CINERARIAS AND CALCEOLARIAS. 125 



We will now consider the cineraria from a cultural standpoint, 

 and this may be of more interest to the novices present than any- 

 thing else I may say regarding it, and to them this paper is 

 addressed. In so doing I shall give my own cultural methods, 

 since they are more familiar to me. 



Propagation. — Cinerarias are propagated by seeds or cuttings, 

 but the latter method is seldom resorted to, especially in this 

 country. It was practised more or less extensively in England, 

 and other European countries some years ago, for the purpose of 

 perpetuating good varieties which appeared from time to time. 

 Oood varieties in those days were less frequent than they are 

 nowadays ; consequently the practice is dying out, and in no way 

 ■can it be recommended, except for the purposes that gave it birth, 

 and then only when something extraordinarily good appears. It 

 is impossible to grow as large a plant in the same period of time 

 from a cutting as from a seed ; hence the folly of the practice. 



The best seeds ought always to be purchased as it is as easy to 

 grow good strains of all kinds of plants as bad ones, and it is 

 infinitely more pleasing to enjoy their superior excellence after 

 growing them. 



In order to be justitied at any time in blowing up, by dynamite 

 or otherwise, the retailing seedsman or seed firm and all con- 

 cerned, for furnishing seeds inferior to what was supposed to have 

 been purchased, we must make our own efforts toward perfection 

 in all the details that tend to bring out all that is good in a plant 

 or strain of plants. 



An inferior article is indelibly so under the best cultural care ; 

 a good article, on the other hand, will show itself under the most 

 indifferent cultural care. 



For large and early flowering plants, the seeds should be sown 

 sometime in the latter part of May or early in June, in earthen 

 pans or wooden boxes, four inches deep, the size depending on the 

 quantity of seed to be sown. These pans or boxes should be well 

 drained by broken crocks, or any other hard material that will serve 

 that purpose ; over the drainage put a thin layer of sphagnum 

 moss to prevent the soil from entering the drainage. 



The chief aims in preparing the soil used at this initial stage are 

 lightness and porosity and to secure these, leaf-mould and clean 

 sharp sand must be used in equal quantities, with an additional 

 fraction of fibrous loam. The pans or boxes having been filled 



