ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE BRUGMANSIA SUAVEOLENS. 5 



ARTICLE IV. 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE BRUGMANSIA SUAVEOLENS. 



BY S. R. F. 



Profuse in radiant liliaceous flowers, protruding with their delicate 

 whiteness from amongst a rich and ample foliage, the Brugmansia 

 Suaveolens presents a most magnificent object; and, when night 

 obscures these beauties from the eye, its delicious fragrance diffuses 

 through the surrounding atmosphere a perfume of unequalled sweet- 

 ness. To bloom this noble plant in perfection, in a greenhouse only, 

 I had tried most of the methods mentioned in the Floral periodicals 

 without success. Putting in practice, however, this year a theory 

 communicated in your Cabinet for March, 1837, by a distinguished 

 horticulturist, I have approximated success. " The leaves," says 

 Mr. JoseplCHayward, " form the excretory organs of plants and 

 trees ; and whether the supply of food be great or small, a plant or 

 tree cannot attain, nor sustain itself in, a perfect state of fructifi- 

 cation, until it is furnished with a surface of leaves duly propor- 

 tioned to the sap supplied by the roots." And again, "It generally 

 happens that when a plant grows luxuriantly to leaves, branches, 

 and stalks, it is but little inclined to produce blossoms ; we may, 

 therefore, justly conclude, that in such cases there is a greater 

 supply of food than the leaves are equal to ; and tbat although we 

 cannot enlarge their powers, we can relieve them in their duties, by 

 lessening the supply of food, and thus promote fructification." To 

 carry out these laws, early in March last I re-potted a two-year old 

 plant of the above in a No. 8 pot. As soon as it began to push, I 

 cut it down to a foot from the surface, and allowed three shoots only 

 to grow ; it was watered twice a-week with a solution of three ounces 

 of nitre to two gallons of water, and at other times with water only, 

 as it might require ; it was syringed every morning during summer. 

 About the first or second week in July it had attained a most luxu- 

 riant growth, and with the pot was six feet high;, thus far the first 

 division of the above theory was effected. The adaptation of my 

 system to the production of flowers 'was my next object : the plant 

 was again turned out of the pot, and an inch of earth and roots pared 

 off the ball, when it was returned to the same pot, and the interstice 

 between the ball and the pot filled up with the same kind of compost 



