ON THE PROPAGATION OF BALSAMS BY CUTTINGS. 133 



green wood ; here immediate smoking with tobacco, is the re- 

 medy. By frequently syringing the leaves during the summer 

 and washing them with a sponge, two or three times during the 

 winter the health of the plants will be improved, the attacks of 

 the insects prevented, and the beauty of the foliage shown to 

 more advantage. 



I have now, Gentlemen, laid before you the results of my ex- 

 perience in the cultivation of this beautiful genus; and at the risk 

 of being considered tedious, I have been rather minute ; but in 

 a communication of this kind, elegance and conciseness, should 



give way to simplicity and clearness of detail. 



Clericus. 



ARTICLE VI. 

 ON THE PROPAGATION OF BALSAMS BY CUTTINGS. 



BY AN AMATEUR GARDENER, 



In the month of April, 1831, I received a packet of seeds of 

 the Balsam, from a scientific friend, whose son had produced 

 them in the preceding year, at Madras, and forwarded to his 

 father, the seeds were, to all appearance, most perfect in their 

 texture, and state of maturation • and I believe, that of all I sowed, 

 scarcely one failed to produce a lively and healthy plant. I sowed 

 the seeds in a pot of light sandy earth ; I plunged this pot in the 

 earth of a melonry, which was a glazed pit, containing a bed of 

 leaves, chiefly oak and beech. The pit was constructed, on three 

 of its sides, of nine-inch brick work ; the fourth, that to the south 

 west, having a glazed sloping light. The bottom heat of the 

 leaves, might be about 80 degrees; but as a stratum of melon 

 earth, full fourteen inches thick, was placed on the leaves, the 

 heat at the bottom of the pot scarcely exceeded 64 degrees. 



The young plants rose, were potted out, re-potted, kept near 

 the glass, and finally, kept in the open are, according to the cus- 

 tomary routine; still however they evinced (with one exception 

 only) not the slightest indication of producmg blossom, although 

 some had attained the height of three feet or more. At the close 

 of the month of August I became impatient, and as I felt interest- 

 ed in the final result of my exertions, I determined to try how 

 far I might be successful, in an endeavour to extend the period of 

 the growth of my plants into a second year, by attempting to pro- 



