ON THE CULTURE OF LUCULIA-GRATISSIMA. 79 



soon the result; and, on the other hand, when the water only sinks 

 at the sides of the pot, then the interior of the ball becomes so dry as 

 not to be able to sustain whatever fibrous roots may be therein. From 

 these observations it will be perceived that attention to the surface of 

 the compost is necessary. Without attention to the above-named 

 principles, in application to plant culture, when grown in pots, 

 plants will not long be in a healthy condition ; but if duly attended 

 to, with all plants of the class this mode of culture applies to (as 

 I exempt many of the orchidese, water plants, &c), they will be 

 uniformly vigorous and healthy ; and, being repotted as required, 

 may uniformly be kept so. 



ARTICLE VI. 



ON THE CULTURE OF LUCULIA GRATISSIMA, 



BY CLERICUS. 



A correspondent writes, in the " Gardeners' Chronicle," on Luculia 

 gratissima, that although it has been in this country for a number of 

 years, still its cultivation is but in its infancy, both as to extent and 

 mode of culture, in order to have it in the splendour it can be brought 

 to. It has been considered a beautiful specimen to grow it so as to 

 have half a dozen heads of blossoms to a plant, but that those 

 eminent plant growers, Mr. J. Barnes, of Lady Rolle's, at Bicton, 

 mid Mr. William Barnes, of Shropshire, grow it with from 50 to 100 

 heads, as large as Hydrangeas, on each plant. The compost the 

 writer mentions he uses is four parts turfy loam, two parts turfy peat, 

 two parts half-decomposed leaf-mould, one part charcoal broken to 

 the size of garden beans, using the dust as well, with sufficient 

 Barwell sand, broken potsherds, and flinty pebbles, to make and 

 keep the soil thoroughly porous, using it in as rough a state as pos- 

 sible, in which the plants grow vigorously. It is not, however, when 

 in such vigorous growth that the plants produce the greatest quantity 

 of bloom, but it is when they produce a great quantity of moderate- 

 sized branches that they become so beautifully studded with flowers, 

 and that an old stump plant will continue to produce abundance of 

 flowers for years, and requires little more attention than a common 

 Pelargonium. Young plants, on becoming half a yard high, have 

 the lead stopped to induce the production of lateral shoots. The 



