MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 95 



a 48-pot; or if the tuber (which sometimes happens) is too long, a bulb-pot may 

 be used ; it should be well drained, and planted in pure light peat or heath 

 mould, with the end of the root just above the surface ; when it makes a shoot 

 it also forms fresh roots from the base of the new shoot, and will grow rapidly if 

 kept in a stove or vinery, at a temperature of 70° or 80°, and soon requires a 

 larger pot; I generally take a six, using nothing but light peat-soil. It may 

 theu be trained in any form most convenient. After it has flowered and the 

 leaves are decayed, withhold water entirely to ripen the tubers, which miy be 

 kept in the dry mould till the spring, or taken out and kept iu dry sand till the 

 season for potting them. 



Transmission of Cuttings to Foreign Parts. — I observe in a late number 

 of the "Chronicle,'' that several methods of packing cuttings for transmission to 

 foreign parts have been resorted to, but that none of them succeeded perfectly. 

 I attribute the withered state in which they arrived to the want of moisture, and 

 I think it might be remedied by plunging the ends of the shoots in potatoes; 

 which latter might be afterwards plunged in a solution of cobbler's wax. This 

 would, perhaps, be no superfluous caution, since it would fill up all interstices 

 between the shoots and the tubers, and thereby prevent the ingress of air. The 

 whole might afterwards be enveloped in India-rubber cloth. — Gardener's Chron. 



On striking Cuttings of Heaths. — In a former Number of the Cabinet a 

 correspondent asks for information relative to striking Heaths by cuttings. The 

 following mode of treatment is pursued at Henderson's Nursery, London, with 

 most admirable success : — No particular time can be specified for striking cut- 

 tinss of Heaths, because the plants are in a fit state for taking off the cuttings at 

 different times ; but the earlier in the season the better, although some may suc- 

 ceed so late as the months of August and September. The plants from which 

 the cuttings are taken are perfectly healthy, otherwise the time spent upon them 

 in the greater number of cases would be thrown away. The wood is firm and 

 nearly ripe, because if taken when very young it is almost certain to damp off. 

 The short lateral shoots, about an inch or an inch and a-half long, are always 

 chosen, and the leaves stripped off them to about half their length, and the ends 

 cut across with a sharp knife: in this state they are ready lor the cutting-pot. 

 The cutting-pots are prepared in the following manner: — Filled about two-thirds 

 with broken pots, and covered with a thin stratum of turfy-peat or some other 

 substance, to prevent the sand with which the pots are filled up from choking 

 the drainage. The silver-sand common about London is used for striking in ; it 

 is generally preferred as free from the rusty colour of iron as possible. The 

 cuttings are then to be inserted in the sand, not deeply, but merely deep enough 

 to support themselves ; from a quarter to half an inch is quite sufficient. They 

 are then well watered, which carries down the particles of sand round each cut- 

 ting, and renders them firm enough without any further trouble. Bell-glasses 

 are of great service in striking them, but certainly not indispensable to success, 

 as many are struck without anything of this kind. When they are used, they 

 are frequently taken off and wiped dry, otherwise the moisture will rot the cut- 

 tings. When they are dispensed with, the cuttings are placed in a situation 

 which is moist and shaded. 



Very little artificial heat is necessary in striking Heaths ; much is certainly 

 injurious. The shaded part of a cool stove will answer the purpose, early in 

 spring; and later in the season, when the sun-heat is greater, a close frame 

 slightly shaded is all that is required. 



Phii.o. 



Hybrid Perpetual Roses. — Cuttings taken off early in September, cut clean 

 at a joint, inserted in fine loam, and after being well watered covered with a hand- 

 glass, soon strike root. 



Rosa. 



