CULTIVATION OF THE VERBENA. 141 



" black rust," and enabled us to grow it for nearly twenty 

 years untainted by disease. I will make the starting- 

 point the first of April. At that date take cuttings from 

 healthy plants ; see that they are taken in the condition 

 described in the Chapter on Propagation that is, that 

 they are in such a state that they will break on being bent. 

 They will root fit to be potted off, in eight or ten days, 

 and will be fine, healthy plants to put in the open ground 

 in thirty days after. Verbenas are not at all particular 

 about soil, provided it is not water-soaked ; we have 

 planted them on soils varying from almost pure sand to 

 heavy clay, and, provided it was enriched by manure, there 

 was but little difference in the growth or bloom. Planted 

 out in May, by August they will have spread to a dis- 

 tance of three feet, the plants profusely covered with flow- 

 ers and seed pods. Now at this time, say the middle of Au- 

 gust, this profuse flowering and seeding seems to lessen the 

 vitality of the plant and put it in the condition to invite 

 the attack of the " black rust " producing insect. To sustain 

 the vitality of the plant and recuperate its exhausted forces, 

 we cut back the extremities of the shoots some six inches, 

 in all plants from which we design to propagate, free the 

 plants of decayed leaves, and thin out where too thick at 

 the centre. Then we fork up the soil around each plant, 

 adding a compost of equal parts of fresh soil and rotted 

 manure to the depth of two or three inches. Young 

 shoots, as they develop, root into this with avidity, pro- 

 ducing a soft and healthy growth, which by the first 

 or middle of October, gives as just the style of cutting we 

 require. Now the process of propagation begins, which 

 may be carried on either in the propagating house, in the 

 usual way, or by the saucer system, as before described ; but 

 by whichever method the propagation is effected, let me 

 again mention the importance of taking the cutting in that 

 succulent condition in which it will snap on being bent. 

 Do not attempt to pot the old plant or the layers of the 



