490 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



Propagation. — The Poinsettia increases readily 

 from cuttings in spring, taken off with a heel 

 when the shoots are about 4 inches long, in- 

 serted in sand, and placed in a brisk heat; 

 when rooted, put them singly in 3- or 4-inch 

 pots, in good turfy loam to which is added 

 one-sixth of leaf -mould with a little sand; 

 they should be kept in a temperature of 68° 

 or 70° at night, with a rise of 10° by day. 

 The plant has an almost uncontrollable habit 

 of running up with a single straight shoot 

 without any disposition to branch. Young 

 plants are grown on without stopping, but to 

 prevent their getting up too high they should 

 be kept all through the growing season with 

 their heads almost touching the roof, and 

 allowed sufficient air when the weather is fine ; 

 give enough water, and as soon as the pots get 

 filled with roots move them into others 6 or 8 

 inches in diameter, using soil similar to that 

 for the last potting, and treat as before, syring- 

 ing them freely overhead in the afternoons. 

 Towards the beginning of August, when they 

 have made plenty of roots, they may be gradu- 

 ally inured to more air, and either removed to 

 a house without fire-heat, where they can have 

 air night and day whilst the weather is warm, 

 or stood out-of-doors under a south wall in the 

 full sun for a month; but before there is any 

 approach to cold nights they must be taken 

 inside and kept in a temperature of 50° during 

 the night. Some of them may be put into a 

 warm house in October, where they will come 

 into flower, the remainder being brought into 

 heat later on for succession. In a temperature 

 of 55° the flowers last longer than if kept where 

 it is hotter. 



Where plants are wanted dwarf, say from 

 8 to 12 inches high, and in 6-inch pots, about 

 the beginning of September, cut the shoots half- 

 way through, 6 or 7 inches from the top, and 

 leave them in this state upon the plants for ten 

 days until the cut portion has become callused 

 over; then completely sever them and place in 

 3-inch pots in a mixture of half sand and loam 

 in a, close frame, where they will root in about 

 three weeks, after which give air gradually, and 

 ultimately, as soon as they evince ability to bear 

 it, fully expose them; move into 6-inch pots in 

 soil as before advised, and keep them as near 

 the glass as possible. If they show a disposi- 

 tion to get taller than desired, again half-sever 

 them at a similar distance below the tops, and 

 after they are callused as before, take them off 

 and root them. 



When the flowering is over, put the plants 



in any out-of-the-way place where a tempera- 

 ture of 55° can be kept up, and here let them 

 remain until May, when they should be cut 

 down and placed in a temperature of 60°. 

 They will here soon push into growth, when 

 cuttings, as required, can be taken off, and the 

 old plants destroyed or grown on if wanted. 

 Where it is desired, they can be grown in 

 succeeding years to a large size by giving them 

 more root-room, cutting them well back each 

 season before starting into growth, and re- 

 moving the exhausted soil, which the spare 

 nature of the roots allows to be readily shaken 

 away. 



Primrose and Polyanthus (Primula 

 vulgaris). — One of the prettiest of native plants, 

 whether wild in a wood or copse or hedge- 

 row, or cultivated in the garden. It is most 

 effective when planted in the wild garden in 

 imitation of its position in nature, and it may 

 be used as an edging to a flower border in 

 partially shaded positions. Under cultivation 

 it has varied considerably, perhaps the most 

 remarkable of all the varieties thus obtained 

 being the blue-flowered seedlings raised by Mr. 

 It. F. Wilson. A very large-flowered form of 

 the type has lately been raised and distributed 

 under the name of Evelyn Arkwright (fig. 598). 

 There are also purple, crimson, rose, and white 

 sorts, some of them double -flowered. They 

 reproduce themselves fairly true from seeds, 

 which should be sown early in spring in boxes 

 or pans in a cold frame, pricking the seedlings 

 out on a moist shaded border as soon as they 

 are large enough to handle. If to be used for 

 filling beds for spring effect they should be 

 grown on in rich, moist soil in a shaded position 

 in a nursery or kitchen -garden bed until 

 October, when they may be lifted and planted 

 in the flower-beds, watering them in freely if the 

 weather be at all dry. Here they may remain 

 till May, when they will require fresh quarters 

 for the summer. They should be lifted and 

 broken up if an increase of stock is required; 

 indeed single offsets make the best plants by 

 the following spring; they may be planted in 

 a bed as advised for young seedlings. Very 

 choice varieties can only be kept by this annual 

 division, and they do not always produce offsets 

 freely. 



Although there is a well-marked difference 

 between the true Primrose and the Cowslip 

 (P. veris) they are really essentially very closely 

 related, and consequently they are supposed to 

 have crossed in a wild state. " The cultivated 



