IO2 NEW ZEALAND GARDENING. 



they may be. 5. The stems should be strong, and not 

 longer than the width across the foliage. In other words, 

 from the upper surface of the truss of flower to the leaves 

 where the stem starts from should not be a greater distance 

 than from one side of the foliage to the other. 6. The 

 leaves should be broad and healthy. No worse symptoms 

 of bad cultivation can be apparent than the leaves being 

 stunted, discoloured, and showing other symptoms of 

 having suffered from green fly or drought. 



Propagation : by Offsets. When a Cineraria has done 

 blooming, remove it from the greenhouse, cut down the old 

 flower stems, excepting such as it is intended to save seed 

 from, and place the pots out-of-doors upon a bed of coal 

 ashes in an open situation. Give water moderately in dry 

 weather, and as soon as the offsets appear, and have 

 attained a leaf or two, take them off with a sharp knife, 

 with the roots uninjured ; plant them in small pots, 

 and place them in a cold frame, shading them from the 

 light for a fortnight, and from bright sunshine for another 

 week. They will then be well rooted, and will require a 

 pot a size larger. This mode of propagation is seldom 

 resorted to except where it is desired to perpetuate excep- 

 tionally good varieties. 



By Seed. Sow the seed as soon as it is ripe in shallow, 

 wide pots, in light, fine soil, and slightly covered. As 

 soon as the seedlings have formed two or three leaves, 

 prick them out into the same kind of pots in a somewhat 

 richer soil. They may remain in these pots till they have 

 made some more leaves and fresh roots, then pot them off 

 singly into small pots, shading for a few days. Afterwards, 

 and at the proper time, repot them in the same manner as 

 the offsets. 



Soil. The offsets and seedlings having attained the proper 

 size for potting into larger pots, prepare the following com- 

 post : Turfy loam, two parts ; fibrous peat, one part ; 

 decayed leaves two years old, one part; very rotten 

 cow manure, half a part ; and a small addition of 

 sharp sand. Prepare, also, a sufficient quantity of broken 

 potsherds of two sizes, one as large as walnuts, and the other 

 about the size of peas. Have also a sufficient number of 

 either new or clean-washed pots, two sizes larger than the 

 plants are in. 



