62 ON THE BLUE-FLOWERED HYDRANGEA. 



a good deal ought to be said and understood. Were it possible, we 

 would always reject beech-leaves and laurel ; the former, because they 

 contain much chalk, and the latter because they decompose unkindly. 

 But when we talk of leaf-mould, we infer the gradual decay of a wood 

 pile, where all the twigs, amputated boughs, and clearings of the park 

 and shrubbery, are collected. Thus we obtain the decomposed bark 

 as well as leaves, and in the course of three or four years procure 

 ample store of vegetable earth, in three stages of laboration. The 

 first, and oldest, an unctuous substance, like old peat, rather brown, 

 the very representative of humus, just fit to go into the earth. The 

 second, screenings of the mass, abounding with much of the same 

 soil, with a considerable portion of half-reduced twigs and stalks. 

 This should stand the seasons of another year. The third, a quantity 

 of the latter substances, and but little reduced vegetable earth. Leaves 

 alone do not produce, by decay, a mould so valuable, nor yet so tract- 

 able, as does the wood-pile ; therefore we recommend the latter. The 

 quite reduced three-year-old mass incorporated with two-thirds of silver 

 sand, forms an excellent substitute for heath-mould. 



ARTICLE X. 



ON THE BLUE-FLOWERED HYDRANGEA. 



BY MR. R. SHERWOOD, OF DARI.EY COTTAGE, IN THR POTTERIES. 



Noticing the different matters mentioned in the Cabinet that have 

 been employed, some with varying success and others failing entirely, 

 to cause the Hydrangea to have blue flowers, I forward the method I 

 adopted most successfully. The fine effects of charcoal as applied to 

 pot plants under the management of Mr. Barnes, gardener to Lady 

 Rolle, at Bicton, in Devonshire, coming under my notice there early 

 last spring, I was advised to try its effects on the Hydrangea, with a 

 view to increase the size of its floral heads. I did so in the follow- 

 ing manner : — My compost consisted of one-half chopped turfy loam, 

 and the other equal portions of fibrous peat soil, and small bits of 

 charcoal. In potting I had a free drainage made of the roughest 

 pieces of turfy peat and charcoal about four inches deep ; having 

 shook off nearly all the old soil, I repotted, in a careful manner, with 

 the above compost. The plants grew very vigorous, producing very 

 superior heads of bloom ; but what proved the most gratifying was, 

 the blossoms were of a beautiful vivid blue. 



