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CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



admirably. The same results may te secured by 

 plauting- the crowns in a bed of soil therein, well 

 watering them and covering- over to the depth of 

 a foot or more in dry light materials or sand. 

 The same method will insure the necessary early 

 crops of Rhubarb and Chicory. During the winter 

 months an internal heat of from 60'^ to 70° will be 

 necessary to insure this. 



Mushrooms and Melons. — At such time as 

 any crop of Melons are "set," and so far advanced 

 as to necessitate the withholding of root- waterings, if 

 pieces of spawn-brick are inserted into any heap of 

 fermenting material that is employed to grow the 

 Melons upon, a crop of Mushrooms may ultimately 

 be produced. 



Strawberries and Onions. — These two crops 

 — running abreast upon the same area — must at 

 first sight be cons-idered almost as incongruous as 

 any tw^o that could well be harnessed together, and 

 yet they are much alike in regard to time and 

 space. 



Instead of sowing Onions at the usual distances 

 apart, sow them in drills at two feet or thirty 

 inches asunder. Treat in the usual way until 

 July, and as soon as the earliest runners can be 

 obtained from Strawberry -beds or rows, take them 

 off so soon as partially rooted, and plant between 

 each row of Onions. The ground being kept 

 clear between the Onions, and well cultivated 

 during the summer, may first be slightly hoed 

 over. The plants speedily lay hold and grow 

 rapidly, and by the time the Onions are cleared off 

 there is a good crop of Strawberry-plants on the 

 ground, and these are found to fruit exceptionally 

 well the following year. 



Nor is the benefit of this dual culture con- 

 fined to the Strawberries : the Onions reach their 

 fullest size and highest quality under this simple 

 method of abnormally wide culture. This plan, 

 however, may be modified at will, thus : two 

 rows of Onions, nine inches or a foot apart, may 

 he grown in the centre of the space between each 

 two rows of Strawberries. Of course, so soon as 

 the Onions are removed, the space between the 

 Strawberries is kept clear and well cultivated, and 

 in the autumn a liberal mulching of manure may 

 be applied, which greatly strengthens the plants, 

 and adds to the bulk and quality of the crop of 

 Strawberries next year. When runners are late, 

 those of last season may be used, and these may 

 be planted soon after the Onions are sown or fairly 

 up. But once this system is fairly adopted, there 

 is seldom any scarcity of fine runners, these being 

 chiefly obtained from the young plants^. 



FLOEISTS' FLOWERS. 



By Eichaed Dean. 



The Gloxinia. — Who shall attempt to depict 

 the beauty and usefulness of the Gloxinia? The 

 original species of Gloxinia was imported from South 

 America about 1815, and the gardeners of that day, 

 finding that it produced seeds, set about raising 

 seedlings, and from these have sprung a race of 

 hybi-ids of great beauty and variety. Having been 

 imported from the warm regions of South America, 

 it is a stove plant, requiring stove treatment to 

 bring it to perfection. The generic term Gloxinia 

 is derived from being named after P. B. Gloxin, 

 a botanist of Colmar ; and it is interesting to observe 

 that the original form of G. spcciosa had the tube 

 of the flower deflexed or drooping. But a race 

 has been obtained, originating in a garden sport, 

 in which the blossoms stand erect; and now the 

 varieties of the Erect-flowered section greatly exceed 

 those of the Drooping-flowered. But as to where 

 and with whom this new departure originated, we 

 have no data to show. 



There is this peculiarity about the Gloxinia : that, 

 by means of a little judicious management, it can be 

 had in flower for a considerable period of the year. 

 By not a few growers, a quick system of cultivation 

 is adopted ; that is to say, they sow their seeds in 

 January, February, and March, filling pots with a 

 very light, sandy soil, and spreading the seed, which 

 is very minute, thinly over the surface. The pots 

 are then placed on a brisk bottom heat, and a piece 

 of glass placed over each. The seed soon germinates, 

 and, as soon as the tiny plants are large enough to 

 handle, they should be pricked off into other pots 

 of fine, light, sandy soil, putting some twelve or 

 fifteen plants in a pot, placing these, in their turn, 

 in bottom heat, and encouraging the tiny plants to 

 grow as rapidly as possible. By doing this, by 

 potting the plants singly into small pots as soon as 

 it can be done, and again shifting them into forty- 

 eight- sized pots, bulbs will be obtained that will 

 flower in July, August, and September, and by sow- 

 ing a little seed again in July, there wiU he young 

 plants to flower the following spring. There must 

 be a moist, brisk heat to bring on the plants in, or 

 they cannot be had in flower in the short time named 

 above. Very few Gloxinias are now named — that is, 

 named as sale varieties. The strains in cultivation 

 are so good, that seedlings are equal to named varie- 

 ties in not a few instances. One great advantage 

 obtained from seedlings is, that they secure an 

 almost endless variety of colour. By means of care- 

 ful fertilisation, many new shades and combinations 

 of colour have been introduced, and they are gene- 

 rally singularly handsome. The Erect-flowered 



