31 6 Notes and Gleanings. 



Rhododendrons. — Rhododendrons may be increased by seed, layers, and 

 cuttings. In the month of May, scoop out a little hollow under a branch suitably 

 placed for layering, and fill it with sandy peat or half-rotted moss, well chopped up 

 with silver sand ; bend the joint down, and fix it with a hooked stake, so that there 

 will be no fidgeting with it after the branch is cut. Then loosen it from the peg, 

 and with a sharp knife cut half through the stem and upwards an inch and a half 

 towards the top of the shoot, taking care to leave sufficient wood and bark on 

 the side not cut to maintain the branch in health. Insert a small pebble or slip 

 of wood to keep the incision open ; bend the branch down again, and bring the 

 head of it upright, or nearly so, without breaking it at the cut part, and fix it 

 firmly under the hook to the stake. Press the peat firmly about the tongue ; and 

 lay a bunch of moss over, with a stone or tile to prevent it being blown away ; 

 and leave the rest to nature. The branch will not be sufficiently rooted for re- 

 moval for a year, when it may be cut away, and carefully planted, with others 

 similarly treated, in a nursery-bed of peat, and well supplied with water. — Floral 

 World. 



Propagation of Centaurea ragusina, candidissima, gymnocarpa, &c. 

 — These are considered very difficult to propagate ; but, like many other subjects 

 that are reputed difficulties, the propagation is a very simple matter when you 

 know how to do it. As the centaureas are the grandest of all the silvery-leaved 

 bedders we possess, and among the most aristocratic plants known, a paragraph 

 on their propagation will probably be acceptable both to private growers and to 

 many in the trade. One difficulty is to get shoots long enough for insertion in 

 the soil of the cutting pans. This difficulty is to be got over by taking the plants 

 from the greenhouse to the stove in February, ten days before making the cut- 

 tings. The heat will lengthen the shoots ; and, as soon as they are long enough 

 to cut, take them. The soil for the cutting pans should be peat ivithoiit the fibre 

 one-half, silver sand one-half: mix this thoroughly, and then put it in an oven, and 

 let it bake, but not burn, till completely desiccated. Dibble in the cuttings, and 

 put bell-glasses over ; keep on bottom heat ; give no water for three weeks ; then 

 wet them moderately, and they will throw out shoots immediately, and, a week 

 after, may be potted in thimbles or thumbs. — Floral World. 



