244 



SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. 



[chap. 



plunge the pots up to their rims in a hot-bed of moderate heat. 

 Shade them with mats, but do not give air for a day or two, and 

 then give a little water and air, but let the water have stood in the 

 watering-pot exposed to the sun for three or four hours before you 

 give it. When you find they have struck and are growing well, 

 re-pot them and place them in the open air, but in a shady situ- 

 ation, with hoops over them that you may lay mats on. Put some 

 siftings of cinders on the ground before you place the pots on it, 

 and this will keep out worms. In this' place, let them recover the 

 re-potting, which they will soon do, and then they are nice, fresh, 

 and convenient-sized plants for the green-house, where they will 

 blow in the wdnter, and in the foiiowing May w ill be your supply 

 for the open ground. Another way of propagating is by seed, of 

 which you may generally gather abundance in July, and, if sowed 

 directly in good earth and in large pots plunged in a hot-bed, will 

 come up directly, and, being potted out singly, in three weeks from 

 the time of coming out, and again carefully managed (though not 

 forced), will be fine strong plants by the end of autumn, and 

 handsomer in form than those raised from cuttings. Put them 

 into the green-house in September, or earlier if the w^eather be 

 cold, and observe that you cannot give too much air, nor keep the 

 place too free from damp ; want of air and dampness being the 

 two main destroyers of these plants. If their leaves turn yellow- 

 be sure that there is not air enough ; and, if their joints become 

 mouldy, look to dampness as the cause. Prune off dead branches, 

 and always keep the plant bushy, for otherwise it becomes a 



long horny thing, with a small head and few flowers. The 



ivy-leaved geranium is a pretty little trailing plant, with thin 

 branches of a brownish green hue, and little smooth rather fleshy 

 leaves of a dark green with a broad rim of black near the outside 

 edge, and of the shape of an ivy-leaf. It blows clusters of 

 pinkish flowers throughout the summer months ; is tender, but 

 does well in the green-house, or in any parlour window of good 

 aspect. Propagate it by cuttings as you do the last-mentioned ; 

 and train it up a little ladder, getting wider and wider as it gets 

 high ; prune only dead branches. A mixture of vegetable manure 

 and good mould suits it well. 



360. GORDONIA.— Lat. Gordonia Puhescens. To which 

 Bertram, the discoverer of it, gave the name of FranMinla. 

 This is a native of the southern States of America. Its flowers 



