294 GENERAL REVIEW. 



seed until March before sowing ; and in September of last year 

 I saw fifty thousand seedlings in Methven's Nursery, Leith 

 Walk, Edinburgh, which had been sown the March previous, 

 and these had been pricked off when an inch in height. The 

 seed germinates in a month or five weeks, and may be pricked 

 off into beds of light rich earth in cold frames or pits as soon 

 as large enough to handle. Seed of tender warm greenhouse 

 kinds should be sown in a gentle heat in pans, and kept near 

 the light in a warm pit or vinery after germination ; and when 

 large enough, they should be potted off into small thumb-pots. 

 The Pontic and Catawba species are quite hardy ; and it is 

 by using these that hybridisers have been able to obtain a hardy 

 race by crossing them with the finer-flowered and brighter- 

 coloured Indian kinds, such as R. arboreum, and its white, 

 rosy, cinnamon, and blood-coloured forms. When R. arboreum 

 was first introduced, it was only seen in conservatories and 

 plant-houses ; but the bright and beautiful colours of this and 

 other Indian varieties set the hybridisers to work, and so suc- 

 cessful have they been, that by continual crossings with the 

 hardier varieties from different parts of the world, such as R. 

 ponticum, cattcasicum, maximum, and catawbiense, they have 

 stamped a vast variety of shades of beautiful colours upon a 

 race which, for hardiness and usefulness in garden decoration, 

 cannot be excelled in any other genus of plants. Better than 

 all, these modern hybrids are by no means so particular as to 

 soil, and many of the best of them may be very successfully 

 grown in fibrous loam, decayed leaves, and sand intermixed. 

 The foliage and manner of growth will generally indicate how 

 much of the Indian type prevails in the variety ; and in pro- 

 portion as that type is predominant, so will the plant be par- 

 ticular as to soil and climate. A wet and frosty winter after 

 a warm mild autumn is a severe test of the hardiness of Rho- 

 dodendrons. As a rule, the sorts which have arboreum blood 

 in their veins perish generally root and branch ; while those of 

 the ponticum strain sustain much injury to their blossoms. It 

 is only those bred from catawbiense that escape with impunity, 

 and these in a greater or lesser degree in accordance with the 

 influence of their ancestors, in cases where intermixture of 

 blood has taken place. The pallid, lilac-hued Everestiamim 

 and roseum elegans are two sturdy and hardy sorts ; but some of 

 the higher-coloured varieties also, of quite modern date, seem 

 able to brave all weathers with impunity. Among those of 

 this category are the rosy " Lady Armstrong," the rosy-scarlet 

 " James Bateman," the rich crimson " Mrs Milner," and " H. 

 W. Sargent " all remarkably attractive flowers, together with 



