324 On the Cultivation of Phlox Drummondii, 



singly into thumb-pots in the same soil, mixed with a very small 

 portion of leaf mould. These should be shifted about once a 

 month or so, until they are in number four or five pots, when 

 they may stand in them to flower, or be removed to the border. 

 The cuttings may be put in at almost any season, though May 

 seems to be a preferable month; take them off from two to three 

 inches long, and place them in sand under a bell-glass; and if 

 early in the spring, the pots may be placed on a declining hot- 

 bed; or they may be placed in a green-house or frame, if the 

 latter is not too damp. If the cuttings show any signs of mil- 

 dewing, which we have found they are apt to do, the best reme- 

 dy is to dust them with a little sulphur, and allow the glasses to 

 remain off an hour or so in the morning. When the cuttings are 

 rooted, which will be in the course of a fortnight, or twenty days 

 at the most, they may be potted off singly into the smallest pots, 

 and treated in the same way of seedlings. We have attempted 

 propagation by layers, but have not succeeded. 



If it is desirable to grow the plants in pots, they should be 

 regularly shifted as they fill the pots with roots, and the branches 

 should be trained up to a neat stake: they will flower abundantly. 

 When the plants are turned into the border, there is no particu- 

 lar care requisite, otherwise than to choose a good soil, which, if 

 not so, should be prepared, and a proper situation, one not too 

 moist or too dry, but midway between these two extremes. The 

 soil which seems to suit them is a sandy loam, enriched with ful- 

 ly decomposed manure. Tie up the plants as they proceed in 

 growth, or the lateral shoots will fall to the ground, and the beauty 

 of the flowers soiled and marred by the rain and the dust. 



The seeds do not ripen freely, and but very few can be saved 

 with the greatest care; but as plants are raised from cuttings 

 with such facility, this is of little consequence, otherwise than 

 as a preventive to its quicker distribution. 



There seems to be some care requisite to keep the plants 

 through the winter, if, from circumstances, no seed is ripened. 

 This may be either in a frame or green-house, or, in want of either, 

 a parlor: but the situation should by no means be damp. A culti- 

 vator lost his whole stock, which was treated similarly to the car- 

 nations, an abundance of plants of which were in the same frame, 

 and were kept well. Undoubtedly a green-house is the safest 

 place. Too much moisture and a low temperature, at this dor- 

 mant season, do not agree with the plants. Water should be ad- 

 ministered with a careful hand. 



There are several varieties of this phlox, which have been pro- 

 duced from seed in Britain. We have seen the following six 

 enumerated: — Venustum, a most beautiful rose color, having a 

 dark centre; formosum, lilac, red-eye, very large round flower; 

 pulchellum, very dark velvet crimson, black centre, round flow- 



