GLOXINIA. 



221 



GOOSEBERRIES. 



run north and south, and present east and 

 west aspects to the sun's rays, which is 

 decidedly the best for general purposes. 

 Rooms for the gardeners employed, fruit 

 rooms, mushroom pits, retarding and pro- 

 pagating houses, potting and tool sheds, 

 &c., should also be placed near to them. 

 Perhaps a span-roofed building, divided in 

 the centre, and running up at one point to 

 the glass, with a building at one end for the 

 reception of a boiler to heat the whole 

 range, would be the very best, and certainly 

 the most economical arrangement. 



Gloxinia ('. ord. Gesnera'cese). 



A superb genus of hothouse plants, pro- 

 ducing, in great profusion, flowers of the 

 richest and most beautiful colours. They 



thrive the best in sandy peat and loam. 

 There are already many hybrid varieties 

 with flowers ranging from the purest white 

 to the deepest crimson, most of them 

 being marked and dappled with spots and 

 blotches, generally of a deeper colour on 

 the inside of the blossom. Propagation is 

 effected by seeds sown at the end of 

 January or the beginning of February in 

 a compost of peat, sand, and fine rich soil, 

 thinly covered and exposed to a bottom 

 heat of about 70. Old tubers, when started 

 in heat, supply shoots from which cuttings 

 may be made : these should be placed in a 

 close propagating frame and subjected to 



moist and gentle heat. Another means of 

 propagation is by means of leaf cuttings 

 taken from the plant with the bud on the 

 end of the leaf stalk attached. Thes* 

 should be inserted in the same kind of soil 

 as that prescribed for seeds. 



Gode'tia (nat. ord. Onagra'ceae). 



This is a name given of late years to the 

 purple- flowered kinds of Qinothera, or 

 Evening Primrose. 



Gooseberries. 



Gooseberries bear on the young as well as 

 on the two-year-old wood, generally upon 

 small spurs rising along the sides of the 

 branches. In pruning gooseberry-trees, for 

 which January is a favourable season, keep 

 the tree thin of branches : but let those 

 left be trained to some regular shape, and 

 never permitted to grow across each other, 

 radiating in a cuplike form, so as to be 6 

 or 8 inches apart at the extremities and 

 hollow in the centre. Prune away all 

 worn-out branches, retaining young shoots 

 to supply their places, retaining also, where 

 practicable, a terminal bud to each branch, 

 while shortening stragglers. The same 

 remarks apply to currant-trees. Young 

 gooseberry -trees designed for standards 

 should be pruned back to a clean stem for 

 10 or 12 inches, retaining the best-placed 

 shoots to form the head, and keeping these, 

 as nearly as possible, in the same length 

 and form. 



In making new plantations, place the 

 bushes 8 feet apart each way, if in 

 continuous rows ; if into quarters, or to 

 divide the ground into compartments, 

 prune them up to a clean stem 12 or 

 14 inches high ; otherwise the foliage 

 will impede the growth of the crops sown 

 beneath them. Perhaps the best mode of 

 growing gooseberries is as standards; in 

 which case the bushes should be trained 

 3 feet high before they are suffered to 



