“ “ a 
24 ON RAISING SEEDLING CACTUSES, 
must be placed in a cool pit where they can be protected from severe 
frost, and have the tops cut off. If seed be desired such plants must 
not be headed down, and they must be kept in a dry and warm place 
in the greenhouse to ripen. 
IN THE STOVE. 
All kinds of plants required here for ornament, and which have 
been duly prepared by previous culture, should be introduced in suc- 
cession, giving ample supplies of water and frequent syringing over 
head. If any of the forced plants be attacked with the green fly, a 
syringe with diluted tobacco-water will destroy them. If the leaves 
appear bit, and turn brown (the effect of damage by red spider), a 
syringe of soap-suds at the under side of the leaves is effectual to 
destroy them. The glutinous substance remaining not only kills those 
it is applied to, but prevents others returning there. The plants best 
adapted for forcing are various kinds of Roses, Persian Lilacs, Azaleas, 
Acacia armata, Neriums, Gardenias, Rhodora, Heliotropes, Correas, 
Deutzeas, Mezereums, Coronillas, Cytissus, Ribes, Mignonette, Cine- 
rarias, Sweet Violets, Lily of the Valley, ‘Tulips, Cyclamens ; and the 
old Eranthemum pulchellum with its fine blue flowers, Justicia speciosa, 
Gesnerie Zebrina, Justicia pulcherrima, and Apphellandria cristata, 
are fine winter ornamental blooming plants. All pots or boxes 
containing bulbous-rooted flowering plants, as Hyacinths, Narcissus, 
Persian Irises, Crocuses, &¢., should occasionally be introduced, so as 
to have a succession of bloom. Hyacinth bulbs intended to bloom in 
glasses we prefer starting in the old bark, and then transferring them 
to the glasses when the shoots are about two inches long, Where such 
covering is not adopted, it is of advantage to have the pots or glasses 
kept ina dark place till the shoots are so long. Cactus plants that 
have been kept in the greenhouse should occasionally be brought into 
the stove for flowering, which gives a succession. 
ON RAISING SEEDLING CACTUSES. 
BY W. F., OF CHESHIRE. 
Havine procured a quantity of seed of the ‘‘ Cactus speciosissimus,” 
I shall feel obliged if you will (in your next publication) inform me 
as to the best mode of sowing, ¢. ¢., time, soil, &c. I conclude, of 
course, in heat. Also, if the young plants will be the same as the 
parent. The greenhouse. which contained the plant from which the 
seed was gathered had also in it C. speciosa and a few ‘“ Cereus,” but 
the flowers were not impregnated artificially. If the seeds are to be 
kept till spring, will it be better to retain them in toe fruit, or dry them. 
[Let the seeds remain as they are till february, when, if there be a 
cucumber, &c., hot-bed at work, sow them in a compost of equal parts 
of loam, peat, and silver sand. Only just cover the seeds, but do not. 
water them at all. ‘They soon vegetate, and as early as well rooted. 
pot them singly into a similar compost, having ‘a few small bits of 
broken pot intermixed, giving them the usual treatment of the genus. 
(See articles in Vol. IX. 1841, pages 80, 60, 62.) - If the flower was 
impregnated by the farina of another kind, either by some person, or 
the bee, &e., or by the current of air conveying it, then the produce 
will be different from the plant which supplied the seed.] 
