General Notices. 265 



were not more favorable to the charcoal than to the common sand usually 

 employed for that purpose. The caper rooted freely in both ways, but 

 the others did best in the sand. Many cuttings, when planted in pine 

 charcoal, or even when that formed a principal part of the mixture, threw 

 o3" their leaves in a shuit time and rotted at the base. From what has 

 come under my observation during these experiments, I would not recom- 

 mend this substance to be used by itself for the growth of plants or for 

 striking cuttings ; and if it does produce any good chemical effects when 

 mixed with the soil, these will probably depend in a great degree upon 

 the constitution of the soil, in the same way as lime and chalk are only 

 good manures for certain lands. But it is very possible that these effects 

 are only mechanical, tending to keep the ground open in the manner 

 which renders ashes so very beneficial to stiff soils. — (JR. Fortune in Pro- 

 ceedings of the London Horticultural Society, No. 17.) [We believe Mr. 

 Fortune to have given a correct opinion in relation to the use of charcoal. 

 It may benefit some soils, but for the ordinary purposes of greenhouse 

 culture it has less effect than good prepared soils, such as are generally 

 made use of. — Ed.'\ 



Treatment of Cacti. — The chief point in the managing these plants is to 

 allow them an alternate period of growth and rest. They should be 

 grown in a mixture of lime-rubbish and loam, with a little cow dung, and 

 in well drained pots. In summer they should be fully exposed to the 

 sun, and well watered : but from October to March they should be kept 

 perfectly dry.— ( Garo^. Chronicle, 1843, p. 105.) 



Growing Gooseberrry or Currant Bushes without Suckers. — The reason 

 why a currant or gooseberry bush throws up suckers, is that the cutting, 

 which now forms the bush, has been made either with a heel to it, or cut 

 so close to the mother branch as to carry with it part of the latent buds 

 generally formed there. To prevent this, the propagator cuts off the 

 lower portion of the shoot as far as he sees traces of these latent buds ; 

 he also cuts off the top part of the shoot, if too weak for his purpose, 

 and then he disbuds the middle portion, leaving only three or four buds 

 near the top to form the future head. No kind of cutting, not even the 

 lilac, thus made, ever throws out suckers above the collar of the plant, 

 that is, above the root. This is a simple fact, well known to cultivators, 

 but the extent of its application has not yet been fully appreciated, and I 

 am not aware that the principle involved in it has been explained by any 

 one. A wider application of it, however, is all I have in view at pres- 

 ent, now that we are entering on the great business of propagation, &c. 

 {Id. p. 104.) 



Nitrate of Soda on Strawberries. — The proportion in which nitrate of 

 soda has been successfully applied to strawberries, is 3 oz. to the square 

 yard, sprinkled regularly over the surface of the bed just as the plants are 

 beginning to grow. Although it may injure the foremost leaves, the suc- 

 ceeding one will soon put forth with redoubled vigor. — {Id. p. 121.) 



Grafting Camellias. — The operation is simple, and may be thus per- 

 formed : fix on a smooth part of the stock, near the surface of the pot, 

 and make a downward slanting cut, an inch and a half long, and from the 

 sixteenth to a quarter of an inch in depth at the bottom, according to the 

 size of the stock ; then make a cross-cut at the bottom which will leave a 

 notch on the stock ; cut the graft to correspond, resting the bottom of it on 

 the notch ; tie it in the usual way, and lay down the pot horizontally, 

 VOL. IX. NO. VII. 34 



