OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEW SYSTEM OF POTTING PLANTS. 
83 
Though it is almost universally understood that any course of treatment which 
tends to cause an excessive development of parts, — or, in other words, an unusual 
exuberance of growth, — is unfavourable to the formation of bloom, yet there are 
instances of many splendid exotics, in which, without an immediate application of 
those principles which involve the requisite treatment for maturing each successive 
year's growth, the most ardent and persevering cultivator will comparatively fail 
to realise those results which the objects under his care are, with such principles 
in view, calculated to produce. 
It would appear almost unnecessary to urge a special attention to this point, 
which must (in theory at least) be familiar to many excellent practitioners ; but, 
up to the present period, it has not been unusual to meet with instances of 
cultivation, which, for their unusually splendid growth alone, have excited 
admiration and surprise, concerning the means which have been used, and the 
ability which has produced such magnificent effects, and which are yet very far 
from being equally interesting, by the presence of that which constitutes the 
primary object of all cultivation in ornamental flowering plants. 
Instances readily occur of plants in every department, which, in consequence of 
a naturally tardy development of leaf-buds, have caused disappointment by the 
paucity or total absence of bloom until, probably, the attainment of several years' 
growth, or some accidental cause, has tended to retard the circulation of sap, 
or diversify its currents, and thus induce a casual disposition to the formation of 
flower-buds. 
Wistaria sinensis, in the hardy ornamental department ; Kennedya splendens, 
in the greenhouse ; and Stephanotis fiorihundus, Mandevilla suaveolens, Ipomoea 
tyrianthina, and Thunhergia grandiflora, in the stove department, are examples 
in illustration ; wherein the natural result of a successful and luxuriant growth is 
a very partial and uncertain bloom. 
As the present test of superior cultivation is that which attains the greatest 
constitutional vigour within a limited period ; and as this test is proved, by 
repeated instances, to be unfavourable to a uniform development of flower-buds, 
unless such growth be regulated by principles hereafter to be adverted to, it 
becomes an inquiry of exceeding interest to ascertain the means by which a certain 
amount of fertility may be attained in plants which are subjected to an excessive 
and continuous supply of organic and atmospheric stimulants, whether planted out 
in greenhouse, conservatory, or stove, in pits, or in pots, admitting of an extended 
growth by their proportionately large size. 
It is in illustration of the foregoing remarks that the following principles of 
horticulture are brought forward, with a view to prove that it is only by their 
application that such a proportionate maturity of growth can be attained as is 
essential to a uniform development of bloom. 
1st. All flower-buds, being analogous to leaf- buds, it follows as a corollary, that 
every flower with its pedunclet and bractlet is a metamorphosed branch. 
