Floricultural and Botanical Notices. 219 



When layers are used they are taken off in the ordinary 

 way, using the same kind of material as for cuttings. Seeds 

 offer the best mode of increasing them, when they can be 

 obtained. They should be sown as soon as they are ripe, in 

 pans half filled with broken potsherds, over which a layer of 

 rough sphagnum should be placed, and above that three inches 

 of the same material, chopped quite small ; the whole should 

 be surfaced with a little fine peat soil, upon which the seeds 

 should be sown, without covering them. The pots should 

 afterwards be plunged in moss in a bottom heat of 80°, and 

 closely covered with a bell glass. When the plants are large 

 enough to be handled, they should be shifted into pots 

 singly, using the same kind of compost as that in which the 

 seeds were sown ; afterwards keep them close and moist 

 until they have recovered from the effects of their removal. 

 When they have become well established in their pots they 

 may be exposed to the full atmosphere of the house ; but 

 still with caution, for it is more difficult to keep them in 

 health when they are beginning to form their woody stems, 

 than at any other time. In most cases it will be found that 

 ill health arises from the want of bottom heat. Finally, 

 when the young plants are well established, and in good 

 health, they should be at once transferred, either to pots or 

 boxes, which are sufficiently large to groAv them in, without 

 the necessity of shifting them again for years ; and, as old 

 plants often die without any apparent cause, it is always 

 desirable to keep a young stock to replace them. 



Putnam County, March 9, 1853. 



Art. VIII. Floricultural and Botanical Notices of New and 

 Beautiful Plants, figured in Foreign Periodicals ; with 

 descriptions of those i?itroduced to, or originated in, Amer- 

 ican Collections. 



Deutzia gracilis. — This lovely species of the Deutzia has 

 been beautifully in bloom in our collection. The plants are 



