284 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



frame. As soon as struck they are potted singly into small pots, and are slightly 

 protected in severe fiost during the first winter. He then adds, " Towards the 

 latter end of April they should be planted out in rows in rather poor sandy loam, 

 having Iheir routs barely covered. The plants must then he pegged down, which 

 will cause them to send up suckers ; the strongest on each plant must he secured 

 to stakes, and all the rest cleared away. The soil from both sides of the rows 

 must be taken out about a foot in width, and two inches deep, close to the 

 plants; its place must be filled with rotten dung, beat firmly down, and covered 

 with soil. 



" Under this treatment the p'ants will grow freely, and make numerous fibres. 

 Early in the succeeding spring the tops of the branches must be cut back, more 

 or less, and the ends of the young shoots pinched off, so as to cause numerous 

 leaves at the extremity of the stocks. As soon as buds can he procured, and 

 the bark separates freely from the wood, the stock should be budded in the com- 

 mon way; and three or four days after the ends of a cord to be fastened one 

 foot below the inserted buds, and after the extremities of the stocks are bent 

 down, the other end of the cord is to be affixed to them, so as to form a semi- 

 circle, with the buds in the centre on the upper side. By this concentration of 

 the sap, the buds are almost immediately excited, and if neatly inserted and 

 carefully bent, nineteen out of twenty will succeed. Two or more varieties can 

 be grown with equal success on the same stocks, by merely giving them a wider 

 circle. 



" When the buds have formed about five leaves, the head of the stocks should 

 be cut off' close to the buds ; they may then be tied up perpendicularly. The 

 young shoots must be compelled to form heads, by pinching off their extremities. 

 The bandages should be loosened by degrees, to allow room for the stock to 

 expaud." 



Cotoneaster microphylla. — To cover a bank in a pleasure-ground, whether 

 under partial shade or in an open situation, the Cotoneaster microphylla is one 

 of the best plants for the purpose. It grows close to the gromid in such places, 

 and very rapidly extends ; the numerous white flowers make it showy when in 

 bloom, and its red berries equally so. 



On Neapolitan Violets. — I read the interesting article inserted in the Oc- 

 tober Number, on forcing the winter supply of Sweet Violets, to which my expe- 

 rience prompts me to add the additional atteution of having a good bottom heat 

 of from seventy to seventy-five degrees. Now that hot-water tanks are answering 

 so admirably, placed in a chamber underneath the bed in which plants are 

 grown, that would probably be better than mine has been, heated with hotbed 

 (lung and bark. This bottom 'heat during the first two months after planting 

 on the bed is essential to flourishing through the winter, it gives them a fair 

 stait from November to April; a bottom heat of about sixty degrees is quite 

 enough, giving air when it can be done safely. I have never failed for the last 

 teu years to have a supply of flowers daily from October to April, in a four-light 

 frame of them. 



Taunton, November 2, 1843. Flora. 



On Grafting Ipomjea Horsfallis. — I have found the Ipomaea Horsfalliec 

 to be very difficult to propagate in any other way than by grafting. I have 

 several other kinds which strike readily from cuttings, and they soon form 

 small tubers like Dahlias. I strike the cuttings iu March, aud by July the 

 fresh tubers are formed ; I shake them out of the pots, and cut away a piece of 

 each just big enough to fit to it a cutting from the I. Horsfallia?. I cut the 

 scion so as to have one hud above the tuber, and one at the part where they have 

 to close, as it assists the more rapid union. Having fitted them together I se- 

 cure them firmly with matting, then pot them each in a small pot, and place 

 them in a hotbed frame, or where I have moist temperature to heat the stove, 

 and in a week they unite and soon grow rapidly. 



Vicarage, Beds. 



