General Notices. 559 



the common Heliotrope (Heliotropium peruvianum) enables me to come 

 forward as its advocate ; and I can justly place it foremost in the rank of 

 plants for adorning pillars, wires, or any other suitable situation of a cool 

 conservatory where a graceful pyramidal appearance would be deemed an 

 acquisition. Few lovers of plants and flowers pass through our conserva- 

 tory without granting their tribute of praise on the subject under notice, 

 which runs up a pillar to the height of fourteen feet, and about three feet 

 diameter at the base, tapering in its upward progress to a couple of leading 

 shoots, forming a pyramid of pendent branches, with clusters of flowers 

 hanging gracefully from the extremities of each of them. I find it requisite 

 to pinch all the laterals proceeding from last year's growth of the leader, or 

 any other strong shoot protruding without the boundary ; it induces them to 

 throw out a number of a weaker stump or flowering shoots, cliecking their 

 vigor and benefiting those underneath, by directing the current of sap to 

 them : and from their spurred nature from repeated prunings they break 

 with more shoots than are required : the weakest should be weeded out, to 

 allow the others the benefit of the sun and air, when they will shoot out 

 rapidly and produce that much-admired form, the pyramid. The useful- 

 ness of this plant for the conservatory or cut bloom may be best understood 

 when I say, that during nine months of the year it is covered with bloom. 

 I believe it would prove perpetual were pruning not requisite to keep it in 

 form. That operation is performed in the beginning of March ; a few 

 weeks after, it is covered Avith a lively green, and its growth encouraged 

 during that season with frequent waterings of liquid manure, which are dis- 

 continued in August. After that time the plants placed upon the soil 

 wherein it grows supply it plentifully with the water that has passed 

 through them ; and the increasing moisture of the atmosphere and with- 

 drawal of sun-heat make its wants more moderate. An interesting com- 

 panion opposite to it — in habit and foliage resembling it very much, whilst 

 in the color of the flowers it forms a decided contrast — is the lovely and 

 rich scarlet-flowered Salvia gesneriflora. Under the same treatment as the 

 Heliotrope it thrives equally well, and flowers abundantly during the winter 

 and spring months. Sollyea linearis, covering a third pillar, may be classed 

 next it in usefulness for cut bloom, but it is inferior to none of the former in 

 exhibiting a graceful habit, densely studded over with its lovely blue blos- 

 soms. It is said to grow best in a mixture of peat and sand ; here it grows 

 and flowers freely in the border mixture, which originally was loam and 

 leaf mould, but all traces of the latter are gone. The fourth pillar is cov- 

 ered with Cytisus racemosus, with its evergreen garb and fine spikes of 

 yellow bloom, imparting a cheering influence in a dull period of the year. 

 The time required to cover the pillars might be raised as an objection to 

 the use of such slow-growing plants as recommended above. The same 

 objection is applicable to our finest exhibition plants ; and who grudges the 

 few years spent in bringing them to that acme of perfection, as seen in the 

 specimens which adorn tne show tables of our metropolitan exhibitions ? 

 Or it might be got over by planting a late and rapidly-growing Fuchsia at 



