybe taken 

 to the greenhouse or the ^\indows of 

 a warm room, and if the soil be 

 watered with warm water, they wUl 

 grow so much the faster. As soon 

 as the plants begin to gi'ow, they 

 will require constant watering, but ! 

 great care should be taken not to let 

 any water stand round the roots. 

 When the plants have done flowering, 

 they may be turned out of the pots 

 with the balls of earth unbroken, into 

 the common soil ; and the bulbs may 

 be taken up and dried when the 

 leaves have decayed. Bulbs which 

 have flowered in pots seldom flower 

 vigorously the second year ; and un- 

 less the amateur has abundance of 

 room for a nursing-bed, and leisure 

 to manage it, it is better to throw 

 away at once bulbs which have been 

 flowered either in pots or in water- 

 glasses. 



Hybrids are plants raised from 

 seed produced by fecundating the 

 stigma of one plant with the pollen 

 of another, and the following is the 

 mode of performing the operation : — 

 The plant that is intended to bear 

 the seed, should be carefully watched, 

 and, just before the pollen bursts, the 

 stamens should be cut off". The ope- 



rator must then wait till the stigma 

 becomes covered with moisture ex- 

 uding from it ; and then, but not 

 before, the pollen from the other 

 plant must be applied with the point 

 of a penknife, or the hairs of a 

 camel's hair pencil. Should the cells 

 of the anthers of the one plant burst 

 before the stigma of the other be- 

 comes moist, the pollen may be col- 

 lected, and kept in paper till the 

 stigma is ready to receive it. In 

 some cases pollen has been kept good 

 in this manner for two years ; but 

 the moisture of the stigma should 

 be taken advantage of as soon as it 

 appears, as it soon dries up, and can- 

 not be restored artificially. The best 

 time for performing the operation 

 seems to be about the middle of a 

 bright sunny day ; and as soon as it 

 is done, a bit of string, or a strand of 

 bast-mat, should be tied round the 

 stem of the flower, that the seed-pod 

 may be known. As soon as the seeds 

 are ripe, they should be sown imme- 

 diately in shallow pans of light sandy 

 soil, and set on a greenhouse shelf, 

 where they may be suffered to remain 

 diuing the winter. Slany of the 

 young plants "vsdll come up by spring, 

 when they should be immediately 

 potted off into single pots, and treated 

 as before recommended for cuttings. 

 Great care is necessary in selecting 

 the plants proper for hybridising. 

 The object to be kept in view, is to 

 produce in the hybrid a better plant 

 than either of the parents, and this 

 cannot be done when the parents are 

 widely dissimilar ; as when they are, 

 their progeny will follow one parent 

 almost to the exclusion of the other. 

 One of the most skilful hybridisers I 

 have met yaih. (Mr, Cole, nursery- 

 man, of Birmingham) proceeds on 

 this plan, choosing the finest plants 

 to raise the seed from, and the result 

 is perfectly successful. 



Hydra'ngea. — SaxifragecB. — 



