General Notices. 229' 



seed sown now in heat will produce flowering plants next autumn. There 

 is also a white variety of this beautiful hardy plant. — {Gard. Chron., 1849, 

 p. 214.) 



Culture of Violets. — In compliance with your request that I should give 

 you my method of growing violets, I beg to state that I am a kitchen gar- 

 dener and florist, and that I can seldom allow violets to have the undivided 

 occupation of any piece of ground. I plant them in April on a piece of 

 land occupied with some other crop, such as horn carrots, cos lettuce, rad- 

 ishes, &c. ; but the best associate which I have found for them is the Trip- 

 oli Onion, between each row of which I plant violets. The check which a 

 crop of this kind gives the violet, provided the onions, &c., are not allowed 

 to remain too long on the ground, benefits the violet. 



After the onion crop is taken, I stir the ground between the violets with 

 a hoe, and scatter a little short dung or some kind of manure over them ; 

 this is, however, not a plan which I would recommend. For parties who 

 have not a ready sale for such things, the most advisable plan of culture 

 is, to divide the old roots in April, and plant them six inches asunder, in 

 rows twelve inches apart. Tn your last year's calendar, planting towards 

 the end of summer is recommended ; but I consider this practice to be quite 

 wrong. Experience has taught me that they suceeed best when planted 

 every year. When I allow them to remain two years, I cut the foliage 

 off them with a reaping hook two or three times during the summer, and 

 greatly to their advantage. My seedling, specimens of which I sent you, 

 maintains its good properties ; I found it in a row of seedling Russian vio- 

 lets.— ( Garc?. Chron., 1849, p. 214.) 



Francisea Hopeana. — This charming plant, introduced from Brazil in 

 1826, has been grown here for a series of years, and I have found it admi- 

 rably adapted for the embellishment of sitting-rooms during the months of 

 winter and spring. Its flowers are large, powerfully fragrant and attract- 

 ive, changing from a deep rich purple hue to an almost snowy whiteness ; 

 and, as this peculiar character is maintained for a lengthened period, its 

 value for this description of decoration is considerably enhanced. It forms 

 an excellent centre plant for round or octagon baskets, in which Chinese 

 primulas or hyacinths are the principal objects employed, its pale green 

 foliage relieving the dense masses of flowers such plants usually exhibit. 

 Its cultivation here is an exceedingly simple matter, being grown in a very 

 cool stove, in comparatively small pots, in a mixture of sandy peat and 

 loam, the object in view being to obtain small compact plants, not to ex- 

 ceed two feet in height, in order that they may be readily transferable to 

 vases or baskets, as circumstances may require. So soon as the plants 

 have performed their functions of flowering, the shifting process is per- 

 formed, using the knife freely alike to root and branches; all other atten- 

 tion is merely routine, save in the application of an occasional watering of 

 liquid manure. — {Gard. Chron., 1849, p. 214.) 



Chinese Winter Flowers. — On visiting some of the flower-shops in Shang- 

 h£e, in the middle of January, I was surprised to find a great many flowers 

 which had been forced into bloom, and were now exposed for sale. I was 



