162 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



should be put in the pots. To enable them to start into a vigorous 

 growth, place upon a bed of fermenting materials, or over the hot- 

 water pipes, if practicable, as a rather brisk bottom-heat is found of 

 immense assistance to them in the early part of the year. The size 

 of the pets must be determined by the relative size of the plants, 

 and, excepting when they are very small, a shift once a year will 

 suffice to maintain them in the most healthy condition. The flowers 

 appear to the greatest advantage when the growth is trained to 

 a balloon-shaped trellis, fixed firmly in the pot. To afford ample 

 opportunities for the proper development of the foliage, and to 

 enable the young wood to acquire sufficient strength to produce 

 a profusion of well-developed flowers, the shoots should be trained 

 to strings up the rafters of the stove, each shoot to have a separate 

 string. "When the flower-buds can be distinctly seen, take them 

 down and neatly arrange them on the trellis. As the shoots will 

 have twined round the strings, no attempt must be made to separate 

 the two. During the summer, moderate supplies of water will 

 suffice, and in winter very little will be required. The atmospheric 

 humidity needful, previous to their coming into bloom, may be 

 provided by sprinkling the stages and paths two or three times a 

 day. After they go out of bloom, and the season's growth is com- 

 pleted, place them in a sunny position, and, if possible, remove to a 

 house in which the temperature is rather lower. 



The season's growth will require to be pruned back moderately 

 in the course of the winter. 



EAISING SEEDLING CINERARIAS. 



BY J. JAMES, 

 Head Gardener, Eedlees, Isleworth, W. 



|HE notices which have appeared in the horticultural 

 papers of the display of cinerarias we have had at Red- 

 lees during the past season, and of the seedling cinerarias 

 I have exhibited at the metropolitan shows, have brought 

 me many letters asking for information in r;ference to 

 the cultivation of these flowers from seed. Prom these inquiries, 

 it appears that there are numerous cultivators who, as yet, are not 

 so well acquainted with the principal details as they should be, and 

 a concise description of my system of culture will possibly be use- 

 ful to many readers of the FLoaAL World. 



As an exhibitor of cinerarias for something like twenty years, I 

 have necessarily paid special attention to these flowers, and have 

 annually grown large numbers of plants raised from ofi"sets and 

 from seeds. Propagation by means of ofi'sets for the purpose of in- 

 creasing the stock of seedlings of superior quality, and of varieties 

 obtained from nurseries under name, is attended with some little 

 trouble and a few difficulties, and cannot be recommended as suit- 



