] 38 BRIEF REMARKS. 



shaped leaflets attached by fine wiry stalks ; height, about six inches ; 

 caudex tufted. 



Blechnum Spicant. — A very elegant and distinct Fern ; fronds nar- 

 rowly lance-shaped in outline, annual ; height, one foot or more ; cau- 

 dex tufted. 



Trichomanes radicans. — Delicately transparent, and very beautiful 

 when seen in a vigorous state ; fronds either triangular-ovate or lance- 

 shaped, drooping ; height six inches ; caudex creeping. 



Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, and H. Wilsoni {imilaterale). — 

 Moss-lilvC, forming dense matted masses, deep dull green, and uninter- 

 esting at first sight, but very beautiful on minute examination. 



BRIEF REMARKS. 



Gazania pavonia (Erratum, page 115.) The petals are very 

 much larger than those of the G. ringens, of a dark orange colour, 

 while the latter are of a yellow orange colour. — G, c. h. 



Inga pulcherrima. — Last summer I purchased a plant in bloom ; 

 it ceased only with the approach of winter. I kept it rather dry during 

 its winter rest, and in February put it into a larger pot, and placed it 

 in a moderately heated small stove, and now it is in profuse bloom. 

 Its splendid crimson, tliread-like, long filaments, like so many beautiful 

 tassels, render it one of the most charming shrubby plants for the 

 greenhouse or sitting-room that I ever saw. The foliage, too, is of the 

 Acacia or Mimosa form, elegant and pretty. I recommend the plant 

 to all admirers of flowers possessing a habitation for it. — Clericus. 



On Potting and Shifting Plants. — Much, if not tiie greater 

 part, of the success in cultivating plants in pots depends upon a proper 

 method of potting and shifting tiiem, and this as much in the state of 

 the materials employed, as in the manner of employing them. But in 

 vain may soil, situation, and treatment be consonant to their natures, 

 if care and attention iiave not been paramount in this branch of their 

 treatment. When plants are in their borders, they are in a great 

 measure attended to by nature herself. But when we place them in 

 pots, we give them an artificial habitation, and they then require of us 

 artificial treatment to reconcile them to an abode foreign to their 

 natures. 



First, the soil will, of course, be a composition suitable to the par- 

 ticular plant or plants to be potted ; but of wliatever it may be com- 

 posed, particular care should be taken that it is not too wet nor too 

 dry. If the former, it becomes, during tlie process of potting, a com- 

 pact mass, whicii, contracting as it gets drier, leaves a vacuum between 

 the exterior of the pot and the ball of the plant, thus allowing the free 

 admission of light and air, which is, of course, anything but beneficial 

 to the plant. If, on the other hand, it be too dry, it prevents, for a 

 considerable time, tlie free passage of moisture to the roots, and it will 

 often be found, especially if the plant itself is dry at the time of potting, 

 that it will suffer greatly ere it receive suflficient moisture to recruit 

 the evaporation of its juices. Secondly, the pots, if not new ones, 

 should be scrupulously clean ; for if tlie advantage were nothing more 



