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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



not select the varieties. The careful florist selects as the seed 

 parent a plant of compact, vigorous habit, with well-formed 

 flowers, and the corolla of good substance. The flowers of the 

 pollen-parent should be of bright and decided colours; of course 

 the habit and constitution of the pollen-bearing plant is of much 

 importance, but as all good qualities are seldom to be found 

 combined in any one plant, we have to select one plant for one 

 quality, and the other for another, and by uniting the two, 

 distinct and special features are obtained in the seedlings. 



The readiest way to obtain flowering plants from seed is to 

 sow the seeds on a slight hotbed in February, preferably early 

 in that month. When the young plants have made a little 

 growth prick them out in boxes or pans, and keep them on the 

 hotbed until they have made a good start. When they are 

 established gradually inure them to a cooler temperature, such 

 as an ordinary garden-frame, and they will be strong plants by 

 the first week in May, and will flower freely in the autumn of 

 the same year. They begin to flower in six months after sowing 

 the seed. 



Cuttings should be taken in September, or even as late as 

 October. There are always plenty to be had from the points of 

 the growing shoots. They should be pricked into flower-pots, 

 or merely under frames or hand-lights, and to make sure of 

 almost every cutting forming roots some soil should be prepared 

 of loam, leaf-mould, and sand, in equal portions. About two 

 inches of this spread upon the surface is sufficient to give the 

 roots a fair start. They may be kept in the frames or hand- 

 lights until the spring, and be planted out in the open ground in 

 April. 



Pentstemons are well adapted to fill open spaces in the herba- 

 ceous border, as a strong plant in May will grow to a large size by 

 September, and produce hundreds of blossoms, and continue to 

 do so sometimes as late as November; but this is only when 

 the seed-pods have been constantly and promptly removed. In 

 dry weather the plants must be well watered. It is also gene- 

 rally necessary to stake them, and if one stiff stick is placed in 

 the centre the side-growths can be drawn up towards it, but not 

 so much as to pull the plants out of their natural form. 



The colours of the flowers are greatly varied. Some varieties 

 are white with the merest tinge, of rose or pale pink ; others 



