June 13, 1SC5. ] 



JOUEJSAL -OF HOiLTIOULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



443 



by a nurseryman — and 3uch, if new, are generally small, 

 having only a single stem. If the plant on its arrival 

 were in good condition and had not travelled far, I sliould at 

 once place it in a warm and rather shaded part of the stove 

 or foroing-pit. On the second or third day after its arrival 

 I should take the top of it olT below the first pair of leaves, 

 and as near the next pair as possible, so as to give as long 

 a stem as possible below the first pair oi leaves. The cut- 

 ting should then be put in the cutting-pot, taking care that 

 the base of the leaf or leafstalk is a little above the sui-faee 

 of the sand. If the cutting is inserted below the leafstalk 

 the two buds at the base of the leaf will be spoilt. In three 

 or four days, if the cutting has been properly treated it will 

 have made roots, and in five or six days another pair of 

 leaves, which may be out off, the same as described above. 

 By this time the parent plant will have sent up two shoots 

 from the eyes at the base of the leafstalk, where the first 

 cutting -was taken off. As soon as the plant has made two 

 pairs of leaves cut out the top pair ; the plant will produce 

 for the nest crop eight cuttings, and will still go on increas- 

 ing. Meanwhile the cuttings that have been taken off will 

 be increasing in like proportion, so that in a short time 

 from one plant a large stock may be produced. To illustrate 

 this more fully I may mention a case in point that has 

 occurred this spring. In February I had only two small 

 plants of Iresiue Herbstii or Achyranthes Verschaffelti ; 

 from these two little plants, by working them on the system 

 described above, I have propagated about 1300 plants. This, 

 by-the-by, is likely to prove one of our very best bedding- 

 plants. It is far superior to Amarauthus melaneholicus. — 

 J. "Wills. 



(To be conliQHed.) 



THE HYDEAJTG-EA. 



While the discussion on the character of the soil and 

 situation suitable for the well-being of the Rhododendron is 

 going on, I would call attention to another plant not by any 

 means so generally cultivated as it deserves to be, but whicli 

 at the same time seems to be more affected by certain soils 

 than most other plants, though the causes which produce so 

 changed an appearance are by no means well understood. 

 The plant to which I allude is the Hydrangea, which, though I 

 quite hardy, is not so extensively planted out as it ought 

 to be. The variable character of its flowers when the plant 

 is grown under certain circumstances has for many years 

 been a sort of horticultural puzzle, which is still far from 

 being satisfactorily solved. Plants with bright pink flowers 

 and those with flowers of a tolerably good blue are not un- 

 frequently met with in positions near each other, and ap- 

 parently in soils exactly alike, while plants grown in an 

 ordinary manner for the most part have either all pink or 

 all blue flowers, as the circumstances of their abode may 

 determine. Now and then certain modes of treatment, 

 directed by skilful cultivators, present us with plants pro- 

 ducing flowers of both colom-s ; but that every attempt to 

 change the colour of Hydrangeas is not attended with the 

 desired success is a fact that need hardly be mentioned, 

 and the many failures which have occurred have led to the 

 conclusion that the proper means to accomplish the end in 

 view are not yet suiiioiently understood to be depended 

 apon. 



Some time ago Mr. Shearer, the very intelligent gardener 

 at Tester, stated his views on this subject in The Joue^al 

 OP HoKTicuLTUEE, and pointed out that iron rust would not 

 always effect the change in colour so much desired. Mr. 

 Shearer also showed, that experiments had been made which 

 proved that much uncertainty existed whether the means 

 employed were those absolutely effecting the change, or 

 whether such alteration in the colour of the flower was not 

 due to some other cause of which we are still ignorant. Be 

 this as it may. Hydrangeas blooming pint and others bloom- 

 ing blue have been known for many years, and it remains 

 yet to be proved whether iron in some form has anything to 

 do with the change or not ; but certain it is that the removal 

 of a plant from a soil in which this element is only found in very 

 minute particles to one in which it exists in greater abun- 

 dance does not for some time produce any change, yet that 

 - a change does eventually talre place in most cases (not aU), 

 is also generaDy admitted. Now to what cause is this change 



due, and why is not the bloom of other plants affected in a 

 like manner? This problem is highly suggestive of study, 

 and offers a fair field for experiment. 



