102 Notes and Gleanings. 



January, and they will produce long before stools in the open air unheated and 

 uncovered. You may pot the roots in vine-pots, or spread a little soil on the 

 floor ; place the roots on it, and then cover them with moist soil There is this 

 advantage in forcing rhubarb where it grows, — the roots are but little injured, 

 and may be forced every other year without any great deterioration ; whereas, if 

 they are taken up, and placed in a cellar or elsewhere, they are of little value 

 afterwards, requiring more time to recover than is needed to raise from offsets 

 roots of greater strength, and in every way better for forcing-purposes. 



Seedling Gloxinias, Amaryllis, and Achimenes. — Gloxinias and 

 achimenes flower the same year the seed is sown. If sown early, say in Feb- 

 ruary or March, on a hot-bed, and grown on in the bed, with liberal treatment 

 they will flower in autumn, but better in the second year. It usually requires 

 three years to bloom seedling amaryllis, and then the treatment must be such 

 as will encourage growth. 



Desfontania spinosa Culture. — The greatest drawback to blooming 

 this plant is keeping it in too close and warm an atmosphere. It requires a cool, 

 airy situation in a light house, a fair amount of pot-room, and perfect drainage. 

 A compost of good hazel or yellow loam suits this plant, — that from rotted turves 

 is the best material for potting ; and it then needs no manure : add, however, 

 one-third of well-reduced leaf-mould, and a free admixture of sharp sand. Drain 

 the pot thoroughly, and pot with the neck or collar rather high in the centre 

 of the pot. Keep the plant well watered whilst growing, and at other times 

 moist. It requires about as much water as a camellia. Age is all that is wanted 

 to make it flower profusely. 



Propagating Hardy Ferns from Spores. — Choose a pot which a bell- 

 glass will just fit within the rim ; place a large crock over the hole ; half fill the 

 pot with smaller pieces, and on them place half an inch of moss ; then fill the 

 pot to the rim with the following mixture, — viz., sandstone broken in all sizes, 

 from that of a grain to a hazel-nut, sandy fibrous peat, and yellow fibrous loam, 

 of each equal parts, adding to the whole one-sixth of silver sand. Put over the 

 surface a very small quantity of sifted soil, and make it firm by pressing it with 

 the hand. Put on the bell-glass ; and, if it fit closely on the soil, it is all right. 

 Remove it, and stand the pot in a pan in a rather shady but not dark part of the 

 greenhouse ; for what is wanted is a diffused, though not a strong light. Give a 

 good watering all over the surface through a fine-rosed watering-pot, filling the 

 pan with water. Now take the frond with the spore-cases open ; and, holding 

 it over the pot, rub it with the hand on the under side, and a kind of brown or 

 yellow dust will fall on the soil. You may scrape the spore-cases from the back 

 of the fronds ; but, if the dust fall so as to make the soil brown or yellow, it is 

 enough. Press the surface gently with the hand, and put on the bell-glass, tak- 

 ing care that it touch the soil all round. Keep the pan or saucer full of water ; 

 and give none on the surface except it become dry, which it never ought to do, 

 nor will it if sufificiently shaded, and the saucer be kept full of water. When the 



