96 THE TREE PROPAGATOR AND PLANTER. 



sandy soil. Cuttings will strike freely. Take the side- 

 shoots 3 or 4 inches long during the early summer, and 

 insert them in pots filled with the above-named soil, 

 and set them in a mild heat till they hare struck root, 

 when a common greenhouse will do for them. 



If they are to be grown in pots for specimens, they 

 may be trained on a tall cylindrical trellis, or they may 

 be made to assume a bushy character by frequent 

 stopping, omitting this after midsummer so as to give 

 time for numerous short growths of wood, on which 

 will come the flowers next season in great abundance, 

 forming a magnificent plant. There is a splendid 

 variegated kind of great beauty to be had for this 

 purpose. 



The Abutilon {Malvaceae). 



These are not climbers, but fast-growing greenhouse 

 shrubs, well suited for covering pillars and trellises. 

 Indeed, I know of few plants better suited for the 

 purpose, or possessed of more beauty in this respect, 

 than this tribe, on account of their ample foliage, their 

 freedom of growth, and the beauty of their large, 

 pendulous, cup-shaped flowers. These latter have rich 

 markings of crimson on a soft white ground ; and 

 again, yellow and blue markings, orange and red, &c. 

 They may be grown as bushy shrubs, and will soon 

 form fine specimens by frequent stopping during the 



growing season. 



The propagation of the Abutilons may be by sowing 

 the seed in pans filled with fine peat, leaf- mould, and 

 maiden loam of equal parts. Put a good drainage, 

 then some rough sittings over them, fill the pan firmly, 

 make even, and sow the seed thinly over the surface, 

 and cover it as thick as a shilling ; set in a frame or 

 heated pit. 



By Cuttings. — Take cuttings of the firm side-shoots 

 with short joints, trim off the leaves below, make a 

 clean cut at the base, and insert them around a 4-inch 

 *iot filled with fine sandy peat ; water, and plunge the 



