186 ' General Notices. 



favorite wherever it has been tried out of doors with anything like a fair 

 chance of success. I generally plant it in mixed borders, and propagate a 

 number of plants every autumn, which I keep, lest a severe winter should 

 kill the stock ; otherwise, it seems quite able to stand moderate winters. It 

 seeds also abundantly, so that its increase is an easy matter. — ( Gard. Jour. 

 1852, p. 99.) 



Epiphyllum Truncatum. — This beautiful plant being a particular favor- 

 ite of mine, I have read with peculiar interest, in last week's Journal, Mr. 

 Cramb's remarks thereon ; which may have the eifect of raising it into more 

 general notice. To witness the manner in which it is usually treated in 

 the generality of gardens, one would be led to suppose it possessed neither 

 beauty nor interest sufficient to render it worthy of any care or attention. 

 But, when a good specimen plant of it, under judicious management, is to be 

 seen in the month of November, whether its elegance of form, or the color, 

 beauty, and abundance of its flowers be regarded, there is scarcely any 

 plant to be found better adapted for decorative purposes. Having lived at a 

 place where this plant was extensively grown, both in a dwarf and a stand- 

 ard form, I may be allowed to say, that grafting and after-culture is so 

 easily managed as to require no particular notice. The stocks employed for 

 the purpose were Pereskia Bleo and Cereus speciosissimus ; the latter I 

 consider the more preferable, and, if it is about three feet high, with the 

 grafts inserted all round, at a regular distance apart, to within six inches of 

 the pot, and grown in a conical shape, it will be found to have a most pleas- 

 ing effect. The disadvantage attending the Pereskia stock is, after the plant 

 has formed a good head, which will be in the course of four or five years, I 

 have found the stock incapable of transmitting a sufficient supply of nutri- 

 ment to its graft, which fact has been fully verified by the emission of roots 

 from the young shoots of tlie Epiphyllum. If the woods be properly ripen- 

 ed in the autumn by exposure to the sun and a limited supply of water, they 

 will flower well, and will bear to be forced or retarded, so as to keep up a 

 succession for a length of time during the winter months. I fear that the 

 plan recommended by Mr. Cramb in last week's Journal, as an auxilliary 

 mode of treating this plant, will not answer the purpose. The appearance 

 of an Epiphyllum stuck on a wiry stem of Cereus grandiflorus, with the nu- 

 merous supporters which it will necessarily require, will not be very orna- 

 mental, and the adoption of such practice will doubtless have a tendency to 

 lessen rather than encourage tlie growth of this noble plant. — Gard. Jour. 

 1852, p. 100.) 



Potato Disease. — Last year we gave the result of an analysis, showing 

 the difference of potatoes grown by the usual system and our own from 

 prepared cuttings. 115 per cent, of starch was the result of the former, 

 and 15^ the latter. We have now again gone through the same process, 

 those of our own being York Regents, now two years removed by prepared 

 cuttings from old stock. The result is beyond our expectation (17 per 

 cent.), and that from the same class, the best we could procure, only 10^ per 

 cent, giving a preponderance of more than one-third in favor of those pro- 

 duced from cuttings, which justifies us in the opinion we hold, tiiat until the 

 proper quantity of saccharine matter is restored to that valuable root we 



