General Notices. 231 



be regulated ; it is also necessary to turn thoni every day to keep them from 

 growing one-sided, and water should be freely applied overhead, by means 

 of a fine rose. When the Aveatlier is favorable, they sliould liave the full en- 

 joyment of the open air. As soon as they have filled the pots with roots 

 again, whicli will be about the month of May, they sliould be shifted into 

 twelve-inch pots, using the same kind of soil as before. Great care of the 

 roots will now be necessary, for any injury tliey might receive at this time, 

 would be apt to throw them into flower. The number required for showing', 

 (the best, of course,) should be selected, and when the weather is very hot, 

 and during strong sun-shine, they must be shaded-in with gauze cloth, such 

 as is used for shading greenhouses. Any flower bud tliat may appear, must 

 be nipped, from time to time, till the plants have attained tlieir full size. By 

 the end of June they will have filled the pots with roots again, when it will 

 be necessary to shift them once more into pots one size larger, to keep them 

 growing a little longer, for whenever they are pot-bound they get into 

 flower. About the second week in August, place them in the greenhouse, 

 to flower, and If the greenhouse is provided with a shade, tliey will be in 

 good condition for showing by the 18th September. — A Scotch Journey- 

 man. — [If any one Avish to follow this practice, they may do so with great 

 certainty as to the result, such is the clear descriptive style of our young 

 correspondent ; but we should now like him to show us, with equal clear- 

 ness, wherein consists the advantage of this protracted, and necessarily ex- 

 pensive system, over the ordinary one of cutting the plants down and grow- 

 ing them from tlie root, commencing in March or April. Because, by this 

 plan, plants 5 or 6 feet high, may be in flower long before the tune speci- 

 fied by "A Scotch Journeyman," although the period occupied in their 

 growth is less than half the time which his system requires. — ( Gard. Jour., 

 p. 84, 1850.) 



On the Culture of Begonias. — In your Journal of the 19th, I observe 

 an article on the culture of begonias, on which I beg to make a few remarks. 

 I cannot agree with your correspondent, when he says, spring-struck cut- 

 tings of begonia nitida are now handsome flowering plants. If he keeps 

 them, his spring-struck cuttings, stopped back now and then, will make nice 

 plants in ten or twelve months, but not handsome flowering plants. I have 

 found it to take two years at least, before they can be termed flowering 

 plants. It is not my way, to force them into lanky, bare stems, and leaves a 

 mile apart; they will be far more graceful and beautiful, with the same 

 number of leaves and branches and flowers, in one-third of the usual space. 

 I do not say plants should be stunted, but, I say the skill of the gardener is 

 shown in producing a plant of the best form that it can bo grown — ricliness 

 in foliage can never be attained when the number of leaves tliat should oc- 

 cupy a foot, are stretched out to a yard, and when the quantity of bloom 

 that should grace a specimen of a foot and a half higli, are sprinkled over 

 two yards of half-naked stalks; therefore, slow growth is what I recom- 

 mend. This slow growth can be attained by omitting part of the exciting 

 compost, keeping lower temperature, especially at night, and giving plenty 

 of au whenever it can be done safely. By tliis practice, in two years, cut- 



