General Notices. 229 



gained a htlle strength, I give them a rich loamy soil, well incorporated 

 with a small proportion of bone dust; and at intervals supply them lib- 

 erally with manure water. I do not find them flower vigorously under 

 two or three years, but at that age I have had plants of both varieties 

 nine feet high and covered with blooms. — [Id. 1844, p. 102.) 



Season for repotting plants. — Examining some greenhouse plants lately, 

 I found that they had all made quantities of roots round the ball of the 

 plant, and from the circumstance of these having evidently been formed 

 after the plant had ceased growing, it occurred to me that autumn would 

 be a better time for shifting plants than spring. It is clear that these 

 fibres had been made wjicn the plant was in a dormant state, and it is 

 certain that, unless they are supplied with fresh soil, the plant will not be 

 able, in the following season, fully to develop its parts. The practice of 

 spring shifting is attended with danger of breaking these newly-formed 

 roots, and this gives a check to the plants. Plants in general should be 

 shifted during their season of rest, for it is then they make the feeders 

 tliat supply them with nourishment in the spring, when they begin to 

 grow. Peach trees and vines clearly prove the assertion to be correct, 

 for when they have been forced without having a due season of rest, the 

 result is always unfavorable ; this arises from their rot having had time 

 to form new fibres. When leaves begin to fall off, plants commence to 

 form young rootlets, which absorb nourishment, and from these, on the 

 first excitement of the plants, the sap ascends ; fresh roots are afterwards 

 made to keep up a supply through the season. It is necessary to keep 

 these roots as dry as possible in winter, in order to preserve them from 

 rotting, for, if they perish, the effects will soon be seen on the plants. 

 This is an objection which many have to shifting greenhouse plants in 

 the autumn, but if water is given with caution, and the pots well drained, 

 there is no danger to be apprehended. — [Id. 1844, p. 102.) 



JVash for Fruit Trees. — You constantly recommend that fruit trees 

 should be done over with lime as a wash. Nothing can look more fright- 

 ful than their glaring conspicuous trunks on a hot summer's day ; and to 

 obviate this disgusting sight I use cow dung, soap or wood ashes, mixed 

 up with urine, the drainage of a dung mix, or ammoniacal water from the 

 gas works, to the consistency of thick paint. This composition appears 

 to me to possess all the advantages of the lime, and the trunks of the 

 trees appear lessened, and altogether more pleasing to the eye. — [Card. 

 Chron. 1844,;?. 181.) 



Cidtivation of Solundxa. grandifura. — Among the many plants that 

 adorn the conservatory with blossoms at this season, few are more showy 

 than is Solandra grandiflora ; and as this plant in many places does not 

 bloom freely, I shall give my method of flowering it : After it attains to 

 the height of from 3 to 5 feet, I do not shift it, but it is allowed to remain 

 in as small a pot as it will grow in until the roots become matted round 

 the outside of the ball ; this, in some measure checking over-luxuriance, 

 without injuring much the constitutional vigor of the plant, gives it a dis- 

 position to bloom. Early in autumn it is kept in a cool situation, and 

 allowed to become perfectly dry, when the leaves will drop oft'. About 

 the beginning of November it is introduced into heat and forced gently, 

 supplying it plentifully with water when it begins to grow. Being thus 

 excited for a short time, the plant grows freely and produces blossom-buds 

 on the young wood and at the end of each shoot; these, in January and 



