OM A 



402 



ONI 



OMALANTHUS populifoUa. Stove i it large specimens may be rapidly ob- 

 evergreen shrub. Ripe cuttings. Peat 1 tained ; but as, with due care, magni- 

 and loam. ! ficent specimens may be grown in small 



OMIME PLANT. Plectranthus ter- pots, annually increased in size when 

 natus. the plants are shifted, the general adop- 



M PH AL O BIUM. Two species. ' tion of the one shift system will never 

 Stove evergreen slirubs. Ripe cuttings. \ be general, accompanied as it is by such 

 Light loam and peat. i a great sacrifice of space in the stove 



OMPHALADES. Eight species, i and green-house. 

 Hardy annuals and herbaceous peren- ONION. " The Onion is a biennial 

 nials ; the first being increased by seed plant, supposed to be a native of Spain, 

 in open borders; the second by divi- i The varieties are numerous. Those es- 

 sion, in shaded situations. : teemed the best, are the Silver Skin, 



ONCI DIUM. Fifty-nine species, j and Large Yellow Strasburgh ; the 

 Stove epiphytes. Shoots, moss, and ! latter is the best keeper, though perhaps 

 rotten wood. \ not so delicately flavoured as the Silver 



0NH:-SHIFT system in potting, is i Skin, 

 thus described by Mr. Ayres : — " The | " The Wethersfield red is grown 

 distinguishing difference of this system e.xtensively in the eastern states, where 

 is, that instead of taking a plant through i it perfects itself the first season, 

 all the different-sized pots, from a " It is the practice with the market 

 thumb to a twenty-four or sixteen, or gardeners of Philadelphia, who grow 



any other size thut it may remain 

 permanently, it is removed to the per- 



the Strasburgh and Silver Skin, to the 

 exclusion of all others, to sow the seed 



manent pot at once, or at any rate to i thickly in beds in the middle of spring, 

 one very considerably larger than is At midsummer they are taken up, and 

 the general custom; thus in purchasing i placed in a dry airy situation, until the 



small specimens of new plants, they 

 may be placed at once in a twenty- 

 four, sixteen, or twelve-sized pot, in 

 which they will remain for four or five 

 years. 



"The principal thing to attend to in 

 this system will be to have the pots 

 thoroughly drained ; for if water stag- 



succeeding spring, when they are re- 

 planted ; in this way they get large, 

 firm, well keeping Onions early in the 

 season. It should be observed that if 

 not sown quite thickly they attain too 

 large a size, and when replanted shoot to 

 seed. When sown early, and very thin- 

 ly, on strong ground, bulbs large enough 



nates in such a mass of soil, all hope ! for family use, may be had the first sea- 

 of success will be at end. In growing son ; they do not, however, usually at- 

 specimen plants, it is a good plan to ! tain a size large enough for the market, 

 drain the soil with an inverted pot, tak- i When sown in this way, they should 

 ing great care to prevent the soil from! be frequently hoed, and kept perfectly 

 falling among the drainage by covering | clean ; and the Wethersfield is perhaps 



it securely with moss. Porous stones 

 of various sizes, in considerable quanti- 

 ties, sticks in a half-decomposed state, 

 and even charcoal for some plants, 

 have been used with satisfiictory re- 

 sults. 



" Another very important point to be 

 attended to in this system of potting is, 

 to use the soil as rough as possible. 

 Plants potted in this way will not re 



the best." — Rural Reg. 



To save Seed. — To obtain seed, some 

 old onions must be planted in autumn 

 or early in Spring. The finest and firm- 

 est bulbs being selected and planted in 

 rows ten inches apart each way, either 

 in drills or by a blunt-ended dibble, the 

 soil to he rather poorer, if it differs at 

 all from that in which they are culti- 

 vated for bulbing. They must be bu- 



quire so much attention as those potted \ ried so deep, that the mould just covers 

 in the usual mannei ; because one wa- t the crown. Early in Spring their leaves 

 terint; will serve them for several days, ! will appe:ir. If grown in large quanti- 



whereas in small pots they would re- 

 quire constant attention." — Gardener's 

 Chron. 



ties, a path must be left two feet wide 

 between every three or four rows to 

 allow the necessary cultivation. They 



There is no doubt that this system must be kept thoroughly clear from 

 much abridges the gardener's labour, weeds, and when in flower have stakes 

 and there is an equal certainty that by | driven at intervals of five or six feet on 



