112 REMARKS ON THE CULTURE OF A FEW ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 
from cuttings in a few years by growing them through the summer in pits. Either 
the young shoots taken off in spring as soon as they have acquired a little firmness, 
or the fully matured wood in autumn, strike root with tolerable readiness. If it 
is intended to employ the former, the plants from which they are to be taken 
should be early put into an extra warmth, in order to elongate the shoots ; such 
cuttings soon take root with bottom heat. Ripened wood requires more time to form 
roots, and should be planted in a cooler spot in autumn : the first is the most 
certain and least troublesome method. 
The genus Hardenbergia contains species which are decidedly amongst the 
finest of all our rambling greenhouse plants when well cultivated. Like many 
others, however, they are often more than half deprived of their beauty through 
untasteful capricious ways of pruning and training. They are mostly fastened 
under the rafters of houses ; and if the shoots are allowed plenty of liberty, such 
species as H. monophylla, lilacina, digitata^ and macrophglla^ make a magnificent 
appearance whilst they are in bloom. 
One of the most appropriate plans of cultivating these plants, however, but 
one rarely practised, is to turn them into the border of a conservatory, amongst a 
rough peat and loam, where they will be encouraged to make fresh growths 
rapidly. Then insert beside each a stout post or pole, eight or ten feet high, and 
conduct the shoots round it until they reach the top, when they may be allowed 
to hang down, and interwreath one with another. In this way they will soon 
form a graceful pillar of shoots, two or three feet in diameter, and completely 
concealing the pole from the base to the summit. Nothing can be more elegant ; 
and the amazing profusion of blossoms in spring and summer render such plants 
more than ordinarily attractive. They will require to be cut back in autumn, in 
order that they may send out a fresh supply of vigorous flowering shoots ; and 
throughout the summer months they will occasionally need a little trimming with 
the knife, to keep them from spreading too far, or becoming untidy. Some fine 
examples of this kind may be seen at the garden of the Horticultural Society ^ 
Chiswick, in the large conservatory. 
All who are in the habit of visiting the great metropolitan exhibitions must 
have been struck with the magnificence of the noble specimens of Clerodendrum 
squamatum, and two or three other species equally gorgeous. Before offering any 
remarks on the plans of culture resorted to for their production, we must premise 
that there is perhaps as much due to assiduous superintendence and untiring 
exertions as to any peculiarity of system. It is true, that in the rearing of some 
of these plants, all the aids have been employed that can be supplied by well- 
constructed houses, great extent of accommodation, and improved modes of heating, 
ventilating, &c. ; but it is enough, at the same time, to know that many scarcely 
inferior specimens have been grown by cultivators, who have had numerous and 
disheartening difficulties to contend with : in fact, nothing short of an enthusiastic 
love of flowers could have set these at defiance. Necessity is truly styled the 
