CHAT. XIII VILLA GARDENING 223 



another common thing ^A'hich in winter has a majestic effect as a 

 chimp in a pot in a prominent position. Early-sown Canterbuiy 

 Bells potted up will flower early in spring in the greenhouse. And 

 how sweet the Brompton Stocks are early in sirring, when sown 

 about the middle of July, potted up in autumn, and brought on 

 under glass ! 



The Propagating- House. — This may either be a low span- 

 roofed i3it sunk partly in the ground, or a lean-to in the same 

 position. The best propagating house I ever had was a small 

 low lean-to, but it was capable of tiurning out an immense num- 

 ber of plants. The bed to receive the cuttings rested on a 

 wrought-iron water tank, which had a flow and return in con- 

 nection with the boiler, and furnished a regular steady bottom- 

 heat of a most genial character. The tank filled up all one side of 

 the house ; the other side was furnished with an unheated bed to 

 receive the pots of cuttings, etc., as they were lifted from the 

 striking bed, and to harden them for potting off or moving on to 

 other houses. Sand or Cocoa-nut fibre may be used as plunging 

 material. Sawdust is not a bad substitute if not too fresh. 

 It shoidd be obtained from hard woods, not deal, as that some- 

 times generates fungus. A little house of this character would 

 not cost much, and it will be found cheaper in the end to have 

 a shallow iron tank to supjily bottom-heat than trust to cement, 

 which, in some cases, I have known to produce endless trouble. 

 When the propagating season is over, there are many uses to 

 which such a house could be put. Where many plants of 

 various kinds are required, propagation or grafting may go 

 on all the year, or be used for raising choice seedlings. Though 

 I recommend a small house heated by hot water, yet I by 

 no means despise a hotbed on the old-fashioned principle of 

 leaves and dung in a brick pit or under a two or three-light 

 frame. In the spring such a bed will do almost anything if 

 made large enough to keep up a steady heat of 75° to 80°. 

 All the usual kind of bedding plants may be rapidly raised 

 in it, as well as most of the soft-wooded occupants of the stove 

 and greenhouse. Seeds of all kinds are rapidly germinated in its 

 genial warmth. In short, a hotbed of the character described, 

 possessing a steady bottom-heat, will do anything which genial 

 warmth can do to arouse the vital principle in seed or cutting. I 

 have referred to sawdust as an excellent plunging material. It is 

 all this and more, for it is one of the very best mediums for quickly 

 striking difficult subjects among stove plants of a ligneous or semi- 

 woody character that I know of. All the Dracaenas, Crotons, 

 Ficus elastica, and such like plants, will strike quickly in warm 



