60S 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



of plants, if Ihey have suffered for want of water, 

 may be recovered by an abundant supply, and 

 placing them under a bell glass, in a little heat; 

 but if once the roots of a heath are thoroughly 

 dried, no art of the gardener will recover the 

 plant. This is the true reason why so many 

 heaths are destroyed when introduced into rooms 

 as chamber plants, and also by gardeners who are 

 ignorant of their nature. 



Heaths are propagated readily by seed, by 

 cuttings, and a few by layers. In px-opagating 

 by cuttings, the tender tops are taken at what- 

 ever season of the year they begin to grow, 

 which with most sorts is about the month of 

 June. The strong growing kinds require the 

 cuttings to be rather larger than the other, and 

 some of the stunted growing kinds should be 

 kept in the hot-house a little while when they 

 begin to grow, to draw them to a sufficient length 

 of young wood, or cuttings cannot be procured. 

 Then take the extreme points of the shoots, and 

 with a sharp pen-knife, cut off their lower ends 

 at right angles, placing the cutting in the nail 

 of the thumb as in cutting the nib of a pen. 

 The cutting will be from three quarters to an 

 inch long, strip off the leaves from the lower end 

 to nearly half the length of the cutting, and in 

 order that this may be done without injuring 

 the shoot, use a sharp pen knife, or a pair of 

 small scissors, for the least bruise or wound 

 spoils the cutting. This done, dibble the cut- 

 tings into pots filled with moistened white sand 

 from pits, or with any small sand from pits or 

 rivers, or if neither of these can be procured, 

 with powdered sand-stone ; when they are all 

 planted, water the whole to fix them properly, 

 and when the moisture has subsided, cover them 

 with a small crystal or greenish crystal bell- 

 glass, fitted within the rim of the pot, and place 

 them in the shade on a spent hot-bed, keeping 

 them quite close till rooted. The free striking 

 sorts will have roots in two months, and the 

 others at different periods, from three to twelve 

 months ; most of them will be ready for trans- 

 planting into pots of the smallest size in the 

 following March. Their rooting is easily known 

 by their beginning to shoot, and then the bell 

 should be taken off an hour or two every day. 

 Many heaths ripen their seeds in this country, 

 and seeds of the various sorts are regularly sent 

 home by collectors at the Cape of Good Hope ; 

 these imported seeds usually arrive in winter, 

 and they should be sown early in the following 

 spring, in pots containing equal parts of peat 

 earth and sand well mixed together ; the seeds 

 should be thinly covered with earth, gently 

 pressed down, and bell-glasses placed over them 

 as over the cuttings. The soil must be kept 

 moderately moist by gentle waterings, and in 

 about six or seven weeks the seeds, if fresh, will 

 begin to come up when the glasses may be 



removed by degrees, and the pots kept near the 

 glass, and shaded from the mid-day sun till 

 autumn, when they may be transplanted into 

 pots of the smallest size. Seeds which are 

 ripened and saved in this country may be sown as 

 soon as gathered, if this occurs before November; 

 but if after this month it will then be better to 

 defer sowing them until the following spring, 

 when they are to be treated in the same manner 

 as the imported seed. 



Only a few of the more delicate species are 

 propagated by layers, such as e. massoni, retorta, 

 petiolata, and a few others. Even these require 

 two years to throw out roots, and for the others 

 the more approved method is to plant cuttings. 



Henderson, of Woodhall, has been a successful 

 cultivator of heaths for upwards of thirty years. 

 " He says," regarding their general manage- 

 ment,* " I keep them at aU times cool and airy, 

 opening the glasses in winter when there is no 

 frost and letting the wind blow on them, and 

 usi]]g no fire; but in time of frost, I never shift 

 any plant till the pot is quite full of roots. 

 When the plants get large, several of them will 

 contiime in good health for three or four years 

 without shifting, and flower well. I have 

 plants of e. retorta here in pots seven inches in 

 diameter, which are very bushy, being eighteen 

 inches across, and fourteen inches high above the 

 pot ; e. infundihuliformis, two feet and a half in 

 diameter, and two feet nine inches high ; e. pil- 

 osa, between five and six feet high, and three 

 feet across in pots, eleven inches in diameter; 

 these have not been shifted for five years, and 

 are in high health, and covered with strong fine 

 flowers, from the mouth of the pot to the top of 

 the plant." The number of ascertained species of 

 Cape heaths exceeds three hundred, besides 

 varieties of them arising from cultivation. Not 

 above twelve species are common to Europe ; 

 while the American continent is entirely desti- 

 tute of any member of this family. 



Heaths are by no means liable to the attacks 

 of insects, or other vermin, which infest the more 

 succulent shrubs. On the whole, their culture 

 is easy, and the beauty and variety of their 

 flowers well compensate any trouble in rearing 

 them. Most of the species are short lived, and 

 require therefore frequent renewals by cuttings. 

 They do not thrive well in the smoke of the 

 city, and require a pure and open atmosphere. 

 They are not well adopted for chamber plants 

 either, and to have them in perfection a separate 

 house should be appropriated for them. 



We have thus enumerated a few of the most 

 interesting garden flowers and shrubs, and might 

 have extended this notice to a great length. In 

 fact, the sorts and varieties are almost unlimited, 

 and thus a succession of new and pleasing objects 



* Caledonian Horticult. Mem. Vol. III. 