In general. Hydrangeas growing in a peaty soil flower 

 blue, while those in soil of an opposite character produce 

 pink flowers, but there are exceptions in both oases, and this 

 reminds me of your correspondent, "E. C. E.," at page 303, 

 mentioning how well the Rhododendron thrives in some 

 of the dells, as well as elevated positions, in Cornwall and 

 Devon. I believe the same may be stated to be the case in 

 most of the western counties, as far north as Cumberland, 

 and probably still further north ; but every hill and emi- 

 nence is not suited to the Rhododendron, nor blue Hydran- 

 gea, and it is wonderful how the line of demarcation is 

 drawn in some places. Some years ago I happened to be at 

 Mount Edgecumbe, near Plymouth, and Mr. Pooley, the 

 then gardener, pointed out the boundary line separating the 

 blue Hydrangea from the pink one, which was also the line 

 of demarcation, indicating where the Rhododendron ceased 

 to do well. These boundaries, though not so marked as those 

 of land and water, were nevertheless very evident. The 

 most probable theory as to the cause of such variety in the 

 crust of the earth is that at some early convulsion, some- 

 thing was thrown to the top at one place, which differed in 

 its chemical constituents from what was exposed at another, 

 though the two might be adjoining, and that each through 

 the many ages of the world's history has maintained that 

 difference. Though iron in some form may be said to 

 exist to a considerable amount in most of the soils, ^pro- 

 ducing the blue Hydrangea, and though Rhododendrons 

 thrive best in a soil in which this element is also found, yet 

 1 am not sure that we have not overlooked some still more 

 active agent as being the cause in both cases. As a proof that 

 ii-on alone will not always change a pink Hydrangea into a 

 blue one, I may mention that large cxaaiitities of that metal 

 have been at times added to the sod. without the desired 

 effect. Neither has alum dissolved in the water aijplied to 

 the plants been always attended with success. On the 

 other hand, now and then a plant will produce blue flowers 

 without any apparent cause, so that we are sometimes 

 almost led to the belief that caprice has something to do 

 with the matter. It is almost unnecessary to say that is 

 not the case, but our knowledge of the cause of the change 

 is far from perfect. Time is always required, even when 

 the elements necessary to effect the change are present, and 

 a plant that has been growing under conditions favourable 

 to the production of pink flowers, will not produce blue in 

 the first season that it is removed to a soil where blue 

 flowers axe the rule. This slow change is easily accounted 

 for, and need not be commented on, as the Hydrangea, like 

 most other deciduous shrubs, sets its bloom-buds in the 

 preceding autumn, and their expansion the following season 

 wUl be in accordance with the character of the material in 

 which they have been formed, but in course of time, in con- 

 sequence of the new food, the juices of the plant become- 

 changed, and flowers of another character are prepared. 

 This change may possibly not be effected, even in the 

 second year, as I have witnessed, but it is sure to follow. 



Notwithstanding the general hardiness of the Hydrangea, 

 it is not by any means so generally grown as it deserves 

 to be, and in some cases where it has been injudiciously 

 planted out in a damp situation its summer growth is not 

 sufficiently ripened before winter sets in, and there is, conse- 

 quently, no blossom. A low damp situation is by no means 

 suitable to it : a dry, sunny, and airy one is more in accord- 

 ance with its wants, and I believe the largest plant I ever 

 saw of it was in a very exposed situation in Northumberland, 

 elevated considerably above the surrounding country, but, 

 at the same time, dry, the subsoil being the loose shatter 

 stone overlying a freestone quarry. This plant flowered 

 pink, as might be expected from such a soil ; but if it had 

 been growing in a valley not more than a stone's throw from 

 its position, in all probability it would have produced blue 

 flowers, if indeed it had bloomed at all, as a black p^at 

 morass of considerable depth formed the base of this quarry, 

 thus showing how soils of a diametrically opposite character 

 may be found in juxtaposition. I am not aware whether 

 Hydrangeas were ever tried on this morass, but I have seen 

 plants growing on a soil partaking largely of feiruginou&- 

 matter, and the flowers were generally of a very good blue 



