294 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



December, 1913 



when, the superfluous water having 

 better enjoyed. The blossoms are 

 cream-coloured, and the panicles are, 

 under favourable conditions of 

 growth, so large and so numerous 

 as to make a really great display, 

 really weighing down the branches. 

 Pods containing bean-like seeds 

 follow. — "Exchange." 



— Charcoal. — 

 Wood, burned to a powder, would 

 be described as wood ashes by 

 gardeners and not as charcoal. Char- 

 coal to be of service to gardeners 

 must be in the form of lumps of vary- 

 ing, yet of moderate size. For in- 

 stance, it is often used as an ingre 

 dient of potting composts. It serves 

 to aerate the soil, to help the drain- 

 age by making the soil porous, and it 

 also serves to hold the constituents 

 of plant food in a gaseous state or in 

 the form of a salt. In this latter in- 

 stance it might be said that charcoal 

 was a manurial agent. Charcoal in 

 itself consists chiefly of carbon which 

 cannot be utilized by plants as a 

 manure. Generally it may be regarded 

 rather as an outdoor servant than as 

 an element or constituent of plant 

 food. When wood is burned to 

 ashes the latter are- rich in potash. 

 If the wood were young rather than 

 old there might be some potash in 

 conection with charcoal, but certainly 

 not so much as in the case of wood 

 ashes. The above will explain the 

 preparation of charcoal for horti- 

 cultural use, and it is generally used 

 for increasing the porosity of the soil 

 as in the case of plants, whose roots 

 are of a delicate nature, and want 

 careful treatment. Charcoal has a 

 great power of absorbing the various 

 things that may be in the soil, and 

 when it gives up these to the roots 

 it might be described as a manuarial 

 agent. 



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Gloxinias. 



Gloxinias are, among the easiest 

 and also most beautiful of all plants 

 when really well grown, and deserve 

 to be taken up and grown in the 

 same spirit and same manner as the 

 roses, dahlias, and carnations are now 

 by some of our very best amateur 

 growers.' Of course by their not being 

 so hardy as the plants above men- 

 tioned, and needing the protection of 

 frames or glass houses, they will 

 never be grown to the same extent as 

 the roses, &c. Still, although they 

 may not be everybody's flowers, 

 there are those who like them better 

 than any other flowers, and we all 

 know, it is the man with the "hobby" 

 that always does them best, and ob- 

 tains better results than any other 

 grower. 



The Gloxinias from which the pre- 

 sent garden varieties take their origin 

 are natives of Tropical America, and 

 were so naiijed in honour of Benja- 

 min P. Gloxin, a botanist of Colma. 

 Their propagation from seeds is 

 simple — as easy, in fact, as that of 

 Begonias — and, with a little care and 

 generous treatment as to tempera- 

 ture in the early months of the year, 

 they may be depended upon to pro- 

 duce a most gorgeous floral display. 



Gloxinia seeds are excedingly 

 minute, so that some care is neces- 

 sary in the sowing and the prepara- 

 tion of the pots and soil for their re- 

 ception. A shallow seed-pan or, fail- 

 ing this, an ordinary flower pot 

 should be carefully crocked to within 

 in. of its top, and on the crocks 

 a layer of rough fibry material placed 

 to prevent the soil washing down into 

 the drainage, and this covered with a 

 compost consisting of equal parts of 

 loam and good leaf mould, with a fair 

 sprinkling of fine potting sand to the 

 depth of about 1^ in. The compost 

 should be well mixed, baked to get 

 rid of insects and destroy fungus 

 spores, and passed through a fine 

 sieve. Some pure leaf-mould should 

 then l)e taken, well baked and rub- 

 lied through a very fine sieve (such 

 as is used in the kitchen for strain- 

 ing gravy), placed on the top of the 

 compost to the depth of about one- 

 eighth of an inch and carefully 

 levelled. The pot or pan must now 

 1)C placed in water, the level of which 

 should Ijc just below the top of the 

 soil, and allowed to remain therein 

 until the whole is thoroughly soaked, 



been allowed to drain, the seeds may 

 be sown. 



— Sowing the Seeds. — 



Gloxinia seeds being so very small, 

 it is impossible to scatter them evenly 

 and thinly with the fingers, and they 

 should therefore be mixed with a little 

 fine silver sand, and the mixture scat- 

 tered carefully over the surface of 

 the soil. No covering is necessary, 

 or at the most a very slight sprink- 

 ling of the fine-powdered leaf mould. 

 It may be here stated that the object 

 of having the top layer of pure leaf 

 mould is an important one, and 

 should not be overlooked when deal- 

 ing with Gloxinia, Begonia, or other 

 minute seeds; it does not readily 

 "cake" as pure loam would, nor is 

 the troublesome liverwort, which so 

 often develot)s on the surface of pot 

 soil likely to appear, and therefore 

 the inevitable loss of a large percen- 

 tage of the minute sedlings will be 

 avoided. 



The pots may now be plunged in 

 fibre in a propagator or other heated 

 structure where a temperature of 

 65 to 70 deg. (the latter for pre- 

 ference) can be maintained, covered 

 with a piece of glass to conserve the 

 moisture, and the whole heavily 

 shaded, a piece of brown paper being 

 well adapted for this purpose. The 

 soil must not be allowed to become 

 dry, and whenever water is needed it 

 should be applied by immersing the 

 pan nearly up to the rim and not by 

 means of a rose or syringe overhead; 

 warm water (70 deg.) should always 

 be used. The propagator should be 

 kept close and only opened for a 

 short time morning and evening to 

 allow the stagnant air to become 

 changed, and at the same time the in- 

 side of the glass must be wiped dry; 

 neglect of this may result in the whole- 

 sale damping of? of the seedlings. 



In about ten days the tiny plants 

 will begin to make their appearance, 

 and the brown paper shading must 

 then be removed and full exposure 

 to light given, but protection from 

 the sun's rays must be afforded by 

 means of tissue paper or light muslin. 

 While the first pair of rough or true 

 leaves are in process of formation is 

 the best time to prick out the seed- 

 lings into shallow pans or boxes, 

 using a compost as before, but omit- 

 ting the layer of leaf mould on the 

 top. At this early stage pricking out 

 is a somewhat tedious and trouble- 

 some operation, but it is important 

 to take it in hand before the little 

 rootlets have had time to run far and 



