64 ; SALVIA PATENS, 
the pod shall not be split, be adhered to, the judges must remove the 
card of every flower to see that they are not split and that the flowers 
are not loose; and so to save a lazy exhibitor a little trouble with 
twelve flowers, the judges must have the collected trouble of the whole’ 
transferred to them. On the other hand, if the object of the advocates 
of such a system be to make the card a cover from split pods and 
tumble-down flowers, I hesitate not to assert that there is too much- 
genuine floriculture remaining, and too much enthusiasm for good 
flowers existing, to permit the intrusion of such a system—one utterly at 
variance with the first principles of floriculture. These flowers have 
certain points which constitute perfection ; they should be half a ball ; 
the guard-petals should stand out square and firm; the ‘pod should be 
whole; fresh flowers should beat stale ones ; yet if the plan dictated in 
the article I have referred to was adopted, it would destroy the effect of | 
all these beautiful points, and at once reduce a clean, fresh bloom, 
perfect in its way, to the level of a burst pod, broken guard-leaves, and 
a loose bundle of petals held together with a card, and with the 
additional disadvantage that the burst and bad flower would be the 
largest. 
TO PROPAGATE HOLLYHOCKS. 
Tne easiest method of cultivation which I have discovered, combining 
certainty of colour and form, is to select and mark such that you wish 
to propagate ; then, in June or early in July, (as the season best suits, ) 
cut a branch off the plant or plants selected into as many pieces as 
there are eyes, or shoots, allowing a space of two inches on each side 
of the eye. Cut them into such lengths, and slit them down the middle, 
removing all the pith from the inside; put them immediately into 
some soil or earth in a shady place, (say the north side of your garden, ) 
about an inch deep, keeping the eye above the earth ; water, and cover 
with a hand-glass, and if hot weather, water well over the glass, but do 
not disturb it. In six weeks there will be nice young plants, which 
should be planted out early in November, in such places as required. 
They will blossom freely in the June following. This plan is the only 
one which I have found to my satisfaction ; it may induce others to try 
some improvement which may prove even better.— Cottage Gardener. 
ON SALVIA PATENS. 
BY A CURATE, 
Turis superb blue flowering plant is one of the finest ornaments for the 
parterre or flower-garden. Complaints have been made of the short- 
ness of its season of blooming profusely. I have adopted the method 
of shortening a portion of shoots to cause the production of lateral ones, 
doing it just before the blooming commenced, so that when the shoots 
left uncut were ceasing bloom, the lateral ones were beginning to 
flower. By this mode of treatment, I kept up a fine display from May 
to October. 
