Notes and Clcaniiigs. 183 



The seed should be sown in shallow pans, and should be buried in the soil 

 iribout an inch and a half or two inches deep ; the pans should then be placed in 

 a cold pit or frame. 



Cuttings may be pricked out in pans ; or some good sandy loam may be put 

 into a ])it or frame, if there is enough of cuttings at hand to fill a small box. If, 

 as will most likely be the case, only a few cuttings are to be had at this early 

 period of the plant's second advent, they had better be pricked out in pots or 

 pans, and placed in a cold frame or pit as recommended above for the seed. As 

 soon, however, as they are nicely rooted, they should be pricked out into a small 

 frame or cold pit, in some rich sandy soil, where they will grow very rapidly ; and 

 by the end of March they will have made good, strong plants, when they may 

 again be divided into a great number. They should then be planted out in 

 nui'sery-beds ; and, by the first week in May, the plants will be ready for planting 

 out in their final quarters, where they will at once begin flowering very freely. 

 The small plants in the seed-pans should have similar treatment to that recom- 

 mended for the cuttings, but should not be pricked out before they have made 

 the third or fourth pair of leaves. 



Where early-spring flower-gardening is carried out, cuttings should be struck 

 early in August and September, and the plants jalaced in their final quarters 

 about the end of October. — Cottage Gardener. 



[It is doubtful whether this plant, now so popular in England, will survive 

 our winters unprotected. Seed may be obtained of any seedsman ; and the 

 plants, of florists. We should be glad to hear of the results of experiments in 

 its culture from any of our correspondents.] 



Gloxinia Culture. — Early in Februarj-, take from their winter-quarters 

 the pots containing the dormant tubers, and place them on a level surface ; then 

 with the watering-can give as much water as will moisten the soil, which will 

 have become dry during the time the tubers have been at rest. This done, 

 plunge the pots in a bottom heat of from 65° to 70° ; but, if bottom heat is not 

 at command, a vinery that is at work will answer very well. With due attention 

 to watering, the tubers will in two or three weeks have started, and begun to 

 grow freely. Then, but not sooner, turn them out of the pots, and carefully 

 shake the old soil from them, doing as little injury to the fibres as possible. 

 Transfer them to clean, well-drained pots a size larger than those from which 

 they were taken ; using the following compost, which I have found to suit them 

 admirably : Two parts decayed leaves, one part fibry loam, and one part dried 

 cow-dung broken into little lumps about the size of cob-nuts ; adding as much 

 silver sand and fine wood-charcoal as will give the whole a nice, friable texture. 

 This c ompost should, at the time of its being used, be nice and dry, and of the 

 same temperature as the structure in which the plants have been growing. 



The soil being in readiness, proceed with the repotting by first draining the 

 pots ; an operation which must be done efficiently, as the well-doing of the plants 

 depends in a great measure on this. On the top of the drainage place the 

 roughest portion of the compost, pressing it firmly down with the hand ; and fill 



