76 THE FLORIST AND 



off for two or three joints with a very sharp knife; the cuttings should 

 be put in rows and have each sort labelled; a gentle watering is ne- 

 cessary to settle the sand. I place them in a cool part of the green* 

 house, as they should not be excited at first, as they are apt to damp 

 off or grow up weak; when they are calloused they may be moved 

 to a partly spent hotbed with a gentle bottom heat; when too much 

 heat is applied the cutting is elongated, to the injury of its rooting; 

 they should be potted off as they root in half turfy loam, half peat 

 and sand rubbed through the hands, but retain all the vegetable 

 matter in the soil; treat them the same as the seedlings after they 

 are potted. 



In the spring following their seedling or cutting states, when they 

 are too large for thumb pots, I shift into 3-inch pots well drained, 

 and keep the ball about half an inch below the edge of the pot, so 

 as it will hold water to wet all the soil in the pot at once ; I thee 

 plunge in a cold frame in a partly shaded situation, and keep the 

 sash on during storms, as they should not be exposed to the weatheg* 

 when so young, and plants in pots suffer more then when planted 

 out; when the nights get frosty I give them the same treatment, as 

 they had the winter before in the seedling and cutting states. In 

 the season following, when the frosty nights are over, I prepare a 

 bed IS inches deep, with good turfy loam from an old pasture, well 

 chopped up; if not of a sandy nature I make it so, I then select one 

 or two duplicates of each species; I do not expose too many of the 

 rare and tender sorts to the heavy rains; I plant in rows 2 ft. apart; 

 these by the following autumn will have grown fine bushy plants, 

 when I have them carefully taken up with balls according to the 

 size of the plants, and put in pots larger than the balls, to allow them 

 to grow, as they should not have their growth retarded at this pe- 

 riod, and I take great care not to cramp the roots, as nothing injures 

 plants more than to force them into small pots. I then place them 

 in a cold frame shaded for a week or more, and sj^ringe them over 

 head occasionally, and gradually expose them to the rays of the 

 sun. Ericas which I grow in pots, when the roots become matted 

 round the side of the pot, I repot into 2-3 of turfy loam 1-3 of white 

 sand, charcoal, and pieces of broken freestone, or any rough mate- 

 rial to keep the soil from becoming sodden ; and the roughness of 



