264 General Notices. * 



and confined in a warm and humid temperature, where little air is admitted. 

 The result of such treatment has certainly been the production of enor- 

 mous shoots of soft spongy wood full of watery matter, and consequently 

 liable to sudden decay, on the least variation either in the treatment or in 

 the temperature. This I again observe is an evil into which some of our 

 best cultivators fall, forgetting that this and many others under similar 

 treatment, are indisputably ligneous plants, which, when having made their 

 annual growth, should have sun and air to mature that growth, in order to 

 enable it to resist atmospheric and other changes, instead of being again 

 immediately excited, and kept growing into the dark days, when the ab- 

 sence of sun renders the accomplishment of this impossible. The fatal 

 consequence of such injudicious cultivation is sure to manifest itself in one 

 way or another, for in all probability, when the plant is in full bloom, and 

 when we have calculated on having secured a matchless specimen where- 

 with to enrich our collection for years to come, it in a moment falls a sacri- 

 fice to over indulgence. 



The kind of soil best suited for Pimelea spectabilis, is three parts of 

 turfy peat, two parts silver sand, and one part turfy loam ; let these be in- 

 timately mixed, and used in a perfectly rough state ; the process of potting 

 will be the same as in similar cases. The plant, if in a 48 sized pot in 

 spring, may be at once shifted into a 24, and then into a 12 about mid-sum- 

 mer ; let it be fully exposed to light, and let the temperature be cool and 

 dry, so that the shoots may be well matured. In autumn it may be exposed 

 in the open air for a couple of months, which will enable it to ripen its 

 wood, taking care to remove it in doors should heavy rains occur. Keep it 

 cool and moderately dry during winter, and in the succeeding spring it may 

 receive a final potting, and be permitted to bloom. By such a course of 

 treatment, a rather longer period will be required to produce a perfect 

 plant ; but then we have a fair right to calculate on retaining it in our col- 

 lections for years longer than if produced by the over feeding and forcing 

 process. In course of culture very little training will be required with this 

 plant. The first lateral shoots may require to be pegged or tied down for a 

 short time, and also stopped ; but these props may soon be removed and 

 the plant left without more than one stake. It will then exhibit the true 

 character of a woody shrub, supporting itself with perfect impunity without 

 the aid of stakes, because it has been produced in a soil and temperature in 

 every way suitable to it. Pimelea spectabilis is frequently to be procured 

 in nurseries grafted on P. decussata, and it is by some cultivators preferred 

 in this state ; and perhaps there is something in this, as the latter is con- 

 sidered a hardier and easily cultivated species, and not so subject to early 

 and sudden disease and death as P. spectabilis. There are, however, fine 

 specimens, both grafted and on iheir own bottoms, of this plant in many of 

 our greenhouses, which would lead us to question the propriety of grafting 

 it, and induce us rather to solve this abstruse point by means of judicious 

 cultivation. {Gard. Chronicle, 1845, p. 52.) 



