General JS^otices. 229 



MISCELLANEOUS LNTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Cultivation of Salvia fulgens. — .Salvia fiilirens may be propagated 

 by cuttiiig.Sj in the early part of June, and after beinij |)ottpd a short 

 time, should be shifted into pots five or six inches across, filled with 

 a soil composed of j)eat, loam, and leaf mould. They should be 

 grown out of doors until the latter part of September, and then re- 

 moved into the green-house, where they form a striking contrast 

 with the chrysanthenuims in flower. From its tendency to bloom 

 late when ])ropagate{l in this way, >Salvia fiilgens is a great acqui- 

 sition to the green-house at this season. (Gard. Chron., 1842, p. 38.) 



Cultivation of Rhubarb. — Rhubarb requires soil as rich as that for 

 asparagus, |)repared in the following way: — In an open situation, 

 make a trench three or four feet wide, and two feet deep if the good 

 soil will admit of it. Then place at the bottom of the trench about 

 six inches of good rotten dung: fill up the trench with the soil which 

 had l)een previously taken out, or, if the soil is not rich, mix with it 

 a little rotten dung, before filling up the trench: it will then form a 

 bed, some inches Jiigher than the common level of the ground. 

 Early in the season [as late as Juwe will do,] procure pieces of the 

 old roots, with only a single crown on each, and plant them in the 

 centre of the bed, at intervals of five or six feet, and cover the 

 crown about two inches deep; when planted, throw a little strawy 

 dung over each plant, to protect it from the severity of the weather. 

 Nothing farther is requisite, except to keep the plants free from 

 weeds, for some years. None of the leaves should be used the first 

 year; and when they are afterwards gathered, they should always 

 be pulled oif, and not cut, as is sometimes done. (Id., 1842, p. 57.) 



On the cultivation of Jlsparagus in Spain. — As a meeting of the 

 London Horticultural Society, March 1, a paper was read on the 

 cultivation of the asjjaragus, as practised in San Sebastian, in the 

 province of Guipuscoa, North Spain; and as it appears to contain 

 many valuable hints for the improved cultivation of this delicious 

 vegetable, we extract the same: — 



The asparagus is grown in beds about five feet wide, and from 

 twenty to sixty feet louij: the beds have no previous preparation 

 beyond digging and raking: in March, the seed is sown in drills 

 eighteen inches deep, and about two feet asunder. When the ])lants 

 are six inches high, they are thinned to about one foot apart; 

 the thinnings are transjdanted in similar beds, and watered once a 

 day by one of the never failing rills that run through the flat on 

 which the beds are formed. In the following March a layer of night- 

 soil, a few inches thick, is laid on the bed, and dug in when the 

 plants have done growing in the autumn. The asparagus is fit to 

 cut the third year after sowing; and in the spring, a layer of leaves, 

 about eight inches thick, is laid over the bed, and when the plants 

 come through this, the cutting begins. By this treatment, the writer 

 of the paper stated, he had seen asparagus from two to six inches, 



