CULTURE OF THE BRUGMANSIA SUAVEOLENS 
105 
dozens jutting from beneath its sombre but majestic foliage, and impregnating the 
nocturnal air with their delicious fragrance, there is a delicacy, an uniformity, nay, 
a grandeur ! that calls forth simultaneous plaudits of admiration from every observer. 
And while we are thus expatiating on the charms of B. suaveolens, we cannot 
allow the opportunity to pass of calling the attention of our readers to another very 
splendid species of this genus, which flowered in the. autumn of 1834, in the garden 
of Miss Trail, at Hase Place, Kent ; and from which a figure was published in 
January, 1835, in that excellent botanical periodical " The British Flower Garden," 
conducted by the late enthusiastic and much to be lamented botanist, Mr. Robert 
Sweet. This species is called Brugmansia sanguinea, but from what we can judge 
of the flower from the drawing, we feel inclined to think it would be more appro- 
priately placed among Datura. We possess a plant of this species, and also 
another which we purchased under the name of B. tricolor; and from the appearance 
of the plants we hope to be able to present our subscribers with a figure of each 
before the end of the season. The B. sanguinea was raised from seed collected by 
Mr. Crawley, at Guayaquil in the state of Equador ; and as it was found growing 
at a greater elevation than B. suaveolens, it is reasonable to suppose that it will be 
much hardier. 
Although it would appear that some of our scientific botanists, who formerly 
advocated hybridising, or cross-breeding, in the vegetable kingdom, are now veering 
round, and contradicting their former statements, on the supposition that hybridising 
has been the means of introducing many " mongrel and debased varieties," yet as 
we cannot see the injury, we feel rather inclined to see what can be done in the way 
of hybridising between B. suaveolens and sanguinea ; and if we should succeed in 
procuring plants with flowers partaking of the habit of both parents, we shall con- 
sider that we have not done any injury, but rather that we have efi'ected some good, 
by introducing another plant to this small but most beautiful genus. We also in- 
tend to graft or inarch B. sanguinea on suaveolens, and should we succeed in form- 
ing a union, we shall not fail to make our subscribers acquainted with our practice 
when we publish the figures. 
We shall now proceed to the culture, and we do not know that we can do our 
readers a greater service, or more easily put the tyro aufait of successful practice, 
than by simply detailing a method by which we have grown B. suaveolens from 
five to eight feet high in one season, and with heads, the diameter of which corre- 
sponded with the height of the stems. 
Early in February we take cuttings of the young wood, at about three or four 
inches long, pot them in sandy soil in small 60-sized pots, plunge them in a 
hotbed frame where there is a brisk bottom heat, and water and shade them as appears 
requisite. After they are rooted, which is generally in about three weeks, we re-pot 
them into 48 sized pots, using a compost composed of the following ingredients : — 
Two parts turfy loam ; two parts fresh horse droppings ; one part leaf mould ; and 
one part rotten dung ; well mixed and incorporated together for two or three weeks 
previously to using. When they are potted, we replace them in the frame, and 
supply them plentifully with liquid manure at the roots, and with fresh water over the 
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