General Notices. 549 



plant will exist, and the expense of heating a tank of the 

 size Mr. Meehan mentions would be very great. Even if 

 the plant would go on flourishing for years, would it not be 

 more advisable to plant out anew, as the young seedlings 

 bloom freely three or four months from the time of planting ; 

 and Mr. Cope says they are easily raised from seeds, and can 

 be reproduced without any trouble and in a very short time. 



We have not recently noticed the fate of the plants at 

 Chatsworth and Kew ; but are persuaded, if the water could 

 be drawn ofl", and the soil replaced by fresh, the plants would 

 go on flourishing as well as ever. We are glad to see, there- 

 fore, that Mr. Cope intends to learn the fate of the old plant 

 before he begins anew. 



Mr. Cope has discovered, in the course of his culture of 

 the Victoria, that the seeds germinate more readily in deep 

 water than in shallow — in the dark more readily than in the 

 light. Seeds in a dark bottle have grown as readily as the 

 bulbs of a hyacinth, and he thinks this the best way to start 

 them. 



Mr. Cope has recently received some of the seeds of the 

 splendid Nelumbian speciosum, of China. They have veg- 

 etated and are growing finely ; and he hopes soon to see this 

 magnificent eastern beauty blooming in the same tank with 

 the Victoria. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General JVotices. 



On the Culture and Propagation of Peonies. — Having read the 

 article on pseonies which appeared on the 1 1th of September in your journal, 

 I take this opportunity to offer the following remarks on the propagation of 

 this beautiful tribe of plants. Take a large-sized pot, without bottom, and 

 place it just over where (in the spring) the young stalks of the paeony 

 plants will appear on the surface, and fill the pot with well-decomposed 

 vegetable mould. The stalks or stems thus surrounded must penetrate the 

 mould in the pot, after which process they will grow without the least in- 

 terruption. During summer, the mould in the pot must be kept moist, in 

 order to encourage the formation of roots on those parts of the plants which 



