320 General Notices. 



" In testimony of the approximation of the present age to a comparatively 

 perfect system of cultivation, there is perhaps no instance of higher interest 

 than the one which involves a mode of culture which has for its ultimate 

 object a constitutional maturity of growth, by dispensing with the attendant 

 risk and restrictive influence of intermediate shifts from sn)aller to larger 

 pots. 



" The principle upon which such a course of practice is founded is now 

 being successfully applied by the most eminent cultivators, and the same 

 principle, so easily adapted to the stronger or rooting division of ornamental 

 plants, has also been rendered applicable to those the most difficult to rear. 



" It is well known that growers of plants for public competition have often 

 urged the difficulties and disadvantages attending the purchase of plants which 

 may have received a treatment in some respects opposite to that which they 

 are wishful to adopt ; and in many instances they have considered it essen- 

 tial to the accomplishment of their object that the plants should have been 

 subject to their system of management from the first, or initiatory, stage of 

 growth. These disadvantages are, however, now being overcome by a mode 

 of potting (subject to a corresponding treatment), which, not unexpectedly, 

 has been a subject of surprise to some, and a stumbling-block to others, who, 

 in asserting its impracticability, because contrary to the ordinary method, 

 have failed to apprehend the principles upon which such a course of practice 

 is founded. 



" The rule which is implied in the principle now adverted to may be defined 

 as follows : — that plants the most difficult to rear ought to be removed 

 from their youngest stage of growth into the largest-sized pot in which they 

 are to be exhibited as specimens. 



" However opposite to prevalent opinion and practice such arule may appea 

 to those who are unaccustomed to view facts in the light of comprehensive 

 truths, it may nevertheless be proved consistent with the first principles of 

 horticulture, and rendered conformable to general practice. 



" Having stated the rule, the following directions are necessary in the me- 

 chanical process of potting : — Take a sixteen or twelve-sized pot, place 3 in. 

 of bottom drainage, and fill up with pieces of peat from 1 in. to 4 in. square, 

 filling the interstices with the fibrous siftings of peat and pieces of crocks till 

 the pot is quite full ; then plant a seedling or struck cutting of a heath plant of 

 similar habit, give very little water till the plant shoots freely ; and in this 

 treatment is contained the only secret in growing fine specimens. 



" Such is the most ingenious and easy mode of potting yet offered to the 

 attention of the cultivator ; and, though the plan of dispensing with interme- 

 diate shifts has been recognised nearly fourteen years ago, yet, for this most 

 successful application of the system, the profession is indebted to Mr. D. 

 Beaton, the gardener at Shrubland Park, near Ipswich, one of the most emi- 

 nent horticulturists of the present day. 



" This novel and original mode of attaining a mature growth in the cultivation 

 of plants may not inappropriately be termed the accumulative system, and 

 involves, by its unique mechanical application of soil, one of the most import- 

 ant and essential desiderata in all systems of cultivation, and without which 

 all efforts to obtain a constitutional vigour and fertihty must prove abortive, 

 namely a uniform circulation of moisture." (William Wood, in Paxton's 

 Magazine of Botany for May, 1843, p. 89.) 



Since the above was written we have seen Mr. Alexander Couper, of the 

 Paragon Nursery, Brixton Hill, known to be one of the best propagators in 

 the neighbourhood of London. Observing that he grew his larger plants in 

 rough turfy stuff", and asking how he came to adopt that mode, he informed 

 us that he was taught it during his apprenticeship with Mr. Henderson, at 

 Wood Hall, near Glasgow, nearly twenty years ago. Mr. Henderson, he 

 says, did not practise the one-shift system ; but he did not shift his large 

 specimens of heaths, camellias, oranges, &c., oftener than once in three or 

 four years. The meshes of his sieves were of the same width (above an inch) 



