98 ON THK PROPAGATION AND CULTURE OF CAMELLIAS. 



syringe the surface lightly. Select your cuttings from the old sin- 

 gle red variety, choosing those from two to three inches long ; 

 slip them oft' with a shoulder. The longer shoots may he made 

 into cuttings according to their length. Cut the base of each cut- 

 ting quite smooth, and close to a joint ; when ready, insert them 

 into the pot with a small dibble, pressing the mould firmly round 

 each cutting, and keeping the shortest outside, and the tallest in 

 the centre. When the pot is filled with cuttings, water them and 

 plunge the pot in a hotbed of moderate heat, shading completely 

 from the sun's rays. Give air as early as possible every day in fine 

 weather, by taking the light entirely oft' until the cuttings are dried ; 

 if the weather will not permit the light being removed, give air be- 

 hind the light. When the cuttings want water, syringe over-head, if 

 the weather be fine, always performing this in the morning. Keep 

 up a moderate bottom heat : it must be moderate, or your cuttings 

 will suffer when they root. In the following March, they will be 

 fit to be potted off into 60-sized pots, using the following soil : — 

 fine decomposed leaf and peat mould, two parts ; good sandy loam, 

 one part. Set them on a gentle bottom heat, in a frame or pit, 

 shading from sun, and often syringing over -head ; give air by de- 

 grees, keeping them growing as vigorously as possible to the end 

 of the season, when they may remain in a cold frame, protected 

 from frost. The following spring the strongest will want shifting 

 into 48-sized pots ; the others may remain without shifting until 

 next season, giving a top dressing ; keep them still under glass, 

 exciting a free growth ; many of the best plants will, in two 

 years, be good stocks for working, and in three years excellent. 

 The practice now in use to increase flowering plants, and which is 

 certainly the best and quickest, is, by inarching on the single red 

 variety ; as thereby a flowering plant is established in six months, 

 which, from a cutting, would be three years or more. The method 

 of inarching I need not mention, as all cultivators of plants must 

 be acquainted with the process. 



Culture of Flowering Plants. — Prepare a quantity of good 

 sandy loam ; top-spit one year before wanted, that the turf may 

 decompose ; next a sufficient quantity of good sandy peat, or well- 

 decomposed leaf-mould. To one barrowful of loam add the same 

 of peat or leaf-mould, mixing them well together, and breaking 

 and beating it fine with a spade, but not gifting. When your 



