NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



119 



A less common variety, G. f. Fortuneana fl. pi., was brought to the 

 Royal Society from China. It bears large white blooms like Camellia 

 alba plena, but is seldom seen now. G. f. radicans Thunberg, intro- 

 duced from Japan by Fortune, a dwarf plant, with tiny double flowers, 

 very sweet scented (erroneously termed Cape Jessamine), and G. florida 

 foliis variegatis have both died out. Others worthy of culture were 

 G. amoena (Simson), with single flowers, pink and white upon the same 

 corolla ; G. citriodora, pure white lemon-scented flowers ; G. Stanley ana 

 Hooker, from Sierra Leone (1840), flowers on long tubes like a Datura, 

 white, with purple blotches, and many others are enumerated in this 

 article. 



The French culture of G. florida fl. pi. differs from the English 

 inasmuch as the flowers are wanted for the Paris winter market. 

 Cuttings are struck in January in greenhouse or hot-bed, and trans- 

 ferred to pots of successively larger sizes, keeping in warm house till 

 June. They are then planted out in heath mould, and left in the open 

 till October, when they should be transplanted to the hot- house and 

 watered freely. This makes them break into full bloom. When the 

 flowering season is over the old plants are burned for firewood. The 

 practice of planting out during the summer lessens the danger of insect 

 pests, to which Gardenias are so liable. It is, however, well to make 

 precautionary use of insecticides. — F. A. W. 



Germination of Hard Seeds : Hot Water Method. By J. Tixier 

 (Le Jardin, vol. xxii. No. 515, p. 235 ; August 5, 1908). — The author 

 tabulates the results of his experiments for three years with seeds which 

 are prevented by a hard shiny coat from ready germination. 



Method. — Take quite boiling water, and keep it on the boil. Plunge 

 in a small sieve or pocket of wire gauze containing a very few seeds, and 

 leave it in the boiling water for a time determined in each case by the 

 hardness of the seeds. (Next, for small seeds, plunge into cold water ; 

 but omit this for large seeds.) Sow in pots, or in the open, according to 

 nature of seed. Only a few should be dipped simultaneously, in order 

 to ensure full action of the boiling water, which dissolves the hard 

 varnish they are coated with. In some cases, where soaked seeds have 

 germinated according to the following table, and the controls (unsoaked) 

 have remained unchanged for three months, a subsequent treatment with 

 boiling water has induced germination at the normal period. 



Name of Plant 



Length of Immersion 



- Lapse of Time before Germination 



Genista monosperma 



10 sec. 



9 days 



Temple tonia glauea 



10 „ 



12 „ 



Brachysema latifoha 



10 „ 



15-20 days 



Chorizema ilicifolia . . | 



15 „ 



15-20 „ 



Kennedy a Bindley ana .. . 



20 „ 



15-25 „ 



K. ovata rosea . . . 



10 „ 



15 days 



K. rubicunda et prostrata 



15 „ 



15 „ 



Mucuna prur iens . . . 



20 



10-15 days 



Tephrosia grandi flora . 



10 „ 



10 days 



Sopliora secundifolia 



10 „ 



10-20 days 



Mimosa Bailey ana 



10 „ 



12 days 



M. podalyriae folia . 



20 „ 



12 „ 



F. A. W. 



