HINTS FOR PROMOTING THE FERTILITY OF CLIMBERS. 
L5 
Perhaps, however, the utility of these substances may be greater and more 
general when used in conjunction with a small proportion of loose earth, wood- 
ashes, rotten wood, and leaves in a partial state of decomposition. And in this 
respect we can speak more advisedly, as our remarks are not merely speculative, 
but founded on past experiences. In adopting it, the earth need not be mingled 
with the entire mass, but merely incorporated with the upper portion of it, to 
assist the plant in its earliest efforts to establish itself ; for it is then that a portion 
of earth seems most essential, and it will through time by the continual ramifi- 
cation of roots, and occasional waterings, be carried in small quantities amongst 
the lower part of the mass. It is better, too, that it should be primarily 
employed only in the upper stratum, in order that a larger amount of the finer 
fibres may be encouraged in the vicinity of the surface. 
In greenhouses, where from their construction the climbers are often un- 
avoidably planted beneath the stages, or in other situations beyond the reach of 
direct solar light, the use of any earth of a retentive character cannot be too 
highly censured ; and it is in such cases as these, that confined compartments and 
the use of extremely porous and absorbent substances are the most conspicuously 
beneficial. We must not, however, be understood to recommend thrusting the 
roots and lower parts of plants beneath the stages, where they are, by consequence, 
exposed to all the drip from the pots above, as well as to other injurious influences, 
but only to recommend the practice above enjoined as an ameliorative, when these 
conditions are inevitable. 
But it is not alone in the greenhouse and stove that these and similar systems 
operate favourably in the furtherance of a flower-bearing maturity. They are as 
prominently evinced in the open air ; and many plants which in common soils 
rarely display flowers, are thus brought to disclose them in profusion. The 
Tropoeolum tuberosum, a plant which, especially in the northern and more inland 
counties, can scarcely in ordinary summers be induced to develop blossoms if 
planted in an open border, but continues growing with unabated exuberance 
throughout the season, is an illustration of this fact. Even in loose lime and brick 
rubbish alone, if unconfined at the roots, it pushes with an excess of vigour. But 
when the roots are limited to a small space filled with a like material, its luxuri- 
ance is sufficiently reduced to allow of a liberal emission of bloom. A like result 
attends the same management of the rampant Cobwa scandens and similar plants, 
and the benefits are not confined to increasing the quantity of bloom, and circum- 
scribing the growth of the plant ; but the flowers of several attain a brighter 
colour, and are produced at an earlier season, which is no unimportant thing in 
the culture of half-hardy plants. In these two latter particulars there is no plant, 
perhaps, more beneficially altered than the old Scarlet Pelargonium, now so 
extensively grown in the flower-garden. 
For plants like these, however, unless they are continually cultivated in the 
same place, the yearly formation of confined spaces would present a formidable 
