General Notices. A5B 



surpassing beauty, and are quite indispensable in every choice collection. 

 His success having been so great, his method of cultivation has been re- 

 quested, and the following is the reply of Mr. Beck. We cannot too 

 highly commend his plan to the attention of every amateur cultivator, con- 

 vinced they have never had better advice, in so few words : — 



It is with pleasure I reply to the inquiries of " A purchaser in Derby- 

 shire " as to our mode of treatment of pelargoniums, and I cannot better 

 begin than by describing our arrangements for soil, for on the compost 

 much of course depends. We obtain from a common in the neighborhood 

 a top spit of turfy loam, which does not bear sufficient to keep a Welsh 

 sheep ; it is nearly a mass of fibre. This we pile layer for layer with the 

 literal muckings out of the stable ; the more straw the better, provided it 

 is well saturated with the urine of the horses. It lies in this heap until 

 Ihe dung is well rotted, when it is chopped down and turned over, and this 

 is done repeatedly in frosty weather until it forms a mass of mould. In a 

 rough shed, open back and front, but secure from the intrusion of wet, are 

 a number of bins ; one of them is filled with the above compost, another 

 with Shirley peat, chosen for its abundance of vegetable matter, another 

 with cow-dung three years old, which has been turned in the winter till it 

 assumes the character of black mould, and another holds a store of silver 

 sand. 



We will suppose it the end of the blooming season ; the plants are 

 allowed to become quite dry, and are then cut down as closely as the leaving 

 sufficient eyes will allow ; they are then placed in the greenhouse, with 

 plenty of air, and when the wounds are healed they are watered and kept 

 close, to induce them to break strongly. This they soon do, and as the 

 shoots lengthen, more air is given until they attain their requisite length 

 of an inch or more. They arc now again allowed to dry and are com- 

 pletely shaken out, and the main roots cut off with a sharp knife to 

 within a couple of inches, leaving attached to the remainder the smaller 

 fibres at their natural length. They are then potted into as small pots as 

 will contain them, say six-inch, with a proportion of two thirds turfy loam, 

 as above described, and the remainder peat and silver sand, not sifted, but 

 rubbed down and only the larger stones picked out. They are now plunged 

 into gentle bottom-heat, and kept close until in a few days they root round 

 the pots, when more air is gradually given until they are entirely exposed 

 to it ; the great object being to ripen their wood, and strengthen the young 

 shoots. Care is taken to keep them from getting too wet, and fumigation 

 is resorted to if the green fly appears. As the winter comes on, its frosts 

 are excluded, and the plants are kept as dry as is consistent with life ; the 

 old wood assumes a smooth nut-brown hue, the leaves look yellow, and the 

 whole plant is stiff and rustles under the hand when passed over it, and 

 thus they are kept until January. About the middle of this month they 

 are shifted into the blooming pots ; the compost three fourths turfy loam, 

 the remaining fourth, peat, cow dung, and silver sand. Dull weather is 

 favorable for this operation. The plants are allowed to dry as before, and 



