Oleander Culture. 221 



Vienna a similar assortment may be seen in front of some of the 

 principal cafes, where one may sit in the open street under the 

 shadow of the pomegranate and the oleander. This latter plant, 

 toOj is an immense favourite with the Parisians. In fact, the 

 oleander forms, with the myrtle and the pomegranate, one of the 

 most important articles of Parisian commercial horticulture. The 

 reasons for this are obvious — the elegant habit, glossy foliage, 

 profusion of bright rosy or white flowers, endowed, more- 

 over, with an agreeable almond-like perfume, offer recommen- 

 dations hardly to be exceeded by those of other plants. The 

 culture, moreover, is easy. Indifferent as to the treatment it re- 

 ceives in winter, it may be kept in cellars or garrets — almost any- 

 where, in fact ; hence its frequency abroad in the windows of the 

 artisan and at the doors of the merchant's office. The shrub may 

 be propagated either by layers or by cuttings ; but of late years, 

 in France, the former method has been abandoned, as it is found 

 that cuttings produce plants of better habit, and in greater num- 

 bers. It was from cuttings that those beautiful little oleanders 

 exhibited in the reserve garden of the late Paris Exhibition, in the 

 firrst fortnight of June last, by M. Chevet, were obtained. 



A well-known French horticulturist, M. Chate fils, who has had 

 great experience in the cultivation of this plant for the last twenty-five 

 years, has obligingly communicated to us the details of his method 

 of cultivating this plant, which are as follows : — " If layers be re- 

 quired, about the end of April or beginning of May, a period when 

 in Paris greenhouse plants are placed in the open air, some old 

 stocks of oleander are planted out in the soil, previously trenched 

 and well manured. At the end of a month these stocks are rooted 

 in the soil, and then all the branches are bent down to the ground 

 and fixed in that position with pegs. They are then covered with 

 soil about fifteen to twenty centimetres (six to eight inches) deep, 

 taking care to leave the extremities uncov^ered. The branches are 

 copiously watered, especially when the roots begin to be formed. 

 In the early part of August the branches are cut through, and thus 

 separated from the parent stool without disturbing the roots. About 



