MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 47 



this year the group was taken up, and after a few days was weighed, and found 

 to be fully 9 lbs. in weight: one bulb, with a few offsets, weighed 1 lb. 10 oz. ; 

 a second, 1 lb. 1 oz. ; and a third, 1 lb. 9 oz. The soil the plant grew in is 

 rather light, with a cool clayey subsoil. Early in February, 1840, some of the 

 seeds, old and new being mixed, were sown in a pot, and placed in a greenhouse 

 for two or three months. After this the pot was set out in the open air till late 

 in the autumn, when it was replaced in the greenhouse. Soon after this the 

 plants came up thickly, about 40 in a pot, where they are to remain for two 

 years. Mr. Street has also been successful in growing Fuchsias as standards in 

 the open border. He has proved the Port Famine Fuchsia (F. discolor) to be 

 the hardiest species here. A large bushy plant of this kind, exceeding five feet 

 in height, suivived the winter of 1837-8, without any protection beyond the 

 covering of snow. It grows in rather a heavy loam, begins to flower early in 

 summer, lasts a long time, and ripens a quantity of seed. Last February some 

 seed was sown, and hundreds of plants came up. Several fine varieties were 

 produced, which flowered freely, and ripened a number of long and large berries, 

 containing a great deal of seed. Blackbirds are very fond of these berries. At 

 the present time there are hundreds of seedling plants come up round the parent 

 plant, not only on the border, but even on the hard gravel-walk. The only pro- 

 tection given at Biel to exotics planted out, is to put over the tenderest some old 

 tan or leaf-mould. — Gardener's Chronicle. 



On watering Succulents. — " In watering the species of Aloe, and all those 

 succulents which have leaves diverging in a half-erect position from a common 

 centre, near the ground, the greatest caution is to be observed in the colder 

 months, aud, indeed, during the entire year, with the exception of the hottest 

 and growing season. Being so formed as to permit water to lodge in the axils 

 of their leaves, or in the centre of the plants among the younger aud more tender 

 foliage, the fluid supplied should not be poured over the plant, but directly on 

 the soil or on the margin of the pot. In the summer months, as before men- 

 tioned, such a precaution may be disregarded, and the specimens will be bene- 

 fited by watering over the leaves, as well as by the occasional and sparing use 

 of the syringe. There is still a point connected with the administration of 

 water to all succulents, — and we might very properly add, to every sort of exotic 

 grown in pots, did our dissertation include these, — which is too momentous to 

 pass over silently. We refer to the mode of its application as it respects the 

 employment or rejection of a rose to the watering-pan. In some collections it 

 is customary to adopt a comprehensive system of watering, in order to save 

 labour ; and to throw fluid most copiously through a rose over the whole of the 

 plants to be supplied. In the summer too, when a large amount of water is 

 essential, it is furnished ia that manner till a pool of it is left standing in each 

 pot. Now, without taking into account the number of specimens that thus re- 

 ceive more water than they need — the mischief caused by which can hardly be 

 over estimated — if watered by the heavy falling of large drops of fluid from the 

 rose of a watering-pan in such quick succession.as to create a puddle, the subse- 

 quent influence of the sun, when it has its ordinary summer power, will literally 

 bake it into a solid incrustation, through the fissures in and around which liquid 

 can alone reach the roots of the plant. That this hardened earth is particularly 

 injurious to succulents, since they have to be supplied very sparingly with water 

 at certain periods, and that water is- expected to pass to all their roots, when, in 

 such a condition, it could at the uttermost merely reach the exterior ones, needs 

 not to be more than hinted ; and the absolute necessity of supplying water 

 through the spout of a vessel placed close to the soil, or resting ou the edge of 

 the pot, will be strikingly obvious. - ' — Paxton, Mag. Bot. December, 1840. 



FLORICULTURAL CALENDAR FOR FEBRUARY. 



GrebKhoubb. — This department should have good attendance during this 

 month, similar in its operations to those directed in January, which see. — 

 Oranges, Lemons, and Myrtles, &c, will require water frequently, they usu- 



